Danzig Post Office 1939

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schjertzer
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Danzig Post Office 1939

#1

Post by schjertzer » 05 Apr 2005, 14:36

Sorry to the Moderator for opening a parallel posting to the one which was locked!! You wanted to continue by using a thread provided by Xavier, however this thread was about holocaust and war crimes whereas my posting is about operations on 1 September in Danzig!!

Hope I will be forgiven - now to the posting:

Stubaf and Chrtstoph Awender - The SS Heimwehr Danzig was assigned several objectives in the city of Danzig, however, at the beginning of the campaign (later they assisted at Westerplatte and Oxhopfer Kampfe) their main objective was to assist the Gruppe Medem (Coming by train from East Prussia) to try to capture the bridge at Dirschau intact (they failed in this). SS-Heimwehr Danzig was to support by attacking Dirschau from the west.

Only a half-company of the 13. Infanrty Gun company of SS-Heimwehr Danzig was assigned to assist in the siege of the Poast Office in Danzig. They had 1 75 mm Infantry gun, and later they received a WWI vintage Minenwerfer which nobody was trained in the operation of!! The siege of the Post Office was the responsibility of Brigade Eberhardt which constituted the police force supported by SA elements in Danzig

Anyway, it was a quite bloody event, paramilitaries fighting paramilitaries (and in the end the Poles being executed as guerillas because they did not wear any military uniforms). When after heavy fighting the Poles withdrew to the cellar/basement of the Post Office, they could not be driven out, until the Eberhardt Brigade called the fire-fighters who pumped gas into the basement.

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Graham Clayton
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Re: Danzig Post Office 1939

#2

Post by Graham Clayton » 12 Jun 2014, 06:14

Some more information about the engagement can be found here:

http://www.local-life.com/gdansk/articl ... olish-post
"Air superiority is a condition for all operations, at sea, in land, and in the air." - Air Marshal Arthur Tedder.


gebhk
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Re: Danzig Post Office 1939

#3

Post by gebhk » 17 Jul 2014, 12:36

Dear Schjertzer - aplogies I didn't find your post earlier.

I am curious about the other objectives in Danzig assigned to the last platoon of 13 company of the DH (this was the only element of the Danzig Heimwehr of which there is any evidence that it remained in Danzig when the rest of the unit departed for Dischau (or Tczew as it was properly called then and now)). There is evidence that all the platoon's weapons were used to bombard the Polish Post Office in Danzig and Westerplatte (thoug neither by guns and mortars at the same time) and all the weapons appear to have been engaged during the first day of fighting doing that all day pretty much. The platoon was thereafter sporadically engaged against Westerplatte and it would seem would have had ample time to do other things - however all Polish resistance in Danzig supposedly ended with the surrender of the Post Office.

The platoon appears to have been equipped with 2 75mm LeIGs and 2 170mm trench mortars. The latter were a recent addition but no so recent that the crews had no opportunity to master basic skills in their use. More of a problem was the fact that the mortars had to be manned by stripping out crew members from the 75mm gun teams.

A final point - while many of the units in Gruppe Eberhardt were paramilitaries, the backbone of the group, the Landespolizei, were fully equipped regular infantry in everything but name. They were, by all accounts, heavily engaged in the battle for the Post Office.

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