1924 – The League of Nations grants Poland Westerplatte peninsula for storage and shipment by rail of imported materials. The storage is named Military Transit Depot at Westerplatte It becomes a Polish exclave, surrounded by German-dominated Free City of Gdansk.
January 1926 – the first Polish guard unit arrives at Westerplatte. The Depot is surrounded by a brick wall, new port infrastructure and warehouses are built.
1933 onwards – construction of permanent fortifications: four guardhouses with concealed basements that contain heavy machine guns, fortified posts in the NCOs’ mess and in the purpose-built, modern, bomb-proof Barracks.
A network of field fortifications/outposts is built that protects the Barracks (Wał, Prom, Fort, Deika, Elektrownia, Przystań, Łazienki). This cleverly designed system of defences causes many casualties among the attacking German platoons.
3D MODELS
The commander of the Westerplatte crew was Maj. Henryk Sucharski, and his deputy was Capt. Franciszek Dąbrowski. There were 4 concrete guardhouses on Westerplatte, barracks adapted for defense and a non-commissioned officer’s villa, field fortifications were built in August.
