abstract:The Free City of Danzig, sometimes referred to as the Republic of Danzig, was a semi-independent city state established by Napoleon on 9 September 1807, during the time of the Napoleonic Wars following the capture of the city in the Siege of Danzig in May. After the Congress of Vienna of 1814/5, Danzig was re-incorporated into the Kingdom of Prussia.
At the time of the attack by the Schleswig-Holstein - which was moored in the Polish harbour on a friendship visit - Gdansk was known as the freecityofDanzig.
Few survive to tell the tale of the German battleship, Schleswig-Holstein, unleashing a barrage of 280mm and 170mm shells at a Polish fort and shattering the dawn breaking over the Westerplatte peninsula in the freecityofDanzig on 1 September 1939.
After he left journalism he moved into the Department of External Affairs in Dublin and in 1934 was appointed to the League of Nations in Danzig, then a freecity, now the Polish cityof Gdansk.