Siege of Gibraltar (1779–1783)
Relation of the unsuccessful covering of the main fortress GIBRALTAR. Anno 1782. from 13th to 17th July
| date | June 24, 1779 to February 7, 1783 |
|---|---|
| place | Gibraltar |
| output | Fortress held out |
| Parties to the conflict | |
|---|---|
| Commander | |
|
Army: |
|
| Troop strength | |
| June 1779: around 14,000 men, September 1782: 33,000 siege troops, 30,000 sailors and marines | June 1779: approx. 5400 men, September 1782: 7500 men |
| losses | |
|
6000 men |
1300 soldiers, 1000 civilians |
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The great siege of Gibraltar from 1779 to 1783 was the last unsuccessful attempt to forcibly wrest the city and fortress of Gibraltar from the British.
prehistory
In 1704 was Gibraltar during the War of Succession by Anglo-Dutch marines under the command of George of Hesse-Darmstadt , with the support of the fleet taken . A first Spanish-French attempt at reconquest failed in 1705. In the Peace of Utrecht in 1713, Gibraltar fell to Great Britain. This made the British an important power in the Mediterranean. Another siege in 1726 during the Anglo-Spanish War also failed. After the Battle of Saratoga in 1777, France actively joined the American War of Independence . A year later Spain and in 1780 the Netherlands followed suit. The main interest of Spain was the recovery of Gibraltar. The Spanish leadership hoped that the fighting in America and against the fleets of France and the Netherlands would put so much strain on the British navy and army that not enough forces could be raised to defend and supply a beleaguered Gibraltar.
The command in Gibraltar had been the experienced General George Augustus Eliott since 1777 . Knowing about the importance of Gibraltar for Spain, he tried successfully to reinforce the defense. The number of guns was increased significantly from 400 to 663. Since there were not enough gun crews available, infantrymen were trained and used on the guns during the siege. The civil engineers who had been working in Gibraltar until then were placed under Eliot's direct command. This later became the pioneer corps of the Royal Engineers . At the beginning of the siege, the garrison consisted of around 5400 soldiers and 760 seamen. Among the troops was a unit from the Electorate of Hanover under the command of August de la Motte . There were also 1,500 women and children of the soldiers and around 3,200 other residents of the city.
Most of the cannons were positioned to cover the harbor. The edge of the peninsula was protected by five bastions . One fort defended the New Mole, and another was built at the tip of the peninsula ( Europa Point ). A considerable part of the harbor was within range of the enemy guns, but these did not reach Rosia Bay south of the New Mole. During the siege, tunnels were driven into the rock of the mountain in which guns were placed. From there, the positions of the opponents could be viewed while one's own positions were protected. These so-called Great Siege Tunnels are now the sights of Gibraltar.
course
First phase
On June 21, the Spanish general Joaquin de Mendoza announced the beginning of the blockade to Eliott. But it was not until the beginning of October that the Spaniards had concentrated a significant force off Gibraltar. According to British information, this should have consisted of 16 battalions of infantry and 12 squadrons of cavalry with a total of 14,000 men.
The Spaniards counted on starving the occupation and population. In addition, they wanted to wear down the city by bombardment. To ensure a blockade at sea, they pulled together nineteen ships of the line in Cádiz and other ships in Algeciras on the other side of the Bay of Gibraltar. They reinforced the existing siege lines and provided them with guns.
In early July 1779, three British ships brought relief supplies to the city for the first time. In order to gain food and save feed, all unnecessary horses were slaughtered at the beginning of the siege. In September the British artillery drove out Spanish troops trying to advance their siege lines.
At the end of December a large, heavily protected aid convoy left England, which had loaded goods for Gibraltar, for the garrison on Menorca , which was also besieged, and for the West Indies . The escort fleet under George Rodney, 1st Baron Rodney defeated a Spanish fleet on the way on January 16, 1780 in the sea battle at Cape St. Vincent and captured Spanish merchant ships. When the stronger British fleet arrived off Gibraltar, the Spanish blockade ships withdrew. With the British convoy , Gibraltar had enough food for another year. In addition, a battalion of infantry was landed as reinforcement. There was also a small squadron that could not lift the blockade, but could loosen it. For some time there were full rations for the garrison before the commandant cut the allocations again.
Hunger and bombardment
The following months were largely uneventful. On June 6th, the Spaniards tried to bring six fires into port to destroy the British ships, but failed because of the quick reaction of the seamen and the British cannons. As a result, the besiegers strengthened the closure of Gibraltar. At the end of the year, food was scarce. Above all the inhabitants of the city and the relatives of the soldiers went hungry. Some of the people lived from the wild thistles. Scurvy was widespread until a Spanish merchant ship carrying oranges was captured. Blockade breakers kept coming to Gibraltar, but more were intercepted. Even many fishermen were picked up by the Spanish and severely punished, so that only a few dared to go out. After the Sultan of Morocco had sided with the Spanish, Tangier fell out as a port for blockade breakers.
The situation was desperate when a militarily secured convoy of a hundred transport ships arrived on April 12, 1781. Then the besiegers increased the pressure from the land. If military positions were previously under fire, the Spaniards now also bombed the city. In addition to the siege guns on land, Gibraltar was also shot at by gunboats. Much of the city was destroyed. Riots broke out in the city, which Eliott forcibly suppressed. Although another small convoy reached Gibraltar, food supplies ran low in late summer.
The bombardment of the city continued and the Spaniards increased their siege forces to 21,000 men. They hoped to drive the siege lines so far that the entire peninsula was within range of the Spanish cannons. By a failure on November 26, 1781 Eliott was able to prevent this. This damaged Spanish morale and the besiegers again limited themselves to bombardment. In the first half of 1782 the population and the garrison again suffered from hunger. Reinforcements reached Gibraltar in May.
Failed conquest
The fall of Menorca freed French units. About 9,000 men under Louis Des Balbes de Berton de Crillon, duc de Mahon now took part in the siege. Crillon planned a combined attack by sea and land. In order to be able to take the port under heavy fire, he had floating gun platforms built. There were also 29 ships of the line. The attack was called off after the British succeeded in destroying the platforms and warships with the help of glowing cannonballs. Others were conquered. As a result, Gibraltar was again taken under constant fire from the land. Another large British convoy reached Gibraltar on October 13th. The admiral of the escort fleet Richard Howe, 1st Earl Howe , escaped a Spanish-French fleet under Admiral Luis de Córdova in the sea battle at Cape Spartel . This was the last significant combat operation of the siege.
consequences
The Peace of Paris was signed on September 3, 1783 . Florida and Menorca fell back to Spain. Gibraltar remained British. The defenders lost 333 men to direct combat operations and another 1,000 men to disease, particularly scurvy . In addition, a thousand civilians died from epidemics . One of the destroyed buildings was the cathedral . It took years for the city of Gibraltar to recover from the destruction.
reception
The siege attracted attention across Europe. In 1782, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart wrote the bard song in Gibraltar on the verses of Michael Denis : O Calpe! It's thundering at your feet Georg Christoph Lichtenberg dealt intensively with the topic. The siege also plays a role in the stories of Hieronymus Carl Friedrich von Münchhausen , both in the version by Rudolf Erich Raspe and Gottfried August Bürger .
literature
- Paul K Davis: Besieged: an encyclopedia of great sieges from ancient times to the present Santa Barbara, 2001 pp. 183–187.
- René Chartrand; Patrice Courcelle: Gibraltar 1779–1783: the great siege. Oxford, 2006.
- Richard Konetzke : The Great Siege of Gibraltar from 1779 to 1783 . In: Ibero-American Archives, Vol. 15, No. 1/2 (1941), pp. 20-26.
- Gerhard von Scharnhorst : History of the siege at the Giber Altar, from the beginning of the same in 1779 to the end with the peace treaty in 1782. Hanover, 1834.
swell
- News from Gibraltar in excerpts from original letters from a Hanoverian officer from Gibraltar, before and during the last siege: together with a chart. Frankfurt, Leipzig, 1783 digitized
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Brief description
- ↑ The process of bringing enough balls to embers within a short period of time was developed spontaneously by the nail smith Ludwig Schweckendieck from Hoya, cf. Adolf Schweckendieck: THE GIBRALTAR FIGHTER LUDWIG SCHWECKENDIECK. P. 121 ff , accessed on April 2, 2020 .
- ↑ Lyrics
- ^ Georg Christoph Lichtenberg: Mixed writings. Vol. 5. Göttingen, 1844 p. 110ff.
- ↑ Gottfried August Bürger: Complete Works. P. 556ff.