Battle of Bergen (1799)

Battle of Bergen

Part of: Second Coalition War

date	September 19, 1799
place	Bergen , Netherlands
output	Franco-Batavian victory

Parties to the conflict
France Batavian Republic	United Kingdom of Russia
Commander
Guillaume Brune Herman Daendels	Friedrich von York Johann von Fersen
Troop strength
22,000 men	30,000 men
losses
unknown number of dead and injured 3,000 prisoners	1,902 dead 1,635 wounded 490 missing

The Battle of Bergen occurred on September 19, 1799. There, French and Batavian troops under the command of Guillaume-Marie-Anne Brune and Herman Daendels defeated an army of Russians and British under the Duke of York who had landed in North Holland.

Planning and preparation

When the British and Russian commanders noticed that the Batavians were neglecting their cover and leaving an important position vacant, they decided to attack. Their plan was as follows: the left wing was to fight the enemy at Zuiderzee , while the right wing was to drive the enemy from the heights of Kamperduin and take Bergen.

Some of the Batavian troops were advantageously positioned on sand hills near Petten . The terrain was difficult. There were many canals and wet areas on the way of the invading army. There were few roads. Numerous important bridges were destroyed and the Batavians had secured the main routes with obstacles.

Course of the battle

The fight was opened by Russian troops, who took up position near Bergen on September 19 at 8:00 a.m. They awaited assistance in vain from their British allies, who were not even prepared for battle, as the British and Russian commanders had failed to synchronize their clocks. The result of this mistake was that the Russian troops were quickly surrounded by the French. The Russians were driven from Bergen and had to retreat to the nearby Schoorl , which they also had to give up.

The village was retaken by British forces under the command of Robert Manners . These troops, reinforced by a few Russian and other British divisions, managed to push the French back briefly, but due to a lack of ammunition and increasing exhaustion of the troops, they soon withdrew to Petten.

The rifts under Lieutenant General Dundas attacked the village of Warmenhuizen at dusk, where the enemy was well positioned with a powerful artillery battery. Three battalions of the Russians under Major General Sedmoratsky stormed the village from one side, while the 1st Guards Regiment attacked from the other side at the same time. They were reinforced by attacks by grenadiers who were actually intended to march to Schoorldam . With this support they managed to take the village.

The British also succeeded in taking the villages of Hoorn and Oudkarspel . But overall, the British and Russian troops were too widely dispersed to be able to fight the French effectively. A lack of coordination between the Russians and the British as well as floods and lack of flank cover were the main problems. Therefore, the Allied commanders decided to withdraw their troops.

consequences

The recently appointed Russian commander Mikhail Kutuzov , who rushed from St. Petersburg to take command of the Russian troops, learned of the Hamburg debacle and returned to Russia believing the war was lost.

The Batavians recaptured all lost positions. Its flank was secured by floods. The area between Alkmaar and Zuiderzee could be defended with a small number of troops. The rest of the army, reinforced with fresh troops, was concentrated between Langedijk and the sea. Schoorldam , Oudkarspel and Koedijk were also fortified. The next major battle occurred on October 6th in Castricum .

literature

• Digby Smith: The Napoleonic Wars Data Book , Greenhill, 1998
• D. Milutin: History of the War of 1799 , SPb, 1857

Web links

• Flash card of the Battle of Bergen