Hel Peninsula

Hel Peninsula (; Mierzeja Helska, Półwysep Helski; Hélskô Sztremlëzna; Halbinsel Hela or Putziger Nehrung) is a sand bar peninsula in northern Poland separating the Bay of Puck from the open Baltic Sea. It is located in Puck County of the Pomeranian Voivodeship. The name of the peninsula might come from either the Old Polish word hyl/hel, meaning "empty or exposed place," or the Germanic word heel, which is derived from the form of the peninsula and the fact that the area was first settled by the Goths, an East Germanic tribe. The width of the peninsula varies from approximately near Jurata to in the most narrow part to over at the tip. Since the peninsula was formed entirely of sand, it is frequently turned into an island by winter storms. Until the 17th century, the peninsula was a chain of islands that formed a strip of land only in the summer. A road and a railroad run along the peninsula from the mainland to the town at the furthest point, Hel, a popular tourist destination. Other towns, ports, and tourist resorts are Jurata, Jastarnia, Kuźnica, Chałupy, and Władysławowo. Bus transport on the peninsula consists of only one route, the 666. The numbering of the route, which plays on the biblical number of the beast and the similarity of the name "Hel" to the English word "hell", raised complaints from Catholic groups which found the numbering blasphemous. The Hel (German: Hela) Peninsula was part of Prussia and then Germany from 1772 to 1919. After the peninsula became part of the Second Polish Republic after World War I, it acquired considerable military significance (Polish Corridor) and was turned into a fortified region, with a garrison of about 3,000. In the course of the Battle of Hel in 1939, Polish forces dynamited the peninsula at one point and turned it into an island. During the years of German occupation of Poland (1939–1945), Hel's defenses were further expanded, and a battery of three 40.6 cm SK C/34 gun was constructed, but the guns were soon moved to the Atlantic Wall in occupied France.

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Related concepts (11)

Battle of Westerplatte

The Battle of Westerplatte was the first battle of the German invasion of Poland, marking the start of World War II in Europe. It occurred on the Westerplatte peninsula in the harbour of the Free City of Danzig (now Gdańsk, Poland). In the mid-1920s, the Second Polish Republic established the Polish Military Transit Depot (Wojskowa Składnica Tranzytowa, WST) on the Westerplatte peninsula in the Free City of Danzig. Beginning on 1 September 1939, the German Wehrmacht and Danzig Police assaulted the WST.

Polish Corridor

The Polish Corridor (Polnischer Korridor; Pomorze, Polski Korytarz), also known as the Danzig Corridor, Corridor to the Sea or Gdańsk Corridor, was a territory located in the region of Pomerelia (Pomeranian Voivodeship, eastern Pomerania, formerly part of West Prussia), which provided the Second Republic of Poland (1920–1939) with access to the Baltic Sea, thus dividing the bulk of Germany (Weimar Republic) from the province of East Prussia. At its narrowest point, the Polish territory was just 30 km wide.

Hel Peninsula