Battle of Gadebusch

Battle of Gadebusch

Part of: Great Northern War

Swedish troops in the battle of Gadebusch

date	December 9th July / December 20, 1712 greg.
place	Gadebusch , Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania
output	Victory of the Swedes

Parties to the conflict
Sweden	Denmark Poland Lithuania
Commander
Magnus Stenbock	Friedrich IV. Jacob von Flemming
Troop strength
14,000 men	15,000 Danes 3,500 Saxons
losses
500 dead and 1,100 wounded	Danes: 2500 dead and wounded 2500 prisoners Saxons: 750 dead and wounded 1000 prisoners

In the Battle of Gadebusch (also the Battle of Wakenstädt ), Swedish troops won against the allied Danish and Saxon troops on December 20, 1712 ^greg. near Gadebusch in West Mecklenburg in the course of the Great Northern War .

The Swedish commander-in-chief Magnus Stenbock had previously positioned himself between the Russian- Saxon troops south of Stralsund and the Danish troops gathered near Hamburg in order to prevent the allies from uniting. Since the deployment of the Russian artillery, in particular, was delayed by coordination problems, this was not used in the battle of Gadebusch, so that Stenbock was able to win a victory against a Danish-Saxon army. It was also the last great victory of the Swedes in the Great Northern War .

prehistory

Battle of Gadebusch

Location of the battlefield

During the year 1712 the Swedish possessions on the mainland were taken by the allies Denmark, Saxony and Russia except for a few fortifications. The remaining fortresses were threatened by a Russian-Saxon army of 40,000 men. In the meantime, the Danish army moved from Pomerania to Bremen-Verden , Sweden , in order to conquer it. In Sweden in 1712 new recruits were made with the aim of carrying the war on German and Polish soil. In Karlskrona , a transport fleet of 24 ships of the line , three frigates and 130 transport ships was put together, which the Swedish armed forces were to transfer to the Swedish possessions in northern Germany. In order to avoid a collision with the Danish navy, the Swedish navy should attract their attention. At the beginning of September 1712 around 10,000 men landed on Rügen under the command of General Stenbock . A second wave, which was supposed to include a further 6000 men, as well as artillery and supply lines , did not materialize, however, because the Danes had seen through the diversionary maneuver of the Swedes, outmaneuvered the Swedish war fleet and finally destroyed a large part of the transport fleet. Due to this loss, the Swedes were no longer able to supply the troops that had landed.

The Saxons and Russians had drawn trenches from Greifswald to Tribsees while Stralsund was blocked . From a Swedish point of view, this line could not be broken, so Stenbock wanted to pave the way through Mecklenburg . On November 2, he set out with 14,000 infantry and cavalry. The outbreak led over the pass near Damgarten over the Recknitz to the Pomeranian border. On November 4th the whole Swedish army was on Mecklenburg soil. The Danish and Saxon troops standing there withdrew. On November 5th, the Elector of Saxony, who had advanced to Tribsees and Sülze, had the situation explained to the Danish King Frederick IV and asked for the troops to be united. But this had become impossible due to the advance of the Swedes. The Swedish army moved on to Rostock and took the city, since better communication with Wismar , Stralsund and Sweden was possible here, so that further war goals could be agreed upon. The Saxon and Russian troops had followed Stenbock's movements and moved to Güstrow . During negotiations between the warring parties, a 14-day armistice was agreed, which the Allies should use to encircle the Swedish army. The Danes were still lagging behind in the advance.

Stenbock saw the need to attack the opponents individually before they could unite. Further reinforcements for the Swedes arrived from Wismar. When Stenbock heard of the approach of the Danish army, he decided to attack this army before it could unite with the Saxons and Russians. When the Danes reached Mecklenburg, Stenbock gave orders to march to Neukloster . On December 20, he sent the army forward in five columns . After the campaign in Bremen-Verden and the losses suffered through illnesses and desertions, the Danish army consisted of only 17 battalions , 46 squadrons and 17 pieces of light artillery, which were no longer complete - around 15,000 men, including 6,000 horsemen. The Danes were also expecting Saxon reinforcements, but they did not arrive until after the battle began, around 3,000 men. The Swedes, for their part, had 30 cannons and were artillery superior to the Danish army.

course

View of the troop line-ups near Gadebusch

General Jobst Scholten withdrew to Roggendorf in anticipation of the Saxon reinforcements and for fear of being outflanked by Swedish cavalry . After the reinforcements had arrived, the Danish-Saxon army numbered 18,000 men and was positioned in two lines near Wakenstädt . Behind the infantry stood the cavalry in three lines . The Swedish army numbered 16,000 men, formed in 19 battalions and 58 squadrons. The Swedish artillery was supposed to open the battle and was supported by a battalion of infantry. Behind it, the Swedish infantry were positioned in two rows. The right Swedish wing opened the actual battle, in which it drove the Danish cavalry to flight with four squadrons of riders. The Swedish infantry now advanced and fired at 50 paces away at the Danish lines and then proceeded to bayonet attack. Due to the force of the attack, the first Danish line was forced to give way. The battle developed into an extended hand-to-hand combat . The Saxons had fled at the first attack, exposing the entire left wing of the Danes, which led to the loss of the Danish artillery. Danish battalions attacked repeatedly at this point, but could no longer withstand the superior force and had to give way. The village of Wakenstädt, which had been occupied by a grenadier battalion , was conquered by the Swedes as a result of the Swedish superiority. Now the infantry on the right wing of the Danes also began to give way. The toughest fighting took place on the far right Danish wing, between the Danish Guard Regiment and the Swedish Dal Regiment. 200 men were killed here on the side of the Dal regiment alone. After the lines were completely dissolved, the Danish troops began to flee as darkness fell. At Radegast , the Danes made a brief attempt to build a new resistance line. By the end of the day, all of the Danish infantry had been blown up, fled, or left dead on the battlefield. The Danish cavalry on the right tried during the battle to fill the gap in the battle line that had been torn by the escape of the Saxons. They gained an advantage over the Swedish cavalry, so that they had to retreat to the nearby forest. Stenbock rushed to the beleaguered wing and rearranged the disordered squadrons. The Danes now also withdrew here. The Swedes pursued the Danes as far as Radegast and stopped the pursuit there.

The Danes are said to have suffered 3,000 deaths, the Swedes 600. The number of wounded was much higher on both sides. 102 Danish officers alone were taken prisoner. Friedrich IV was in danger during the battle, several soldiers fell at his side, including General Reimar Hans von Bülow . Friedrich IV. Left the battlefield as one of the last Danes and fled to Ratzeburg . The Swedes had little booty in the battle (13 cannons).

consequences

Although the Swedes won the battle, it exacerbated the existing problems of their own army: around 1,500 men were killed or wounded, and many officers were missing from the infantry regiments. Furthermore, many horses had been killed and weakened the artillery and cavalry. The supply situation for the Swedes remained tense.

The Danish infantry had been fragmented and suffered heavy losses, but was soon able to organize and recover. The Danish cavalry suffered few losses in the battle. Stenbock decided to march with his army to Holstein , as a better supply situation was to be expected there and Denmark could be put under pressure. By uniting the Danes with the Saxons and Russians in Holstein, the fate of this Swedish army was to be sealed during the siege of Tönning in 1713/14.

Memory and research

A memorial complex has been built in Wakenstädt in the middle of the historic battlefield since 2000. Today it consists of several international memorial stones, large information boards and the "Schwedenhütte". The Swedish hut was modeled after a Swedish soldier's hut from the 18th century. Since August 2016, a completely redesigned exhibition on the archeology of the Battle of Gadebusch has been located inside with information boards and archaeological finds recovered from the battlefield as part of an officially approved project. Another part of the hut was decorated in the style of the 18th century. It also serves as a center for events in the course of the town twinning Gadebusch-Åmål, where the events of over 300 years ago are remembered together. Officially approved archaeological investigations have been taking place on the battlefield since 2010. In 2012, an internationally attended scientific conference was held in Gadebusch on the 300th anniversary of the battle.

literature

• Reno Stutz (ed.): 300 years of the battle of Gadebusch. International conference from October 12 to 14, 2012 in Gadebusch (= publications of the Chair of Nordic History. Volume 18). Ernst Moritz Arndt University, Greifswald 2014, ISBN 978-3-86006-419-1 .
• Ernest Oswald Schmidt: Germany's battlefields, based on historical truth and based on reports of those battles that took place on German soil from 1620 to 1813 using the best German and French sources. Festsche Verlagsbuchhandlung, Leipzig 1842, p. 90 ff ( digitized version ).
• Christian Frederik Conrad Sarauw: The campaigns of Charles XII. A source-like contribution to the history of war and cabinet policy in Europe in the XVIII. Century. Publishing house by Bernhard Schlicke, Leipzig u. a. 1881, pp. 295-299 ( digitized version ).

Web links

Commons : Battle of Gadebusch  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Literature about the battle of Gadebusch in the state bibliography MV
• Battle order of the Danes (Saxony) and Sweden , Wilhelmshöher war maps collection, accessed on July 12, 2017.
• Battle plan of December 20, 1720 , Wilhelmshöher War Maps Collection, accessed on July 12, 2017.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Michael Schmidt: Swedish battle of 1712: New exhibition in Wakenstädt. In: nnn.de. June 22, 2016. Retrieved July 11, 2017 . 
2. ↑ Arne Homann, Jochim Weise: Battlefield archeology near Wakenstädt. In: Reno Stutz (Hrsg.): 300 years battle near Gadebusch. Greifswald 2014, pp. 251–261 ( digitized version ).
3. ^ Johann Hegermann: Conference on the occasion of 300 years of the Swedish battle. Historians analyze field battle. In: prignitzer.de. October 14, 2012, accessed July 11, 2017 . 

Coordinates: 53 ° 40 ′ 18 ″  N , 11 ° 6 ′ 43 ″  E