Naval battles in the Greifswalder Bodden (1712)

Naval battles in the Greifswalder Bodden (1712)

Part of: Great Northern War

Places of engagement

date	July 31, 1712 to August 17, 1712
place	Greifswalder Bodden in front of Rügen , Swedish Pomerania
output	Danish victory
consequences	Danish control of the lake access to the besieged Stralsund

Parties to the conflict
Sweden	Denmark
Commander
Michael Henck	Christian Thomesen Sehested
Troop strength
10 warships	14 warships
losses
on July 31: 98 dead and wounded 1 ship on August 17: 70 dead and wounded	on July 31: 23 dead and wounded on August 17 :?

The sea ​​battles in the Greifswalder Bodden occurred from the end of July 1712 to August 17, 1712 between a Danish flotilla under the command of Christian Thomesen Sehested and a Swedish flotilla under Michael Henck in the Great Northern War . In these battles the Danish forces emerged victorious and conquered the waters south of Rügen .

prehistory

In July 1712, Denmark dispatched a flotilla of shallow-water ships and boats to the Westtief (also Westertief, Neues Tief) in the Greifswalder Bodden , a shallow bay southeast of Rügen through which the eastern shipping route to Stralsund leads. The Swedish forces in this part of the Baltic Sea were inferior to the Danish.

Swedish ships and their armaments:

• Stralsund 30
• Anklam 30
• St. Thomas 30
• St. John 30
• Witduve 22
• Jomfru 14
• Sjökane I. 8th
• Sjökane II. 8
• a plank 6
• a galley 6
• a bomb ship
• a Kraier (also created, Krejert)

The aim of the Danish naval operation was to support the Russian and Saxon sieges of Stralsund .

Danish ships and their armaments:

• Ditmarsken 46 (single deck ship of the line )
• Kongens chases crown 24 ( frigate )
• Svenske Sophia 20 (frigate)
• Christianse 26 (cargo ship)
• Gravenstein 14 ( Schnau )
• Snarensvend 12 (Schnau)
• Phoenix 12 (Schnau)
• Flyvende Abe 12 (Schnau)
• Raev 8 (Schnau)
• Ark Noa 16
• Helleflynder 14 (Prahm)
• Ebenetzer 15 (Prahm)
• Hecla 10
• Ulv 2
• 5 boats
• 3 fires

Sehested's flotilla sailed from Copenhagen to Rügen under the protection of the Danish deep sea fleet and reached the entrance at Neuer Tief on July 28, 1712. The west or new deep was a shoal channel now silted up between the Thiessower Haken at the southeastern tip of Rügen and the Greifswalder Boddenrandschwelle , the submarine remainder of a terminal moraine ridge with the islands of Ruden and Greifswalder Oie . The channel forms the north-eastern approach to the Greifswalder Bodden, which in turn provides access to the Strelasund from the east . Today's approach to the Landtief, also sometimes referred to as the New Deep, was not built until later.

course

Here the Danish ships met several Swedish ships. Commodore Henck had only reached Rügen from Karlskrona a few days earlier with three frigates, two other boats and eleven transporters and, with the support of other local vessels, undertook measures to secure the entrance to the Neuer Tief. Henck set up his ships in such a way that the larger Danish ships could not take advantage of their size advantage. In addition, a Swedish battery position from Rügen supported the Swedish flotilla. Nonetheless, one of the ships was lost and messed up the line. Sehested took the opportunity and sent the Ditmarsken and three Pram to attack on the morning of July 31st.

They opened fire at 8:30 a.m. The other Danish ships could not follow, however. As a result, the four Danish ships kept fire on the Swedes until evening, but achieved little. The Swedes lost 98 dead and wounded in the battle, the Danes had lost 23 dead and wounded. The next afternoon, six smaller Swedish ships attacked the Ebenetzer (15 cannons). After Danish reinforcements arrived on site, the Swedes withdrew. On the night of August 2nd or 3rd, the Swedish commander Henck sank the Kraier in the passage. This made it impossible for ships with a greater draft to enter the northern part of the Greifswald Bodden.

In any case, the Danish commander Sehested sent all smaller Danish ships through the southern part of the canal between the Ruden and Usedom . On August 5th, the Swedish flotilla under Henck had to retreat to Palmer Ort on the southern tip of Rügen. The next day, after Sehested had succeeded in lifting the Kraier, he was now able to lead the larger ships into the Greifswalder Bodden. On August 17th there was another battle. The Swedish flotilla under Henck lost 70 men dead and wounded and had to retreat to Stralsund, leaving the Danes with the possession of the Greifswald Bodden.

consequences

The Danes now controlled the access to the port of Stralsund. Sweden was just putting together a supply convoy for the besieged Stralsund in southern Sweden and was thereby forced to land the relief army on Rügen. There the supply fleet was more easily delivered to the Danish navy.

The scenario then occurred in the naval battle of Rügen (1712) , in which a large part of the Swedish fleet was sunk by Danish warships. At the same time, the Allies could now undertake landing operations on Rügen. This plan failed, however, in August when a Swedish navy under Hans Wachtmeister appeared off Rügen.

literature

• Jan Glete: Swedish Naval Administration 1521–1721: Resource Flows and Organizational Capabilities. 1947, p. 213
• RC Anderson: Naval Wars in the Baltic. London, 1910