Galerie

 

DANZIG
Report No. 91

Editor: John H. Bloecher, 1743 Little Creek Drive, Baltimore, MD. 21207-5230 USA

April, May, June 1996

Gotenhafen

A Postal history of the Port
At 4:17 a.m. on September 1, 1939, German military forces began to open fire on Polish-controlled points in the Free City of Danzig. By 4:45 a.m. German soldiers began to cross the Polish frontier in a massive invasion of the country. Having successfully seized Danzig within a few hours of the outbreak, German forces threatened to teem across the Polish Corridor in an effort to link East Prussia with the rest of Germany.

Gdynia. Poland’s new and only port. came under sustained air and artillery bombardment. As far as maintaining Poland’s link to the sea, it was clear by the evening of September 2 that Gclynia could not be used to supply Poland with arms and reinforcements. An overpowering fleet of German warships and U-boats lay off Poland’s forty miles of coastline. The Corridor, created under the Treaty of Versailles in 1919 to provide Poland with a lifeline to the sea, was being squeezed into uselessness.

As the second week of the war drew to a close, the Polish Army was split and confused but by no means beaten. A few thousand Polish defenders still held out along the coast [Figure 1]. Gdynia (in the German language, Gdingen remained in Polish hands for a week after the corridor was cut on September 5th. Having endured heavy casualties from German bombs and shelling, the Polish defenders evacuated Gdynia on September 12th to carry on the battle from the suburb of Kepa Oksywska.

 

Danzig Report Vol. 1 - Nr. 91 - April - May - June - 1996, Page 1.