Conquest of Marstrand

Conquest of Marstrand

Part of: Great Northern War

Attack on Marstrand and Carlsten Fortress

date	July 11-15, 1719
place	Marstrand and Carlsten Fortress , Sweden
output	Danish victory

Parties to the conflict
Sweden	Denmark
Commander
Lieutenant Colonel Henrich Danckwardt Admiral Sjöblad	Vice Admiral Peter Wessel Tordenskiold
Troop strength
196 soldiers 40 gunners 164 sailors 13 vers. Ships	500 soldiers and sailors
losses
13 ships	20-100 dead

The capture of Marstrand and Carlsten Fortress in 1719 was a military intervention in the final stages of the Great Northern War . The Danish captain Peter Wessel Tordenskiold attacked the Carlsten fortress and the town of Marstrand in July 1719 . The city was bombed by the Danish fleet for four days. On July 15th, the commander of the fortress Carlsten surrendered and the largest Swedish fortress fell into Danish hands.

In advance

The Swedish town of Marstrand, which has been in Sweden since the Peace of Roskilde in 1658, was of great importance as a trading center, as its harbor rarely froze over in winter. The port of Marstrand was next to Gothenburg an important base of the Gothenburg squadron. This Swedish fleet started after the return of the Swedish King Charles XII. on his direct orders to capture Danish ships and incorporate them into their own fleet. For this reason, and to secure Norway's borders, the Danish king sent captain Tordenskiold in July 1719 to conquer this fortress and sink the Gothenburg squadron lying in the harbor.

Before the attack, Tordenskiold, disguised as a fisherman, scouted the town and the harbor.

The attack

The Danes landed near Marstrand on July 10 and began to establish artillery positions. The bombing began the following day and lasted four days.

At that time, the commanding officer of Carlsten Fortress was Lieutenant Colonel Henrich Danckwardt . About 200 soldiers and 40 artillerymen were subordinate to him. The artillerymen and around 60 infantrymen were Saxon prisoners of war who had to fight for Sweden. Such measures were resorted to due to the lack of their own soldiers.

The commander of the Gothenburg squadron was Erik Carlsson Sjöblad , with 164 sailors reporting to him. Due to the very precise artillery fire from the fortress Carlsten and minor attacks by the naval units, Tordenskiold got big problems and his attack did not go as planned.

On July 12th, Danish troops stormed the town of Marstrand. The Swedish crew withdrew to the port. The Swedish sailors sank all ships of the Göteborggeschwarder in port. The Danes did manage to capture three ships in time. The remaining 13 ships, however, were sunk in the port.

After the port of the city was captured by the Danes, the sailors withdrew to the fortress. Due to its structure, it was easy to defend. At that time it was the most powerful fortress in Europe.

Danish fire at Marstrand

The Danish troops captured a total of over 300 Swedish artillery pieces, both on the captured ships and by taking some batteries ashore.

The siege of the fortress

Tordenskiold was aware that he could never take Carlsten Fortress with so few soldiers. So he used a ruse and sent the commandant of the fortress, through a familiar resident of the city, the news that he was waiting for another 20,000 men and siege artillery. Colonel Danckwardt should think that within a week he would be in a desperate position.

The commandant of the fortress had the city fired at with incendiary bombs, so that Tordenskiold was forced to assign part of his small army for fire fighting. He also made some small boats available to the town's residents so that they could bring their belongings to safety. He did everything to save the city from destruction. Danckwardt saw the destruction of the city as the only way to save the fortress.

There is an allegation that Captain Cleves disguised himself and overheard a Swedish guard. He is said to have learned that morale, especially among the Saxon soldiers, was very bad. In one of these conversations, the captain heard that the Germans refused to defend the fortress to the last man and would rather throw the commanding officer over the fortress wall.

When Tordenskiold found out about this, he wrote several letters in German and had them distributed among the Germans in the fortress. They should pull the Saxon prisoners of war over to the Danish side. In the letters he made the promise to the Saxons that if they persuaded the commanders to hand them over, they would receive a reward and free retreat to their homeland. During this time the fortress was heavily shelled during the day. A direct hit in the living area of ​​Danckwardt and his family frightened them even more.

In an open letter to the commanding officer, Tordenskiold invited him to inspect the preparations for the attack on the fortress in order to get an idea of ​​the Danish superiority. The commandant instructed the sea captain Utfall, who had been captured by Tordenskiold in 1717 and later fled, to inspect the Danish troops and look for weak spots. Now Tordenskiold was resorting to a ruse again. In order to portray his 200 or so soldiers as a large attack army, he had them line up in the narrow streets of the city. He walked off the soldiers with the Swedish sea captain. Since the streets were very narrow and winding, the Swede did not notice how the back rows left their places and reintegrated at the end of the column. Amazed by the strength of the Danes' army, Utfall reported to the commanding officer that at least 1,000 Danish infantrymen were in the city, preparing to assault the fortress.

The surrender

In the evening hours of July 14th, the powder tower of the fortress was hit and partially destroyed by a direct hit. This direct hit caused the Saxon soldiers to force the commandant to surrender the fortress, if necessary by force of arms. The commandant, who was afraid for his life, called a council of war. He decided to hand over the fortress. On the morning of July 15, Sea Captain Utfall was entrusted with the task of negotiating the terms of surrender.

The Danish vice admiral accepted the surrender and gave the Swedes five hours to leave the fortress. The Saxons were the first to leave the fortress. They surrendered their weapons and awaited further orders. Only when Tordenskiold pointed out the Swedish commandant that the time had already passed did the Swedes leave the fortress.

The Danish commander kept the commander as a guest on the ship Fredrickshall overnight . To show his respect for Danckwardt, he had salutes shot several times when Danckwardt entered the Danish ship. The Danish Vice Admiral invited all senior naval officers, including the commander in chief of the destroyed sea squadron Gothenburg, Admiral Sjöblad, to dinner on one of his ships. Tordenskiold was later said to be vanity and arrogant for this so-called gesture of respect. He himself insisted throughout his life that he did so to thank the Swedes for their level-headedness. Because only a few soldiers died during the siege.

The consequences

Tordenskjold, who had taken Sweden's strongest fortress, went with his fleet to Gothenburg, where he attacked the city for the second time.

The handover of the fortress to the Danes was seen as a cowardly act and the commandant Henrich Danckwardt was sentenced to the loss of life, honor and property. The judgment was carried out on September 16, 1719 in Gothenburg. The hangman was drunk and late for the colonel's execution. Danckwardt had to wait a relatively long time with his head on the block. It took the executioner two blows to sever the head, which inflicted additional pain on the convict.

On November 12, 1720, in the Peace of Frederiksborg , the fortress was returned to Sweden. The damage to the fortress was quickly repaired.

literature

• Kriget . In: Berättelser ur svenska historien , p. 41; Runeberg project
• Friedrich Carl Gottlob Hirsching: Historical-literary handbook of famous and memorable people who lived in the 18th century . Leipzig (1810)

Individual evidence

1. ^ Künker auction 145 - Sweden and Europe, The collection of the Barons Bonde at Ericsberg Castle, part 2, Numismatischer Verlag, Fritz-Rudolf Künker, p. 126
2. ↑ Hirsching s. 179
3. ↑ alltomhistoria.se ( Memento of the original from February 24, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
4. ↑ Hirsching p. 181
5. ↑ Hirsching p. 183
6. ↑ Danckwardt, Henrik . In: Herman Hofberg, Frithiof Heurlin, Viktor Millqvist, Olof Rubenson (eds.): Svenskt biografiskt handlexikon . 2nd Edition. tape 1 : A-K . Albert Bonniers Verlag, Stockholm 1906, p. 219 (Swedish, runeberg.org ).