Battle of Hel

Battle in Poland during WWII

The Battle of Hel (Obrona Helu, literally "the Defense of Hel") was a World War II engagement fought from 1 September to 2 October 1939 on the Hel Peninsula, of the Baltic Sea coast, between invading German forces and defending Polish units during the German invasion of Poland (also known in Polish historiography as the September Campaign). The defense of the Hel Peninsula took place around the Hel Fortified Area, a system of Polish fortifications that had been constructed in the 1930s near the interwar border with the German Third Reich. Beginning on 20 September 1939, after the Polish Army Pomorze had been defeated in the Battle of Tuchola Forest and after other Polish coastal strongholds had capitulated in the Battle of Westerplatte, Battle of Gdynia and the Battle of Kępa Oksywska, Hel was the only substantial pocket of Polish military resistance left in northern Poland. It was also the site of the invasion's only naval surface engagement. The Germans blockaded the defenders of the Hel Peninsula and did not launch major land operations until the end of September 1939. Some 2,800 Polish soldiers under Rear Admiral Włodzimierz Steyer, part of the Land Coastal Defence formation, defended the Hel Fortified Area for about 32 days, until they surrendered due to low supplies and morale.

Construction of a Polish Navy port at Hel, on the tip of the Hel Peninsula, began in 1931, and in 1936 the north section of the Hel Peninsula was officially declared the Hel Fortified Area (Helski Rejon Umocniony). Construction of the fortifications had not been finished before war broke out, but over several months, as tensions between Poland and Germany had mounted, the fortifications had been reinforced with provisional earthworks. The Hel Fortified Area had coastal (anti ship) and anti aircraft artillery batteries. The Dywizjon Artylerii Nadbrzeżnej's coastal batteries comprised one battery of four 152 mm (6 inch) guns, two older batteries of two 105 mm (4.1 inch) guns, and three batteries of eight 75 mm (3 inch) guns. In September 1939, some 2,800 soldiers were stationed in the Hel Fortified Area. While the Hel coastal batteries were the strongest in Poland, they were inadequate to confront the German Navy and posed no great threat to any of the German capital ships. Likewise, the Polish air defense batteries in the region were too few and too light to deter enemy aircraft, and the Naval Air Squadron's planes tasked with defending the area, stationed at the nearby town of Puck, were both older than their German counterparts and outnumbered by about ten to one. The first air raid occurred at 13:30, 1 September 1939, targeting the Polish coastal batteries. The Polish coastal battery also participated in this battle. This was the only surface naval engagement of the September Campaign and was relatively inconsequential. The German destroyer Z1 Leberecht Maass sustained light damage and four fatalities. The Polish Gryf also sustained light damage, with seven fatalities. The German ships retreated, and later that day the Luftwaffe sank the ORP Gryf, the ORP Wicher, as well as the ORP Mewa, the Polish gunboat ORP General Haller sustained heavy damage, was abandoned, and sank on 6 September. The Polish gunboat ORP Komendant Piłsudski, though largely undamaged, was also abandoned. In the first week of September, the Wehrmacht forced Polish Armia Pomorze units to retreat from the Danzig Corridor and, having captured Puck, on 9 September began assaulting the Polish forces on the Hel Peninsula. The ships' armaments were stripped and converted into additional land gun emplacements. Schlesien returned to bombarding Polish positions at Jastarnia and Hel from September 21. Between 25 and 27 September, the Schleswig Holstein joined her sister ship at Hel again. Some accounts of the Battle of Hel report the sinking on 1 October of the German minesweeper M85 by a mine near the Hel Peninsula, with 24 fatalities. The minefield had been laid by the Polish submarine ORP Żbik as part of Plan Sack. ORP Żbik and two other submarines, ORP Sęp and ORP Ryś – stationed at Hel – had gone to sea on 1 September.

Polish battle casualties were light – some 50 dead and 150 wounded. About 3,600 Polish soldiers and sailors were taken prisoner. Some of the fortifications of Hel survived, and are currently tourist attractions. One of Hel's four 152 mm Bofors batteries is now on display at the Polish Army Museum in Warsaw. The Battle of Hel appears among the battles inscribed on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Warsaw.