Henryk Sucharski

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Henryk Sucharski
Polish Defensive War
AwardsVirtuti Militari, Commander Cross of Valour, twice Gold Cross of Merit

Henryk Sucharski (1898–1946) was a Polish military officer and a major in the

Polish Army. At the outbreak of World War II, he was one of the commanders of the Westerplatte position in Gdańsk
, which troops under his command defended for seven days against overwhelming odds. Sucharski survived the war.

Early life and career

Sucharski was born on November 12, 1898, in Gręboszów, a village near

March Battalion of the Bochnia-based 32nd Landwehr Regiment, he passed his matura exams and in February 1918 graduated from an officers school in Opatów. Dispatched with his regiment to the Italian front of the Great War, Sucharski was infected with malaria and spent the remainder of the war in various hospitals in San Stino di Livenza and then Celje
.

Upon his return to Poland, on February 7, 1919 he joined the Polish Army and the Tarnów-based

1st Lieutenant
after the war.

In the interbellum Henryk Sucharski remained in active service. He graduated from a variety of courses for various branches of the military and on March 19, 1928 he was promoted to the rank of

Brześć nad Bugiem-based 35th Infantry Regiment. After graduating from additional courses at the Centre for Infantry Training in Rembertów
near Warsaw, on March 19, 1938 Sucharski was again promoted, this time to the rank of Major.

Westerplatte

Friedrich-Georg Eberhardt and Henryk Sucharski, Westerplatte, 1939

On December 3, 1938 Sucharski became the commanding officer of the Military Transit Depot in Westerplatte, a Polish military outpost in the Free City of Danzig. A skilled organizer, Sucharski focused on improving the defences of the area under his command, a tiny ex–territorial area within the German-dominated city. He strengthened the fortifications of the Westerplatte peninsula and increased the number of soldiers serving there.

See also: Battle of Westerplatte

After Westerplatte

After short stays in various German transit camps where the sabre was removed from his possession, on October 26, 1939 Sucharski was imprisoned in Oflag IV-A in the Hohnstein castle. He spent the remainder of the war in various German prisoner of war camps, including Oflag II-B in Arnswalde from June 25, 1940 and Oflag II-D in Gross-Born from May 12, 1942. During the evacuation of Gross-Born in March 1945 he suffered a serious accident from which he never fully recovered.

After being liberated from the

Polish II Corps and was transferred to Italy, where he briefly served as a commander of the 6th Karpaty Rifles Battalion following January 25, 1946. On August 19, 1946, he was sent to a British military hospital in Naples where he was interviewed by Melchior Wańkowicz, who made Sucharski the main protagonist in his 1948 short story Westerplatte. Henryk Sucharski died from peritonitis several days after the interview, on August 30, 1946. The following day he was buried in the Polish war cemetery in Casamassima near Bari
. On September 1, 1971 his ashes were returned to Poland and buried with military honours at Westerplatte, where he was posthumously decorated with the Commanders' Cross of the Virtuti Militari.

During the post-war years, Wańkowicz's mythologised account of Sucharski as a brave commander enduring under hopeless odds became the main source of information on Westerplatte action. The myth was propagated in numerous books and films. It is often thought [by whom?] that the Communist authorities preferred to maintain the myth of Sucharski, a heroic son of a peasant and shoemaker, rather than support his deputy, Franciszek Dąbrowski who was born into a szlachta family. It was not until the 1990s that the truth about Sucharski and Westerplatte started to become more widely known.[citation needed]

Places named for him

A street in

Ostroleka
, called Sucharskiego, with seven apartment blocks along it.

Honours and awards

See also

Notes

  1. Generał brygady
    , he remains a Major in the popular culture of Poland. In fact he is referred to as Major Sucharski much more often than as Henryk Sucharski.
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