Battle of Wittstock

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Battle of Wittstock

Part of Swedish intervention in the Thirty Years' War

Date	October 4, 1636
Location	Wittstock, about 95 km northwest of Berlin, Germany
Result	Decisive Swedish victory

Combatants

Sweden

Holy Roman Empire
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

3,100 dead or wounded

5,000 dead,

2,000 captured and recruited into the Swedish army

Thirty Years' War
Plzeň – Záblati – Dolní Věstonice – White Mountain – Wiesloch – Wimpfen – Höchst – Fleurus – Stadtlohn – Dessau Bridge – Lutter am Barenberge – Stralsund – Wolgast – Frankfurt – Magdeburg – Werben – 1st Breitenfeld – Rain – Fürth – Alte Veste – Lützen – Oldendorf – Nördlingen – Wittstock – Rheinfelden – Breisach – Chemnitz – Honnecourt – 2nd Breitenfeld – Rocroi – Tuttlingen – Freiburg – Jüterbog – Jankov – Mergentheim – Nördlingen – Zusmarshausen – Prague – Lens – Arras – Valenciennes – Dunes

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, the 24th of September (Julian calendar) 1636 Banér's army 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.