Battle of Hel
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{{Infobox Military Conflict
|conflict=Battle of Hel
|partof=[[Invasion of Poland (1939)|Invasion of Poland]]
|date=[[September 9]] – [[October 2]], [[1939]]
|place=[[Hel Peninsula]], [[Poland]]
|result=German victory
|combatant1=[[Image:Flag of Germany 1933.svg|22px]] [[Nazi Germany|Germany]]
|combatant2=[[Image:Flag of Poland.svg|22px]] [[Second Polish Republic|Poland]]
|commander1=Unknown
|commander2=[[Image:Flag of Poland.svg|22px]] [[Włodzimierz Steyer]]
|strength1=Unknown
|strength2=3,000 men <br> 46 guns
|casualties1='''[[Luftwaffe]]''': 46-53 aircraft <br> '''[[Wehrmacht]]''': unknown <br> '''[[Kriegsmarine]]''': <br> 1 destroyer damaged, <br> 1 [[German battleship Schleswig-Holstein|battleship]] lightly damaged
|casualties2=Unknown
|}}
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{{Campaignbox Polish September Campaign}}
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[[Image:Mierzeja Helska.jpg|thumb|300px|[[Hel Peninsula]] as seen from [[Landsat]] satellite in 2000]]
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[[Image:Battle of Hel Polish gun 1939.png|thumb|300px|One of four 152 mm [[Bofors]] Polish guns from Hel Fortified Region that survived the Battle of Hel. This battery called "Heliodor Laskowski battery" was commanded by Cpt. Zbigniew Przybyszewski.]]
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The '''Battle of Hel''' was one of the longest battles of the [[Invasion of Poland (1939)|Invasion of Poland]] during [[World War II]].
The [[Hel Peninsula]], together with the town of [[Hel, Poland|Hel]], was the longest-defended pocket of [[Polish Army]] resistance against the [[Invasion of Poland (1939)|German invasion]]. Approximately 3,000 soldiers of the [[Fortified Region Hel]] unit (''Rejon Umocniony Hel''), part of the [[Coastal Defence Group]] (''Grupa Obrona Wybrzeża'') under [[Captain (naval)|Capt.]] [[Włodzimierz Steyer]] defended the area against overwhelming odds from [[September 9]] until [[October 2]] [[1939]].{{ref|date}}
== Prelude ==
Hel was a Polish [[military]] [[port]] since 1928, and the [[Polish military]] had been in control of the northern part of the peninsula since 1920s. In 1936 that part was officially named Fortified Region Hel (''Rejon Umocniony Hel''). Approximately 3,000 soldiers were stationed in the area, and the Fortified Region included three coastal (anti-ship) and anti-air [[artillery battery|gun batteries]]. The [[coastal battery|coastal batteries]] were divided into one 4 x 152 mm battery and two older 2 x 105 mm batteries, and three batteries with 8 x 75 mm guns total. Anti-air batteries had 6 x 75 mm and 8 x 40 mm guns, and two 120 cm reflectors.
== The battle ==
Hel was the target of air attacks from the first day of the campaign ([[1 September]]).
<ref name="Comm">[[Henry Steele Commager]], ''The Story of the Second World War'', Brassey's, 2003, ISBN 1-57488-741-6, [http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN1574887416&id=p19SCD47zwQC&pg=PA16&lpg=PA16&dq=battle+of+Hel+Polish&sig=FzA9ffSr7z5Z6q--FDgqC_lgnVY Google Print, p.16-19]</ref> The German army forced Polish units of [[Armia Pomorze]] to retreat from the [[Danzig Corridor]] in the first week of September, and began the assault of the Polish forces in Hel on 9 September. After Armia Pomorze was defeated in the [[Battle of Tuchola Forest]], and other Polish [[stronghold]]s on the coast capitulated ([[Battle of Westerplatte]], [[Battle of Gdynia]] and [[Battle of Kępa Oksywska]]), from [[20 September]] onward Hel was the only pocket of Polish resistance in northern Poland.
Hel defenders damaged a German [[destroyer]] on [[3 September]].<ref name="Fort">[[J. E. Kaufmann]], [[Robert M. Jurga]], ''Fortress Europe: European Fortifications of World War II'', De Capo Press, 2002, ISBN 0-306-81174-X [http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN030681174X&id=GDpYITa31fcC&pg=PA272&lpg=PA272&q=hel&vq=hel&dq=battle+of+Hel+1939&sig=neDx2N5dDcFwlrB8u9R4m24BKzI Google Print, p.272].</ref> Several Polish light [[minelayer]]s laid a [[minefield]] near Hel in the night from 12 to [[13 September]]. After some of them were sunk by [[Luftwaffe]] on the following day, due to German control of the [[Baltic Sea]], the remaining units docked at Hel port and the crews joined the ground forces. The ships' armanents were stripped and converted into additional land gun emplacements.<ref name="Comm"/> German naval units, including old battleships [[German battleship Schleswig-Holstein|''Schleswig-Holstein'']] and [[SMS Schlesien|''Schlesien'']], shelled the Hel peninsula<ref name="Comm"/> from [[18 September]], but with little effect. ''Schleswig-Holstein'' was lightly damaged by Polish coastal batteries on [[25 September]].<ref name="Comm"/> Hel [[anti-aircraft]] batteries proved to be extremely efficient,<ref name="Comm"/> shooting down between 46<ref name="Fort"/> and 53<ref name="Comm"/> German aircraft during the battle.
By [[September 14]] Polish forces on Hel were cut off from the mainland. After being initially stalled by Polish defences,<ref name="Comm"/> Germans brought land artillery batteries and an armored train battery to support their barrage.<ref name="Comm"/> German forces slowly advanced, although they were still facing significant resistance and [[counterattack]]s. On September 25, after Germans took the village of Chałupy (today part of the town of [[Władysławowo]]), Polish military engineers detonated a number of [[torpedo]] warheads in the narrowest part of the peninsula, and for a time separated the peninsula from the mainland, transforming it into an island.<ref name="Comm"/> On [[October 1]], the commander of the [[Polish Navy]], [[counter-admiral]] [[Józef Unrug]], taking into consideration that the outpost was running out of supplies<ref name="Fort"/> and that no relief force would be coming, gave the orders to capitulate. The Germans occupied the peninsula by October 2. After the [[capitulation]] of Hel, the only organized Polish resistance was carried out by [[Independent Operational Group Polesie]], eventually defeated during the [[Battle of Kock (1939)|Battle of Kock]].
== Notes ==
* {{note|date}} Sources vary when giving the information on capitulation of Hel, with dates of 1 and 2 October. For example, Commager writes that military activities ceased on 1400, 1 October, but Kaufmann and Jurga note that Hel [[Surrender (military)|surrendered]] on 2 October.
== References ==
<references/>
[[Category:Battles of the Polish September Campaign|Hel]]
[[Category:Sieges involving Germany|Hel]]
[[Category:Sieges involving Poland|Hel]]
[[ru:Оборона Хельской косы]]