Westerplatte (1967, Poland)
Categories: bombardment movies infantry movies last stand movies military base movies siege movies
WesterplatteDirector: Stanislaw Rozewicz
Czas: 90 minut
Laguages: Polish / German
Westerplatte war movie
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Westerplatte war movie
Czas: 90 minut
1970-01-01 / 1970-01-01
True story of Polish outpost near Gdansk that held the superior force of Germans for several days at the beginning of World War II in Europe.
On the verge of World War 2 Gdansk was a free city, detached from Poland by Treaty of Versailles, but Poland had one single military outpost withing the Free City of Gdansk (German: Danzig). It was called Polish Military Transit Depot - with garrison of 88 men (by September 1939 secretly increased to 180) it was rather symbolic object. On 1st September 1939 Nazi Germany started the invasion of Poland and Westerplatte was among their primary targets. Few days earlier battleship Schleswig-Holstein arrived to Gdansk with a "courtesy visit", not his 280mm guns were bombarding the area of Westerplatte. Polish commander, major Sucharski, knew he has not enough men to defend Westerplatte for long time - his orders were to hold the enemy for about 12 hours before the relief forces from Poland will arrive, but with ongoing invasion it was obvious help might not be coming any soon. Nevertheless he set up the garrison forces for defence - he had one 75mm gun, two antitank guns, four mortars and some machine guns. When assault of land forces started Poles repelled one attack after another. Germans brought further troops and their Stuka bombers to break the defence of Sucharski.
Movie filmed in almost documentary fashion, it depicts the heroic defence of military outpost in Westerplatte - one of the most heroic episodes of Polish Army during the World War 2. Unfortunately the film is made with only decent effort - most of the battle scenes are taken from wartime documentaries (especially German attacks), but those presenting Polish troops are bit better. Still it isn’t a masterpiece - just another average war movie.
Our rating
6.0
Film value
5 / 10
Realism factor
4 / 5
Adventure factor
2 / 5
Historical accuracy
4 / 5
