Wooster Geologists

(It is the nature of this blog that our most recent entries are at the top, making it a bit awkward to read what is here the third part of a trilogy of posts today. You might want to start with my visit to Góra Świętej Anny.)

Above is a radio tower in Gliwice, Poland. It is an impressive construction in its own right, being made of wood with brass connectors in 1935 by Germans. It is the second tallest wooden structure (118 meters) in the world. How it survived World War II is a mystery to me.

This radio tower is famous for being the site of the Gleiwitz Incident on August 31, 1939. At the time Gleiwitz was within Germany near the Polish border. German SS troops staged a bloody attack on the radio station and tower to make it look like Polish Silesian nationalists were responsible. This was at least conceivable because of the tensions in Silesia between Germans and Poles for centuries, especially in the year after World War I. Of course, the Poles had nothing to do with the Gleiwitz violence. The Nazis used it as a pretext to attack and invade Poland on September 1, 1939. Last week my colleagues and I visited Westerplatte in Gdansk where the first “official” shots were fired. In some ways, though, the war started here.

Here are my patient and friendly colleagues Michał Zatoń and Tomasz Borszcz at the base of the Gliwice radio tower. They are very tolerant of my passion for history and geology.

SOPOT, POLAND — It was a rainy, windy, cold day in northern Poland, but our able leader Piotr Kuklinski organized an enjoyable educational field trip to the ancient city of Gdansk, once known primarily by its German name, Danzig. The old parts of the city are gorgeous, especially considering that about 90% of the city was destroyed in World War II. Above is a view north of the Vistula River filled with hardy kayakers. While delightful, the city, cathedral and town hall views will not surprise anyone who has visited the old cities of eastern Europe. For me the best parts of the visit were when we saw places significant for recent Polish and world history.
This 17th Century armory building is a good example of architecture in Gdansk at the height of its wealth and influence. It was built by Dutch engineers and builders using bricks brought as ship’s ballast from western Europe.
We took a boat ride into the freezing wind and rain to see the monuments of Westerplatte at the mouth of the Vistula. This is where World War II began when German ships fired without warning on Polish fortifications in the early morning of September 1, 1939. The Polish garrison surprised everyone, especially the Germans, by holding out for seven days under terrific fire and continuous attacks. Above is a Soviet-style marker of the main center of resistance to the invaders.
I was moved by our visit to the “Roads to Freedom” underground exhibition. It represents the history of Poland’s post-war struggles to escape Communist oppression and Soviet imperialism. A major theme is that actions of the Polish people in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s encouraged the rest of Europe’s captive states to seek their own freedom and independence.

A Polish militia armored vehicle sits outside the exhibition entrance. This kind of vehicle figures often in the exhibition’s archival films of street violence in Gdansk and other large cities.

The history of the Solidarity movement is one of the most dramatic stories of the late 20th Century.

This is the most famous gate into the Gdansk Shipyards, where Lech Walesa led striking workers into what eventually became a national resistance movement. Now under the awning on the right is a 24-hour ATM!

One of the demands of the striking workers is that they be allowed to construct a monument to their comrades who were killed in a previous strike in 1970. This is one of the plaques near the structure.

To show the global nature of the Polish political revolution, the exhibition organizers obtained a piece of the Berlin Wall to place outside the museum. Geologist for scale. (Thanks, Tomasz Borszcz, for the photo.) I remember the dramatic events televised from Gdansk and would have never dreamed in, say, 1983 that I would someday stand by a piece of a dismantled East German wall in the free city of Gdansk.

SOPOT, POLAND — After lunch today the Larwood 2014 meeting participants had an excellent field trip to the aquarium in Gdynia on the Baltic coast (above). This aquarium has a diverse and interesting collection, but for me the two historic ships docked alongside were just as fascinating.
This is the Dar Pomorza, a fully rigged ship built in Hamburg, Germany, in 1909 as the Prinzess Eitel Friedrich. It was used as a training ship in the Baltic Sea by the German Navy, and then surrendered to France in 1919 as part of reparations for World War I. The Polish bought it as a training ship for naval cadets in 1929, adding a diesel engine. It was interned in Stockholm during World War II, returning to Polish service in 1946. It became a museum ship in 1983.
The Dar Pomorza is being refurbished, so we had only this close view of new planking being laid on the deck.
This magnificent ship (above and below) had a long and distinguished career in World War II. It is the Błyskawica, which means “lightning” in Polish. It was built in 1935-1937 by a British firm on contract for the Polish government. On August 30, 1939, the Polish Navy secretly evacuated this ship along with two other destroyers to Great Britain just before the Germans invaded Poland. It was thus able to participate in the war against the Germans throughout the North Sea, Atlantic and Mediterranean. It covered operations in Norway, the evacuation of British and French troops from Dunkerque, and the Allied landings in both North Africa and France. It must have been deeply satisfying for the Polish sailors on board the Błyskawica to be able to fight back so long and effectively against the Nazis.

Polish sailors by an anti-aircraft gun and torpedo tubes.

The Błyskawica in the North Atlantic during the war.

I couldn’t resist. Thanks to my friend Tomasz Borszcz for taking this photo on the Błyskawica.