600-year-old axe heads used in hand-to-hand fighting in Battle of Grunwald found in field

The First News ^ | August 31, 2020 | Stuart Dowell

[SunkenCiv]

Two battle axes used in hand-to-hand fighting at the Battle of Grunwald over 600 years ago have been found by detectorists during a sweep of the famous battle site in northern Poland.

The find, which has astonished archaeologists, is all the more important as the melee weapons are in remarkably good condition.

According to Dr. Szymon Dreja, director of the Museum of the Battle of Grunwald, the discovery of the battle axes are an archaeological sensation.

"In seven years of our archaeological research we have never had such an exciting, important and well-preserved find," he stressed.

According to the director, there is little doubt that the axes come from what many historians say was the largest battle of the middle ages in Europe.

"The context of these finds, the preliminary dating to the fifteenth century and the type of axes clearly indicate that they are directly related to the Battle of Grunwald of July 15, 1410," he said.

The Battle of Grunwald was fought in 1410 and saw the joint forces of Poland and Lithuania defeat the Knights of the Teutonic Order.

Over 50,000 knights, gunners and infantry clashed on the fields near the village of Grunwald in what was possibly the biggest battle of medieval Europe.

The battle marked the end of the order's expansion along the south-eastern coast of the Baltic Sea and the beginning of the decline of its power. It also marked the emergence of Poland-Lithuania as one of Europe's most powerful states.

[dfwgator]

71 years ago today, WWII started with the Schleswig-Holstein firing its guns on Westerplatte.

[dfwgator]

It was German from its founding around 1200 until 1945.

Nie!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gda%C5%84sk#Early_Poland

[ProtectOurFreedom]

You're right! I forgot about the anniversary. Did you know that 100,000 Poles were killed within a month of that invasion?

Westerplatte is only 3-1/2 miles as the crow flies from my Great Grandparents house in the Langfuhr district. They must have been absolutely scared to death with the battleship shelling of Westerplatte and the Stuka dive bombers a couple days later. They probably figured they were goners. Amazingly, their house was spared in the war and is still intact today. They lost it in 1945 when the Soviets invaded, the Soviets and Poles evicted the ethnic Germans from Danzig (and all of eastern Europe), and their property was all confiscated. My great grandfather died penniless five years later.

Imagine having a front-row seat to the start of WW II.

Amazon has two good documentaries on the Battle of Westerplatte. One is about the heroic Polish defense of Westerplatte which I watched a couple months ago -- that would be good choices for today. The second one shows the defenders as more cowardly. You can guess how these were received in Poland.

[dfwgator]

The Westerplatte soldiers who surrendered were allowed to keep their swords, by the Germans, as a show of respect. One of the few times anything like that would happen.

[dfwgator]

If I do move to Poland one day, I think it would be to the Trojmiasto area. So much history in Gdansk, with the start of WWII and the Solidarity movement, and the beaches at Sopot.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

The Poles more than anybody else in the world understand freedom. I have a lot of ancestors in the Danzig / Marienburg areas. I discovered one family homestead on the water recently in a nice district. It was a very wealthy area in the middle ages onward due to the sea trade.

[NachOsten]

Sweet. you could use a stencil or template to make it uniformed.

[NachOsten]

Also, my god father used to make a meat tenderizers similar to this.
They were awesome, however the chrome peeled off from the blade after few years of use.

Never seen it anywhere in North America. Thinking of making them when I retire.

[rlmorel]

Now THAT looks like a real weapon!

[NachOsten]

HA, HA, HA.

Yeah, cheapest ever. It costs about 25 bucks to buy LOL!!

[rlmorel]

It looks like a weapon an Iroquois indian might come at you with back in the late 17th century...

[NachOsten]

without the chrome :-)

[Covenantor]

https://www.furtradetomahawks.com/the-iroquois-spike-tomahawks—5.html