The Battle of Danubyu was a battle between the

British Empire The British Empire was composed of the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It began with the overseas possessions and trading posts esta ...

and the

Konbaung Dynasty The Konbaung dynasty ( my, ကုန်းဘောင်ခေတ်, ), also known as Third Burmese Empire (တတိယမြန်မာနိုင်ငံတော်) and formerly known as the Alompra dynasty (အလောင်းဘ ...

as part of the

First Anglo-Burmese War The First Anglo-Burmese War ( my, ပထမ အင်္ဂလိပ်-မြန်မာ စစ်; ; 5 March 1824 – 24 February 1826), also known as the First Burma War, was the first of three wars fought between the British and Burmese ...

Prelude

After the defeat of the Burmese army in the Battle of Yangon (1824),

Maha Bandula General Maha Bandula ( my, မဟာဗန္ဓုလ ; 6 November 1782 – 1 April 1825) was commander-in-chief of the Royal Burmese Armed Forces from 1821 until his death in 1825 in the First Anglo-Burmese War. Bandula was a k ...

retreated the Burmese army back to his rear base at

Danubyu Danubyu ( my, ဓနုဖြူမြို့ ) is a town in the Ayeyarwady Division of south-west Myanmar, located on the west bank of the Ayeyarwaddy River in the Ayeyarwaddy Delta. It is the seat of the Danubyu Township in the Maubin District ...

, a small town not far from Yangon, in the

Irrawaddy delta The Irrawaddy Delta or Ayeyarwady Delta lies in the Irrawaddy Division, the lowest expanse of land in Myanmar that fans out from the limit of tidal influence at Myan Aung to the Bay of Bengal and Andaman Sea, to the south at the mouth of the A ...

. Having lost experienced men in Yangon, the Burmese forces now numbered about 10,000, of mixed quality, including some of the king's best soldiers but also many untrained and barely armed conscripts. The stockade itself stretched along the riverbank, and was made up of solid teak beams no less than high.Myint-U, River of Lost Footsteps, pp. 118-122 The British force consisted of 4,000 men including a cavalry force from the

Governor General's Bodyguard The Governor General's Bodyguard was a cavalry regiment of the British Indian Army. The regiment was, in effect, the Indian equivalent of the Household Cavalry of the British Army. History The regiment was first formed in 1773 as the Governor ...

supported by a flotilla of gunboats. 800 men were European troops from the British Army's 47th and 98th Regiments and the Madras European Regiment.

Battle

In March 1825, the British opened the battle with a major attack under heavy artillery fire. The initial British strategy under General Cotton was to attack each section of the stockade in succession. Some 600 men attacked the first section of the stockade close to a "White

Pagoda A pagoda is an Asian tiered tower with multiple eaves common to Nepal, India, China, Japan, Korea, Myanmar, Vietnam, and other parts of Asia. Most pagodas were built to have a religious function, most often Buddhist but sometimes Taoist, ...

". After some heavy close quarter fighting, the British drove off the Burmese from the first section. Hoping to pressure the Burmese, General Cotton then ordered 200 men of the 89th Regiment and the Madras European Regiment under Lieutenant Colonel Mallet to attack the second section of the stockade. They once again attacked at the point of a bayonet under the covering fire from British artillery but the Burmese had been ready and unleashed a devastating musketry that destroyed the attack. Captain Frederick Doveton described the casualties from the Burmese fusillade, "one-half of our men having fallen ere they could reach the works, and two valuable officers of H.M. 89th, Captains Rose and Cannon, having been killed." Out of the 200 men, over 130 were killed or wounded. Rather than continue forward, the British withdrew abandoning both captured defenses. With the British retreating, Bandula attempted to break the siege leading out sorties with foot soldiers, cavalry, and 17 fighting elephants. But the elephants were stopped by rocket fire and the cavalry found it impossible to move against the sustained British artillery fire. On 1 April, the British launched a major attack, pounding down on the town with their heavy guns and raining their rockets on every part of the Burmese line. Bandula was killed by a mortar shell. Bandula had walked around the fort to boost the morale of his men, in his full insignia under a glittering golden umbrella, disregarding the warnings of his generals that he would prove an easy target for the enemy's guns. After Bandula's death, the Burmese evacuated Danubyu.

Aftermath

Casualties

The British suffered around 250 killed or wounded with around 7 officers dead where at least 130 were from the initial attack on Burmese positions at Danubyu. The Burmese losses were unknown but were suspected to suffer at most 800 killed or wounded.

References

{{reflist Anglo-Burmese wars 1825 in Burma