Westerplatte

Once again iaint has made another fabulous contribution to our blipper-sourced photo album of locations mentioned in Lorna Lloyd's Diary of the war (previously blipped in full in the LornaL journal, and now available as a podcast series).  Thank you iaint!

iaint has submitted two photographs from Gdańsk to represent Westerplatte  The first (main blip) is the exterior of the World War II  Museum, and the second (extra) is a recreation of a wartime street scene from one of the museum displays. 

iaint has also provided a summary of the Westerplatte history for us: 

'Between 1920 and 1939 Danzig (present day Gdańsk) was a Free City under the protection of the League of Nations, bordered by Germany to the east and Poland to the west and south. It had its own elected parliament. It was created under the post World War I Treaty of Versailles. 

Westerplatte is a peninsula in the Baltic Sea, immediately to the north of the city of Gdańsk and was part of the territory comprising the Free City of Danzig. In 1921 the League of Nations gave Poland the right to create and maintain an ammunition depot at Westerplatte, and to station a garrison there to defend it. It became operational in 1926. 

At 04:48 on 1 September 1939, minutes after the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany had started with the bombing of Wieluń, the German battleship Schleswig-Holstein opened fire on the Polish garrison at Westerplatte. The Battle of Westerplatte was the first battle of World War II. The Polish garrison held out until 7 September, when lack of ammunition and supplies forced it to surrender. 

The ruins of the Polish fortifications are still there. A monument to the defenders was created in 1966. The battle is one of the features of the city’s Museum of the Second World War.'

You can find out more from the museum web site at https://muzeum1939.pl/en. 

Lorna covers this piece of World War II history in her early war diary entries, mentioning Westerplatte directly on 19th September 1939. This entry is narrated by Lorna's great-great niece actress Bethany Ray in Episode 2 of our podcast series of The diary of the war.

We currently have just one photograph in our pipeline to blip, and 25 locations left to source for this challenge. Please do take a look at the list below and consider whether you might have a shot or two that could represent any of the places that we haven't managed to capture yet.

If you have a suitable shot - either of a place(s), or something that could represent it (them) - please send your contribution(s) (not previously blipped) to h.hall@napier.ac.uk to feature alongside the others that we have been blipping here since 13th July 2022. 

ENGLAND
Coventry
Ilford
Leigh, Gloucestershire
Shrivenham, Oxfordshire

EUROPE
Albania: Durrës (Durazzo)
France: Bailleul,  Dunkirk, Forest of Compiègne, the Maginot Line
Finland: Hanko (Hangö), Mannerheim Line
Germany: Heligoland, Siegfried Line
Greece: Thermopylae
Italy: Romagna, Taranto
Poland: Silesia
Russia: Karelian Isthmus, Petsamo province (part of Finland until 1944, Vyborg (Viipuri in Finland until 1944)
Spain: Guernica, Roncevalles

REST OF THE WORLD
Egypt: Sidi Barrani
Iraq: Babylon (Hillah)
Libya (anywhere/thing to represent the country as a whole)
South Africa: Mafeking (Mafekeng)

Thank you to all the blippers who have already supplied pictures for this project since August 2022:

ArcLight
1bluebell 
bibba 
CaitlinA
Ceridwen 
Colstro
DarkEyedMary
digitaldaze
esiuol 
hazelh
hjarald
iaint
Ingeborg
jelleybaby
jonmountjoy
Joyful
LauraMuir
Livresse
Munroist4113
Myceliumme
Nettenet
Pandammonium
Pinkhairedlady
Ridgeback13
rosewiles7
Sallymair
SMLP
SparseRunner
StuartDB
Tigger101
Tweedy
walkingMarj
whome
Winsford