- Theater War
The Theater War ( _sv. Teaterkriget), alias Lingonberry War ( _no. Tyttebærkrigen), was a brief war between
Denmark-Norway and Sweden lasting between1788 and1789 . [ [http://www.smb.nu/svenskakrig/1788b.asp SMB "Svenskt Militärhistoriskt bibliotek" Website] ] , starting on24 September 1788 , formally lasting until9 July 1789 . Although the decision to launch the attack was taken inDenmark , the majority of the attacking soldiers were probablyNorwegians .The attack was directed towards the area known as
Bohuslän in Sweden, and was supposed to be a diversion to supportRussia who were allies of Denmark-Norway. Russia had in turn been attacked by Sweden (Gustav III's Russian War ). Denmark-Norway had to honor their alliance with them, which they had signed in1773 .Background
When
Gustav III of Sweden on his own initiative, and unconstitutionally, attackedRussia in 1788 and thereby started the Russo-Swedish War of 1788-1790 Denmark found itself in an awkward position. In a treaty signed with Russia in1773 Denmark committed itself to assist with 12,000 men, six ships of the line and threefrigate s in the case Russia were to be attacked. Soon after the Swedish attack the Russians demanded the Danes keep their promise, and Denmark was forced to join the war. When Gustav III received news of this, he exclaimed "I am saved!".Considering that the attack on Russia was Gustav's own initiative, that many Swedish officers and the king's opponents were strongly against the war (see
Anjala conspiracy ), and that the war was not being fought very successfully, this exclamation might seem strange. However, Gustav III the astute politician saw this as a golden opportunity to turn the Swedish opinion in his favour. He left the battlefront in Finland and proceeded to Stockholm and thenDalarna where he managed to incite severalfree corps to participate in the defense against the Danes and Norwegians. Despite strong popular support, Sweden had only 10,000 men that had to be divided betweenSkåne ,Jämtland andBohuslän .The Danish-Norwegian attack
The first Danish force of about 8,000-10,000 men (according to some sources mostly Norwegians) under the command of prince
Karl of Hessen attacked Bohuslän from Norway onSeptember 24 and advanced quickly towardVänersborg meeting feeble Swedish resistance. ColonelJohan Werner Tranefelt must ensconce himself inKvistrum north ofUddevalla with his 700 men but was defeated onSeptember 29 by a much larger Danish force led bymajor-general Mansbach . In a week the Danes took Uddevalla, Vänersborg, andÅmål and onOctober 6 they demanded the surrender ofGothenburg .The invading troops met little resistance, and occupied
Uddevalla ,Vänersborg andÅmål within a week, but was later stopped atGothenburg . Out of 10.000 soldiers, the Norwegians lost only 8 in the ensuing confrontations.The defense of Gothenburg
By this time, Gustav III himself had arrived in the city and took resolute action; he dismissed the passive
lieutenant-general Anders Rudolf Du Rietz and replaced him with lieutenant-generalJohan Sparre . The defenses of Gothenburg were quickly strengthened. In addition, the British swedophileenvoy Sir Huges Elliot arrived in Gothenburg and brokered a shortarmistice with the Danish commander onOctober 9 . Delaying and stalling tactics prolonged the armistice in stages to May, 1789.Conclusion
Faced with the armistice, threats of a joint attack on
Holstein from both Great Britain and Prussia, and an ever more strongly defendedGothenburg , the Danish troops marched off onNovember 12 , 1788 toward Norway, and Sweden had in essence won the war. This was convenient for Sweden since the fighting on the Finnish front was very much still in progress.The success could have turned into a debâcle when it was revealed that a lieutenant
Benzelstjärna with the king's approval had planned to burn the seven Russian ships in theCopenhagen harbor. Through the revelation the plans were never carried out.The attacking Danish-Norwegian force only lost eight men through acts of war. The almost frivolous Swedish and Norwegian names for the conflict do not reflect the real suffering caused by it: the Danish-Norwegian army lost 1,500-3,000 men to hunger, disease, poor sanitary conditions, and
exposure to continual autumn rainfall. On the 12th of November, the Norwegian division retreated back toNorway .On
July 9 ,1789 , Denmark surrendered before the combined might of Britain, Prussia, and Sweden. A statement of neutrality was issued by Denmark, not a formal peace treaty.The name of the war
The Swedish term "Theater War" reflects the view in later times that the war in practice was a theatrical spectacle rather than a "real" martial conflict.
In Norwegian, the war is known as "Tyttebærkrigen" after the Norwegian word for the mountain cranberry, in remembrance of how the Norwegian troops, denied assistance by the local population, had to live off the land in berry season. [Norwegian Wikipedia, read 13 March 2007]
ources
*Georg Apenes, Tyttebærkrigen: det norske felttog i Sverige 1788, (1988)
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