Naval battle at Jasmund (1715)

This article deals with the naval battle at Jasmund in the Great Northern War. For the battle in the German-Danish War, see Seegefecht bei Jasmund (1864) .

Naval battle at Jasmund (1715)

Part of:
Great Northern War

date	July 28th jul. / August 8, 1715 greg.
place	East coast of the island of Rügen near Jasmund , today's Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania
output	Victory of the Danish fleet

Parties to the conflict
Sweden	Denmark
Commander
Claes Sparre	Peter Raben Christian Sehested
Troop strength
21 ships of the line 3 frigates 1 brigantine 1 bombard 1 fire	21 ships of the line several frigates and some small craft
losses
Admiral Henck † Admiral Lillie † 165 dead 360 wounded	Admiral Just Juel † 126 dead 466 wounded

The naval battle at Jasmund was a naval battle in the Great Northern War in the course of the Pomeranian campaign of 1715/1716 . In front of the island of Rügen met on July 28th ^jul. / August 8, 1715 ^greg. the Swedish fleet under Admiral Claes Sparre on the Danish fleet under Admiral Peter Raben . The battle was won by the Danes.

prehistory

Sea battle at Jasmund

Location of the battlefield

The supremacy of the Swedes in the Baltic region, both on land and at sea, was almost over in 1715. As a last attempt to regain an advantage in Swedish Pomerania, the Swedish King Charles XII. Troops to Rügen. To ensure a safe crossing, a new fleet was put together in Sweden under the command of Admiral Claes Sparre. The Russian Navy hardly operated in the Baltic Sea region in 1715, but the Finnish squadron of the Swedish fleet under the command of Admiral Lillie was able to join the main fleet, whereupon it grew to 27 ships.

The Swedish fleet set sail from Karlskrona in July , their goal was to clear the waters off Rügen and the Hanseatic city of Stralsund from the opposing fleets in order to ensure a safe passage for the troop transports. Stralsund Fortress urgently needed supplies and fresh troops, because it had been besieged by the Prussians, Saxons and Danes for some time. Three years earlier, a transport fleet sent with supplies for Stralsund had been destroyed by the Danes in a sea ​​battle off Rügen (1712) .

Requested to support the invasion of Rügen, the Danish fleet set sail from Copenhagen on July 9th, under the command of Vice Admiral Sehestedt, and reached the "Neue Tief " (West Deep) between Mönchgut and Ruden on the Pomeranian Baltic coast on July 18th . There the two fleets joined together. Admiral Rabe took over the command. On the same day, Rabe's fleet left the Neue Tief, because the main Swedish fleet was sailing directly towards the fairway.

The following day the Swedes tried to involve the Admiral's fleet in a battle. Rabe knew, however, that he would be too weak and skillfully avoided the Swedish warships. The Swedes then sailed back towards New Deep to attack the Danish fleet.

On July 20th the attack by the Swedes on the Danes began. The bombardment lasted for several days. The Danish Vice Admiral knew how to maneuver his light ships under the Usedom coast. Only eight Swedish ships were able to follow the Danes into these shallow waters. But they had to break off the pursuit, because the Danish Prahmen took them covered under heavy fire.

The naval battle

Königsstuhl - chalk cliffs from which the King of Sweden watched the sea battle

After the Swedes withdrew again, the fleets reunited in early August. On August 8th, the Swedish and Danish fleets met in the Tromper Wiek between Jasmund and Wittow .

At 1 o'clock at noon, the fleets shuffled into action.

The Swedish King Karl XII, who was on Rügen at the time, watched the battle from the highest rock in the stump chamber . In his honor, the rock was named Königsstuhl .

The battle lasted until eight o'clock in the evening. The Swedish fleet withdrew without really being beaten. The losses of the Swedes were too great to continue the battle. The Swedish king had expressly ordered to fight for victory to the last sail, but when Admiral Henck and Admiral Lillie, commanders of the Finnish fleet, were sunk with their flagships, Admiral Sparre broke off the battle. The Swedes withdrew to Bornholm . The fleet of the Danes and Prussians pursued the Swedes, whereupon the Swedes turned towards Karlskrona the next noon to get to safety under their cannons.

The Danish admiral Just Juel was also killed in the battle. He was fatally wounded by a twelve pound cannonball in the gallery of his ship.

The five largest ships of the line in Sweden were so shot up that they could not be repaired, they had to be knocked open.

The consequences

The sea battle off Rügen did not bring any real decision, the result was that the Swedes no longer left their own ports. In the subsequent naval battles in the Greifswalder Bodden, the Danes claimed the Baltic Sea off Rügen and preparations for the invasion of Rügen could begin. On November 15, 1715, Prussian and Saxon troops landed on Rügen. In the Battle of Stresow on November 16, the Swedish King Karl XII. also defeated in the country and Rügen was occupied by the Allies. A little later, Stralsund and Karl XII also fell. left defeated for Sweden.

literature

• Not so Fryxell: Life story of Charles the Twelfth, King of Sweden. Volume 1, Braunschweig 1861.
• Knut Lundblad: History of Charles the Twelfth, King of Sweden . Hamburg, Friedrich Perthes, 1835, Volume 2, pp. 461-465.
• Johann Gustav Droysen: The History of Prussian Politics , Part 4 Volume 1, Leipzig 1869.
• Philipp Balthasar Sinold von Schütz : The European Fama, which discovers the current state of the noblest courts , Volume 15, 1715.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Lundblad p. 461
2. ^ RC Anderson: Naval Wars in the Baltic, p. 167.
3. ↑ ^{a b c d} Lundblad p. 462
4. ↑ Droysen p. 133
5. ↑ by Schütz p. 697
6. ^ Hojer, Part One, p. 287