Defence of the Polish Post Office in Danzig

Defence of the Polish Post Office in Danzig
	Part of the Invasion of Poland
	; Soldiers of the SS Heimwehr Danzig unit advance on the Polish post office while being covered by an ADGZ armored vehicle.
Date	1 September 1939
Location	Free City of Danzig54°21′18″N 18°39′25″E / 54.355°N 18.657°E
Result	Danzig/German victory
Belligerents
Poland	Free City of Danzig; Supported by: ; Germany
Commanders and leaders
Konrad Guderski †; Alfos Flisykowski	Willi Bethke; Johannes Schaffer
Units involved
Post office workers and families	Free City of Danzig Danzig Police; SS Heimwehr Danzig; Sturmabteilung;
Strength
56 postmen & families (43 armed with pistols and grenades); 1 anti-tank rifle; 3 machine guns	180 Danzig police; 3 armoured cars; 2 75mm artillery pieces; 1 105mm howitzer
Casualties and losses
8 killed; 14 wounded (6 died later); 38 captured	8-10 killed; 21-22 wounded
	All Polish POWs executed.

The Defence of the Polish Post Office in Danzig (Gdańsk) was one of the first acts of World War II in Europe, as part of the September Campaign.^[1]^[3]^: 39, 42 On 1 September 1939 the Invasion of Poland was initiated by Germany when the battleship Schleswig-Holstein opened fire on the Polish-controlled harbor of Danzig, around 04:45–48 hours. Danzig paramilitaries and police, supported by Germany, immediately joined the offensive to take full control of the city, by capturing the Polish post office. Polish personnel defended the building for some 15 hours against assaults by the SS Heimwehr Danzig (SS Danzig Home Defence), local SA formations and special units of Danzig police. All but four of the defenders, who were able to escape from the building during the surrender, were sentenced to death by a German court martial as illegal combatants on 5 October 1939, and executed (the judgement was later acknowledged as judicial murder).

^ ^a ^b Zaloga, Steven; Madej, Victor (1985). The Polish Campaign, 1939. New York, New York: Hippocrene Books. ISBN 0-88254-994-4.
^ ^a ^b "1 września 1939 roku miała miejsce obrona Poczty Polskiej w Gdańsku » Historykon.pl". 31 August 2018.
^ Zaloga, S.J., 2002, Poland 1939, Oxford: Osprey Publishing Ltd., ISBN 9781841764085