2 Zlotys Westerplatte

Westerplatte was the opening engagement of the Second World War. On 1 September 1939, a German warship and roughly 3,500 troops were held off by a Polish garrison of 182 men for seven days — far longer than German command had anticipated. The defenders became an immediate symbol inside occupied Poland, with the underground press invoking the phrase "every soldier a Westerplatte" throughout the occupation years.

The 70th anniversary of the September 1939 invasion prompted a cluster of Polish commemorative issues that year, of which this is among the more modestly denominated.