HEROIC POLES HOLD. THE WESTERPLATTE FORTRESS

Grey River Argus, 7 September 1939, Page 10

HEROIC POLES HOLD. THE WESTERPLATTE FORTRESS

A small detachment of Polish soldiers, garrisoned in an isolated outpost at the mouth of the Vistula River, holds the key to the military aspect of the Danzig problem. The picked members of this “suicide battalion” are pledged to resist the Nazi invasion to the last. From their strategic position on what the people of Danzig still call the Westerplatte, they dominate the Free City. They could impede the Nazis taking possession or, as a last desperate resort, they could reduce the city" to ruins. Key to Danzig. The Poles’ Westerplatte fortress is one of the few provisions of the Versailles Treaty which is still in force. Article 100-108 of that treaty, which created Danzig’s present status, set aside this spot as a military reservation for the Poles. A few years later Poland’s Marshal Pilsudski gave orders to fortify it. The harbour is Poland’s lifeline to the fortress. It is a > unit in itself, connected with the main port by a narrow strip of land and a tunnel which serves as an air-raid shelter as well. The base was built to enable the two or three naval vessels which it can harbour to join forces with the fort in bombarding Danzig. The craft are sheltered behind the armoured shell-proof wall, facing the towers of the city" itself. Inside this harbour is the main store-house, large enough to hold rations to last through a sixmonths’ seige. The underground arsenals contain a sufficient munitions reserve to conduct an extended campaign even against an overwhelming superiority of arms and armies. The concrete buildings are erected on a steel frame of the same material which supports France’s Maginot Line. Anti-aircraft batteries are mounted on al] roofs, their turrets

A chatter of machine-guns at every German offensive indicates that some of the defenders of the Westerplatte Polish ammunition dump (near Danzig harbour entrance) -are still alive. —Cable News. '

built of the best French armour. The narrow canal leading through the outer wall can be shut by pulling an! electric switch which brings a steel' barrier from under-water. It makes an impenetrable gate. There is but one bridge to the Westerplatte, from the eastern shore of the river. At present it is mined. Once the bridge is blown up and the steel gate lifted,, there remains no approach to the coniplctely isolated island. Hidden Power. The whole system of fortifications is sunk into the ground. While normally the garrison is housed in barracks above ground, in emergencies all men can be moved to underground quarters, to which there are entrances inside the barracks. Under the protective wall along the edge of the island there runs a long underground trench, which, at regular intervals of about 300 yards, widens into halls whence connecting tunnels lead to a second: line of underground trenches. At four points on the north; two points on the east and six points on the south, are emplacements for heavy guns, operated by remote control from the commandant's office This underground headquarters is the nerve centre of the island’s fortifications. There is the power station for the electric system and a control and signal station which moves everything on the island. There is the telephone exchange as well as the shortwave radio station powerful enough to remain in touch with points as far away as Sydney, Australia. There are four additional smaller radio transmitters set up at four different points, each one of them made up of two-way sets, able both to receive and transmit messages. The Westerplatte uses'a special code for its messages.—“ Kern”