Westerplatte is a peninsula at the mouth of the Dead Vistula, a part of the Vistula delta, on the Baltic Sea coast. Its name, borrowed from the Dutch, means "the western blanket sand". Poland acquired the territory by decision of the League of Nations in 1924. From 1926 to 1939, it was the location of a Polish military transit depot with a garrison of 182.
World War II began on the morning of September 1, 1939, at 4:45 local time, when the German battleship "Schleswig-Holstein", then on a courtesy visit to Poland, opened artillery fire on the garrison without warning. The Polish soldiers were completely surrounded, but under the command of Major Henryk Sucharski, they held the peninsula for seven days against several thousand German troops attacking from land, sea and air. The first conflict of World War II, the Battle of Westerplatte became a symbol of valiant Polish resistance against the Nazi invaders.
The memorial cemetery of the defenders of Westerplatte, with 15 graves, is at the centre of the peninsula, which received the status as a health spa and tourist centre on September 9, 1966. The Monument to the Defenders of the Coast, unveiled a month later, is dedicated to all Polish servicemen who fell in battle on land and at sea, including sailors on Arctic convoys.
At 47 metres high, the monument towers over a 22.5-metre manmade mound. The monument offers views of Gdansk and the surrounding Gdansk Bay.
The road to the memorial starts at the North Port of Gdansk, which services large vessels carrying oil, coal, ores, etc.