Battle Of Narva - One of Swedens greatest victories

[Zhyper]

Battle of Narva - 1700



18th November 1700 had the seventeen year old king Karl XII and about 8,500 men from the Swedish army forced marched in many days in rainy snow on muddy roads. They had to sleep outside underneath the cold November sky, their clothes didnt become dry, the bread got moudly. They were dead tired, but then 19th November they reached Estonias eastern border, Narva, there was a fistfull of Swedish soldiers surrondend by a huge Russian army, commandend by Peter I. Now would Karl XII and his Caroleans come to rescue.


The spot indicates where Narva was and still is located.

Karl shoot dubble signals as a greeting to the surronded Swedes, that responded with rocketflare upon the nightsky. The Russians and the surrondend Swedes now knew that Swedish reinforcement had arrived, but none of the knew how many they were. Peter I suddenly reminded himself that he had to go to Moscow to meet a delegation from the Ottoman-Empire. He went east. The Turks would join the fighting four years later.
Karl XII and the Caroleans tried to sleep there they sat and lied in the mud. Whole night it was pouring down snow and rain. At six o'clock in the morning November 20th did the king give the order to begin prepare the attack. And he shouted: "With Gods help!". The Caroleans was about 8,500 men almost halfed was from the Finland region. None knew how many the Russians were. The Swedish leaders guessed about 60,000 men. In reality it was 37 000 man, plus many soldiers back at the Russian camp. But the Russians were rested, had eaten good food and had the possiblity to sleep in dry barracks.



The weat, tired and hungry Caroleans didn't have any idea that they this November day would perform one of the biggest legendary victories in Swedish history, and less could they imagine that in many countries would honour them on many languages, people would toast for them, canons would fire salute for them and people cheer for them in the whole Swedish kingdom.

Every man had gotten twentyfour bullets each to the muskets. The Caroleans stopped ninehundreds meter from the Russian siege line were they deployed for battle. Commander for the Swedish troops was the general Carl Gustaf Rehnskiöld. Because of that the Russians was cut off by the Narva river in the east was Rehnskiölds plan to attack with two columns towards the center of the siege bank. There would the Russian line have to deploy towards two directions.
Karl XII was with the bodyguards in the front of a group of Finns and Dal-men (Dalkarlar) commandend by Magnus Stenbock. Ten o'clock in the morning did the Swedes reach the slopes of Hermannsberget, that quick was occupied. Canons was placed there on the hill



At two o'clock was everyone ready for the attack. The soldiers took off their backpacks and coats. Two flare-rockets was sent up. The Swedish artillery began to fire. The attack began, the troops marched forward. Just at that moment the weather changed heavily. Darklblue clouds covered the sky and a heavy snowstorm started, the Swedes got the storm towards the back. Covered by the snow that wiped in the Russian soldiers eyes. The Swedes saw their opportunity and hurried up the attack. The Russians didn't see the attacking soldiers anymore and started to fire blindly. Then when the Caroleans was only thirty meters away the Russian line did they shoot their muskets, took their rapiers and charged the enemy. The Russian troops came in disorder and began to flee at every direction. Many tried to run over the the river on the only bridge there was, but because of the many soldiers on the bridge, it collapsed and hundreds of Russian soldiers drowned.
Magnus Stenbock with Dal-men and Finns at the front breaked first through the center of the Russian line where the Russian army fled or got killed. The Russian commander, duke du Croy from to days Belgium surrendend, with the whole of his staff. Karl XII went as fast he could to that direction. On his way he came down in a mudhole and would have died if not some Finnish soldiers draged him up. One of his boots was left in the mud. There was some rough close combat with some Russian elite soldiers.



Meanwhile did the mainpart of the Swedish army advance the Russian camp there the starved soldiers couldn't resist the temptetion and cast themself over the huge food, beer and vodka supplies. Many became drunk and some soldiers began to fist fight eachoter.
The Russians were so many that they couldn't be taken prisoners, many thousand simple soldiers was disarmed and was allowed to go back to Russia while the higher officers was taken away, that consisted of many generals and many foreign officers in Russian duty. The prisoners was later on taken over to Visingsö.

The war-trophy was enormous; 230 flags and 6 drums, 180 canons, all of Peters I fieldtreasure, hundreds of tents, 24 000 rifles and huge amounts of ammunition, food and horse forage.
The Swedes have lost around 700 men and 1,200 men wounded. Historians value the Russian loss to be around 15,000 men. The battle was won because of Rehnskiölds wise leadership and with a big help by the snowstorm. The king was everywhere and one of the first that ran up to the Russian bank. On the evening is it said that when he takes off his scarf a bullet falled down on the ground.

Underneath is a painting from 1910 by Gustaf Cederström, it shows Karl XII sitting proud on
his horse observing the beaten Russians leaving their flags and drums (that still can be seen in the Swedish museum called Armémuseum "Armymuseum"). At the horizon you can see the city of Narva.



Here is Karl XII, and you can see his scarf that is tightly boundend around his neck.





Notes:

• This text was directly taken from a article by the Swedish historian/journalist Herman Lindqvist.
• Excuse me for any misspellings.

[Karoliner]

I find it unfortunate that the Russians soldiers could not have been tooken prisoner. Imagine how history would have changed, had the Russian Army lost thousands of it's soldiers.

It's also unfortunate at how arrogant Karl was to diplomacy, he had numerous chances to create a favorable peace, but he chose to wipe out his enemy.

[Zhyper]

Yeah he was a bit stubborn but he said "I have resolved never to start an unjust war but never to end a legitimate one except by defeating my enemies", which is pretty much old-school talk for, "I don't start shi't. I end it."

[MrT]

Actually the russians didn´t break right away. The right flank, I think, fought on into the evening and might have caused the swedes problems since by then the looting and plundering and drinking was well underway in large parts of the army. Fortunatley, for Sweden, these surrendered and were thus not defeated in battle. This allowed these soldiers to keep their weaponry while marching away from the swedes after the battle. Also it must be noted that the russians did not have every soldier facing Karl XII's army. The russians were besieging Narva so they were spread out, in defensible positions, and some were facing the besieged city. The defensive postion of the russians is also one of the main reasons for the two column attack since attack on a wider front would have been suicide.

[Heavy Weapons Guy]

Would be cool if Sweden had won in Great Northern War.

[iourca]

thanks for narva we had the best artillery during 18th centuary. A lost in a battle is not a lost in war. It is a disaster to have such a leader as Charles12 or Peter the great. Both of them.

Kutusov said after he desided Napoleon to let enter Moscow in 1812: We have lost Moscow, but we haven't lost Russia yet.

[The Noble Lord]

It was a great victory indeed.

[Tepez]

The Russians was lazy They thought that the 8500 men was part of a bigger army, so they never thought that it was the whole swedish army standing there ready to attack, so they realy dident bother about hem. But it was a great victory indeed and alot of money to the swedish army since the Russian war tresury also were there

But Sweden could have done great if not the stubborn Karl XII said no to peace so many times when Russia wanted to end the war. Instead we lost everything in Poltava 1709

[Sfwartir]

But Sweden could have done great if not the stubborn Karl XII said no to peace so many times when Russia wanted to end the war. Instead we lost everything in Poltava 1709

While I agree that Carl XII indeed was more stubborn than what was good for him (and his kingdom), I doubt Sweden would have "done great" if peace had been concluded on an earlier point. The end result would have been the same; Swedish territorial concessions in the east. At no point during the Great Northern War did any Russian "peace" offer suggest a return to the status quo ante bellum. The most modest Russian demand on any point during the war, was the handing over of Ingermanland (Ingria) to Russia in exchange for peace. This was never an option in the mind of King Carl XII, highly understandable in my opinion.

The only time Czar (from 1725: Emperor) Pyotr the Great truly wanted to end the war, was between 1700 and 1708/1709, when the Swedes went from one victory to the next and seemed unstoppable. It wouldn't have made sense to conclude a peace strongly favourable to a losing enemy at a point when Sweden still was regarded the stronger contender.

Now, from a modern, humane, point of view, an earlier peace would of course have resulted in far fewer casualties of war and thus be regarded as a good peace, but mind you, the 18th century were different times.

[Tepez]

but it would have been an intresting thing to se what would happen under 1800 if sweden made peace whit Russia, but we will never know and it maby was the best for Sweden to lose 1709 even if it was a realy nasty slaughter.

[kot1k]

Narva was a very important battle, in that it really pushed Russia to modernize. The army that faced off against Charles (Karl would be more proper I guess) was only slightly removed from an armed mob. Peter tried to change that somewhat by installing non-Russian officers to command, but the drill and discipline were not there. In fact, during the rout, many Russian soldiers killed their own non-Russian officers because they hated them so much. More importantly, the Swedes took ALL of Peret's field guns and a whole army's worth of muskets.

Russia has always had a large population from which to draw and army, so the loss of 15,000 men, as crazy as it sounds was not really a big deal. The guns and muskets were. It would've been an interesting alternate history if the Swedes marched on Moscow, sacked it, or installed their own man as king. They chose to deal with a more developed opponent in Poland instead, and gave Peter, who was a brilliant reformer, much needed time to rebuild and modernize.

The next pivotal meeting of the armies (in June of 1709) saw a reversal of fortunes. Karl was wounded, his army was in poor shape after a long march and a hard winter. Meanwhile, Peter was better prepared, his forces were drilled (not on the same level as the Swedes, but much more than a mob), and he had a supperiority in numbers and field guns. Poltava was the opposite of Narva and destroyed the Swedes' ability to wage war, making Russia a real European powerhouse. You can even say that the battle of Poltava laid the foundation of modern Russia, and Narva was directly responsible for the needed effort that Russia made to achieve a victory at Poltava.

[Gunodd]

We lost so much...

[steifan]

Many became drunk and some soldiers began to fist fight eachoter.

According to the 70ies book KAROLINER by Alf Åberg and Göte Göransson it even escalated
to exchange of fire between "Dalecarlia"-regiment and the Guards.

Quoting the book (in Swedish):

"Många berusade sig med brännvin och började i fyllan och villan skjuta på landsmän i tro att
de hade fiender framför sig. Under natten råkade Dalregementet i eldstrid med gardestrupper.
Misstaget vållade tyvärr en ganska stor manspillan på båda sidor."

My translation:

" When being drunk they started firing unto their own countrymen in belief that they
were enemies. During the night the "Dalecarlia"-regiment found themselves
in a firefight with troops from the Guards. The mistake caused rather big casualties on
both sides. "

()

[wojsport]

yes,it was a great swedish victory and reason to proud for Swedish

[Sithenidon]

A thing that continues to amaze and frustrate me when reading about this period of military history, and the Great Northern War in particular, is the undeveloped logistics. In many accounts of battles during this war, the Swedish army is described as being close to starvation. Many times, a breakdown in logistics and difficulty in supplying a large body of troops is understandable, such as during the battle of Narva. In this case, the Swedish army was quite hastily assembled to deal with an immediate threat. Also, it was in the winter, and the army's ability to live of the land would have been severely limited. I also understand that no army ever carried much in the way of supplies with them at this time, but were expected to live of the land, which lead to the old tradition of not fighting during winter. Still, I am frustrated at the waste of it all. Sweden spent so much time and resources to train and equip one of the finest armies in europe at the time, but did not give much thought in the preservation of that army.

[TheGeat]

Well if Charle XII had choose a better time to invade Russia, like summer for instance, he's chances of winning the war would increase significantly. Not to mention keeping the supply lines intact as the army advances into russian wastelands.

Preparation is everything, and knowing your enemy of course.

[Prince of Essling]

Nice picture of the battle of Narva plus map are attached.

[adrasl300]

Would be cool if Sweden had won in Great Northern War.

Indeed noble pony that would have been cool!

About the mother post. You wrote "surroundend" twice. Misspelling. It happens. But the story I was told is that the swedes attacked a huge lump of russians under the cover of a blizzard and with their shock tactic was able to smash through the disorganized and unprepared russians. They didnt expect something that ballsy in a million years. History doesnt give enough credit to the swedish army. They were regurlarly outnumbered but when led properly achieved victory nevertheless.
And even at the end they inflicted great casualties when they fought.
Charles should have marched on Moscow after Narva.
And the Dev's should have given swedish line infantry a significant melee boost.

[adrasl300]

And with that i mean that the swedes where not exactly surrounded. Just massively outnumbered