History
During the German Empire era, Truppenübungsplatz Gruppe (now pl:Grupa) was a military exercise area in which medical research was conducted, leading to publication of the name in scientific reports of the early 20th century. During World War I, pacifist doctor Georg Friedrich Nicolai was banned from Berlin to the remote area which had to be ceded in 1919 to Poland as a result of the Treaty of Versailles.
In 1939, during the Invasion of Poland at the very beginning of World War II, the major Battle of Tuchola Forest was fought in the area. Soon, the former military test area was occupied again by German troops, and called Truppenübungsplatz Westpreußen, or by its code name, „Heidekraut“.
Between August 1944 and January 1945, SS troops under Hans Kammler and Walter Dornberger carried out extensive tests of the A-4 missiles (V-2 rockets), after the test site near Blizna was discovered by the Home Army and then bombed by the Allies. Approximately 107 missiles were fired, in southbound direction, for tests and training purposes. In January 1945 the site had to be evacuated before the Red Army offensive overran the area.
After World War II the forest was a safe haven for many anti-communist partisans, among them Zygmunt Szendzielarz.
Read more about this topic: Tuchola Forest
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“Classes struggle, some classes triumph, others are eliminated. Such is history; such is the history of civilization for thousands of years.”
—Mao Zedong (1893–1976)
“If you look at the 150 years of modern China’s history since the Opium Wars, then you can’t avoid the conclusion that the last 15 years are the best 15 years in China’s modern history.”
—J. Stapleton Roy (b. 1935)
“Bias, point of view, fury—are they ... so dangerous and must they be ironed out of history, the hills flattened and the contours leveled? The professors talk ... about passion and point of view in history as a Calvinist talks about sin in the bedroom.”
—Catherine Drinker Bowen (1897–1973)