| Attack on the Polish garrison on the Danzig peninsula by the Kriegsmarine (“Nazi German Navy”) battleship Schleswig-Holstein. The battleship Schleswig-Holstein fired at the Polish base at Westerplatte from September 1-6, 1939. This is Photo Number 35 from the film documentary “Feldzug in Polen” (Germany 1940; directed by Fritz Hippler (August 17, 1909 – May 22, 2002). Promotional photos were produced to market the film. Seiner Majestät Schiff (“his Imperial Majesty’s Ship”) Schleswig-Holstein was laid down in 1905 and completed in 1908. The old battleship was retained in service after 1919, when most of the Kaiserliche Marine (“Imperial German Navy”) was scuttled at Scapa Flow. Launched at Kiel in December 1906, she was the last of the Deutschland class of pre-dreadnought battleships. Like her sister ships – the Deutschland, Hannover, Pommern and Schlesien – she had fought at Jutland and had later served as a tender and an accommodation ship at Bremen and Kiel. At the end of hostilities, with the once mighty German Navy reduced to the status of a costal defense force, she had become 1 the few battleships remaining in German waters. Then, in 1925, had come rebirth: a year-long refit that saw her emerge as virtually a new vessel, followed by her commissioning as Fleet Flagship. She had served in that capacity until 1935, when the honor had passed to a brand new battleship, the Admiral Graf Spee. Schleswig-Holstein was modernized in 1925-26, 1930-31 and 1936. She was used as a cadet training ship and a floating battery by 1939. Her displacement was 14,830 tons, her dimensions 126 meters (413 feet) long and 22.2 meters (73 feet) broad, while her draught was 8.25 meters (27 feet). She was a veteran warship by 1939. Schleswig-Holstein was armed with 4 280 millimeter (11 inch) SK L/40 naval guns, 10 150 millimeter (6 inch) SK L/45 naval guns and 92 millimeter (3.46 inch) SK L/45 naval guns, as well as 41 millimeter (1.5 inch) SK C/30 anti-aircraft guns. Her crew was reinforced with 225 Marines and 60 anti-aircraft artillery troops when facing the indomitable Poles of Westerplatte. The ordinary crew complement numbered 907 men, but with all the troops this had grown to a total of 1,197 when the battleship arrived off Danzig on August 25, 1939, for a “Friendship visit.” The pretext for the Schleswig-Holstein’s presence in Danzig Bay was that the warship was visiting these waters in honor of the anniversary of the Battle of Tannenberg in East Prussia, when the Germans had inflicted a crushing defeat on the forces of Imperial Russia in the last days of August 1914. The fog that shrouded the southern shores of the Baltic softened the angular lines of the grey battleship that rode at anchor a few 100 yards off the Westerplatte peninsula, at the entrance to the port of Danzig, where the river Vistula flowed into the sea. On the bridge of the Schleswig-Holstein Kapitän zur See Gustav Kleikamp (March 8, 1898 – September 13, 1952) waited, according to the prearranged plan, to give the signal that would unleash a storm of shells on Westerplatte. He did not anticipate much resistance from the defenders, if any. Kleikamp was confident that surprise was on his side. The peninsula was defended by a garrison about 200 strong, armed only with 1 French 75 millimeter (3 inch) field gun, 2 highly capable 37 millimeter (1.5 inch) wz.36 Bofors anti-tank guns, 4 mortars and a number of medium machine guns. There were no real fortifications, only several concrete blockhouses concealed in the forest that covered much of the peninsula. The garrison was separated from Danzig city by the harbour channel, with only a small pier forming a connection with the mainland. In the event of war, the Polish garrison, commanded by Major Henryk Sucharski (November 12, 1898 – August 30, 1946), had orders to withstand a sustained attack for 12 hours. No more could be expected of them. Her target, the fortress of Westerplatte, was of great strategic importance. It had been established by the new government of Poland in 1920, initially as a supply depot where military stores were offloaded, mainly from France. Poland, which had been partitioned between Russia, Germany and Austria for a century, had emerged as an independent state at the end of World War I, but fierce fighting had broken out almost immediately in the Lvov area, where the Ukrainian minority had attempted to establish its own government. During the months of warfare that followed, 1st against the Ukrainians and then against the Soviet Red Army, Westerplatte had grown in size and importance. A basin for discharging cargoes from ammunition ships was built on the site, as were 19 ammunition dumps. A railway line ferried ammunition and other stores from these dumps to a railhead in Gdansk, as the Poles referred to Danzig, and in January 1926 a permanent Polish Army garrison was established on the site to provide permanent security. In 1933, following the rise of the Nazi regime in Germany, the Polish government realized that Westerplatte was vulnerable to attack by German assault troops, should the somewhat tenuous political arrangement in Danzig break down. The Westerplatte assault force was in place. The 1st wave comprised 150 Marinestosstruppkompanie (“Marine Shock Troop Company”), who had been hidden below decks on the Schleswig-Holstein. They had now emerged, and stood ready to scramble down nets into rubber boats as soon as the bombardment began. Once they had secured their initial objectives, they would be joined by reinforcements from the city of Danzig. At O448 Hours on Friday September 1, 1939, Kleikamp instructed his gunnery officer to open fire. The massive guns of the Schleswig-Holstein fired 8 shells at the southeast sector of Westerplatte and then continued firing at pre-selected targets, chosen over the past week in port. World War II had erupted and radioed to Hel Peninsula, “SOS: I’m under fire.” The bombardment by the Schleswig-Holstein’s guns lasted for 6 minutes. In that time, the assault force, under cover of the fog and the smoke and the confusion, crossed the short distance to Westerplatte and stormed ashore, intent on overwhelming the outer screen of outposts at the edge of the forest. 3 large holes had been created in the perimeter wall while warehouses with oil were blazing away. 8 minutes later, Kriegsmarine Oberleutnant Wilhelm Henningsen’s July 29, 1904 – September 2, 1939) Marines attacked in formation of 3 platoons while his pioneers managed to blow up the railway gate in the perimeter fence cutting across the land bridge. But then things went wrong for the Germans. 1st the Poles counterattacked, knocking out the machine gun nest at the German Schupo (security police) post, for the loss of 3 men. Then Polish commander Lieutenant Leon Pajak (October 5, 1909 – November 26, 1990) opened intense howitzer fire on the advancing Germans, who faltered and stopped their attack. Sucharski ordered his artillery to fire on the German sniper machine gun nests on top of the warehouses across the canal. It had the desired effect: there was no more shooting from that direction. Then the same battery almost knocked out Schleswig-Holstein’s command post, but finally the ship’s guns managed to knock out the battery. At 0622 Hours, the Nazi German Marines radioed frantically to Schleswig-Holstein: Verluste zu gross, gehen zurück (“Heavy losses, we’re retreating”). The attack was met by heavy and accurate machine gun and rifle fire from 3 of the outposts. At the other end of the Westerplatte, the Danzig police had tried to seize control of the harbor, but armed civilians and the garrison had defeated this surprise attack. A total of 50 Germans lay dead while the Poles had lost only 8 men. Kleikamp, who had expected to take the depot through a lightning strike, now had a real battle on his hands. Reinforced by 60 SS Danzig Heimwehr, a militia force, the Marines attacked again at 0855 Hours, led by Henningsen. They got through the perimeter wall, which lay in ruins, but they were halted by mines, fallen trees, barbed wire and intense Polish fire. The Marines, taking heavy losses, faltered and then broke. By 1200 Hours, the fighting was still continuing, but the demoralized SS again retreated. Henningsen was mortally wounded, and half an hour later the marines had had enough as well. At nightfall the defensive positions on Westerplatte still held out, although 1 of the outposts was destroyed and its commander, Lieutenant Pajk, seriously wounded. The 75 millimeter field gun, its crew having managed to fire 20-right rounds at the German artillery on the mainland, was also knocked out by a salvo from the Schleswig-Holstein. The fighting had cost the Germans 82 lives and Westerplatte was still holding out. The German strike against Westerplatte had been an utter fiasco. In Danzig itself, the SS Heimwehr quickly established control, although not without encountering fierce resistance, especially from a small group of Polish troops who had seized the main post office building. It took several hours before the Germans gained the upper hand, with the support of Steyr ADGZ armored cars. The only consolation for the Germans was that they had massacred the Polish defenders of the post office in Danzig city. The Wehrmacht was so frustrated by the Post Office defense, survivors that surrendered were tried at court martial for “war crimes” and executed by the Nazi Germans. | |
| Image Filename | wwii0830.jpg |
| Image Size | 153.53 KB |
| Image Dimensions | 1845 x 1436 |
| Photographer | Fritz Hippler |
| Photographer Title | Director |
| Caption Author | Written or Adapted by Jason McDonald |
| Date Photographed | September 1, 1939 |
| Location | |
| City | Danzig |
| State or Province | Free City |
| Country | Poland |
| Archive | Bundesarchiv |
| Record Number | 8777 |
| Status | Caption ©2026 MFA Productions LLC Please Do Not Duplicate or Distribute Without Permission; Image in the Public Domain |
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