Siege and storming of Weprik

Siege and storming of Weprik

Part of: Great Northern War

Siege and storming of Weprik

date	December 24, 1708 - January 7, 1709
place	Wepryk , today's Ukraine
output	Swedish victory

Parties to the conflict
Sweden	Russia
Commander
Charles XII. Berndt von Stackelberg	Colonel Ferber
Troop strength
3,000 men (six infantry regiments and two dragoon regiments )	1,600 Russians and Cossacks

The storming of Weprik on January 7, 1709 was a military intervention of Charles XII's Russian campaign. in the Great Northern War . The siege of the Ukrainian village Weprik by the Swedish army lasted from December 24th, 1708 to January 7th, 1709 and ended with the storming of the Cossack fortress. On January 7th, 3,000 Swedes stormed the fortress without success. Only the lack of food and ammunition made the commander surrender the next morning.

In advance

Siege of Weprik

Location of the battlefield

Tsar Peter, Charles's last opponent, was to be eliminated by a direct campaign on his capital Moscow. However, this project turned out to be extremely unfavorable for the Swedes, as the Russian armed forces consistently used the scorched earth tactics and thus prepared the Swedish army in need of supplies. The advance of Charles XII's Russian campaign, which began in 1707. came to a standstill after the defeat at Lesnaya . The campaign goal of Charles XII, to march from Severien along the road from Kaluga to Moscow, as soon as the supply situation of the army improved, was no longer attainable due to the supply army lost at Lesnaya.

Karl therefore resorted to a new strategy: he had been in contact with the hetman of the Ukrainian Cossacks , Ivan Masepa, for a long time . In autumn 1707 the Bulavin uprising of the Cossacks and peasants broke out in the Don region , which was directed against the tsarist rule and which was rigorously suppressed by Peter I. Masepa had fallen out of favor with the Tsar; he viewed this as Russia's violation of the Pereyaslav Treaty . Since then he has been looking for a way to free Ukraine from Russian embrace. He also promised the King of Sweden that he would support him with an army of 100,000 men if the Swedes advanced into the Ukraine. Charles XII. then marched against the advice of his generals in Ukraine. But the expected reinforcement by the Cossacks did not materialize; The Russians had sent an army under General Menshikov, whose troops occupied Masepa's capital Baturyn and killed many of his supporters without reading a bunch, with 6,000–7500 civilian casualties. Masepa was only able to provide a small number of the men promised, initially 3,000 and later 15,000. Karl spent the winter in Ukraine, still confident of achieving his goals for the next year.

November and December of 1708 were very severe. In the previous troop movements by the Russian and Swedish armies, many soldiers died from the cold. When the main Swedish army around Hadjach stood waiting and waited for the supposed attack by the Russian army, almost 1,000 Swedish soldiers lost limbs to frostbite or died from the cold within two days.

Despite these difficult conditions, the Swedish king and his army left Hajach for Weprik on December 23rd. Lieutenant General Carl Ewald von Rönne and his cavalry corps were standing near the Cossack town . After he had surrendered three battalions to the fortress, he withdrew with his troops to the east.

Charles XII. left a few regiments for siege and moved on with the main army to Zenkjow to take up quarters, but returned after a few days.

The city of Veprik

The fortress was laid out in the manner of a redoubt , square in shape with very large dimensions, which made defense difficult. The fortress artillery was few in number. At the time of the Swedish siege, only three working field guns were left in the redoubt. The defensive walls were in very poor condition and there were no bastions . Part of the defensive wall consisted only of a raised mound on which the defenders had built small breastworks from bulwarks . This part of the ramparts was hastily doused with large amounts of water when the Swedes arrived. Due to the resulting thick ice sheet, the earth walls could no longer be scaled by the attackers. In the wider area, where the terrain flattened, a continuous wooden barricade had been built.

The trench around the fortification was very shallow and completely filled with snow in December 1708, so that it was not a hurdle for the Swedish infantrymen.

The siege

The commandant of the fortress, a Scottish colonel by the name of Ferber , was asked to hand over the fortress, in case of refusal the Swedes threatened to storm the fortress and hang the commandant at the city gate. The commander refused the request to surrender and asked the Swedish king to take the fortress in battle.

The little fortress should now be stormed in broad daylight. The Swedish officers did not see the defenders as a serious opponent. King Charles XII. put Major General Stackelberg in charge of the attack. This had the troops divided into three meetings. The eastern side of the fortress was to be attacked by Colonel Graf Jakob Sperling and his 600 men. Colonel Frietzky was to attack the left side with the same number of infantry and the main gate was to attack Colonel Albedyll with 600 dismounted dragoons.

This attack should happen at the same time. Since the troops of Sperling and Frietzky had to cover longer distances to their points of attack and Albedyll did not want to wait, the latter stormed the main gate on his own initiative and managed to open it halfway. The concentrated attack on the gate allowed the commander to send troops from the ramparts to reinforce the main gate. The subsequent heavy gunfire by the Russians caused the dragoons to retreat with heavy losses. As a result, these regiments were no longer able to continue the fight. After defending the gate, the approaching Swedish regiments, which marched across the steppe, completely uncovered, were taken under fire. The commander ordered his artillery to fire especially at the officers and the Swedish soldiers who were carrying the scaling ladders . The Swedish artillery that was supposed to clean up the defensive wall acted so awkwardly that the cannonballs shot ricocheted off the ice-covered heights and rolled towards their own infantrymen, causing them even more problems. Nevertheless, some soldiers managed to put on the scaling ladders and climb them. They were doused with stones and wood and boiling water, and they fell down the ladders. A few reached the top of the ramparts, but were mostly killed by bayonets and bullets. All day long, the king's soldiers made three attempts to assault the fortress. Only when the third attack was also repulsed by the Russians did the Swedish king call for a retreat. A truce was then negotiated to carry the wounded off the battlefield.

The losses

On the evening of the attack, the Swedes were killed or wounded over 1,000. Among them were Colonels Jakob and Caspar Sperling, Colonel Frietzky, Lieutenant Colonel Mörner and Liljegren, the Gyldenstolpe brothers and many other Swedish officers. Due to the targeted shooting at the officers, the officers' losses were very high compared to other attacks of the time.

The surrender

That evening the Swedish king, on behalf of one of his generals, asked the commandant to hand over the fortress, otherwise the fortress would be attacked again the following day. It must be clear to the commanding officer that despite all his bravery he could not hold the fortress. In addition, the crew would be treated well and they could keep their property, otherwise all defenders would be killed after taking the fortress, starting with the commanding officer.

At his own discretion, the commandant considered it advisable to hand over the fortress and to ask for pardon for his subordinates. This was granted to him. Furthermore, he was allowed to continue to carry his sword in recognition of his bravery in defense.

The consequences

Charles XII. withdrew to Hajach full of discontent and inner unrest over what had been achieved and lost. The conquest of Hajach and Veprik had cost the king many officers and nearly 7,000 men. In addition, many Swedish soldiers suffered severe frostbite from the extreme cold.

The Russian occupation of the fortress went completely into Swedish captivity , the negotiated free withdrawal was not granted to the Russians. The booty was very small. Only four cannons and very few supplies fell into the hands of the Swedes. The city was burned down on January 9th on the direct orders of the king and the fortress was subsequently razed.

The Swedish king found it difficult to compensate for the heavy losses. In addition, he could no longer retreat to Poland. Two Russian army corps had already formed behind him and were chasing the King of Sweden. The march through Russia continued in the direction of Krasnokursk. During the march the Swedes were repeatedly attacked by mounted Cossacks.

literature

• Peter Englund: The Battle That Shook Europe: Poltava and the Birth of the Russian Empire , London (2006)
• Angus Konstam: Poltava 1709: Russia comes of Age
• Lundblad, Knut: History of Karl the Twelfth, King of Sweden Volume 2, Hamburg 1835
• Not so Fryxell: Life story of Charles the Twelfth, King of Sweden. Volume 2, Friedrich Vieweg and Son, Braunschweig 1861
• Hartwich-Ludwig-Christian Bacmeister: Contributions to the history of Peter the Great Volume 1, Riga 1774

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Peter Englund, p. 51
2. ↑ Angus Konstam Poltava 1709: Russia comes of Age , p. 93
3. ^ Lundblad, p. 83
4. ↑ Павленко С. Загибель Батурина. К. 2007, p. 252
5. ↑ ^{a b} Bacmeister, p. 234
6. ^ Lundblad, p. 83
7. ↑ Lundblad, p. 85
8. ↑ ^{a b} Lundblad, p. 86
9. ^ Fryxell, p. 86
10. ↑ Fryxell, p. 222