Major Ignacy Skowron, the last Polish veteran of the Battle of Westerplatte which began World War II, has died at the age of 97, local media reported Monday. Skowron was the last survivor of a some 200-member Polish crew that defended northern Poland's Westerplatte peninsula on September 1, 1939, after a surprise attack from a Nazi battleship on their garrison.
The Polish soldiers held back some 3,500 Germans who repeatedly bombarded Westerplatte. The Nazis had expected an easy victory, but the Polish garrison managed to repel the German forces for seven days, with 14 casualties. Skowron was taken prisoner after the battle and released due to bad health in 1941. He worked on a farm and on a railway after the war. He died in Kielce, central Poland, on Sunday.