Battle of Helsingborg

Battle of Helsingborg

Part of: Great Northern War

View of the Battle of Helsingborg from a German copper engraving

date	March 10, 1710
place	Helsingborg , Sweden
output	decisive victory for the Swedes

Parties to the conflict
Sweden	Denmark
Commander
Magnus Stenbock	Jørgen Rantzau
Troop strength
16,000 men	15,000 men
losses
800 dead 2,000 wounded	1,500 dead 3,500 wounded 2,500 prisoners

The Battle of Helsingborg was on February 28 ^Swe. / March 10, 1710 ^greg. held during the Great Northern War . The location was the then undeveloped heights of Ringstorp , now a district of the now Swedish city ​​of Helsingborg, northwest of the city center.

The fighting parties were a 15,000-strong Danish invasion army, led by Lieutenant General Jørgen Rantzau , and a somewhat stronger Swedish army, led by the Governor General of Skåne, Magnus Stenbock . The battle ended in a sweeping Swedish victory, ending Denmark's efforts to recapture previously lost territories in southern Sweden.

Prehistory of the battle

Denmark had been planning to recapture the areas of Scania , Halland and Blekinge for some time . The country had withdrawn from the anti-Swedish coalition since the Peace of Traventhal , but after the Swedish defeat in the Battle of Poltava in 1709, the Danes saw a new opportunity and declared war on the Swedish Empire that same year. The declaration of war reached on 18 ^Swe. / October 28, 1709 ^greg. the Swedish Imperial Council . The Danish side claimed that Sweden had tried to evade the Sund tariff and that the people of the Skåne, Halland, Blekinge and Bohuslän areas had been badly treated.

In late autumn 1709, a large Danish fleet gathered on the Oresund and on 2 ^Swe. / November 12, 1709 ^greg. you went ashore at the fishing village of Råå . The Swedish side put up almost no resistance there. The army was too much at a disadvantage after Poltava, as several regiments no longer existed. Although Sweden's army began recruiting new personnel shortly after Poltava, Magnus Stenbock was only able to present a Scandinavian regiment that was fit for combat in the late summer of 1709. Since a counterattack seemed pointless, they withdrew to Småland . In December Denmark controlled almost all of central Skåne with the exception of Malmö and Landskrona . The aim of the Danish side was to capture the Swedish naval base in Karlskrona , and so the Danish army made rapid progress. In January 1710 a smaller Swedish unit was defeated at Kristianstad .

Stenbock worked diligently to renew the Swedish army. Several new regiments gathered at Växjö , where the inexperienced troops practiced fighting techniques on the ice of a frozen lake. Until 5 ^Swe. / February 15, 1710 ^greg. Stenbock's troops had moved to Osby , where other associations joined, so that they were now 16,000 strong. Helsingborg was in Stenbock's opinion the key to Skåne and so the army marched south to cut off the Danish supply lines.

The Danish commander Christian Detlev von Reventlow recognized the danger of the situation and turned his troops so that they could face the Swedes. When he was at Lake Ringsjön in the middle of Skåne, he suddenly fell ill and had to hand over the command to Jørgen Rantzau. Rantzau feared that he could be encircled between the advancing Swedish army and the garrison units of Malmö and therefore moved north to Helsingborg. There he received reinforcements and when Rantzau set up camp, the Danish army consisted of around 10,000 infantrymen and 5,000 cavalrymen . Stenbock found out about the Danish troop movements too late and therefore had to hurry. As a result, the Swedish army was about as strong as the Danish at the start of the battle. There were a little more mounted fighters, but fewer foot soldiers.

Course of the battle

On the morning of February 28th, ^Swedish / March 10th, 1710 ^greg. Stenbock's army marched south in the direction of Helsingborg and when the Danish positions were approached, they went over to the battle formation. A dense morning mist lay over the area and hid the two parties from each other. When the fog cleared, the Danish commander saw that the Swedish army was mainly stationed on his left flank and so he was forced to reinforce it quickly. Rantzau had placed his artillery on the heights of Ringstorp and at noon began to fire the Swedish side.

Instead of taking advantage of the Danes' weak left wing, Stenbock turned his entire army approximately in an east-west direction. The Danes then believed that Stenbock was trying to encircle the east side of the army and expanded their line further east. This led to gaps in the Danish ranks that could no longer be closed. The first direct troop contacts took place in the east, which initially led to a Swedish withdrawal and the capture of a senior Swedish military. Over time, the Swedes gained more and more the upper hand and was in battle tangle with the Danes the rumor that it was the Swedish associations have managed to circumvent the Danish line, it that soon from the ambush were attacked. The Danes fighting there fled to Helsingborg.

Rantzau took part personally in the fighting on his east wing and thereby neglected his leadership role. He was also badly wounded from a lung shot. In the center the Swedes had gone over to the direct attack and the Danish side found it difficult to withstand this advance. When the escape of the eastern troops became apparent, the defensive behavior declined more and more. Two Danish elite units positioned on the flanks of the central units were able to hold back the Swedish advance for some time, but eventually the western Danish wing was also separated from the other units. The two elite associations now had unprotected sides, which prompted Danish Major General Valentin von Eickstedt to order the withdrawal.

Preliminary actions: The Danish army has positioned itself against the northeast, as they suspect an approach of the Swedes from this direction, but Stenbock's force comes directly from the north.

The Danish line has turned and strengthened its western flank. This should also protect the artillery on the heights of Ringstorp. First cavalrymen meet in the east

End of the battle: The Danish flanks have collapsed and are fleeing towards Helsingborg. The Danish center with two elite associations is still holding up to allow an orderly retreat.

After the battle

The remnants of the Danish army holed up behind the protective walls of Helsingborg and Stenbock avoided another attack, as the Danes were in a superior position there. Instead, he besieged the city and sent a proposal for the Danish surrender , which was rejected. The Swedish War Council judged their own army to be too weak to storm the city and so they waited while the enemy side was now and then under fire. On 5th ^Swedish / 15th March 1710 ^greg. the Danish side was so emaciated that it left Skåne.

The Danish losses were devastating. Over 7,500 men were killed, wounded or taken prisoner. The Swedish side had about 2,800 dead or wounded. Later there was never another Danish attack on Skåne.

The city of Helsingborg was badly affected. This was due on the one hand to the damage to buildings from the Swedish bombardment and on the other hand to the contamination of the water by the many corpses and horse carcasses, which led to a plague epidemic , which further decreased the population. It took about the middle of the 19th century for the city to recover from the aftermath of the battle.

Stenbocks courier

Stenbock's courier on a painting by Nils Forsberg , 1911

After the battle, Magnus Stenbock sent Rittmeister Henrik Hammerberg to Stockholm to report the victory to the Reichsrat. This later prompted the poet Carl Snoilsky to write the poem Stenbocks Kurier ( Stenbocks kurir ).

literature

• Svenska slagfalt , Lars Ericson, Martin Hårdstedt, Per Iko, Ingvar Sjöblom och Gunnar Åselius, Wahlström & Widstrand 2003, ISBN 91-46-21087-3 .
• Berömda svenska slag, 1700-valley (1c) - Slaget vid Helsingborg , Hans Högman.