Sea battle in the Køgebucht (1677)
The sea battle in the Køgebucht in a painting by Claus Møinichen from 1686.
| date | 11./12. July 1677 |
|---|---|
| place | South of the port town of Køge , southeast coast of the Danish island of Zealand |
| output | Decisive victory for the Danish fleet |
| consequences | Most extensive elimination of the Swedish fleet as a power factor until the end of the Skåne War in 1679. |
| Parties to the conflict | |
|---|---|
| Commander | |
| Troop strength | |
| 35 warships, of which 20 ships of the line, with a crew of 11,000 and 1,701 cannons. | 33 warships, including 19 ships of the line, with a crew of 8,600 men and around 1,270 cannons. |
| losses | |
|
6 ships of the line boarded |
1 |
Northern War (1674–1679)
Rathenow - Nauen - Fehrbellin - Wismar - Wolgast 1675 - Wolgast 1676 - Bornholm - Öland - Peenemünder Schanze - Stettin (1676/77) - Køgebucht - Bergen - Warksow - Rügen (1678) - Stralsund (1678) - Greifswald - Tilsit - Splitter - Telschi - Porta Westfalica
The sea battle in the Køgebucht was a sea battle during the so-called Skåne War (1674–1679), an independent secondary theater of the Dutch War . The dispute was disputed between the Danish and Swedish fleets . The battle took place on July 1st . / July 11, 1677 greg. and July 2nd jul. / July 12, 1677 greg. off the southeast coast of the Danish island of Zealand , in the south of the bay off the port of Køge . The two-day battle ended in a heavy defeat for the Swedish fleet.
prehistory
After the sea battle at Öland (1676), which ended with heavy losses for the Swedish navy, the Swedish fleet had lain at home bases for almost a year, which led to the fact that the Danish fleet (and the ships of the allied with the Danes Holländer ) was able to dominate the western Baltic Sea almost unchallenged in the following years. Among other things, this had enabled the allies to land a Danish army at Helsingborg undisturbed . Only in May 1677, after a reorganization and reorganization of the Swedish fleet, occasional Swedish warships again sailed into the western Baltic Sea. However, suffered on June 1st jul. / June 11, 1677 greg. a smaller Swedish squadron of nine ships near the island of Møn suffered a severe defeat ( sea battle near Møn ) against a stronger Danish unit and lost six mostly smaller warships. In addition, the new Swedish commander in chief of the fleet, the only 29-year-old Baron and Admiral Erik Carlsson Sjöblad , was taken prisoner by Denmark. After this renewed defeat, the Swedish Admiralty decided to finally wrest control of the sea from the Danes with a large-scale advance into the western Baltic Sea. The timing of this was published by the Swedish leadership favorable since the Danish fleet on the one hand with the safety of troops transports to Scania was busy, and secondly because the allied with the Danes Dutch her squadron and their experienced Admiral Cornelis Tromp , who with the victory of the Danes at Oland contributed had temporarily withdrawn to Holland because of the fighting against France. Although the Dutch were preparing to intervene again in the fighting in the Baltic Sea, the Swedish Admiralty was aware that, in the event of a rapid Swedish advance, this newly formed Dutch squadron would not arrive in time to avoid a possible battle to be able to unite with the Danish fleet.
initial situation
Situation of the Danes
The Danish fleet was under the command of the experienced admiral Niels Juel (1629–1697), who had already contributed to the victory of the allies at Öland (under the leadership of Tromps) and who had also been able to teach the Swedish fleet the severe defeat at Møn. Admiral Juel led the Danish fleet from aboard his flagship Christianus Quintus (84 cannons); this ship had also been his flagship off Öland and Møn. The advance guard was commanded by the Danish Vice Admiral Marcus Rodstehn on board the 60-gun ship of the line Anna Sophia . The rearguard, the so-called 3rd Squadron, was under the command of the Danish Rear Admiral Jens Rodstehn ; its flagship was the Tre Kroner ship of the line (68 cannons). In total, the Danish fleet comprised 19 ships of the line , 6 frigates and 3 fire engines, as well as 5 smaller warships that were used for reconnaissance tasks. The largest ship in the fleet was the ship of the line Norske Løve (86 cannons), which was used in the vanguard. There were 1,270 cannons and around 8,600 crew members on board the Danish ships.
Location of Sweden
After the death of Admiral Lorentz Creutz the Elder in the sea battle near Öland in 1676 and the capture of Admiral Sjöblad near Møn, the Swedish fleet was now under the command of Field Marshal Henrik Horn , who, however, only three weeks earlier, after the capture of Sjöblad Admiral and Commander in Chief of the Swedish Fleet had been appointed. Horn, an experienced tactician in land warfare, had almost no previous nautical and marine tactical knowledge and owed his command to his connections with the royal family. There was a disastrous tendency in Sweden at that time to entrust the command of the navy, often in naval warfare, to inexperienced army commanders, nobles or politicians; The Admirals Creutz and Sjöblad, who both suffered defeats with their fleets, had little or no experience in leading naval units or in fighting naval battles.
Admiral Horn, who commanded the fleet on board the ship of the line Victoria (84 cannons), were Vice Admiral Hans Wachtmeister as commander of the vanguard (on board the 82-gun ship of the line Nyckeln, which had already been deployed near Öland ) and Rear Admiral Hans Clerck the Elder. J. (1639–1711), the commanding officer of the rearguard, to one side. Except for Clerck, his flagship was the 72-gun liner Sol , none of the three leading admirals had much experience in naval warfare.
The Swedish fleet comprised a total of 20 ships of the line, 3 frigates, 8 armed merchant ships (with 10 to 56 cannons) and four fires. There were about 11,000 seamen and marines and 1,701 cannons on board.
Course of the battle
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At the beginning of July the Swedish fleet weighed anchor and set sail for Zealand. Admiral Horn intended to put the Danish fleet in the immediate vicinity of its own territorial waters and destroy it if possible. Following a victory, the Danish troop transports running from Skåne to Denmark were to be attacked. The rapid advance and the stormy course of the first Swedish attacks against the Danish fleet also lead historians to the conclusion that Horn was also thinking of a revenge for the defeats of the admirals Creutz and Sjöblad.
With the Danes, however, Admiral Juel was more cautious. On the one hand he knew of his inferiority, on the other hand he had been ordered to avoid a fight if it could be avoided in order not to unnecessarily risk the fleet (and thus also the protection of sea transports between Denmark and Skåne ). Juel therefore initially moved his ships into a defensive waiting position southeast of the Køgebucht.
Fight on July 11th
In the early morning hours of July 11, around 5 a.m., the two fleets were able to establish visual contact with each other. At this time the squadrons were about 20 nautical miles east-southeast of Zealand; the wind was blowing at around 40 km / h from the south-south-west. The Swedish fleet was south of the Danish fleet and was therefore on the windward side (the position that Admiral Juel had also held at Öland). The smaller and faster Danish liners, although in leeward position, were able to almost hold the Swedes' voyage. As a result, both fleets approached the coast of Zealand at almost the same speed and on parallel courses.
At around 6 a.m. the two fleets finally came within shooting range and the ships of the vanguard opened fire. At this point Admiral Horn ordered a hastily carried out fire attack on the Danes, probably in the hope of disrupting their battle line. However, the advance ended in failure. The Brander Gripen was on fire and sunk, the Brander Grona Drake lost its masts by bombardment and was eventually boarded maneuver by a Danish frigate. A third fire could not approach the Danish ships because of its too low speed.
In the meantime, both fleets, still on parallel courses, had come close to the coast of Zealand. Since Admiral Juel maintained his course, the Swedes to the southwest of the Danes had only the choice of either abandoning their line of battle (and daring to break through the opposing line) or running the risk of being pushed onto the sandbanks off Zealand. It was not until around 7.00 a.m. that Admiral Horn finally gave the order to initiate a U-turn to starboard and away from the coast (on a south-easterly course) with the Swedish fleet . Since this order was made too late, the Swedish ship of the line Draken (66 cannons) got onto a sandbar near the cliffs of Stevns Klint around 7:20 and ran aground. Admiral Horn decided to put five ships of the rearguard to the side of the stranded ship in order to shield it against boarding by the Danes. This maneuver was noticed by the Danes, which is why Admiral Juel, who had initiated a turn of the battle with his fleet to starboard almost at the same time, again ordered six ships from his fleet under Vice-Admiral Rodstehn towards the stranded Draken . Recognizing that the fragmentation of the Swedish fleet could be a key to victory, Juel gave Rodstehn several of the strongest ships in his fleet, including the Norske Løve . It was here for the first time that Admiral Juel's tactic, which was ultimately successful, was to form strengths and to use them to cut off and fight down individual units of the numerically stronger Swedish fleet.
Battle in front of Stevns Klint
While the two main fleets were sailing on a south-east course from Zealand towards the open sea from around 8 a.m. onwards, still in an orderly keel line , and continued to fight a line battle, a fierce battle broke out between the ships that had been ordered to return to the Draken . Although both associations were equally strong with six ships each, the Danes had the slight advantage that their six ships could maneuver freely, while with the Swedes one ship was stranded and therefore unable to maneuver. In addition, Admiral Juel Vice Admiral Rodstehn had provided several of the most powerful ships to the side, while units of the rearguard were used by the Swedes (including an armed merchant ship), which were slightly inferior in terms of the number of cannons.
The battle for the Draken slowly developed to the disadvantage of the Swedes. At 9.30 a.m. the Swedish liner Mars (72 cannons) had to strike the flag after a bitter duel in front of the Danish liner Tre Løver and Churprindsen . There had been over 200 dead and wounded on board Mars . Only about 30 minutes later, the stranded Draken also surrendered after being shot at for almost two hours by Vice Admiral Rodstehn's flagship Anna Sophia and the large liner Norske Løve . Since the situation now clearly began to develop against the Swedes, the four remaining Swedish ships turned on a north-east course and began to flee. During this retreat, the Swedes lost the ship of the line Cesar (60 cannons), which was already badly damaged and which was therefore overtaken and boarded by the Danish ship of the line Churprindsen around 10.30 a.m.
The three escaped Swedish ships ran towards Malmö , although one of them, the armed merchant ship Flygande Vargen (56 cannons), later ran onto a reef off Falsterbo and ran aground.
The Danish ships, however, did not pursue the fleeing Swedes, but ran under full sail to the southeast from around 12 p.m. Vice-Admiral Rodstehn intended to be able to reunite with the main fleet of Admiral Juels as soon as possible. The Danish ships had only suffered minor damage during the battle at Stevns Klint , on Rodstehn's flagship Anna Sophia there were only 6 dead and 17 wounded in almost three hours of combat, and were therefore able to quickly catch up with the main fleet, which was about a lead of 15 nautical miles .
Duel of the main fleets
During the fighting at Stevns Klint, both the Danish and Swedish main naval forces, each six ships weaker, had gone on a south-easterly course from Zealand and had fought a violent artillery duel, running in a narrow battle line and shooting broadside. Since Admiral Juel had left some of his strongest ships off Zealand, which also contributed to the victory of the Danes there, however, this decision brought his main force now partly in distress, as he had to hold out against the center of the Swedish fleet. In the ongoing battle several Danish ships suffered considerable damage.
Around 12 p.m., the battle at Stevns Klint had just ended and Vice Admiral Rodstehn took up the pursuit of the main fleets, Juel had to remove his flagship Christianus Quintus , which had already suffered numerous damage (only about half of the guns were still ready to fire), and the foremost masts had lost, to the smaller 56-gun ship of the line Fredericus III. change. Admiral Horn tried several times to encompass the Danish top ships, but failed due to skillful counter maneuvers by the Danes. These repeated course changes had the consequence that the speed of both fleets decreased. In this way, Admiral Horn unintentionally contributed to the fact that Vice-Admiral Rodstehn's chasing unit found reconnection with the two fleets faster than he had hoped. When around 2.30 p.m. the ships of the Danish squadron deployed at Stevns Klint came within firing range (and the Swedes , however, did not see the ships they had left with the Draken ), the Swedes lost courage in view of the enemy superiority that now existed.
At around 3 p.m., the first Swedish ships left the battle line and turned on an easterly course. Admiral Juel immediately took advantage of this break-up of the Swedish formation and pushed seven of his most powerful ships into the seam between the Swedish rearguard and the main fleet. At the same time Vice Admiral Rodstehn ran with his six ships astern of the Swedish rearguard over. As a result, she was now shot at from two sides (from bow and stern direction) and suffered considerable losses. This development eventually led to a disorderly flight of the Swedish ships, which tried to escape one by one in the direction of Bornholm . The Danish ships followed in only a few cases, as they, too, had in some cases been badly damaged by the artillery duel lasting several hours. Some Danish ships had also fired almost 70 percent of their ammunition.
During the brief pursuit battle, the Danes managed to take the smaller ship of the line Svenska Lejonet (52 guns), which was boarded by the 62-gun ship of the line Enighed , from the Swedes . The ship was later integrated into the Danish fleet. At around 3:20 p.m., the Danes finally broke off the battle and began to retreat towards the Køgebucht. With the flight of the Swedes and the return of the Danes, the clashes ended on July 11th.
Fight on July 12th
Skirmish on the Falsterbo Reef
During the battle on July 11th, several smaller Danes' ships, including two frigates, and also two Dutch ships of the line (which had arrived only hours earlier) left Copenhagen to intervene in the battle at Stevns Klint. These ships came too late for this, but this association followed the Swedish ships that had fled from there in the direction of Malmö . The Danish frigate Charitas (32 cannons) discovered the armed Swedish merchant ship Flygande Vargen, which had run aground on the Falsterbo reef, and forced it to surrender after a brief artillery battle. Later the Danes were able to remove the ship from the reef and take over under the name Flyvende Ulv . The ship was later used with success as an East Indiaman.
Attack on Malmo
At noon the Danish flotilla appeared in front of Malmö, where the three Swedish ships of the line Sankt Hieronumus (72 cannons), Merkurius (66 cannons) and Kalmar (62 cannons), which had escaped at Stevns Klint the day before, were still lying. All three ships were damaged, and some of the crews were also on land. While the crew of the Merkurius fled from board when Brander approached, thus allowing an easy conquest of the ship, the other two ships fought. The Sankt Hieronumus was only forced to surrender after two hours of fierce fighting (there were almost 130 dead and wounded on board), the Kalmar was set on fire by a fire at around 11 a.m. and burned down to the waterline in just under an hour . The bulk of the crew was able to save themselves on the bank.
The two captured ships were brought to Copenhagen by the Danes. With the fighting in the port of Malmö the sea battle in the Køgebucht ended.
Aftermath
The Swedish fleet suffered one of the worst defeats in its history in the sea battle in the Køgebucht and was hardly of any importance as a maritime power factor until the end of the Scandinavian War in 1679. A total of seven ships of the line went, six of which were boarded by the Danes and one (the 62-gun ship of the line Kalmar ) was set on fire and sunk, and one armed merchant ship was lost. Furthermore, the two Brander Gröna Drake (with 8 cannons) and Gripen were lost in their unsuccessful attacks on the Danish fleet (one was captured, the other sunk). Another eight ships had also been damaged, some severely. The Swedes lost personnel to a total of around 600 dead and 900 injured, the crew of the liner Mars (72 cannons) alone had 74 dead and around 140 wounded. In addition, almost 2,300 seafarers were captured (on board the hijacked ships). In total, the Swedish losses amounted to almost 3,800 men.
The Danish losses, however, amounted to only about 120 dead and 280 wounded. Only one fire had been used. In addition, however, six ships, including Admiral Juel's flagship Christianus Quintus and three other ships of the line, were partially significantly damaged. Measured against the tactical and strategic success achieved by the Danes, these losses were to be classified as minor. The damage to the fleet was repaired in Copenhagen within the next three weeks.
The Danish fleet had one of its most outstanding victories in the Køgebucht. Admiral Niels Juel's leadership of the fleet, fighting for a victory when outnumbered and also acting with the formation of strengths within the individual squadron parts, was a tactical masterpiece that historians often shared with the successes of the Dutch Admiral Michiel de Ruyter or those of Horatio Nelsons is put on a par. Nonetheless, Juel's successes had no lasting effect, as the successes of the Danish fleet were largely negated by the defeats of the Danish army (especially in southern Sweden). Although the Swedish fleet was largely eliminated as a power factor after the battle in the Køgebucht until the end of the Scandinavian War, the Peace of Lund , which ended the Scandinavian War in 1679, did not bring any gain for either side. Both Denmark and Sweden contented themselves with maintaining their previous pre-war possessions.
Date notice
The sea battle in the Køgebucht took place on July 11th and 12th, 1677 according to the Gregorian calendar , which is in force today and was introduced from 1582. However, since at that time the participating states were still based on the Julian calendar (Denmark, for example, only implemented this calendar reform in 1700), there is a difference in the dates of ten to eleven days from some sources, which is why in some references the Battle is dated July 1st and 2nd, 1677. This date is not wrong, but corresponds to the calendar calculation from that time and not today.
literature
- Jørgen Barfod: Slaget ved Køge Bugt. July 1, 1677 . Køge, 1977.
- Niels Probst: Niels Juel. Before jamming flådefører . København, 2005.
Web links
- Slaget i Køge Bugt ( Memento from April 4, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) (Danish)
- Flåden for 1801: En flådes fødsel, dens første virke and 200 års svenskekrige (Danish)