Hello. I've been busy for some weeks, which delayed my posting here, but now it comes a new post about the decisive battle of Poltava in 1709, which will be the last post in the series "Nordic Wars".
It all started in a muddy field in Poltava in today's Ukraine, then in Russia. The Swedish army was exhausted after a seemlingly endless march towards the Russians, looking for a final blow to the Russian army and eventually the fall of Moscow. A long campaign had been going on, with heavy casualties on both sides, and the Swedish government wanted to end the bloodshed with a victory. Besides, the Swedish king Charles XII (murdered in a previous post) was obsessed with warfare and couldn't rest with what he had: He loved the battlefield. And battlefield he created, as the Swedish army, with a minimum of supplies and a wounded king, marched into the fields of Poltava, deciding the Swedish Empire's fate.
As always in these campaigns, the Swedes were outnumbered, which usually weren't a problem. At the battle of Narva 9 years earlier the Swedes won, though outnumbered 1:5. And when the army of about 10.000 men marched further, the Russian army was counting 45.000 men. Unfortunately for the Swedish, the Russians learned from their mistakes, including the one in Narva, and now got largely better equipment and cannons. Additionally, the Swedish artillery was too heavy to carry, and had small amounts of ammunition and gunpowder, and could barely be used on the battlefield. With weak gunpowder, as gunpowder had a "best before date" at the time, the Swedish army's victory was both difficult to accomplish and crucial.
Without the proper commander (the king, who was wounded and could only watch the encounter), the Swedish army was lead by the generals Carl Gustav Rehnskiold and Adam Ludwig Lewenhaupt, which complicated the conditions utterly, as they had widely different strategies and solutions. After a series of unfortunate events, as mutiny, drinking, disease epidemics and late supplies, the battle was almost doomed from the beginning. However, the Swedes marched on through the muds, like zombies. The Russians fired, but the Swedes kept marching, as their gunpowder could only be used at close range. Finally, the Swedes fired, but with a weak effect. As a commander of the Swedish army commented, the sound of the firing in many of the guns sounded "like a pair of gloves smacked together". Still, they marched on, outnumbered 1:3. And thundered into the Russian line, fighting, fighting. Rehnskiold saw the glororious event and had a serious opportunity to win, if the cavalry would charge the Russian flanks now. Unfortunately, the cavalry wasn't ready yet, and needed to regroup in order to charge in, which sealed the battle and the nation's fate. The Swedish line infantry lost the encounter, broke and fled, and now the Swedish core, including the wounded king, was surrounded by fleeing comrades and Russian bullets. Charles was the main priority of both the Swedish and Russian army, and more and more Swedes protected the king with their lives, directing bullets originally meant for the king. About 30 men lost their lives taking king-aimed bullets, but the king got away, with some of the army. About 9000 lost their lives, mostly Swedes, and about 3000 Swedish soldiers, including the artillery, was captured.
Epilogue
The army marched further, in even worse conditions, through the muddy fields of Poltava, and tried to reach Dniepr, a river running out in the Black Sea, from where they could sail home. However, the rafts to get the fleet southwards to the Black Sea, were too small to fit the entire army, and after quarreling and fighting over the open slots on the raft, a minority of the army, including the king, got away. They went to Moldavia (controlled by the Ottoman empire, Sweden's allies) and got home from there. The Swedish army and might was a mere shadow of its past glories, as a couple of thousands survived a disastrous campaign with about 44.000 participants.
Please correct me if some numbers, dates or facts are incorrect.
Vavva
