Axel Gyllenkrok (Lieutenant General)

Axel Gyllenkrok.

Axel Gyllenkrok (born August 16, 1665 in Åbo ; † September 17, 1730 ) was a baron and Swedish general at the time of the Great Northern War .

Life

Gyllenkrok was born in Åbo into the family of assessor Anders Krok (after receiving a nobility title Gyllenkrok). At the age of 18 he took up service in the bodyguard and quickly made a career: in 1686 he was in command of a company with the rank of captain . In order to deepen his knowledge of military art, he served seven years in the French army . He took part in many battles and sieges of fortresses there . In 1701 he became a major . At the beginning of the Great Northern War, Axel Gyllenkrok took part in the disembarkation of the Swedish army on the island of Zealand . He gained fame as General Quartermaster of Charles XII. He was also responsible for the operational planning of attacks: his collection of maps and descriptions of places were made by Charles XII. used for the preparation of campaigns in Poland and Russia. During the fighting in Courland in 1703 Gyllenkrok became Quartermaster-General-Lieutenant.

After the defeat of the Swedes in the Battle of Poltava on June 27, 1709, Gyllenkrok succeeded the king in the Ottoman Empire . From there he was sent to the Polish border with a small unit of 300 to 400 Swedes and 900 Zaporozhian Cossacks . In Poland he was to establish contact with the Swedish Army under the command of General Krassow . On the way, however, he was overwhelmed by a majority of Russian units with the troops at Czernowitz (which was under Ottoman control) - he surrendered on September 24, 1709. The report of the fortress captain Schulz to the "Defense Commission of the Swedish Parliament" from the Year 1723: the aim of the Gyllenkrok operation was to turn the Turks against the Russians by deploying them on Ottoman territory. The Swedish officers were taken deep into Russia's interior. Gyllenkrok came to Moscow as a prisoner and lived there under difficult conditions. The first signs of mental illness became visible in March 1712. Later, like many others, he was taken away from Moscow. Gyllenkrok mentioned the place he came to in letters Vosskressensky . In 1722 he returned to Sweden, got the rank of lieutenant general and the office of Landshövding of Gothenburg and the surrounding Bohuslän . Axel Gyllenkrok died on his estate on September 17, 1730.

A street in Gothenburg has been named after him since 1932.

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• German-language topic page on the Battle of Poltava (free content)