The 32-day siege where Poland turned a peninsula into an island

Wars & Conflicts · Published 16 October 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: When the German invasion of Poland began in 1939, the Hel Peninsula became the final stand of the Polish Navy. For over a month, a small garrison held out against a blockade, even using underwater explosives to physically sever the land from the mainland to stall the advance.

The Defense of Hel (Obrona Helu) began on September 1, 1939, following the fall of other coastal strongholds like Westerplatte. Under the command of Rear Admiral Włodzimierz Steyer, approximately 2,800 Polish soldiers defended the Hel Fortified Area. While the Polish coastal batteries were the strongest in the country, they were structurally inadequate to face German capital ships. To compensate, the Polish Navy commander, Rear Admiral Józef Unrug, relocated his headquarters to Hel on August 31, 1939, reinforcing the garrison with troops from Gdynia.

The German strategy relied on a blockade and heavy bombardment rather than immediate land assaults. The Luftwaffe struck from day one, while the heavy battleships Schleswig-Holstein and Schlesien shelled the peninsula throughout September. Despite being outnumbered ten to one in the air, Polish anti-aircraft batteries were remarkably effective, shooting down between 46 and 53 German aircraft. On the water, the only surface engagement occurred on September 3, involving Polish destroyers and minelayers against German destroyers; the engagement was relatively inconsequential, resulting in only a few fatalities on each side before the Luftwaffe sank the Polish vessels.

The siege reached a climax in late September. As German forces advanced toward the village of Chałupy, Polish engineers detonated torpedo warheads at the peninsula's narrowest point. This tactic temporarily transformed the far end of the peninsula into an island to halt the Wehrmacht. However, after two mutiny attempts and dwindling supplies, Unrug ordered a capitulation on October 1. The defense ended with relatively light casualties—about 50 Polish dead—but it remained a symbol of organized resistance until the final Polish units surrendered on October 5.

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