Battle of Lund
| date | 4th December 1676 |
|---|---|
| place | Lund |
| output | Victory of the Swedes |
| Parties to the conflict | |
|---|---|
| Commander | |
| Troop strength | |
| approx. 8,000 infantry and cavalry | approx. 13,000 infantry and cavalry |
| losses | |
|
3,000 dead, |
6,500 dead |
The Battle of Lund took place on December 4, 1676 during the Skåne War between Denmark and Sweden (1675–1679). It is considered to be one of the bloodiest battles ever fought on Scandinavian soil. The losses were around 50 percent on both sides. The battle was also extremely chaotic.
Military situation
The Danish troops had been on the offensive since the beginning of the war and had recaptured Skåne , which Denmark had lost to Sweden in 1658. At the end of 1676, the fortunes of war turned and the Swedish army under King Charles XI. was able to advance into the province of Skåne.
However, the military situation before the battle was very unstable. The actual plan of the Swedes to advance to reinforce Malmö, which was under great siege pressure, failed. The Danes were able to block the way to Malmö, and the two armies drove each other back and forth through Skåne. The Swedes finally set up their army camp at Lilla Harrie near Kävlingeå , a few kilometers north of Lund , more out of desperation than tactical reasons . The Danes meanwhile moved their troops in the direction of Skälshög , geographically between the Swedes and the city of Lund, only a few kilometers away.
Charles XI. Due to the predicament - the supply of his soldiers was poor, diseases were rampant in the army camp - had to make a decision: Either the Swedish troops withdrew completely from Scania and sacrificed Malmö, or he dared to attack the Danish troops with his soldiers. The weather came to the aid of the Swedes, as the Kävlingeå froze over due to the sudden onset of cold and thus made a surprise attack on the Danes possible. Charles XI. therefore decided to fight against the numerically superior Danish troops.
Course of the battle
On December 4th the Swedes crossed the frozen Kävlingeå near the ford Rinnebäck at around 4 a.m. in order to have a better position for an attack. However, advancing through existing trenches and fences proved more difficult than expected. Nevertheless, the Swedes were initially able to advance further unnoticed. It was only around 7 a.m., when the Swedish army reached Stångby Church, that the Danes noticed them, who immediately sounded the alarm.
Since there was no element of surprise, the Swedish army command decided to advance towards Lund instead in order to take strategically important heights such as the Helgonabacken north of the city. However, this did not happen without the Danes knowing about it. So they did the same as the Swedes and started moving south to reach the important heights before the Swedish troops.
At around 8:30 a.m., the two armed forces clashed and took up the fight. Both sides fought bitterly. The Swedish King Charles XI. himself led the right wing of his troops, and after about an hour of fighting the right wing of the Danes gave way and retreated north. The Danish King Christian V was among the refugees. The King of Sweden, Charles XI, the Commander-in-Chief Simon Grundel-Helmfelt and the Cavalry Commander , Rutger von Ascheberg , followed suit in the direction of Kävlingeån.
Meanwhile, the main forces of both armies met north of Lund. The Danish cavalry clearly outnumbered the Swedes. In addition, the Swedish troops were without a commander-in-chief , since King Charles XI. and Grundel-Helmfelt set out to pursue Christian V. This caused the Swedes to retreat around noon to regroup. Field Marshal Erik Dahlberg meanwhile rode north to reach the cavalry led by the Swedish king. Dahlberg succeeded in doing this and informed the king of the difficult situation in which the main part of the Swedish troops found themselves. Thereupon, Charles XI. nine squadrons and rode back towards Lund.
At around 3 p.m., the Swedish armed forces were in a desperate situation on the Möllevångs Heights off Lund. The army was practically in the process of disintegration, and panic threatened to break out among the commanders. Only the bodyguard regiment under Nils Bielke was still completely ready for action.
But now Charles XI. with his nine squadrons the oppressed troops and immediately went over to the attack against the astonished left Danish wing. The Danes returned the attack, otherwise they threatened to be surrounded. The Danes were the squadrons of Charles XI. outnumbered, so that the tide seemed to be turning in their favor. But the Swedish king, together with Dahlberg and von Ascheberg, broke through the Danish lines in an unusual frontal attack and reached his own troops.
Charles XI. gathered his soldiers and gave orders for the final attack. The Danes were now attacked from two directions and encircled south of the church of Vallkärra , whereupon many of them panicked to flee. The fighting now degenerated into a massacre . Among other things, about 1,100 Dutch sailors who fought for the Danes, who wanted to surrender to the Swedish army and ask for mercy, were killed by the Swedes. The last fighting took place until the early evening. Then the remnants of the defeated Danish army retreated to Landskrona fortress under cover of the falling darkness .
Tactics and aftermath
Among the factors that led to the Swedes emerging victorious from the battle, the tactics of the cavalry should be mentioned in particular . While the Danish horsemen used the common tactics of Caracolla , the form introduced by Gustav II Adolf of Sweden differed in that the cavalry only fired one volley and then immediately attacked the enemy head-on at great speed.
Nils Bielke was awarded as leader of the bodyguard regiment after the battle of the Halmkrans order for outstanding heroism. The tradition of the straw crane was carried on by dragoons and hussars of modern times .
Although the deaths were counted the next day, the original notes were lost, and hence the exact number of deaths is unknown. Today's Swedish sources indicate between 8,300 and 9,000 bodies on the battlefield, not including drowned Danes and soldiers who died of their injuries in the following weeks. The Swedish military had around 3,000 dead and a further 2,000 injured, with the exception of 500 slightly injured. The Danish army had at least 6000 - or even 6500 - dead and 500 to 1000 injured, 2000 soldiers were captured by the Swedes.
The military importance of the Battle of Lund is disputed. On the one hand, it is claimed that it was in no way of great military importance. On the other hand, some historians are of the opinion that in the event of a Swedish defeat, the provinces of Scania, Blekinge and Halland , which had been won only years earlier , would have been lost to Denmark again. In any case, in Swedish war propaganda , the victory was celebrated as an outstanding achievement by the young king, but the Danes downplayed their defeat. The Scandinavian War continued with sieges, fighting and devastation until the Peace of Lund in 1679.
literature
- Lars Eriksson et al. a .: Svenska Slag . Värnamo 2003.
- Herman Lindqvist: Historien om Sverige: När Sverige blev stormakt . Värnamo 1994, ISBN 978-91-1-932112-1 .
- Göran Rystad: Charles XI. En biografi . 2001, ISBN 91-89442-27-X .
- Göran Rystad: Kampen om Skåne . 2005, ISBN 91-85057-05-3 .
- Claes Wahlöö: Slaget vid Lund: ett mord och icke ett fältslag . Lund 1998, ISBN 91-88930-38-6 .
Web links
- The Battle of Lund (Swedish)
- runeberg.org/sverhist
- Letter from Niels Bielke about the Battle of Lund (Swedish)
- Battlefield archeological investigations of the battlefield (Swedish)
- Battlefield archeological studies of the Danish army camp in Skälshög (Swedish)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Göran Rystad: Kampen om Skane . 2005, ISBN 91-85057-05-3 , p. 140