Cemetery of the Defenders of Westerplatte

This cemetery on the Westerplatte peninsula contains the bodies of the 15 men who died during the first engagement of World War II when Nazi Germany launched its attack on Poland here at the Polish Military Transit Depot. The commanding officer, Major Henryk Sucharski, who spent the rest of the war in German POW camps, died shortly after returning to active duty in Italy in 1946. His body was originally interred in the Polish Military Cemetery at Casamassima in Italy but in 1971 his remains were removed and brought to Gdansk. His urn spent August 31 on display in Artur's Court before being reburied with military honours alongside his men at Westerplatte on the 32nd anniversary of the outbreak of the attack.