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 free city of Danzig.

BBC: Poland remembers World War start

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 free city of Danzig on 1 September 1939.

BBC: Watching the start of World War II

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 free city, now the Polish city of Gdansk.

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