The 77th anniversary of the WW2 outbreak at Westerplatte, Poland.

[spidey]

The ceremony marked the exact time on September 1, 1939 when the German battleship Schleswig-Holstein fired the first shots on the Westerplatte fortifications.

The Battle of Westerplatte was the first battle in the Invasion of Poland and marked the start of the Second World War in Europe. Beginning on September 1, 1939, at 0448 local time, German naval forces and soldiers and Danzig police assaulted the Polish Military Transit Depot (Wojskowa Składnica Tranzytowa, or WST) on the peninsula of Westerplatte, in the harbour of the Free City of Danzig. The Poles held out for seven days in the face of a heavy attack that included dive bomber attacks.
Wielun was the first Polish town to be bombed by the German Luftwaffe at 0440 hrs on September 1, 1939.

source: PAP

 

[Meat Grinder]

Very interesting. The fact that you mentioned the Danzig police force took part in the attack led me to look up the Wikipedia article on the Free City of Danzig.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_City_of_Danzig

 

[Keppler]

I've read first hand reports that the German sailors were in town the night before the attack started, getting drunk and having fun with the local populace. Then hours later they started shelling indiscriminately. Some really shady underhanded tactics IMO. War is war I guess...