Naval Battle of Copenhagen (1801)
| date | April 2, 1801 |
|---|---|
| place | Copenhagen in Denmark |
| exit | British victory |
| Parties to the conflict | |
|---|---|
| Commander | |
| Troop strength | |
| 20 ships of the line , 5 frigates , 23 smaller warships |
7 ships of the line, 24 others |
| losses | |
|
264 dead, 689 wounded |
1,600–1,800 dead and wounded |
Ostrach - Feldkirch - Stockach I - Verona - Magnano - Cassano d'Adda - Frauenfeld - Winterthur - Zurich I - Trebbia - Mantua - Novi - Vlieter - Bergen - Zurich II - Muotatal - Egmont - Genola - Wiesloch - Genoa - Stockach II - Engen - Meßkirch - Biberach II - Montebello - Marengo - Höchstädt - Oberhausen - Hohenlinden - Walserfeld - Pozzolo - Copenhagen - Algeciras I - Algeciras II
In the naval battle of Copenhagen , the British fleet under the admirals Sir Hyde Parker , Horatio Nelson and Thomas Graves defeated the Danish fleet on April 2, 1801 .
prehistory
Great Britain was at war with France in 1801 . In addition to Great Britain, Austria , Portugal , Naples , the Ottoman Empire and the Papal States , Russia also belonged to the so-called Second Coalition against France , but the latter showed clear sympathy for France under Tsar Paul I since 1800. A Nordic anti-British coalition consisting of Russia, Denmark , Sweden and Prussia threatened . These states insisted on their status of armed neutrality , i.e. the protection of their own free trade, also with the warring nations. Great Britain decided to prevent the unification of the strong fleets of Russia, Denmark and Sweden through a preventive war. It should initially be directed against Denmark, especially since the fleets of Sweden and Russia were still blocked in the ports by the ice of the Baltic Sea at the beginning of spring . Great Britain saw in the armed neutrality of the Baltic Sea neighbors a direct and substantial reinforcement of the French fleet. Nelson judged the Danish fleet to be "too big for a small country anyway."
On January 26, 1801, the Times reported that Sir Hyde Parker would be appointed as commander-in-chief of a Baltic squadron with Lord Nelson as deputy. Nelson considered himself a better seaman than Parker, and wrote:
“ Our friend (Parker) is a little nervous about dark nights and ice fields. But we have to pull ourselves together; these are not the times for (weak) nervous systems. "
The Admiralty began formulating its plans and instructed the Commander in Chief of the Canal Fleet, John Jervis, 1st Earl of St. Vincent , to operate the ships of the line HMS London , HMS St. George , HMS Courageux , HMS Russell , HMS Warrior , HMS Defiance , HMS Saturn , HMS Edgar and HMS Bellona to be stationed north of Brest . Smaller units (bomb ships, etc.) were overhauled in shipyards and concentrated in Yarmouth . The planned action had to be carried out quickly before the ice in the Baltic Sea would thaw in early April and the Russian fleet could unite with the Swedish and Danish fleets. Nelson arrived at Yarmouth on March 6, 1801 and was disconcerted to find that the Commander-in-Chief lived on land. When he learned that the admiral's wife was planning a grand ball for the coming week, he wrote to the admiralty expressing his concern. The letter had the desired effect: On March 11, 1801, Sir Hyde Parker received formal orders to sail the following day. On March 18th the Skagerrak was reached, on March 19th Cape Skagen was circled, on March 24th we passed Helsingør .
Parker's instructions were to appear in front of Copenhagen and persuade the Danes to withdraw from armed neutrality. That left a number of options that Parker and Nelson could not agree on. Nelson's proposal to demonstrate the strength of the fleet was rejected by Parker. Instead, the British demands were carried by a single frigate. However, the Danes, who had been well informed about the fleet that had been cruising in their waters for a few days, refused to negotiate.
Prepare for battle
.jpg)
The battle-savvy British fleet was led by Admiral Parker, Nelson was his deputy, Graves the second deputy. It consisted of 20 ships of the line , 5 frigates and 23 smaller warships . The association reached the northern entrance of the Oresund on March 21, 1801 . Anchored there and a British diplomat made one last attempt to persuade the Danish government to leave the Nordic coalition. When that had failed, as expected, the association went to anchor on March 30, advanced past the fortifications at the northern entrance to the Sound into the Oresund and began exploring the sea area off Copenhagen .
The Danish fleet was led by Commodore Olfert Fischer . The ships had been moored at their home base in Copenhagen, were only weakly manned and not prepared for a fight. Because there were not enough crews, civilian seamen and Copenhagen citizens had been called in to take up arms. For the battle, the ships were anchored in a long row as floating batteries in the fairway off Copenhagen . Their advantage was that they could be supplied from there directly in front of their own port during the battle. In addition, there were a large number of coastal batteries that could intensify the fleet's fire.
The Danes had formed the defensive line in a north-south direction directly in front of the sandbank of the island of Amager , together with the batteries of the Trekroner fortress ( 55 ° 42 ′ 10 ″ N , 12 ° 36 ′ 48 ″ O ) and other shore batteries to protect the harbor. The line of the anchored, moored ships was about 1.5 nautical miles long at the seaside end of today's port facilities between the sandbank in front of Amager and the Mittelgrundbank . Between the larger ships Sjælland (two- decker 74), Infødsretten (two- decker 64), Dannebrog (two- decker 60, flagship ), Holsteen (60 cannons), Prøvesteenen (three-decker 52/56), Jylland (two-decker 48/54) and Wagrien (two- decker 48 / 52) only smaller units (frigates, Radeaus and Prahme with 10 to 20 cannons) were used. Only the Sjælland and the Holsteen were in good condition. The shore batteries were supplemented by the two two-decker Hulks Elephanten (70 cannons) and Mars (64 cannons) as well as two further 74-cannon ships, a frigate and two briggs. In total, the Danes had about 600 guns in position.
On March 30, 1801, the British fleet anchored north of Copenhagen at around 10 p.m. An approach from the north would have meant an immediate confrontation with the batteries of the Trekroner fortress (30 24-pounders and 38 36-pounders). The fortress had the firepower of the heaviest artillery broadside and the advantage of safe cover. An approach from the south meant the passage of the narrow fairway between Amager and Saltholm and the rounding of the middle ground bank. Nelson had faced a similar situation at the Battle of Abukir : a line of anchored ships, reinforced by land batteries and considerable navigational problems in poorly surveyed fairways. On the morning of March 31, Nelson undertook a scouting of the Trekroner battery with the ships' artillery officers aboard a frigate . In the afternoon he was ordered to attempt the attack with twelve ships of the line and all smaller units, while Sir Hyde Parker with the remaining eight ships of the line London (98 cannons), St. George (98 cannons), Warrior (74 cannons), Defense ( 74 cannons), Saturn (74 cannons), Ramillies (74 cannons), Raisonable (64 cannons) and Veteran (64 cannons) formed the reserve, which should be on the other side north of the middle distance.
Course of the battle
On the evening of April 1, 1801, Nelson's fleet anchored south of the sandbank, about two nautical miles from the Danish fleet. Under cover of darkness, the depths of the fairway were plotted. Nelson's instructions to the masters of his fleet had three essential elements:
- The British fleet should anchor parallel to their opponents and, after defeating an enemy ship, pass on the non-firing side of their own ships in order to attack the next enemy.
- Seven bomb ketches with high-angle weapons were to anchor east of their own line and fire over their own ships.
- After the Trekroner battery had been defeated, it was supposed to be stormed by marines and sailors
At 9:30 a.m. on April 2, 1801, Nelson gave the order to raise anchor. The HMS Agamemnon (64 guns) ran aground and did not take part in the further fighting, the Russel (74 guns) and the Bellona (74 guns) hit the ground and fell back. Nelson reacted immediately: he moved the Elephant (74 cannons) to the line position of the Bellona , the Ganges (74 cannons) sat in front of the flagship and the Monarch (74 cannons) replaced the Elephant in the line. Now Nelson only brought the five frigates Désirée (36 cannons), Amazon (32/38), Blanche (36 cannons), Alcmène (32 cannons) and Jamaica (24 cannons) and nine ships of the line into battle. In addition to those mentioned, the 74-gun ships Defiance and Edgar , the 64-gun ships Polyphemus and Ardent and the Isis (50 guns) and Glatton (54/56). The Glatton, under the command of Captain William Bligh, was the only ship completely equipped with carronades instead of the usual long-barreled cannons. These large-caliber weapons were designed for close combat. The Danish batteries started fire at 10:40 a.m., at 11:17 a.m. all ships were engaged in the fight. The British ships were only a few hundred meters from their opponents at stern anchors. Both sides fired their broadsides at full speed. Maneuvering was impossible. The Elephant fought with the Danish flagship Dannebrog and two floating batteries lying in front of it. The squadron of much too weak smaller ships led by Captain Henry Riou on the Amazon attacked the Trekroner battery with heavy losses. At around 1:15 p.m., after nearly two hours of heavy fire, Sir Hyde Parker tried to get an idea of the situation from his position. A ship sat aground, the reserves could no longer be brought into battle due to the wind conditions and at least two of Nelson's ships had set distress signals. He said to his flag captain:
“ I'm going to signal Nelson to withdraw, for his own sake. If he is able to continue, he will ignore it; if not, it will be an excuse to withdraw. "
Parker was well aware of the consequences for his own reputation, but it would have been cowardly to leave Nelson the shame of failure. The ensuing insubordination by Lord Nelson has become famous. The signal officer on the Elephant saw the signal to end the battle and reported to the admiral. He pretended not to have heard, and when the officer repeated he said, "Mr. Langford, I have ordered you to watch the Danish commanding officer and report to me if he gives up. So keep your eye on him. “But the officer asked a question that could not be ignored: whether he should pass the signal from the commander in chief to the other ships. Nelson then ordered confirmation, but made sure that his own signal flag to continue the fight was still flying. Then he turned to his flag captain Thomas Foley and said:
" You know, Foley, that I only have one eye - I have a right to be blind sometimes." Then he held his telescope in front of the blind eye and said, "What signal? I really don't see any signal! "
Captain Henry Riou on the Amazon could see the commander-in-chief's signal from his position at the head of the line, but not Nelson's flagship. His rank was too low to defy the command-in-chief's signal. He was the only one not only to confirm the signal, but to act accordingly. As they withdrew, the Amazon and the other smaller ships came under the murderous fire of the Trekroner battery. His last words are said to have been, “What will Nelson think of us?” And then, “Well then, guys, let's all die together ” before a bullet cut him in half.
Nelson continued the battle, especially since the Danish flagship Dannebrog was already out of action and Commodore Fischer first had to switch to the Holsteen and, after their failure on land, to the Trekroner battery. Nelson's ships attacked the Danish directly, and the marines on board captured a number of them. Many Danes became prisoners of war .
From 2 p.m. onwards, the Danish ships and batteries gradually stopped firing. Most of the ships were nothing but smoking wrecks. Two reserve ships appeared and were still taking part in the fighting, which ended after five hours around 4:00 p.m. The British had more than 350 dead and 850 wounded, the Danish casualties were even higher. Nelson commented, “I fought against my orders. Maybe I'll be hanged. Well, leave them! "
When the fire subsided, Nelson sent a parliamentarian to the Danish Crown Prince , to whom he forwarded a number of demands. He threatened to set fire to the floating batteries that had already been captured and to detonate them along with their captured crews. Several letters were exchanged in which Denmark accepted the terms of the armistice. The battle ended shortly after 3:00 p.m. and a little later the burning Dannebrog exploded . A 24-hour armistice was signed by the Danish adjutant general Lindholm at 8:00 p.m. on the flagship London . On April 3, Nelson had a two-hour interview with the Crown Prince and his adjutant general at Amalienborg Palace. Nelson's negotiating position was that the Danes should join or disarm the British with their fleet. These demands were extremely problematic for Denmark. Protection of the merchant ships would no longer be possible and an attack by Russia could be the result. The negotiations dragged on for days until a formal ceasefire for 14 weeks was agreed on April 8.
The captured Danish ships were sunk or brought to Great Britain after the prisoners were released. The Danish Navy was de facto disarmed and could no longer be used against Great Britain.
Consequences of the battle
With the armistice in the back, the British fleet under Hyde Parker sailed from April 12 to 22, 1801 in the Baltic Sea. Fears that a strong Swedish fleet would come out of the ports were not confirmed. On April 20, he signed a special agreement with Sweden that removed the country from the Nordic coalition. Sir Hyde Parker also refused to sail to the eastern Baltic Sea so as not to confront the Russians. The pro-France Tsar Paul was murdered on March 23, 1801 and his successor Alexander did not want a war against Great Britain. After returning to Copenhagen, Parker was commanded to London after his behavior in the Battle of Copenhagen became known. Nelson was henceforth Britain's naval hero. On May 6, 1801 he hoisted his flag for the first time as commander-in-chief of the Baltic Fleet and sailed to Reval , which Hyde Parker had previously refused. The appearance of the British fleet remained without result, because the ice in the Baltic Sea had already melted and the Russian fleet stationed in Reval had united with the other ships.
Second naval battle 1807
literature
- Oliver Warner : Great sea battles Gerhard Stalling, Oldenburg et al. 1963, p. 158 ff.
- Elmar B. Potter, Chester W. Nimitz : Sea power. A naval war history from antiquity to the present. German version published by Jürgen Rohwer on behalf of the Defense Research Working Group . Bernard and Graefe, Munich 1974, ISBN 3-7637-5112-2 , p. 119 ff.
- Vladimir Grigoryevich Truchanowski: Horatio Nelson. Triumph and tragedy of an admiral. Military publishing house of the German Democratic Republic, Berlin 1990, ISBN 3-327-00859-0 .
- Robert Gardiner (Ed.): Nelson against Napoleon. From the Nile to Copenhagen, 1798-1801. Caxton Editions in Association with the National Maritime Museum, London 2001, ISBN 1-84067-361-3 .
- Ole Feldbæk: The battle of Copenhagen 1801. Nelson and the Danes. Leo Cooper, Barnsley 2002, ISBN 0-85052-875-5 .
