Battle of Dybbøl

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Battle of Dybbøl

Part of the Second War of Schleswig

The Battle of Dybbøl by Jørgen Valentin Sonne, 1871

Date	April 7 – April 18, 1864
Location	Dybbøl, Denmark
Result	Decisive German victory

Belligerents

Prussia

Austria

Denmark

Commanders

Prince Frederick Charles of Prussia

General George Daniel Gerlach

Strength

11,000 in the first wave + 26,000 in reserve
126 guns[1]

5,000 at the defences + 6000 in reserve
? guns[2]

Casualties and losses

1,201 dead, wounded, or captured

4,834 (c. 700 dead, 554 wounded, 3,534 captured)

v • d • e Second Schleswig War

Mysunde – Dannevirke – Sankelmark – Rügen – Dybbøl – Fredericia – Heligoland – Als – Lundby

The Battle of Dybbøl (Danish: Slaget ved Dybbøl; German: Düppeler Schanzen) was the key battle of the Second War of Schleswig and occurred on the morning of April 18, 1864 following a siege lasting from April 7. Denmark suffered a severe defeat against the German Confederation which decided the war. Dybbøl was also a battlefield in the First War of Schleswig.

The Battle of Dybbøl. Scenery of the Dybbøl Mill after the battle

1 Background
2 Battle
3 After the battle
4 Legacy
5 References
6 See also
7 External links

[edit] Background

After the Danish king Christian IX (who was also the Duke of Schleswig) formally annexed the Duchy of Schleswig in November of 1863, Prussian and Austrian troops invaded Jutland in January of 1864. For more about the political background, see Second Schleswig War.

The Danish army had smaller guns and an older type of rifle. The Prussian army used the Dreyse needle-gun, a breech-loading rifle that could be loaded while the user was lying down. Since the Danes had to load their older muzzle-loading rifles while standing, they were better targets for the Prussians.

The Dybbøl fort area is a short blunt peninsula. The fort defences defend it from access by land. It encloses the pier for the ferry across the Alssund to Sønderborg on the island of Als.

The Dybbøl position was ill-prepared due to too much effort having been used on fortifying the Dannevirke. Dybbøl particularly lacked safe shelters in the forward line, but worse, the technological developments in artillery (particularly long-range rifled guns) had made the geography of the position unsuited for a lengthy defense. The line had too little depth, and across the waters of the southern inlet (forming the southern part of the peninsula) modern guns could subject the main defensive line to raking fire along the length of the line.

This meant that not only was the position effectively saturated during the approximately 2 months of bombardment, but also most of the defending crew had to be withdrawn far behind the line because of attrition by the bombardment and lack of effective shelters, and when the storm assault was finally initiated, the line was consequently undermanned and by tired and demoralised troops.

[edit] Battle

On the morning of April 18, 1864 at Dybbøl, the Prussians and Austrians moved into their positions at 02:00 am. At 10 a.m. the Prussian artillery bombardment stopped and the Prussians charged. Thirteen minutes after the charge, the Prussian infantry had already seized control of the first line of defence of the redoubts.

A total massacre of the retreating troops was avoided and the Prussian advance halted by a counterattack by the 8th Brigade: image, until a Prussian attack threw them back; that attack advanced about 1 km and reached Dybbøl Mill. In that counterattack the 8th Brigade lost about half their men, dead or wounded or captured. This let the remnants of 1st and 3rd Brigades escape to the pier opposite Sønderborg.

At 13:30 the last resistance collapsed at the bridgehead in front of Sønderborg. After that there was an artillery duel across the Alssund.

During the battle around 3600 Danes and 1200 Prussians were either killed, wounded or disappeared.

A Danish official army casualty list at the time said: 671 dead; 987 wounded, of which 473 were captured; 3131 unwounded captured and/or deserters; total casualties 4789. The 2nd and 22nd Regiments lost the most. Also, the crew of the Danish naval ship Rolf Krake suffered 1 dead, 10 wounded.

The Battle of Dybbøl was the first battle monitored by delegates of the Red Cross, Louis Appia and Charles van de Velde.

[edit] After the battle

This let the Prussians use the fort area as a starting point to attack Als: see Battle of Als.

A peace treaty was signed on October 30, 1864 that essentially turned the duchies of Schleswig and Holstein into an "Austro-Prussian condominium, under the joint sovereignty of the two states."^[1] The German chancellor Otto von Bismarck had taken one of the first steps toward launching the German Empire that would dominate Europe until World War I.

[edit] Legacy

See also Second Schleswig War#Consequences.

Every year on April 18, a national memorial is held in Dybbøl. Danish soldiers appear in period uniforms. The 140 year anniversary (in 2004) was a special event in Denmark.

Sociologists still refer to the Battle of Dybbøl when commenting on the relationship between Danes and Germans.

Karl Klinke, a Prussian soldier who is said to have run onto the redoubt carrying explosives and igniting them by the palisades thus killing himself and blowing a hole into the Danish redoubt, was immortalized in a poem written by Theodor Fontane.

Johann Gottfried Piefke, a composer of well-known military marches, dedicated the Düppeler Sturmmarsch to this battle.

On the field of Dybbøl were formerly national symbols of both warring sides: the Danish Dybbøl Mill and the German Düppeldenkmal. Dybbøl Mill still stands, but the German victory monument was blown up in 1945. The perpetrators were never identified, and this monument has never been rebuilt.

[edit] References

^ Schulze, Hagen [1998]. Germany: A New History, trans. by Deborah Lucas Schneider (in English), Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 138-140.