Battle Of Grönvikssund
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

The Battle of Grönvikssund was fought between
Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...
and
Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...
during the
Finnish War The Finnish War (; ; ) was fought between the Gustavian era, Kingdom of Sweden and the Russian Empire from 21 February 1808 to 17 September 1809 as part of the Napoleonic Wars. As a result of the war, the eastern third of Sweden was established a ...
1808–09.


Battle

Johan Ludvig Brant was tasked with defeating Russian coastal forces operating near Nystad (fi. Uusikaupunki). When he learned that roughly twenty Russian gun sloops or yawls had sailed from Nystad towards Turku he started chasing them. Swedish naval unit caught up with the Russians who upon noticing the approaching Swedes formed for battle. Swedish numerical superiority allowed them to attempt flanking maneuver around the island dominating the battle area, however Russians noticed it and managed to block the flankers. Mattila (1983) p.287-290 As flanking had failed approached Swedish to close range however though outnumbered Russian force made fierce resistance and withdrew only slowly while maintaining unit cohesion. When he was running out of ammo Selivanoff had to order retreat at 19:00 when most of his ships had already been shot full of holes. Swedes gave chase to the retreating Russians but failed to catch them before nightfall and turned back. Numerical superiority and favorable wind were important factors contributing to the Swedish victory. However Swedes' decision to avoid boarding actions probably saved Russians from even greater losses. Swedish victory forced Russians to postpone their plans for attacking Åland and instead of forming a landing force Russian coastal forces were used to protect supply convoys.


References


Bibliography

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Battle of Gronvikssund Gronvikssund Grönvikssund Grönvikssund History of Southwest Finland 1808 in Sweden Battles in 1808 August 1808