What happened at the Battle of Jasmund?
On 17 March 1864, during the Second Schleswig War, a small Prussian squadron under Captain Eduard Jachmann sailed out of Swinemünde to challenge the Danish ships blockading the Prussian Baltic coast. Off the island of Rügen it met Rear Admiral van Dockum's squadron, exchanged broadsides for about two hours and then used its speed to escape back to port. It was the Prussian Navy's first battle, and the Danes held their blockade.1
In 1864 the Danish fleet was far stronger than the Prussian one. It shut the German Baltic ports, ruining German seaborne trade and keeping the small Prussian navy from supporting its army. Off Rügen, on 17 March, that navy made its first attempt to break out. House Divided at Dickinson College calls it the Prussian Navy's first ever engagement.2
The blockade
As in the war of 1848 to 1850, the Danish navy blockaded the German ports on the Baltic. General Moltke, chief of the Prussian army, wanted the navy to break through to the Flensburg fjord, where it could support the army's crossing to the island of Als and perhaps even to Funen. Prince Adalbert, head of the Prussian navy, ordered Captain Eduard Jachmann to break the blockade or at least harass the Danish ships as much as possible, and in the process give Prussian sailors some combat experience.3
Jachmann had the corvettes Arcona and Nymphe, the paddle steamer Loreley and a division of gunboats. A reconnaissance on 16 March found three Danish warships off Swinemünde, today Świnoujście in Poland, and he decided to attack them the next day with everything he had.4
An unseen reinforcement
The ships he had seen were the frigate Sjælland and the corvettes Heimdal and Thor, part of the blockading force of Rear Admiral Carl Edvard van Dockum. What he had not seen was the screw ship of the line Skjold, which had been held up by the weather and only joined on 17 March. The Danish squadron now had a large advantage in firepower.5
Jachmann planned to attack head on, turn east to fire his broadsides and then fall back toward Swinemünde, with the gunboats covering his retreat. Gert Laursen of Dansk Militærhistorie doubts that Jachmann himself believed he could win a sea battle against the Danes; his one advantage was speed.6
Broadsides off Rügen
At 7:30 a.m. on 17 March Arcona and Nymphe left Swinemünde. They steered east first, where a Danish ship had been reported the day before, and finding none turned north-west. Off Thiessow, Loreley and the gunboats joined them, but through a misunderstanding the gunboats soon withdrew toward the coast. Van Dockum saw them coming, ordered steam raised and bore down on the enemy.7
At 2:50 p.m. Arcona fired the first shot, which fell far short. Within minutes the range was down to about 1,500 meters. Arcona and Sjælland both turned to starboard and opened fire with their port guns, and as the lines passed, both squadrons fired briskly. The Prussians kept turning and ran south-west at full speed.8
The Danes gave chase. Sjælland, well ahead of the others, steered between the enemy corvettes and met such heavy fire from Arcona and Nymphe that she had to slow down to let Skjold come up behind her. That gave the Prussians a lead that could not be closed. Van Dockum then swung Sjælland first to port and then to starboard to bring her broadsides to bear. Loreley was damaged and turned away, and Nymphe, with her funnel and a steam pipe hit, had to slow for a while. A Danish sailor later remembered a ball that struck the top and took off the heads of two men.9
The end of the chase
Sjælland's bow guns and the Prussians' stern guns kept firing until 4:45 p.m., when the action ended. At 8 p.m. the two corvettes reached safety at Swinemünde and the Danes broke off the pursuit. Dansk Militærhistorie gives Danish losses as 3 killed and 19 wounded and Prussian losses as 6 killed and 6 wounded; every ship had been hit several times, but none seriously damaged. House Divided likewise notes that casualties were light and no ship was sunk.10
Who won?
House Divided calls the battle a tactical defeat for Prussia, since the Danes easily held the blockade. Dansk Militærhistorie sees it as the end of the Prussian Baltic squadron's effort in the war: breaking the blockade had proved impossible and fighting through to the Flensburg fjord too risky, and for the rest of the war the squadron did not venture out again. The real naval threat to Denmark came from Austria, whose squadron met the Danes off Heligoland two months later, and that time the enemy did not turn away.11
Notes
A number in the text points to a note; each note names the works that paragraph draws on, listed in full under Sources.
- Gert Laursen, “Søkampen ved Rügen 1864”; John Osborne, “In the Battle of Jasmund, the Prussian Navy fails in an effort to break the Danish blockade of Prussia”. ↩
- Gert Laursen, “Søkampen ved Rügen 1864”; John Osborne, “In the Battle of Jasmund, the Prussian Navy fails in an effort to break the Danish blockade of Prussia”. ↩
- Gert Laursen, “Søkampen ved Rügen 1864”. ↩
- Gert Laursen, “Søkampen ved Rügen 1864”. ↩
- Gert Laursen, “Søkampen ved Rügen 1864”. ↩
- Gert Laursen, “Søkampen ved Rügen 1864”. ↩
- Gert Laursen, “Søkampen ved Rügen 1864”. ↩
- Gert Laursen, “Søkampen ved Rügen 1864”. ↩
- Gert Laursen, “Søkampen ved Rügen 1864”. ↩
- Gert Laursen, “Søkampen ved Rügen 1864”; John Osborne, “In the Battle of Jasmund, the Prussian Navy fails in an effort to break the Danish blockade of Prussia”. ↩
- John Osborne, “In the Battle of Jasmund, the Prussian Navy fails in an effort to break the Danish blockade of Prussia”; Gert Laursen, “Søkampen ved Rügen 1864”. ↩
Sources
- Gert Laursen, Dansk Militærhistorie, “Søkampen ved Rügen 1864”
- John Osborne, House Divided, Dickinson College, “In the Battle of Jasmund, the Prussian Navy fails in an effort to break the Danish blockade of Prussia”
