Sea battle in Oresund (1658)

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The sea ​​battle in the Oresund (also known as the sea ​​battle in the sound ) took place on October 29th during the Second Northern War . / November 8th  1658 greg. near the Øresund between the fleet of the United Provinces of the Netherlands and the fleet of Sweden . It ended with a victory for the Dutch.

prehistory

Swedish troops had advanced into Denmark and an army under Charles X of Sweden besieged the Danish capital, Copenhagen . The Dutch fleet was supposed to support Denmark and prevent Sweden from gaining control of both banks of the sound and thus trade in the Baltic Sea. Admiral Lieutenant Jacob van Wassenaer Obdam , who had received written instructions from Johan de Witt , summed up his mission as follows: "Save Copenhagen and hit everyone in the face who wants to prevent this". However, the English fleet he had thought of did not interfere.

course

Sea battle in the Oresund, Jan Abrahamszoon Beerstaten , 1660

The Dutch fleet under van Wassenaer sailed into the Baltic Sea with 41 ships and 1,413 cannons . She met in the Öresund north of Copenhagen on the Swedish fleet with 45 ships and 1838 cannons under the command of Carl Gustav Wrangel . A Danish fleet with seven ships and 280 cannons was in a bad position and could not support its Dutch allies.

Sea battle in the Oresund, Willem van de Velde the Elder

The Swedish fleet attacked, but the wind conditions were more favorable for the Dutch. Fierce fighting broke out, the Dutch got the upper hand and forced the Swedish fleet to break the blockade of Copenhagen.

The Swedes lost four ships and had 350 dead and 850 wounded, the Dutch lost two ships and 296 dead and 503 wounded. The Dutch admiral Witte de With fell while capturing his ship.

Van Wassenaer was criticized for his passive behavior after the battle in the Netherlands - in fact he had an attack of gout and handed over command to his flag captain Egbert Bartholomeuszoon Kortenaer, who was later celebrated as the real hero of the battle.

consequences

In the spring of 1659, the Dutch dispatched a second fleet under the command of Vice Admiral Michiel de Ruyter to cut the Swedish supply lines and finally to relieve Copenhagen. After Nyborg was conquered by a Dutch-Danish army, the Swedes withdrew from the Danish islands.

Endnotes

  1. ↑ Captain of his flagship .

literature

  • Robert I. Frost: The northern wars. War, state, and society in northeastern Europe, 1558-1721 . Longman, Harlow 2000, ISBN 0-582-06430-9 .
  • Johannes Cornelis de Jonge : Geschiedenis van het Nederlandsche zeewezen, vol. 2 . Van Wijnen, Frraneker 1994, ISBN 90-5194-113-7 (reprint of the Hague 1835 edition)
  • Taco H. Milo: Wassenaer en de zeemacht. Jacob van Wassenaer van Obdam en zijn tijd . Historical Association "Our Wassenaer", Wassenaar 1965.
  • Helmut Pemsel : Command of the Sea. A world maritime history from the beginnings of seafaring to the present, vol. 1: Beginning of seafaring until 1850 . Köhler, Hamburg 2004, ISBN 3-7822-0837-4 (reprint of the Koblenz 1985 edition)
  • Artur A. Svensson (Ed.): Svenska Flottans Historia, Vol. 1 . Alhem, Malmo 1942.

Web links

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