On the morning of September 1, 1939, the German battleship Schleswig-Holstein ushered in WWII when it opened fire on the 180-strong Polish contingent stationed on Westerplatte. Donald Tusk, the Polish prime minister, and Lech Kaczynski, the nation's president, were due to lay wreaths at a memorial to the garrison at 4:45am, 70 years to the minute that the ship's shells first tore into the Polish defences. Later in the day there was scheduled to be a formal memorial ceremony, attended by dignitaries including British Foreign Secretary David Miliband and the German chancellor, Angela Merkel.