Given the strategic location of Hel it was regularly used for military purposes. More serious plans to fortify the Hel Peninsula begin in the 1920’s. Hel was to become the main defensive centre of the Polish coastline. At the time, the coast was only 140km long of which half was the peninsula. At the time, the most significant of the built sites was the 31st Battery named after Heliodor Laskowski (which was located at head of the Hel Peninsula).

Of the numerous fortifications erected here during the last war as well as afterwards, when much of the peninsula was a military zone, the most impressive is the German battery Schleswig-Holstein, a monument on a global scale. After occupying the peninsula, the Germans began construction of three battery positions near Hel.

Each emplacement had a 406mm calibre gun with a 21m long barrel which could fire shells weighing over a ton a distance of 40km. The battery was effectively self-sufficient. A 30m high tower to direct fire stood over everything and was called “the Mouse Tower”. Recently this site was restored thanks to funding from the European Union and now houses the Museum of Coastal Defence.

Museum of Coastal Defence. – Hel (woj. Pomorskie)

www.gohel.pl