Battle of Fehrbellin

Background

In 1675 Louis XIV was fighting the Dutch, and Brandenburg had sent its Elector, Frederick William, to Alsace with the coalition against him. France persuaded Sweden, isolated on the continent, to attack Brandenburg in his absence, and a Swedish army under Waldemar von Wrangel marched out of Pomerania and occupied much of the Mark.

The Elector heard the news in December 1674. He left the coalition, wintered in Franconia and set out on 26 May 1675. He covered about 250 km to Magdeburg in roughly two weeks, leaving his supply wagons and much of his infantry behind and buying food on the way.

On the night of 14 June, in heavy rain, Georg von Derfflinger took Rathenow by a ruse. A loyal local official had been bribed to give a banquet for the Swedish garrison's officers, and Derfflinger passed himself off as a Swedish officer to get his dragoons into the town. Wrangel fell back towards Havelberg through marshes swollen by summer rain, hoping to cross the Elbe and join Brunswick troops. Brandenburg troops reached Nauen on 17 June, and Colonel Joachim Hennings's advance parties blocked the exits. The Swedes were forced back towards Fehrbellin, where the only crossing of the marshy Rhinluch lay.

The armies

Both armies were small. The Elector had some 6,000 to 7,000 men and 13 guns, and what he had was mostly cavalry, perhaps 5,000 cuirassiers and 600 dragoons. His musketeers were a day's march behind, because he had pushed the army on at speed from Franconia. Field Marshal Derfflinger and Frederick II of Hesse-Homburg, who led the cavalry, were his main subordinates.

Wrangel had about 7,000 men and 28 guns according to the English-language sources, including an infantry brigade of about 1,200 under Henrik von Delwig. The German article is less tidy: about 7,000 infantry, some 24 squadrons of cavalry, and only a handful of the guns that had been sent forward actually present. Estimates of the whole Swedish army run higher, to 11,000 or 12,000. Whatever the total, the Swedes had been retreating through rain-soaked marshes with the enemy on their heels, and on the day their commander left the hill on his right flank unoccupied.

The battle

CDB90 records a single engagement, number 38 (FEHRBELLIN), from 08:00 to 10:00 on 28 June (18 June in the Julian calendar then used in Brandenburg). That matches the timings in the German article, which I follow here; the English article puts the artillery fire around noon.

The ground. Wrangel drew up south of Hakenberg, with the village behind him, the marshy Rhinluch on his left and his right resting on woods near Dechtow. The Brandenburgers stood between the Katharinenpfuhl on their left and the Rhinluch on their right. The bridge at Fehrbellin had been broken, and the Swedes were buying time while it was repaired.

The hill (morning). Under cover of rain and fog the Brandenburgers occupied the low hills beyond the Swedish right. The Elector had his guns placed there, screened by two dragoon regiments, so that they could fire into the Swedish line from the flank. Hesse-Homburg, fighting on the Brandenburg right, was for a time in danger of being cut off.

The Swedish counter-attack (about 08:00). When the guns opened fire, Wrangel ordered Lieutenant-Colonel Maltzahn to attack with cavalry and the Delwig infantry regiment. The Swedes threw back the cavalry covering the guns. The Elector arrived as this happened and stopped any deeper advance, and Derfflinger sent reinforcements who, under Hesse-Homburg and the chamberlain von Buch, struck the Swedes in the flank.

The melee. Wrangel shifted troops from his left and attacked again. There followed a close fight with carbines and broadswords around the guns. Derfflinger was caught in a dangerous position and cut out by Hesse-Homburg and Colonel Mörner. Mörner was killed and Hennigs took over his command. Brandenburg cavalry stopped each Swedish attempt on the hills, and after hours of fighting the main attack pressed in the Swedish right.

The collapse (about 10:00). The Swedish cavalry broke and fled. Hesse-Homburg's cavalry then turned on the exposed infantry; the Delwig regiment was enclosed and almost wiped out, and Maltzahn was killed.

The withdrawal. Wrangel retreated in two columns through Hakenberg to Fehrbellin. The Elector followed on the left under artillery fire; a shot narrowly missed him and killed his master of the horse, Emanuel Froben, who died an hour later. The Elector refused his officers' proposals to shell the town itself. The German article has the Swedes finishing the bridge and crossing the Luch the next day, with two musketeer battalions covering them until Derfflinger charged with 1,150 horse; the English article has most of the army across by dark.

Aftermath

Losses were small by the standards of the great battles of the age, and the sources disagree about the Swedish ones: from about 500 up to a few thousand, depending on whether prisoners, deserters and men killed by peasants in the following days are counted. The Delwig brigade was all but destroyed. About 300 more Swedes were reportedly killed by peasant raiders near Wittstock, and by 2 July no Swedish soldiers were left in the Mark.

Because the Brandenburgers held the field, the classical convention made them the victors, and the Elector publicised the win widely. The Empire and Denmark declared war on Sweden, and Brandenburg-Prussian forces invaded Swedish Pomerania. But the Peace of Saint-Germain-en-Laye in 1679 largely restored the position before the war, to the Elector's bitter disappointment.

The battle made Frederick William the Great Elector in the memory of his state. German historians, especially in the Empire after 1871, treated it as Brandenburg's first independent victory over a great power and the start of the rise of Prussia, and 18 June was celebrated until 1914. The Swedish defeat later featured among the charges against the Privy Council aristocrats at the 1680 Riksdag. Heinrich von Kleist's play The Prince of Homburg is set at the battle, and the story of the prince's disobedience may be legend. So may the tale that Froben swapped horses with the Elector.

Wargaming it

Fehrbellin is small, quick and easily gamed at about one base per two or three squadrons or battalions, a total of perhaps 25 to 40 units a side. It is almost all cavalry, which makes it a pleasant change from infantry-heavy battles of the period.

The key terrain is the low hill on the Swedish right. Whoever holds it with guns decides the battle, and Wrangel's mistake was leaving it empty. A scenario can let the Swedish player try to correct that, while the Brandenburg player tries to get the guns and their dragoon screen up in the fog and rain before the Swedes react. Poor visibility rules for the opening are worth having.

Other decisions: whether Wrangel counter-attacks early with Maltzahn's cavalry and the Delwig regiment or waits; whether Derfflinger's reinforcements arrive in time; and how much the Swedish army must keep back to cover the broken bridge. Delwig's infantry, caught in the open by cavalry, make a good test of cavalry-versus-foot rules. What ifs: the Swedes occupy the hill, the bridge is ready when they arrive, or the Elector's musketeers arrive with him and the battle becomes a combined-arms fight.

Maps and pictures