German plan of the attack on Polish post office in Gdansk 39

[henryk]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taking_the_piss
for North American English speakers: meaning of "taking the Michael".

[gebhk]

Friends are a wonderful thing!

Flak abt Danzig was formed from volunteers from Flak Regt 11 in East Prussia and shipped to Danzig in civilian garb with all it's gear where it nominally became a 'police' unit. It had 3 heavy batteries of 4 guns each (with 7.5cm Czechoslovak weapons, 8.8cm weapons or 8.8cm Czechoslovak weapons depending on source. Looking at the one rubbish photo supposedly of a gun from this unit a German 8.8cm seems most likely but the source documents seem to insist the weapons were Czechoslovak) and two batteries of 5 platoons of 3 2cm Flak 30 each (for a total of 30 Flak 30 and 12 Flak 7.5cm, 8cm, 8.3cm or 8.8cm - take your pick. CO: maj Giese.

[GregSingh]

Some info about Schutzpolizei and Feuerwehr from 1939 Danzig address book.
Does anyone have a better photo of those guys with a hose? Couldn't find anything better on the web.

Freie Stadt Danzig - Feuerwehr - 1939.jpg (75.46 KiB) Viewed 671 times

[wm]

It's a still from a hand-held (probably 8mm) camera, it's as good as it gets.

[gebhk]

In my search for the AA, I came across the phrase that 'firefighters of the Police' did the pumping, whatever that means. Military units would have had their own fire-fighting teams which in this case would have meant the LaPo - very thin, I know. The official Gdansk Fire Fighting Dept website has a historical section going back to the 15th century, however it seems to be suffering from politically correct amnesia for the period 1918-45.

[Sid Guttridge]

Hi gebhk,

You have established more detail than I had regarding heavy AA, but I will keep on looking.

Talking generally, this thread is turning into a model of obscure research and is just the sort of thing that justifies forums like this.

Cheers,

Sid.

[gebhk]

It would appear that a book has or was going to be published about the German preparations for war in Danzig (for the whole war) based on a great deal of new research in German archives. I will follow this up. This was going to include among tons of other things, the air defence plan for 9/1939.

[Sid Guttridge]

I would be most interested to learn more of this book.

Cheers,

Sid.

[wm]

In my search for the AA, I came across the phrase that 'firefighters of the Police' did the pumping, whatever that means. Military units would have had their own fire-fighting teams which in this case would have meant the LaPo - very thin, I know. The official Gdansk Fire Fighting Dept website has a historical section going back to the 15th century, however it seems to be suffering from politically correct amnesia for the period 1918-45.

It's just a low budget, do-it-yourself website. Its author included randomly a few interesting (for firefighters) informations - big fires, turning points in the local firefighting history. Nothing of interest happened in that period so nothing is there.
It can be said, without any exaggeration, that historically-minded residents of the so called recovered territories are genuinely proud of the achievements during the German period of history, and even the man on the street has no problem with it.

In Gdańsk it can be seen in something trivial like hotel name: Wolne Miasto (Free State), private sponsored Danzig-Online, the 700 pages long The Free State Danzig. The Guide. (in Polish only), the popular Free Forum, or collectomania of everything connected with that period, including the places where German inscriptions survived.

In fact Danzig-Online has a section dedicated to the "Free" Fire Fighting Department although nothing there about the AA or the attack on the post office.

But according to website of the Polish Post Office Museum in Gdańsk, gasoline was used to flood the basements and then it was ignited with flamethrowers.

[gebhk]

Nothing of interest happened in that period so nothing is there.

Hmmm... I would have thought the odd few bombs dropped between 39 and 45 would have piqued the interest of even the most jaded firefighter,,,

Best wishes
K