Euro tour day one - 2/3 gdansk westerplattes

Go the the site where the first shots of ww2 would be fired 

Transcript

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Hello and welcome to Peter Battlefield. We're still in Gdansk and we're in the part two where we're going to visit the site of Westerplatz, the spot where the first shots of the Second World War would be fired. This is one of those places which I only discovered fairly recently, and not a lot of people will visit. However, if you're visiting Danzig or Gdansk, please make sure you book this within your tour. It will be a full five-hour tour, under your own steam, but it's an experience and a place to visit that if you're interested in the Second World War and just the general history of Europe, a place which changed, a nation and the whole of Europe forever. So just a little potted history if you didn't listen to the last one. Gdansk, the free port of Gdansk, was given to the Poles in 1920 as a result of the Treaty of Versailles, giving Poland the Danzig Alley, a place where they had access to the sea. It would then become one of the main harbours, and of course, over the period of time it would build up defences to keep this place safe. In 1926, Westerplatz was built. This was an army depot, a place where the forces could be fed from the sea. It was on the mouth of the Baltic Sea of the Dead Vistula. So if you're going to visit there, now the main port of Gdansk, when you go into the old town, there's a wonderful, wonderful harbour, what would you call it, an estuary. It's the main centre of the old town, the main river. And on the side you'll see a pirate ship. This is the boat taxi which will take you to Gdansk, and let alone it's an experience just on its own. You get a wonderful tour of the estuary whilst on board a pirate ship, and it does serve local Polish fare and of course vodka and drinks to have on the way. There are four of these taxis per day, and I'd recommend you get the ten o'clock one. And it will take you out to Westerplatz. It takes you out there for about an hour, and you land at the area of Westerplatz. There is a little cafe down the side if you need to go and use the toilet or have a calf, but you're greeted by a sign, which is the original gatehouse to Westerplatz, this army depot built in 1926. You can follow a walking route which is all displayed, and it will take you through the various different depots and different sites within it. And it is, if you are one of those people who loves to wander around old bunkers, this is the place to see. You'll then eventually come to a memorial to remember the men who defended Westerplatz. At 10 to 5 in the morning on the 1st September 1939, the German destroyer fired down on Westerplatz. Here, a garrison of 160 men would stand fast and defend the site for several days. A garrison of 180 soldiers saw off repeated attacks from 570 German soldiers, only finally giving up to surrender on the 7th of September due to lack of ammunition and supplies. The site was absolutely flattened. Constant aerial and sea bombardments and of course attacks from the Germans. But one of the first sites you come to is memorial, a cemetery to the defenders of Westerplatz. The site is being constantly excavated, and beneath one of the blockhouses they found twelve men who had lain there for nearly eighty years, and now you can stand there at the memorial and remember these brave men, the defenders of Westerplatz. You then walk up a corridor and you can walk in amongst the devastated bunkers that we have here. We can see where shells have come through the roof and the roofs have collapsed. There's no health and safety here, there is really, but of course, please have caution when wandering around this site. We then take a walk up to the main memorial, and of course, we must remember that this area of Poland would be owned by the communists up until the end of the Cold War. So the site remained as a memorial, as a lasting memorial, but over the past 20 or so years, 30 years in fact, nearly 40, bloody hell, I forget if you forget years after a while, for nearly 40 years, it's been slowly renovated in order to remember these brave defenders. And as we stand here in this site, we're at the start of it, where the first shots of the Second World War, and where six long years would reign on in this terror. You will also find stalls selling mock hand grenades and helmets, and it is a site, a central point of remembrance for the people of Poland, which sometimes we completely forget, but as the years go by, and obviously generations die and change, we forget the horrors that Poland would set. To be the first place to be invaded in the major part of the Second World War. Millions of Poles, civilians would die in the Holocaust, or being fought off, fought off by on both sides. In 1941, Poland would be cut up between the Communists and the Fascists, and many of those brave men would travel south, going through Syria, and eventually coming to the United Kingdom to fight for the RAF and the First Polish Division. And of course, we would treat them terribly in the postwar years, handing them back to Stalin, where many would be killed. This site I do find a good place of reflection, and as I said, if you're visiting Gdansk or formerly known as Danzig, it's a place to come for the afternoon. Then wander back to the port. At two o'clock, like clockwork, that pirate ship will come back, and you'll always listen to a person on an accordion playing some local tunes as you return back. So this is part of a small of a larger trip I'm currently doing. I'm currently out in Europe for 28 days visiting several different sites, so I want to give you the most I possibly can. So that's why these podcasts are short, sharp, and sweet. And then hopefully some of you might decide that you want to take a little tidbit out of these tours and use for your own means. And if you've enjoyed this, please share with your friends, keep in your favourites, write some comments, send me a message. If you're feeling really brave, you can buy me a coffee. But I hope you're enjoying this. I'm quite enjoying this, but this is the first day versus day three now. And I'm off tomorrow to the Wolf Slayer. In the next podcast, we'll be talking about a concentration camp located not too far from Gdansk, that of a Stutov.