Memorial day: Ceremonies marking the beginning of the World War II took place on Gdansk's Westerplatte peninsula on Tuesday. It was 70 years ago, on Sept. 1, 1939, in the very early morning that a German battleship, the Schleswig-Holstein, fired the first shots at a Polish fort there. Around 182 Polish soldiers were expected to put up around 12 hours worth of resistance. Instead they held out for seven days against 3,000 Germans. At the same time, the German army was also attacking Poland on all other sides and two days later, France and Britain declared war on Germany. The resistance put up by Polish soldiers at this spot is still considered one of that nation's most heroic, wartime moments. Which is why ceremonies to mark the event -- which were attended by various world leaders including German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, the national security adviser for the Obama administration, James Jones and both Poland's President Lech Kaczynski and the country's Prime Minister Donald Tusk -- were held at the Monument of Westerplatte Defenders.