Battle of Dömitz
| date | October 22, 1635 |
|---|---|
| place | Doemitz |
| output | Victory of the Swedes |
| consequences | The victory gave the Swedes a new self-confidence and quickly ended the Saxon ambitions after the Peace of Prague |
| Parties to the conflict | |
|---|---|
| Commander | |
| Troop strength | |
| 1000 men and cavalry | 6000 to 7000 men |
| losses | |
|
1,000 dead, 2,000 to 2,500 men with many officers in captivity, |
|
Wallerfangen - Dömitz - Haselünne - Wittstock - Rheinfelden siege - Rheinfelden battle - Breisach Siege - Witten Weiher - Vlotho - Ochsenfeld - Chemnitz - Bautzen siege - Freiberg sieges - Riebel Dorfer Mountain - Dorsten - Preßnitz - La Marfée - Wolfenbüttel siege - Kempen Heath - Swidnica - Breitenfeld - Klingenthal - Tuttlingen - Freiburg - Jüterbog - Jankau - Herbsthausen - Alerheim - Korneuburg - Totenhöhe - Hohentübingen - Triebl - Zusmarshausen - Wevelinghoven - Dachau - Prague siege
The Battle of Dömitz in the Thirty Years War took place on October 22, 1635.
After the great victory of the imperial army over the Swedes in the battle of Nördlingen (Sep. 1634), Elector Johann Georg von Sachsen ended the alliance with the Swedes and became an ally of the Prague through the peace treaty concluded with the emperor on May 30, 1635 catholic emperor. In the period that followed, most of the Protestant princes gave up their alliances with Sweden. Even the Elector of Brandenburg could not be kept on the side of the Swedes despite negotiations with the Swedish Chancellor Oxenstierna . On October 6th, Elector Johann Georg von Sachsen formally declared war on the Swedes and a few days later a Saxon army of 26,000 men attacked the Swedes.
prehistory
The Swedish Field Marshal Banér had his troops move into winter quarters in the Duchy of Braunschweig-Lüneburg . Only Lieutenant General Ruthven's Swedish regiments were in the Altmark . The plan of the Saxon elector was based on this to cut off the Swedish armies from the Baltic coast and from their supply centers in Swedish Pomerania and then to control the Elbe crossings. The elector sent a division of the Saxon army to Gardelegen , where they were supposed to interrupt the connection between the troops of Ruthven and Banér. Lieutenant General Baudissin , who had taken over the supreme command of the Saxon army instead of Arnim , then moved with the Saxon main army down the Elbe and surprised the Swedish field marshal Banér with his advance.
The Swedish army was numerically much stronger with about 23,000 men and consisted of 180 companies of horsemen, 19 companies of dragoons and 134 companies of infantry. However, it was difficult to assemble the army and position it appropriately, because the troops had only just moved into their winter quarters and were therefore very scattered in different places. In addition, 9 out of 10 of the regiments consisted of German mercenaries, who after the conclusion of the Prague Peace Treaty had been massively processed by agents from the Electorate of Saxony in the national sense with the request to stop fighting for the Swedes. For the Saxon agents it was easy to influence the mercenaries, because almost all Swedish units still had back pay.
Under these circumstances it was a difficult task for the Swedish field marshal to face the Saxon army. The fact that Banér was nevertheless able to successfully assemble his army quickly showed his talent as a general. Banér's most important goal was now to reach the Elbe before the Saxon troops in order to be able to get in touch with the Swedish troops in Pomerania. He therefore only pulled together the nearest regiments and set off with them in the direction of the Elbe. He also ordered Lieutenant General Ruthven and all colonels of the more distant regiments to move to the lower Elbe as well. At the same time, the Saxons marched in forced marches to the lower Elbe, but on October 15, Banér had already gathered most of his army near Artlenburg - 20 km north of Gardelegen, directly on the west bank of the Elbe - before them . There, without waiting for reinforcements, the crossing over the Elbe began on October 19. Although the arriving Saxon cavalry under General Dehn attacked the Swedish troops at the Elbe crossing, they were repulsed with losses.
The Saxon troops undertook a more successful attack against the town and fortress Dömitz , located on the east bank of the Elbe, 50 km south of Artlenburg. Owning this city as a fortified Elbe crossing would have been important for future operations. Baudissin therefore had a ship bridge built near Hitzacker , crossed the bridge with 6,000 to 7,000 infantry and initially camped in front of Dömitz.
The battle
Soon after the siege began, the Saxon troops had occupied the city, but not the Swedish-occupied fortress. Field Marshal Banér had seen through the intentions of the Saxon General Baudissin and sent General Ruthven with most of the Swedish cavalry with an additional 1000 musketeers to Dömitz. On the morning of October 22nd, Ruthven reached the city and hoped for victory through a surprise attack. He was also aware that Baudissin had sent the Saxon cavalry to Grabow to carry out a coup against a unit of the Swedish cavalry, which was also successful.
Baudissin, who believed he had already gained a foothold in Dömitz, had to leave the city again when the houses of the city were set on fire by the constant bombardment from the fortress. When the troops from Electoral Saxony began to leave the city in disorder, Ruthven gave the order to attack. The attack was successfully supported by the simultaneous loss of the fortress garrison under the orders of Lieutenant Colonel Jeßvitzky (Jetzwitzny). In this way the Electoral Saxon troops were attacked from the front and rear and within three hours they were completely wiped out, although they fought bravely. About 1,000 men were killed, 2,000 to 2,500 men were captured along with many officers, and the rest of the troops fled in all directions. Of the senior officers among the prisoners were Colonel Büna and Lieutenant Colonels Arnim and von Slammer. General Baudissin himself was almost caught and could only save himself by swimming across the Elbe. The Swedish troops captured all of the artillery and luggage of the Saxon army. The cuirassiers sent by the imperial general Matthias Gallas arrived too late to be able to intervene to help the Saxon troops. They were turned away by the Swedish General Torsten Stålhandske with losses of over 100 men.
consequences
Even if this battle in and of itself cannot be counted among the great battles of the Thirty Years' War, it is important to consider the conditions under which the battle took place at the time and the consequences of the battle. It was the first time that Saxons and Swedes, who had endured the first 17 years of the Thirty Years' War as close allies, were hostile to each other. The courage and bold self-confidence of the Swedes and their few remaining allies was deeply shaken by the apostasy of many allies. The attack by the troops of the Elector of Saxony in late autumn 1635 was a great danger for the Swedish army, because a defeat could have triggered a decisive crisis. The victory gave the Swedes their self-confidence after the many defeats of the previous months and after the losses of their allies due to the Peace of Prague. Johann Georg's plans fail and the Swedes were able to secure their supply routes to the Baltic coast for the time being. The victory marked the beginning of a new period of splendor for Swedish arms.
additions
The remnants of the Saxon army were defeated on December 7, 1635 near Kyritz .
The end of the Swedish occupation took place on August 4, 1637, when the Swedish Colonel from the East - called Sacken - handed over the Dömitz fortress, which he commanded, to Lieutenant General Hans Caspar von Klitzing from the Electorate of Saxony .
literature
- Johann Samuel von Ed .: General Encyclopedia of Sciences and Arts. P. 6f. (Digitized version)
- Johann Stephan Pütter: Outline of the state changes of the German Empire. P. 244. (digitized version)
- Friedrich Rudolf von Rothenburg: Battles, sieges and skirmishes in Germany and the neighboring countries. P. 548f. (Digitized version)
Individual evidence
- ↑ CV Wedgewood: The 30 Years War . Cormoran Verlag, Munich 1999, ISBN 3-517-09017-4 , p. 347f.
- ↑ Matthias von Iltzwitzky. In: Bernd Warlich: The Thirty Years War in personal reports, chronicles and reports. (online at: 30jaehrigerkrieg.de ) ( Memento of the original from May 2, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
