Battle of Missunde

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Battle of Missunde
Battle of Missunde, 1864.jpg
date February 2, 1864
place South of Missunde , a village at a passable point on the Schlei
output The Prussian attack was repulsed by the Danes.
It ends in the status quo .
Parties to the conflict

Prussia KingdomKingdom of Prussia Prussia

DenmarkDenmark Denmark

Commander

Prince Friedrich Karl

Georg Daniel

Troop strength
10,000 men, artillery strength 64 barrels ( 6 pounders and light howitzers) 2,100 men, artillery strength 20 barrels (12 and 24 pounders behind bastions )
losses

199, of which 33 were killed

141, of which 38 fell

Battles and naval battles of the German-Danish War (1864)

The battle of Missunde is a battle between Germans and Danes near the town of Missunde , which took place on February 2, 1864. The battle marked the beginning of the German-Danish war . The I. Corps of the Prussian Army, under the command of Prince Friedrich Karl, tried to take the village of Missunde by surprise and thereby force the passage over the Schlei . This would have broken through the Danish Danewerk fortification line . The attack was repulsed by the Danes under the orders of Georg Daniel despite being numerically inferior. The fire fighting between the Danes entrenched behind bastions and the Prussian troops was conducted at direct shooting range. Nevertheless, there were only comparatively low losses on both sides, which is attributed to the extremely poor visibility in thick fog and powder smoke. In addition, the Prussian commander-in-chief renounced the storm and broke off the attack. Three days after the battle, the Danish army evacuated the Danewerk including Missunde because the line of defense was not tenable.

Starting position

In the second half of the 19th century Denmark found itself on the strategic defensive against the rising middle power Prussia . Disputes over the Danish administered Holstein increased. In the event of a possible war with the Prussians and their allies, the Danish plan envisaged the Danewerk as the place of the first and decisive conflict. There the Prussian army advancing north towards Jutland should be stopped. A landing on Zealand seemed unlikely in view of the weakness of the Prussian navy , but the Prussian land army was far superior to the Danish troops in numbers and equipment.

The Danewerk was considered insurmountable by the Danish public - but in reality the fortifications had fallen into disrepair. The barracks for the fortress garrisons existed only on paper, which would have made the decisive difference between a besieging army in provisional field quarters and the defenders , especially in the harsh winter . Roads connecting the fortifications were planned but never built, and field fortifications in front of the actual fortifications were missing. When the Danish army took the positions after their mobilization in January 1864, they had a lot of digging work to do, and the frost made digging difficult. Overall, the line of defense of the Danewerk was far too long to be adequately defended by the 38,000-strong Danish army.

Missunde was a small fishing village of two dozen houses on the south side of the Schlei . Missunde was part of the eastern fortification line of the Danewerk, but the real military importance of the place lay in the narrow width of the loop at this point. Between Schleswig in the west and the Kiel Bay in the east, the Schlei was part of the Danewerk as a natural obstacle and was only easy to cross at a few points: The Stexwiger Enge was too easy to defend because of the narrow headland on the north side, the Missunder Enge remained as well as the narrows at Arnis and Kappeln . Thus, the defense of the position was of great strategic importance: a breakthrough in Missunde with crossing over the Schlei would enable the Prussians to encompass the Danish armed forces in the Danewerk from behind, while the Austrians held the Danes in their positions.

The Danish fortifications around Missunde essentially consisted of a series of semi-cuttings that were arranged around the village with the fighting direction south. The two most important redoubts (No. 59 and 60) were on both sides of the road from Missunde to the south (today: Missunder Weg). The remaining redoubts were between village and South Bank of the loop at the ferry (Nos. 61a, 61b, 61c) or in front of the artillery bridge (no. 62), as well as on the north bank of the loop, the crossing points bestreichend (63a, 63b, 63c , 63d, 63e, 63f). The bastions with artillery as follows equipped :

  • Redoute 59 (southwest of Missunde): four 12-pounder cannons and four 24-pounder howitzers
  • Redoute 60 (southeast of Missunde, ⊙ ): two 12-pounder cannons and four 24-pounder howitzers
  • Redoubt 61b (north of Missunde, still on the south bank): two 12-pounder cannons, the neighboring redoubts 61a and 61c and the redoubt 62 on the northern tip of the peninsula were without guns
  • Redoute 63a (on the north bank of the Schlei): two 12-pounder cannons
  • Redoubt 63b (on the north bank of the Schlei): two 24-pounder howitzers, the neighboring redoubts 63c to 63f were without guns

All Danish cannons were muzzle-loaders with smooth barrel , and thus outdated compared to the Prussian field artillery , which was equipped with breech-loaders with rifled barrels , which fired faster, more precisely and with a greater range. When it came to the caliber of the artillery, however, the Danes were superior, their 12- and 24-pounders were significantly heavier than the Prussian 6-pounders . The covered accommodation in redoubts was another advantage for the Danes, also knew her before and had their artillery on it injected .

The Danish positions were occupied by the 2nd Brigade under Major General CA Vogt, plus the 6th Fortress Artillery Company ("Fæstningskompagni") under Captain HC Hertel with the above-mentioned artillery strength. In the positions directly around Missunde, the Danish commander only had four companies of infantry from the 18th Infantry Regiment at the start of the fight . Another three companies from the 3rd Infantry Regiment were in Brodersby , about two kilometers away, and another company was approaching from Kappeln , even farther away. The Danish side had only one squadron of dragoons under the command of Ritmester Bülow.

Course of battle

The situation at 2:30 p.m., Danish units in orange, Prussians in blue

Advance of the Prussian troops

On the morning of February 2, 1864, the Prussian I. Corps under Prince Friedrich Karl of Prussia began its advance with the plan to take the Danish positions in Kochendorf . Kochendorf is centrally located on an isthmus between Schlei and the inland lake Windebyer Noor . The Prussian vanguard quickly discovered that the Danish army had withdrawn to the north and Kochendorf was undefended. At 8:45 am the place was in Prussian hands. The Prussian commander immediately decided to advance on Missunde. Three brigades remained in reserve while the rest of the corps continued to advance. At 10:00 am, Major von Krohn , who led the Fusilier Battalion of Infantry Regiment No. 24, was in sight of the Danish positions in Missunde.

First exchange of blows with the vanguard

The Prussian advance guard was made up of the Fusilier Battalion of Infantry Regiment No. 24 (IR-24), the 11th and 12th Companies of Infantry Regiment No. 15 (IR-15), the 2nd Company of Jäger Battalion 7 (JB-7) and the 3rd Squadron of Hussar Regiment 3 (HR-3). Major von Krohn from the IR-24 commanded the vanguard. The advance guard came under fire for the first time from Danish outposts near the Langsee at 10:00 a.m. After a short but intense firefight, the Danish troops withdrew towards Missunde.

Artillery duel

At about 12:00 p.m. the Prussian field artillery arrived south of Missunde and positioned its artillery in an arc on a ridge. The Prussian batteries counted 24 6-pound cannons and 24 howitzers. At 12:45 p.m. they opened fire on the Danish fortifications. Shortly thereafter, the Prussians brought 16 more pieces of reserve artillery into position and thus had 64 barrels.

An intense artillery duel now developed between the 20 Danish guns in the fortifications and the 64 Prussian guns on the ridge. One of the Prussian batteries fired more than 300 rounds. However, the fog made it impossible to accurately identify the enemy positions and correct the shots. When the gunpowder smoke was added to the fog, the gunners were completely unable to see, they could only aim at the muzzle flash of the opposing artillery.

At 14:00, Colomier ordered the centrally stationed batteries to advance 150 to 180 meters, as the Danes' fire seemed to be subsiding. The howitzer batteries were now just under 600 meters from the Danish fortifications, the ground there was littered with shot rifle bullets and artillery projectiles. In their exposed positions, the gun crews of the Prussian howitzers suffered considerable losses.

Advance of the Prussian infantry

The Prussian infantry occupied the partially expanded field fortifications and established themselves in their trenches and behind the palisades . From there, the Prussian riflemen took the Danes under rifle fire and caused considerable losses among the Danish gunners, especially in the exposed Redoute 60.

When the artillery opened fire, the Danish 3rd Brigade received orders to reinforce Missunde. However, the brigade was still too far away to intervene actively. Therefore, two companies of the 2nd Battalion from the 3rd Danish Infantry Regiment, which were in position on the coast northeast of the village, were hastily moved south to the front. At noon the 10th battery of the Danish Army took up position on the north-western bank of the Schlei, but was unable to intervene significantly in the battle.

To reduce the fire on Redoute 60, a company of the 18th Danish Infantry Regiment tried to push the Prussian fusiliers back from the palisades in front of the bastions. The Danish counterattack was repulsed from the Prussian positions with devastating fire.

The Prussian infantry now began a methodical advance on the Danish fortifications, while at the same time the Prussian howitzers advanced to a distance of 600 to 700 meters. Three of the Danish cannons in Bastion 60 were damaged, but most of the Prussian shells went over the Danish positions. There they met the village of Missunde, where most of the buildings went up in flames.

It was now evident that the Prussian assault on the Danish fortifications was imminent. Several attempts by the Prussian infantry to advance to regroup and across the open area in front of the fortifications were, by grapeshot prevented -Beschuss and rifle fire from the Danish bastions. The Prussians were forced to take cover and remained in hollows and trenches afterwards. The Prussian infantry were able to advance on the right flank of the Danish positions (east of Redoute 60) to the coast of the Schlei until they were driven back there by Danish musket fire.

In order to counter the expected general attack by Prussia, the Danes moved two guns from the west bank to sweep the main road to Missunde. The Danish infantry prepared to counterattack with the bayonet .

Break off the attack and withdraw

In view of the determined Danish resistance, the Prussian leadership decided to break off the attack. It was obvious that Missunde could only be taken by storming the bastions head-on. Given the numerical superiority, the chances of success were high, but the expected losses were just as high. A high number of casualties at this early stage of the war was not acceptable to the Prussian high command. At 4 p.m. the Prussian troops began to retreat.

Units involved in the battle

The following is a list of the regiments and independent battalions that were directly involved in the Missunde Battle. Units in the reserve are therefore not listed.

Association commander Deployed units losses Remarks
Prussian Army
I. Army Corps (comb.) Rod 1 dead Not with the I Army Corps identical
Infantry Regiment 13 Colonel von Witzleben Fusilier Battalion, Battalion Commander Oberstlt. by carpenter 1 dead, 21 wounded Garrison in Wesel (F) and Münster (I, II)
15th Infantry Regiment Colonel von Alvensleben Fusilier Battalion, Battalion Commander Oberstlt. by François 11 dead, 1 missing, 47 wounded Garrison in Bielefeld (F) and Minden (I, II)
24th Infantry Regiment Colonel von Hacke Fusilier battalion, led by regimental commander von Hacke 5 dead, 8 wounded Garrison in Neu-Ruppin (F) and Spandau (I, II)
60th Infantry Regiment Colonel from Hartmann Fusilier Battalion, 1st Battalion, II Battalion 10 dead, 3 missing, 29 wounded Garrison in Wriezen , Königsberg / Neumark , Strausberg
Fusilier Regiment 35 Colonel Elstermann von Elster 1 dead, 14 wounded Garrison in Brandenburg / Havel and Treuenbrietzen
7th Hunter Battalion Major von Beckedorff Complete hunter battalion 3 wounded Garrison Cleve
Engineer Battalion 3rd Major von Rötscher Complete engineer battalion 1 wounded Garrison Torgau , regularly the III. AK subordinated
Hussar Regiment 8 Colonel from Rantzau With four active and one reserve squadrons 1 wounded Garrison in Paderborn and Neuhaus
Uhlan Regiment 11 Colonel of Sixthin With four active squadrons 1 wounded Garrison in Perleberg , Kyritz , Wusterhausen
Artillery Brigade 3rd Colonel of Colomier 2nd and 3rd howitzer battery, 2nd, 3rd and 4th 6-pounder battery, 2nd 12-pounder battery 3 dead, 17 wounded Garrison in Torgau
Artillery Brigade 7 Major Grave 2 dead, 12 wounded Garrison in Münster and Wesel
Sum of Prussia 33 dead, 5 missing, 161 wounded
Danish Army
3rd Infantry Regiment Major HW Mathiesen 7 dead, 1 missing, 42 wounded, 4 prisoners
18th Infantry Regiment Major EA Lundbye 22 dead, 2 missing, 46 wounded, 3 prisoners
4th Dragoon Regiment A squadron 1 dead
6th Fortress Artillery Company Kaptajn HC Hertel 8 dead, 5 wounded
Sum of Denmark 38 dead, 3 missing, 93 wounded, 7 prisoners

literature

Current secondary literature:

Contemporary works:

Web links

Commons : Action at Missunde  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Michael Embree: Bismarck's First War . Solihull 2006, p. 47.
  2. ↑ Ritmester Victor (VFG) Bülow commanded the 6th squadron of the Danish 4th Dragoon Regiment, see Sune Wadskjær Nielsen: Det danske rytteri. De sidste krige til hest 1848-1864 . Forlaget Sohn, 2013, ISBN 978-87-7122-050-6 , footnote 401 .
  3. ↑ Michael Embree: Bismarck's First War . Solihull 2006, p. 48.
  4. ^ Loss numbers according to Michael Embree: Bismarck's First War . Solihull 2006, pp. 55-56.

Coordinates: 54 ° 31 '10.3 "  N , 9 ° 43' 13.3"  E