On September 1, 1939, only minutes after the German Luftwaffe (Airforce) had begun the invasion of Poland by dropping bombs in a series of raids on the city of Wieluń by Junkers Ju 87 Stukas, at 04:45 local time, the battleship Schleswig-Holstein, then on a "courtesy visit" to the Free City of Danzig, opened fire on the Polish garrison without warning.
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In 1925 the Council of the League of Nations allowed Poland to keep 88 soldiers on Westerplatte, which the Poles had secretly increased to 176 men and six officers by September 1939.
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Major Henryk Sucharski had been informed that no help from the Polish Army would come.
On 17 March 1735, Marshal Münnich superseded Peter Lacy, and on 20 May 1735 the long-expected French fleet appeared and disembarked 2,400 men on Westerplatte.