Assault on Copenhagen (1659)
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Assault on Copenhagen (1659) | |||||||
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Part of Second Northern War | |||||||
Stormen på København 11 feb. 1659, Frederik Christian Lund | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
Denmark–Norway Dutch Republic | Swedish Empire | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Frederick III Hans Schack | |||||||
Strength | |||||||
10,650 | 9,050 | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
19 killed and wounded | 1,700 killed and wounded |
The Assault on Copenhagen (
Background
During the
The Swedish king, however, was not content with his stunning victory, and at the
The Swedish armies had never left Denmark after the peace and already occupied all of Denmark apart from the capital, Copenhagen. After a failed assault, Copenhagen was put under siege in the hope of breaking the defense by starvation. In October 1658 however a Dutch relief fleet under Lieutenant-Admiral Jacob van Wassenaer Obdam defeated the Swedish fleet in the Battle of the Sound and lifted the sea blockade so that supplies and an auxiliary army could reach the capital. The Dutch were an ally of Denmark from the Anglo-Dutch Wars and were afraid that Swedish control of the Baltic would ruin their profitable trade in this area.
The Swedes began the siege with about 4,000 infantry, 2,000 cavalry and crew for about 50 cannons. They were organised into 11 brigades and 16 squadrons.[1]
The opposing forces
After the Copenhageners had withstood about six months of siege, bombardments and attacks, the Swedes attempted to take the city by a grand assault, as a prolonged siege no longer offered any hope of success, now that the sea lanes had been opened by the Dutch.
The Copenhageners had been forewarned by spies, so they had planned their defences well and stockpiled weapons and ammunition.
The walls of Copenhagen bristled with about 300 pieces of
The Swedish army consisted of about 9,000 professional soldiers, while the Danish defenders, a mixture of professionals, militia and raw civilians, were of an equal number.
The assault
The Swedes started the action by making a diversionary attack at Christianshavn and Slotsholmen on the evening of 9 February. They were repulsed, and the Swedes left one of their assault bridges behind, which the Danes captured and measured. They found that the Swedish assault bridges were 36 feet long, and thus they realised that they could render these bridges useless by making the ice-free parts of the moats wider than that.
The moats and the beaches had been kept free of ice, and now the ice free zones were widened to 44 feet with help from 600 Dutch marines. The ice was thick, and the work was done in heavy snowfall from 4 o'clock in the afternoon till evening on 10 February.
Spies reported that the Swedish army had moved from their camp, Carlstad, at Brønshøj and had taken up positions behind Valby Hill, and when the Swedes began their assault about midnight the same evening, they met heavy resistance.
The main assaults were made against Christianshavn and Vestervold, but the chopped-up ice and the massed weaponry on the wall made the densely packed attackers pay a horrific toll in lives. Still, they fought their way to the top of the wall, and fierce hand-to-hand fighting broke out.
When the Swedes realised that the assaults on the Western part of the wall were in trouble, the choice was made to make a supporting attack at
At about five in the morning the Swedes gave up and retreated. They had taken severe losses. Before the walls 600 bodies were counted, and many more had perished in the ice-cold water and were never found. On top of that there were many wounded. At least 900 wounded were sent to Köge and Roskilde för treatment. [3]The Danes had only suffered about 14 dead.
Aftermath
The Dutch in the spring of 1659 sent a second fleet and army under Vice-Admiral
See also
References
- Citations
- ISBN 978-91-89442-57-3.
- ISBN 978-91-89442-57-3.
- ISBN 978-91-89442-57-3.
- Bibliography
- Ericson, Lars (2003). "Köpenhamn 1659, Följden av en felritad karta". Svenska slagfält (in Swedish). Stockholm: Wahlström & Widstrand. pp. 206–214. ISBN 91-46-20225-0.