Battle of Wittstock

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Battle of Wittstock
Part of Swedish intervention in the Thirty Years' War
Image:Wittstock.jpg
Date October 4, 1636
Location Wittstock, about 95 km northwest of Berlin, Germany
Result Decisive Swedish victory
Belligerents
Flag of Sweden Sweden Flag of Holy Roman Empire Holy Roman Empire
Flag of Saxony Saxony
Commanders
Johan Banér
Lennart Torstenson,
James King,
Alexander Leslie		 Melchior von Hatzfeldt

Rodolfo Giovanni Marazzino
John George I of Saxony
Strength
15,000 troops 20,000 troops
Casualties and losses
3,100 dead or wounded 5,000 dead,

2,000 captured and recruited into the Swedish army
v • d • e
Thirty Years' War
Plzeň – Záblati – Dolní Věstonice – White Mountain – Bergen-op-Zoom – Wiesloch – Wimpfen – Höchst – Fleurus – Stadtlohn – Breda – Dessau Bridge – Lutter am Barenberge – Groenlo – Stralsund – Wolgast – Frankfurt – Magdeburg – Werben – 1st Breitenfeld – Rain – Fürth – Alte Veste – Lützen – Oldendorf – Nördlingen – Wittstock – Rheinfelden – Breisach – Chemnitz – The Downs – La Marfée – Honnecourt – 2nd Breitenfeld – Rocroi – Tuttlingen – Freiburg – Jüterbog – Jankov – Hulst – Mergentheim – 2nd Nördlingen – Zusmarshausen – Lens – Prague

The Battle of Wittstock was fought on September 24 (Julian calendar) or October 4 (Gregorian calendar) 1636, between a Protestant army and an alliance of the Holy Roman Empire and Saxony.

The Holy Roman Emperor in Vienna, with his Saxon and Catholic allies, was contesting Northern Germany with the Protestant princes, championed by the Swedes. Like boxers the two armies circled around each other for eleven days; the Swedish army like an aggressive, murderous lightweight which over and over again tries to take the advantage, while the heavyweight opponent over and over again is forced into small retreats. But on Saturday, 24 September 1636 (Julian calendar) the Protestant-Swedish army, commanded by Johan Banér, intercepted their opponents in the hilly landscape filled with forests slightly south of Wittstock. The Imperials decided to wait for the Swedes on a range of sandy hills, Scharfenberg; with a part of the front with six ditches swiftly dug to ensure victory and a wall of linked wagons. Their commanders waited for some time for the Swedish troops to appear on the open fields before their front, so that they could be destroyed by the artillery just as in the battle of Nördlingen. But instead the message arrived that the Swedish army, against all expectations, was attacking the left flank. The Imperials were forced to regroup their frontlines and set up a new front. The Battle of Wittstock had begun.

The Catholics found it impossible to decide on who should be in command of their army. Instead they commanded one third each. The right wing was under Melchior von Hatzfeldt, the centre under Marazzino and the left wing under King John George I of Saxony.

The Swedish army counted 15,000 men, of which one third was made out of Swedes and Finns, while the rest were Germans, Englishmen and Scotsmen.

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