Stage VIII

The eighth stage of archaeological research took place from October 6th to December 21st, 2021. Its objectives were to investigate the area designated for a new cemetery near the site where the graves of nine Westerplatte defenders were discovered in 2019 and to conduct searches in the "Fort" post to locate the remains of Legionnaire Mieczysław Krzak. The excavations preceding the construction of the new Polish Army Cemetery on Westerplatte were part of the Westerplatte and the 1939 War Museum construction project, aimed at revitalizing the historical monument of the "Battlefield at Westerplatte." The mission of the Museum of World War II in Gdańsk prioritized finding and burying all Polish soldiers who died during the defense of the Military Transit Depot in individual graves at the new Polish Army Cemetery.

During this stage, an area of 378.1 m² was thoroughly examined. The excavations covered an area of 256.1 m², and the location and shape of the excavations were determined by planned earthworks related to cemetery construction. During the fifth stage of research, the Museum of World War II team discovered five graves containing the remains of nine individuals. These soldiers died in the bombed guardhouse No. 5 on September 2nd, 1939, by Luftwaffe and in other parts of the peninsula. After the hostilities, Polish civilian prisoners, supervised by Germans, buried the bodies of the defenders in the graves they had dug. Since the new cemetery was located in the area where soldiers' graves were found, the possibility of additional burials or fragments of remains could not be ruled out. However, the research did not reveal their presence. Instead, it led to the discovery of the well-preserved sewage system built for the Westerplatte Military Transit Depot. Its layout corresponded, with some minor modifications, to the assumptions known from the "Sewer and Water Supply Plan for Westerplatte" from December 28th, 1928. The center of the system consisted of two septic tanks made of prefabricated concrete elements. Sewage from the officer's villa, old barracks, and non-commissioned officers' mess flowed into the septic tanks through a manhole. After separating the sediment fractions in the septic tanks, the purified water was directed to another manhole and then carried deeper into the peninsula towards the west. Fragments of earlier rainwater drainage and elements of the resort's construction period were also identified, including the base of a stove and a cellar, which was probably part of a building located at Birkenallee (Birch Avenue) No. 3. After 1926, this object was demolished, and some of the debris was used to level the ground on Westerplatte.

During this stage, the search for the remains of Legionnaire Mieczysław Krzak also began. He was a member of the Military Transit Depot staff when World War II broke out. He operated mortars and, after their destruction, fought in the "Fort" post area. He died on September 2nd or shortly thereafter. Polish soldiers buried his body where he fell, likely at an observation post located possibly near a corrugated iron breakwater in front of the post. In January 1940, Polish prisoners of the German Stutthof camp, forced to clean up the Military Transit Depot area, found the frozen, partially decomposed body of a Polish soldier, which the Germans ordered them to burn. The similarity between the injuries observed by one of the prisoners on the decomposing remains, consistent with the wounds suffered by Lt. Mieczysław Krzak, as described by his comrades-in-arms, suggests that this could be the same individual. The locations of the research area were determined based on a survey combined with an analysis of archival photographs. Along the breakwater in the "Fort" post area, test pits with a total area of 122 m² were established. Unfortunately, human remains or layers that could indicate burning were not found in any of them. As a result of the research, brick remnants of the Prussian beach battery were discovered, as well as earthworks, the structure of a corrugated iron breakwater, the course of a German trench from 1945, and traces of earthworks carried out near the breakwater from the second half of the 20th century to the beginning of the 21st century.

The brick remnants are part of the laboratory building constructed in the 1860s and expanded in the mid-1870s, which was part of the Prussian beach battery. A fragment of the external southern wall with relics of inner walls was uncovered. The walls were made of machine-made bricks produced in the Kolibki brickworks. Outside the building, a fieldstone pavement was exposed. This layer was located about 2.5 m below the current ground level. The beach battery began to be dismantled in 1881, and traces of this activity, in the form of a layer of rubble, were also recorded during the research. In the early 20th century, when a new defensive system was built, the rubble, along with the remains of the building, was covered with sand, gravel, and clay, creating an earth breakwater serving as protection for the concrete coastal artillery command post built in 1911 (later the "Fort" post). The northern slope of the earthwork was largely destroyed during the construction of new coastal defenses, which protected the peninsula over almost its entire length. For their construction, panels of galvanized steel corrugated iron with a width of about 0.5 m were used, overlapping and connected with rivets. The structure was stabilized from the south by metal stays fixed in vertically set concrete slabs, with brick remnants of the battery used as support in some places. Stratigraphic analysis of the examined objects indicates that the corrugated iron breakwater was most likely built in the second decade of the 20th century. The research also documented a German trench from the end of the war, located 4–8 m south of the breakwater. The trench had a zigzag shape in its upper part, with a width of up to 1.5 m, narrowing down to 40–80 cm at the bottom, and its depth reached 80–100 cm. In the test pits adjacent to the breakwater, no layers associated with the period of Military Transit Depot operation were recorded. Unfortunately, they were destroyed by earthworks carried out in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, traces of which, in the form of longitudinal, deep trenches, were also recorded during the research. The only remains related to the depot were found in a test pit located northeast of the breakwater and north-east of the "Fort" post. It was a fragment of a wall made of machine-made bricks, which was a remnant of a small, lightweight construction, possibly serving as a watchtower. The object was probably dismantled during the preparations for the defense of the Military Transit Depot.

During the eighth stage of archaeological research, more than 2200 items were recovered, of which over 700 were considered objects of high historical, exhibition, or historical value. All of them are directly related to the history of this place: musket balls, Prussian uniform buttons, glass bottles, toys, and tableware fragments from the period of the resort's operation, coins from the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, items related to World War II, including a pzf-1 anti-tank rocket launcher destruct, a fuel barrel with bullet holes, and a German entrenching tool. Among the artifacts are also items related to the period of Military Transit Depot operation and its defense in September 1939: lead seals securing the warehouse buildings, Polish casings and uniform buttons, and an intentionally damaged and discarded Polish cap eagle.

In addition to items entered into the field inventory of monuments, nearly 60 explosive or hazardous objects were found, secured, and disposed of by a sapper supervising archaeological work. These were cartridges and shells of rifle and artillery ammunition from World War II.

As part of the eighth stage, geophysical surveys were also conducted on plots 24, 25/2, 26, covering an area of 84,050 m². The results of these works will be used to identify locations for future archaeological research aimed at uncovering objects related to the history of Military Transit Depot.