The Battle of Strömstad took place on July 19, 1717 at

Strömstad Strömstad is a Urban areas in Sweden, locality and the seat of Strömstad Municipality, Västra Götaland County, Sweden with 6,288 inhabitants in 2010. For historical reasons, Strömstad is called a Stad (Sweden), ''city'' despite its small popu ...

during the

Great Northern War In the Great Northern War (1700–1721) a coalition led by the Tsardom of Russia successfully contested the supremacy of the Swedish Empire in Northern Europe, Northern, Central Europe, Central and Eastern Europe. The initial leaders of the ant ...

. The

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

army of about 1,800 men under the command of Johan Giertta defeated the Danish fleet of several larger vessels and perhaps 4,000 men under Peder Tordenskjold. Peter tried to destroy the stocks of supplies Sweden had gathered for the upcoming

invasion of Norway Invasion of Norway may refer to: *1033 invasion by Tryggvi the Pretender *1567 Swedish invasion during the Northern Seven Years' War *1658 Swedish invasion during the Second Northern War *1716 Swedish invasion during the Great Northern War *1808 S ...

. In the battle about 200 Swedes were either dead or wounded and about 350 Norwegians.

Battle

On the night of July 8, the Norwegian ships were thrown towards Strömstad harbor, where they anchored up at 4 o'clock in the morning and began shelling the harbor fortifications. The liner ships concentrated on Laholmen and the barges on the other batteries. After a few hours of artillery preparation, six galleries were sent in to disembark on Laholmen. However, the defense was not defeated and only two galleys managed to be placed on the beach, where they could be damaged by Swedish infantry. Tordenskjold himself was wounded in the leg and the Norwegians were forced to withdraw with a loss of 350 men. The Swedish losses should have been considerably smaller.

Aftermath

The Swedes managed to defend their connecting lines for the army's operations in Norway. After the two unsuccessful attacks on Gothenburg and Strömstad in 1717, Tordenskjold was deprived of command of the Danish navy in the Kattegat for 1718 and subjected to the Schoutby night Rosenpalm. The successful defense of Gothenburg and Strömstad again strengthened the Swedes' confidence after the previous defeats. The Danish North Sea Squadron henceforth remained more in the shadows and limited its operations to purely defensive companies. Swedish ships could soon go undisturbed between Gothenburg and Strömstad, at least if they had coverage.

References

* Knut Lundblad, Georg Friedrich Jenssen-Tusch: Geschichte Karl des Zwölften, Königs von Schweden, Band 2, Hamburg (1835). pp. 542–547. {{DEFAULTSORT:Battle of Stromstad Stromstad Conflicts in 1717 Stromstad 1717 Stromstad 1717 Strömstad 18th century in Gothenburg and Bohus County