Storming of Elbing

Storming of Elbing

Part of: Great Northern War

Elbing around 1720

date	February 7 (greg.) 1710
place	Elbing , Royal Prussia
output	russian victory

Parties to the conflict
Sweden	Russia
Commander
Lieutenant Colonel Jäger	Major General Nostitz
Troop strength
900 men	approx. 4500 men
losses
72 dead, 9 wounded, 856 prisoners	33 dead 154 wounded

During the storming of Elblag on February 7th (greg.) 1710 in the Great Northern War , Russian army units captured Elblag in Royal Prussia, which had been under Swedish occupation since 1703 .

prehistory

Elbing, which had once belonged to Poland , but was pledged to Brandenburg-Prussia in 1657 , had had since the Polish campaign of Charles XII. 1703 a Swedish occupation. From then on, Elblag served the Swedes as a supply base and magazine for the Swedish army in Poland.

After the Swedish defeat in the Battle of Poltava in 1709, the Russian army invaded Poland. The Elector of Saxony canceled the peace between Altranstädt and Sweden in August . On August 20, 1709, Saxon troops marched into Poland again . On October 7, 1709, the anti-Swedish Saxon-Russian alliance was renewed in the Treaty of Thorn . At Jarosław , the Danish-Russian assistance pact followed on June 10, 1710. The weak Swedish troops under the command of General Krassow withdrew with 9,000 men to Stettin and Stralsund in Swedish Pomerania . The Polish King Stanislaus I. Leszczynski, enthroned by the Swedes, fled to Stockholm via Stettin and Kristianstad . Tsar Peter I had the Swedish troops followed up to Pomerania by a Russian detachment under the command of Menshikov .

After a Prussian-Russian meeting of the monarchs in Marienwerder Castle on October 15, 1709, the two countries agreed on how to proceed in the fight against Sweden. Prussia remained neutral, but was informed of the Russian operations. There it was agreed that three infantry regiments under Major General Nostitz should march against the Swedish-occupied Elblag and take it.

Storming of Elbing

In January 1710 the city was surrounded by Russian troops. On February 7, 1710, the attack on Elbing Castle took place. Elbing had a garrison of 900 Swedes, led by Lieutenant Colonel Jäger. The attack was brought forward from two sides. While a mock attack was launched from one side as a diversion, the main thrust came from the other side. The Russian infantrymen set up scaling ladders and entered the suburb three hours after the start of the attack with little losses of their own . The Swedes withdrew to the actual fortress. The Russian attackers followed the Swedes and penetrated the inner fortress ring almost simultaneously with them. The Swedes were no longer able to force the Russians out of the city. Thereupon the Swedes surrendered, who went into captivity . The city was turned over to looting, which could only be contained by violent means. The Russians captured 183 guns and captured 856 Swedes. 72 Swedes fell while taking the city, nine were wounded. In the Russian troops, 33 soldiers died and 154 were wounded.

consequences

With the fall of Elbing, the last Swedish bastion on Polish territory was lost. The promise that Peter Friedrich I had previously given to surrender the city to Prussian troops was not kept. The city was occupied by 2000 Russian soldiers. In 1712, Saxon troops entered the city.

literature

• Johann Friedrich Hartknoch: Contributions to the History of Peter the Great, Volume One, 1774

Individual evidence

1. ^ Robert Nisbet Bain: Scandinavia. A Political History of Denmark, Norway and Sweden from 1513 to 1900. Cambridge 1905, p. 336.