The FReeper Foxhole Honors our Veterans

And again, morning!

Morning Lee Heggy.

Memorial Day and Veteran's day always seem even more special during a time of war.

Morinng Samwise.

Good Shakespeare quote for today.

Good Morning Feather.

Morning Pukin Dog.

Thanks for the salute.

Happy Veteran's Day

A Salute to the Heroes of Westerplatte

Morning Sam!

Happy Veterans Day.
Thank you for serving my friend..

You're welcome.

Thanks for your service.

We had quite an interesting day of weather in Oklahoma.

The last time our state had tornadoes was in 1999 when they had some in Northeast Oklahoma. The EAS went off several times in the Oklahoma City and Tulsa Operational Areas for Tornado Warnings. There was some damage but thankfully no injuries.

It's cool and blusterly this morning. Winds gusting up to 30 MPH.

We started to take our dog for a walk yesterday. he slipped through the leash and ran over to our neighbors and played ran with their dog. After several minutes I was finally able to catch up with him.

How's it going, Snippy?

Good Grief!! They still use the UYQ??

That is pronounced YUCK!!

I was told that is so obsolete, they are stripping them to use them for a storage van! :)

Backin the day, we were also TPQ-10 RADAR operators, but GPS did away with that system.

OPBUZZ was a 7208, that is the Officcer version of my job then!

WESTERPLATTE FIGHTS ON
Former Naval Person

Defence of Westerplatte

Extract from the article Westerplatte.
http://ww2.boom.ru/Poland/Westerplatte/

In late evening 31 August 1939 the phone rung on the desk of the Chief of the Executive No.3, Division II, Chief Staff Pomorze. Die Gäste kommen durch die Brücke... [Flisowski] - Major Jerzy ¯ychoñ barely recognized his agent's voice breaking from the excitement. The man on the other end of the wire whispered the phrase on one breath and hung up. Major ¯ychoñ though knew what did the coded phrase, "the guests are coming across the bridge", mean: across the pontoon bridge German troops were crossing Vistula en route from East Prussia to the Free City of Danzig. In the command of the Army Pomorze ¯ychoñ's report ignited an understandable unrest. However nobody suspected yet that it was an ominous signal of the coming war. The words of the secret report were wired farther to Warsaw, to the General Staff.

At dawn 1 September 1939 on Westerplatte soldiers from the detachment of Warrant Officer Jan Gryczman were getting ready to march out to the barracks after a tiresome night duty. The soldiers were collecting their weapon when suddenly a rifle shot resounded. Its echo bounced from the red-brick wall surrounding the tiny peninsula of Westerplatte, flew over the port canal and farther to the sleeping city, to the mouth of Vistula, and vanished somewhere over Mottlau. Gryczman instinctively looked at his watch. The time was 4:17.

After Poland regained its independence in 1918, it was granted the right to establish its Military Transit Depot on Westerplatte to guard Poland's interests in the port of the Free City of Danzig. On 9 December 1925 the Council of the League of Nations issued a resolution, which allowed Poland to keep 88 soldiers of the Polish Army on Westerplatte. [Flisowski] As the Germano-Polish relations strained, and the Free City saw more hitlerite provocations and violence, it was decided to enlarge the Westerplatte garrison, and strengthen its firepower in case of an aggression. On 1 September 1939 the Westerplatte's garrison numbered 182 well trained and armed men. [Flisowski] They were dubbed "the dead garrison". Originally they were supposed to deliver a 6-hours' resistance; then this time was increased to 12 hours. After that Polish troops had to arrive with the aid.

On 25 August 1939 a Kriegsmarine's battleship Schleswig-Holstein came to Danzig for a courtesy visit. She anchored in the port canal right across the Westerplatte and did not leave after the visit was officially over. During this ostensible visit the garrison of Westerplatte was on guard 24 hours a day. In fact under the decks of the German ship there was concealed a German assault company. Till 23 August 1939 it quartered under command of Lt. Henningsen in the building of a grammar school in Memel. The company numbered 225 men; [Flisowski] after the war the West German journal Quick reached four of them. Among them were artillery Mate Georg Wolf, later a doctor in Essen, and engineer Senior Mate Helmut Schauer, later an officer of the Bundesmarine and the commander of the corvette Kiel. He recalled: On 24 August we steamed to the sector 2638. Combat readiness at 1930hr. Ammunition: 405 shells 280mm, 1450 shells 150mm, and 370 shells 88mm. Alarm at 1946hr. An "Orzel" class submarine had been detected. At 2010hr a flotilla of minesweepers was spotted. [1] Georg Wolf added:

We embarked to a beautiful, warm weather. Yet we were surprised that instead of cabins we were quartered together with the whole equipment in the holds, at the very bottom of the ship. We were crowded there like herrings in a can. Twice a submarine alarm was announced. We could not understand what was going on. Next day we learnt from the radio, that our ship was going for a courtesy visit to Danzig. At 1200hr we were told to arm the grenades, and collect the individual food rations and ammunition. On 25 August at 1600hr we moored at the Danzig waterfront across the Polish zone Westerplatte. At 1700hr came aboard the president of the Senate of the Free City of Danzig, Artur Greiser, and soon after him also Major-General Eberhardt of the Danzig police. [1]
The following minutes were recorded in the Schleswig-Holstein's log: 1830hr. Briefing by the ship commander Captain Kleikamp. General Eberhardt presents plans of Westerplatte, states that Westerplatte lacks fortifications. The garrison numbers 100 soldiers. Taking the base cannot take more than three hours. Assault company will disembark at 2130hr on the waterfront, which will be cleared by police. No lights to be allowed. Captain Kleikamp reads the Order No.1648 concerning combat actions of the training ship "Schleswig-Holstein". 2015hr. Radio surveillance receives the Order No.2623. Military operation cancelled. Complete disappointment. [Busch] Says Helmut Schauer:
For the several next days nothing happened. We spent the time under the deck. One could walk out only briefly by night. Sometimes our men were allowed to run along the waterfront, but only those who had plain clothes. Lieutenant Henningsen acquired 50 civilian garments, and we wore them in turns. Once I had run as far as to the wall surrounding Westerplatte.
On 28 August the ship was visited by minister Chodacki - the Polish government's commissioner for the Free City of Danzig. He drank tea with the captain and left. Our company remained silent under the deck. Next day Capt. Kleikamp revisited the commissioner in his residence. On 30 August we learnt about the Hitler's ultimatum and mobilization in Poland. On 31 August at 1835hr we received the combat order - attack on 1 September at 0445hr. [1]

Gryczman did not neglect the sudden alarming signal. He ordered his soldiers to re-assume their action stations. Intuition did not fail him. Exactly at 4:45 Schleswig-Holstein's eighteen guns of calibres ranging from 88 to 280 mm opened fire at Westerplatte. Their salvoes covered the barracks, outposts, storages, as well as the railway siding; under its rubble was buried its supervisor, Jan Najsarek - probably the first casualty of the Second World War. The artillery fire and explosions on Westerplatte merged in one hellish roar, which overwhelmed even the invaders. A former artillery officer from Schleswig-Holstein, Fritz Otto Busch, remembered
curling clouds of smoke with columns of yellow-orange fire billowing here and there. Iron and steel, earth and wood whirling in the air and falling back to the ground. (...)
To those few crewmen of the battleship, who stay on the deck, it seems like the time has stopped. Their eyes like enchanted are stuck to the bright glow of the fire. In their ears roars the fire and explosions of heavy 28cm shells, steady rattle of the machine-guns, and eardrum-breaking barking of the anti-aircraft canons shooting at point-blank range. (...)

Is there anybody still alive? the chief petty officer asks his men servicing the guns, and stretches his neck toward the casemate embrasure to see anything through this firework in front of us. The sailors shake their heads in silence and wipe the sweat from their foreheads - no, certainly nobody... [Busch]

The artillery bombardment of the tiny peninsula lasted almost an hour. When the guns silenced, the Germans launched the attack with the forces of their infantry, SS Danziger Heimwehr, and naval infantry. On the other side of the red-brick wall the Polish garrison was already awaiting them. Alas, continues Busch, as soon as the assault group, attached to the ship, leaps across the ruined wall into the shallow forest, a crazy machine-gun fire bursts out there, rifle shots rattle, and the hand grenades explode before the brave marines. [Busch] Corporal Edmund Szamlewski opened fire from his machine-gun barely from 50 metres and literally mowed the assailants. Those who were looking for cover from the bullets mixed with those who already caught them. They lied like that for a moment, and then fled to the safety. But then Gryczman's men opened fire from the flank. The Germans were stumbling and falling on the ground. This and that still tried to crawl. Wrote Busch:
The soldiers from the assault grouping advanced very far, as far as to the embrasures of the Polish bunkers spitting short series of the crazy machine-gun fire. One should avoid unnecessary casualties. Westerplatte is not ripe yet for storming. (...)
This resistance must be broken - the sooner the better. The watch officer standing behind the helmsman seems not to notice the excitement around him. He sees inquiring faces and brushes away all the doubts, worries and fears:
Concrete bunkers are too strong, but no worries, mates, we'll try again. Polaczeks won't hold any longer. [Busch]

The Poles did not let to catch them by surprise. Hitlerites' first attack cost them dearly. Few returned back beyond the red-brick wall. Sergeant Heinz Denker from the naval infantry group visited Westerplatte again in 1979; he recalled the atmosphere of the fights on that day:
We knew nothing about the enemy. We were attacking along the railway, having only an old 1:1000 map without pill-boxes marked. At once we noticed that the ship artillery was not efficient. Huge 280mm shells needed to go 600m to explode, while in fact they made only 400m. During the fights we found a lot of such "chests" and we used them as a cover. The first attack ended at 1000hr. Our company lost 127 men out of 225. (...)
We came back to the ship. I saw Greiser in the SS uniform and Eberhardt, who approached us and said, that we'd receive support of an SS squad. Our commander, Lieutenant Schuck who replaced the wounded Henningsen, answered that even three squads wouldn't be enough, for the Poles were fighting like lions and were well entrenched. We'd rather need air support. [2]

Meanwhile an alarm was announced in the depot's barracks. Soldiers in hurry were putting on their helmets, fastening belts, grabbing rifles and running to the action stations. Their commander, Major Henryk Sucharski, was issuing short commands in breaking voice. Westerplatte turned into a little fortress; later the Germans nicknamed it a Little Verdun (Kleines Verdun). The Germans attacked three more times that day but all attacks failed. They lost between 80 and 100 killed. [Flisowski] The Poles would not cease fire even while seeing the Germans retreating. Platoon Leader Piotr Buder reported, that he literally had to drag his men away from machine-guns to make them spare ammunition. [Zgorniak]
On 2 September the watch on Schleswig-Holstein reported spotting a white flag on Westerplatte, [Busch] but when the troops went to take Westerplatte into their possession, they encountered the previous fast resistance. For the rest of the day hitlerites conducted alternately artillery and air bombardments. Hundreds of bombs and shells fell on the small, inflexible peninsula. A witness of the fights, later a respected German historian Anton Bassarek, noted on that day:

A bomb fell after a bomb turning the battlefield into one hell of a fire, smoke and mud. People of Danzig were watching this spectacle from the roofs and city hills with admiration to the Hermann Göring's air force in action. This and that old veteran soldier, who spent many days under the shower of shells on the Somme and in the Flanders, would only shake his head, watching the exploits of our airmen. Because what was falling incessantly on Westerplatte must have had an impact on the defenders as horrible as the most thunderous fire of the great battles in the West. Yet when our assault troops renewed advance after this cannonade, they encountered a real firestorm. [Bassarek]
At 14:00 Georg Wolf returned to the ship. Out of 49 men of his platoon he brought back 13. On 3 September at 1440hr the Ju-87's finally flew in, recalls Helmut Schauer. Sixty machines dropped about 500 bombs on Westerplatte. When we went to attack the Poles welcomed us with the fire of the same strength as before. After all this soldier deserves respect. [1]
Information services of the Polish Supreme Command repeatedly announced: "Westerplatte fights on", "Poland salutes the lions of Westerplatte"... German forces exceeded the Polish ones twenty times. [Flisowski] The days filled with fights were passing, but no aid was arriving. Exhausted Polish soldiers were scrambling the rests of their strengths to fight, casualties were mounting, and the wounded were agonizing without water and medicines. At night and dawn 3 September the Germans made two sorties; this time instead of SA and SS they were made by a battalion of naval cadets. The attacks were repelled, and then a lull came for the rest of the day. On 4 and 5 September the Germans did not try to take Westerplatte in fights. Instead they submitted Westerplatte, and particularly its centre with the barracks, to a heavy bombardment. Apart from Schleswig-Holstein also took part in it a battery of 88mm guns in Heubude, two torpedoboats anchored off Brosen, two batteries of 210mm mortars, and the coastal battery at Glettkau - it means from all the possible sides. [Busch] The artillery bombardment continued on 6 September in the morning, then in the afternoon the Germans decided to renew their assault. They tried to silence Polish emplacements No. 1 and 5 by setting the forest afire. An armoured handcar pushed a railway cistern filled with fuel towards Westerplatte's railway siding. Yet the Poles hit it with machine-gun fire and anti-tank shells, and destroyed it. The content of the cistern went aflame and lit the enemy positions. German plans were frustrated. Three assaults were repelled that night.

The attack on Westerplatte was renewed next day. Georg Wolf took part in that attack:

On 7 September at 0420hr my platoon has to attack after the cistern-carriage, which has to be pushed through the gate and set afire. Unteroffizier Waschynski took command over the engineers to push the carriage. We see the explosion (...) Then we resume the attack (...) and reach the main building. (...) Silence. The white flag on the roof. The Poles have surrendered. (...) It's 0930hr. [1]
Indeed, as the food, water and hope exhausted, the Poles decided to surrender. After 7 days of fights, which cost the Germans some 300-400 killed and many wounded, the enemy took Westerplatte. The Poles suffered relatively low casualties: 15 killed and 53 wounded. [Flisowski] The commander of the German forces, Gen. Friedrich Eberhardt, let Major Sucharski keep his sabre as sign of appreciation of his courage. The Germans could not believe that such a tiny outpost without serious fortifications could resist so long. They saluted Polish soldiers marching into captivity, and protected them of Danzig townfolks, who wanted to lynch them. Major Sucharski spent the rest of the war in a POW camp. In July 1945 he joined the Polish forces in Italy, but he had no strengths to command the troops. The years spent in the prison camp had ruined his health. He died on 30 August 1946 in a military hospital in Naples. Before the death he begged to be buried in Poland. His wish came true 25 years later. On 1 September 1971 his remains were reburied on Westerplatte; the last surviving officer from Westerplatte, Lt. Leon Paj¹k, commanded the ceremony.
The defence of Westerplatte already during the Second World War became the symbol of heroic resistance, purely honourable, since the peninsula was of no military or economical significance. Its commander, Henryk Sucharski, became one of Poland's national heroes, never challenged from any point, whatever political divisions might split the Polish society. It was not until 1994 that his fame was put in question. Captain Franciszek D¹browski was Sucharski's deputy in the days of the battle for Westerplatte. After the war he used to make living from many jobs; eventually a reference from a Soviet General helped him to obtain a licence to keep a news-stand in Cracow. He died in 1962. Before his death he wrote a testimony with the provision that it be not opened until thirty years after his death. When the time came his son at first could not believe his eyes. The testimony said, that on 2 September 1939, after the hellish bombardment and casualties of the first days of the defence, Sucharski had broken down and ordered to hoist the white flag - probably the one spotted from Schleswig-Holstein.

The commander was shaking and blubbering in malign; he had foam on his lips. Doctor's assistance was necessary. We fastened the Major with belts to a bunk and put a stick in his mouth. Westerplatte fought on against the will of its commander - those words seemed iconoclastic. [Borowiak] For 45 years Sucharski's name had been given to streets and schools, ships and scout-boys' squads throughout the whole Poland. Now his story was menacing with a scandal. It was not until two years later, that the newspaper Polityka dared to publish an extensive article on the findings in D¹browski's testimony. The article went virtually unnoticed, but that was just the beginning. The story fascinated a Polish writer Mariusz Borowiak, who in 2001 published the book Ma³a flota bez mitów (Little fleet without myths), in which he presented results of his research. The book caused an outcry, and the author was accused in travesty of history and national imponderabilia. Several months later Borowiak published another book, Westerplatte. W obronie prawdy (Westerplatte. In defence of the truth), in which he did not leave room for further doubts - Major Sucharski did not command the defence of Westerplatte.

Borowiak did not base his work solely on D¹browski's testimony. He had also researched materials left by another officer from Westerplatte - 2nd Lt. Zdzis³aw Krêgielski. Both sources are concordant: on 2 September Major Sucharski suffered a psychical break-down and ordered to hoist a white flag. Apparently he also had an attack of epilepsy. In those circumstances Captain D¹browski took over the command; he personally tore down the white flag and ordered to continue fighting. The resistance continued under his command. To avoid demoralization of the troops D¹browski did not let them contact with Sucharski; officers and NCO's were obliged to swear an oath of silence. Yet on 5 September Sucharski appeared at the officers' meeting and begged them to lay down the arms. He was visibly depressed; I can't take it any more, I can't take it any more, he sobbed. D¹browski warned that he would detain Sucharski if the latter kept agitating for surrender. [Borowiak]

Borowiak's critics argue that his conclusions are far-fetching. His research is based solely on the testimonies of D¹browski and Krêgielski, which emerged like deus ex machina nearly 50 years after the war. During that long period no other evidence to support it ever became known. On 2 September Sucharski had all the right to surrender - his unit held beyond the designed 12-hours deadline, and further resistance was pointless from the military point of view and in face of the German superiority in forces and strategic situation. Yet such an opinion is only justified from the historic perspective. The defenders of Westerplatte saw a completely different picture: they repelled all the German attacks, they did not experience shortages in weapon and ammunition, two greatest powers - England and France - declared war on Germany, and due to lack of radio-communication they were not aware of the real military situation in Poland's hinterland. In those circumstances they would not be able to comprehend an order to surrender. They capitulated due to lack of food, medicines and water. And Major Sucharski was the first person to acknowledge their heroism. As they marched into captivity, he handed his sabre over to Captain D¹browski saying: Kuba, you deserve this sabre. We shall explain everything after the war. [Borowiak]

Quick, September 1969.
G³os Wybrze¿a, 31 Aug. 1979
© Second World War

Good morning ladies. Flag-o-gram.

Have you hugged a Veteran today?

GM, snippy!

hugs & free dixie,duckie/sw

Present!

Snippy, do you mind if I link this thread to my website, www.homeplaceindiana.com?

Thanks, manna

Happy Veterans Day to all my fellow Veterans!

I'd like to remember my father, a WWI veteran and my brother, a Korean War veteran.
May they rest in peace.

And to all my fellow Marines both here and passed and their families.

Semper Fi Devil Dogs!

Semper Fi,
Kelly
Viet Nam
1969-1970

"It is the soldier, not the reporter,
Who has given us freedom of the press.
It is the soldier, not the poet,
Who has given us freedom of speech.
It is the soldier, not the campus organizer,
Who has given us the freedom to demonstrate.
It is the soldier,
Who salutes the flag,
Who serves beneath the flag,
And whose coffin is draped by the flag,
Who allows the protestor to burn the flag."

Father Denis Edward O'Brien
USMC

Semper Fi, Father O'Brien!

Thanks alfa6.