Gallery

From Memel to Danzig.

>> The map at left shows the Memel journey of the Schleswig-Holstein prior to her stopping off at Danzig and its meeting with several trawlers at sea, and starting of the Westerplatte campaign.

Since Operation Case White was, in reality, to appear as a ceremonial visit to Danzig and not to expose its real purpose as a Nazi Trojan Horse attack on the Free City the very next day.

Ironically, the Free City had been created following the First World War, at least partly due to the renewed postwar colonial and maritime rivalry between two of the winters - Imperial Great Britain and Republican France. But now - two decades later - the Second World War in Europe was about to be ignited by one of two other ancient rivals - Nazi Germany against Pilsudskiite Poland.

What sparked this Baltic Sea powder keg was the good old Sleschwig-Holstein, which arrived in Danzig amidst a gala welcoming by most its population. Noted Polish writer Zbigniew Flisowski, "On the way to Danzig, Kleikamp met six trawlers at sea and took aboard a naval storm troop group that had been stationed in the recently-captured Memel. " {Memel was a section of Lithuania untill March 22, 1939.} "The operation took place the night of August 24th in full moonlight with 225 storm troopers embarked. Cranes lifted 7 motorcycles, 14 machine guns, grenade launchers, communications equipment, and a radio 'station' on board the big ship." I believe that it is more accurate to refer to these "storm troops" as Marines. 

Refering to the cadets who lined the ship's railing, they could clearly see the Westerplatte's red brick perimeter wall - they were so close that they and the storm troops could clearly see the Polish troops. It was for reason, in fact, that the German storm troopers were not allowed to come up on deck; The Schleswig-Holstein had not arrived on August 25th by chance. Hitler had designated the following day as his date of attack against Poland, and the battleship was needed for operations in Danzig and near-by waters.

*-  A view from the battleship's cro's nest of Five Whistle Curve, after the initial bombardment. Buildings at left are part of the suburbs of Neufahrwasser; Westerplatte is across the river.

*-  The S-H, modernized from 1926 to 1927, returned as flagship 1935; then was converted to training ship, adding berths for cadet seamen. A strange-looking range-finder / fire control station was installed atop foremast.

Danzig Study Group U.S.A.
Danzig Report Nr. 154 - October - November - December - 2011, Page 9.