Battle of Kampen Monastery

Battle of Kampen Monastery

Part of: Seven Years War

Course of operations in the western theater of war in 1760

date	October 15, 1760
place	near Wesel
output	French victory

Parties to the conflict
France	Great Britain Kurhannover Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel Hessen-Kassel Prussia
Commander
Charles Eugène Gabriel de La Croix	Ferdinand of Braunschweig
Troop strength
20,000	25,000
losses
3.123	1,615

The battle at Kloster Kamp , or Kloster Camp , (Fr.Bataille de Clostercamp) in literature mostly called Kloster Kampen (actually from the meaning battle ), was a tactical victory of the French over British Allied troops in the Seven Years War near Kamperbruch . The Allies suffered only relatively minor losses, but had to give up their plans of attack and withdraw across the Rhine again.

prehistory

In the autumn of 1760, the Allied Commander-in-Chief Ferdinand von Braunschweig tried to prevent French troops from threatening Kur-Hanover. He pulled together 20,000 men to push the French west. The French commander of the Prussian fortress Wesel prepared his defense by burning down the Rhine bridge at the mouth of the Lippe . Lieutenant General Charles Eugène Gabriel de La Croix, Marquis de Castries meanwhile hurried up with additional forces to protect the Wesel garrison.

Ferdinand von Braunschweig began the siege of Wesel by building two pontoon bridges over the Rhine. Eventually he met Castrie's army near Kloster Kamp west of the river.

Major General George Augustus Eliott commanded the vanguard, consisting of two squadrons of Prussian Hussars, the 1st Royal British Dragoons, the 6th Inniskilling Dragoons, the 87th Foot Regiment (Keith's Highlanders) and the 88th Foot Regiment (Highland Volunteers). The main forces consisted of 2 battalions of grenadiers, the 20th regiment on foot, the 23rd Royal Welsh Fusiliers, the 25th regiment on foot (King's Own Scottish Borderers), two Kurhannoversche battalions and two Hesse-Kassel battalions.

Behind the main army was a cavalry unit, the 10th Dragoons and 10 squadrons of the Kurhannoverscher and Hesse-Kassel cavalry. A reserve force of the 11th regiment and the 33rd regiment as well as the 51st regiment and 5 Hesse-Kassel battalions lay a few miles behind the main body of the army.

battle

The battle began the night the Allied vanguard forced French troops out of Kamp Monastery and captured a bridge over the canal. The gunfire of the French defenders alerted their main army. It was morning when the Allied foot regiments intervened. The Scottish Highlander regiments managed to bypass the flank of the French army and push it back.

The Marquis of Castries brought new troops into the battle and together with the pushed back units he began a counter-offensive against the Allied infantry. They were able to push the Allied troops back across the canal. Even if the Allied reserve units were approaching, they were too far away to stop the French attack.

At the western end of the canal, Eliott was able to interrupt the French advance with three British cavalry regiments, which allowed the foot troops to regain the north bank. The reserve created a buffer zone , which should enable the displaced troops to cross the Rhine. However, the pontoon bridge had meanwhile become unusable, so that it took two days before the troops could cross the Rhine. Fortunately for the Allies, the French did not follow up consistently. The Allies were thus able to save themselves completely.

literature

• History of the Seven Years' War in a series of lectures, using authentic sources, edited by the officers of the great General Staff, Part Four: The Campaign of 1760, printed as a manuscript for the use of the army. Berlin 1834, p. 416ff. ( Online at Google Books )

Web links

• Battle of Kloster Kamp: French victory on 15th October 1760, over the British and their allies. In: britishbattles.com. (English). 
• La bataille de Clostercamp (October 16, 1760). In: Batailles de France. Archived from the original on January 18, 2007 (French).