Naval History 1680�850 by Richard Harding

Author:Richard Harding [Harding, Richard]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781351125895
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Published: 2017-11-30T00:00:00+00:00

His planning for war — of which the king was a firm supporter — aimed at early strikes against the capitals and main naval bases of the two most likely enemies, Copenhagen and St. Petersburg/Kronstadt. The Swedish armed forces should use their rapid mobilization system to strike first. The army should be landed close to the enemy capital by the archipelago fleet, while the battle fleet should blockade its adversary or, if possible, attack it in its base. Close cooperation between the three components of the armed forces would be necessary in such operations.

From 1780 on, Gustav III followed a rapid expansion program in relation to his sailing fleet, primarily as a part of his plans for conquering Norway from Denmark. At about the same time, the Russian Baltic sailing fleet began to expand even more rapidly as a part of his cousin Catherine II’s plans for dismembering the Ottoman empire and creating satellite states in the Balkans. Both rulers hoped to acquire territory from supposedly weaker neighbours. Ironically, the two rapidly expanded navies instead fought a war against each other in the years 1788–90, a war that was the result of Gustav Ill’s inflated opinion of the efficiency of his amphibiously-orientated armed forces. In 1788 his attempt to launch a full-scale surprise attack on St. Petersburg failed because the Russian battle fleet was prepared to sail for the Mediterranean. The two battle fleets, about equal in strength, fought an action in the Gulf of Finland which ended in a draw. This stopped the Swedish offensive and caused an officer mutiny in the army, largely because the king had acted unconstitutionally in beginning the war.

Gustav III had to launch a political offensive at home and was able to secure increased power and adequate financial support from the estates for a long war. The next year, a severe epidemic among the seamen of the Swedish battle fleet prevented it from engaging in offensive operations, a fact which severely handicapped Swedish attempts to reinforce army and archipelago forces in Finland. In the Finnish archipelago, the Swedish oared forces supported army operations, but after one year of war, the Russians had now organized a large oared flotilla which by the end of the summer was able to defeat a much inferior Swedish force.

For 1790, Gustav III planned early, large-scale surprise attacks on the Russian naval bases by the battle fleet, the archipelago flotilla and the army acting in cooperation. The oared flotilla had rapidly been increased by a large number of gunboats in order to make the army more seaborne. From May to early July a series of actions were fought at Reval, at Fredrikshamn, off Kronstadt and in the Viborg area with the Swedes taking the offensive. The archipelago forces enjoyed some success but the sailing fleet suffered severe losses because of ships going aground in shallow waters during action and a general inability to carry out attacks with sufficient ruthlessness. The Russian battle fleet acted with great caution, an attitude which was adequate to the demands of the situation.

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