This is the place. It guided the only passable route into Karlskrona from the open sea along with Kungsholm on the opposite side of it, until cannons became good enough that Kungsholm's batteries were able to fire all the way across, at which point Drottningskär was decommissioned.
The Ballet of Europe: Pas de deux for a nice-legged Gascon sergeant and a little Corsican corporal
- Thread starter Redolegna
- Start date
This is the place. It guided the only passable route into Karlskrona from the open sea along with Kungsholm on the opposite side of it, until cannons became good enough that Kungsholm's batteries were able to fire all the way across, at which point Drottningskär was decommissioned.
Yes, I saw that as soon as you remarked on it. It's a bit awkward, because there's no real justification to draw the admiral and his captains all the way over there without being quite obvious (and they risk seeing the transports making their way to Lindenholmen). Could you suggest a suitably official building in Karlskrona itself to host honoured guests?
I don't know where they'd actually live, but the daytime would presumably see them either at the Admiralty (at the south end of Amiralitetstorget) or the Officers' Mess on Varvsgatan.
Great update, Redolegna! Things are going to get interesting in the Baltic in the months to come.
I'm wondering how fast the Russian response could be to an invasion of Finland. Sweden was supposed to be an ally so there was no need to heavy garrison the frontier and I imagine a good deal of the russian army is in Central Europe campaigning against Napoleon. Do they have the means to build an army to defend Finland? If not, trouble ahead, especially given how close Finland is to St. Petersburg...
What is Bernadotte going to do with the British ships he captured? Make them join the Swedish fleet? He is certainly going to need those: I doubt the Royal Navy would let this action go unpunished. The Russian fleet is also likely not to stay idle and since neither Denmark nor France can send their respective fleets to help...
Keep up the good work!
I'm wondering how fast the Russian response could be to an invasion of Finland. Sweden was supposed to be an ally so there was no need to heavy garrison the frontier and I imagine a good deal of the russian army is in Central Europe campaigning against Napoleon. Do they have the means to build an army to defend Finland? If not, trouble ahead, especially given how close Finland is to St. Petersburg...
What is Bernadotte going to do with the British ships he captured? Make them join the Swedish fleet? He is certainly going to need those: I doubt the Royal Navy would let this action go unpunished. The Russian fleet is also likely not to stay idle and since neither Denmark nor France can send their respective fleets to help...
Keep up the good work!
I vaguely recalled the story of a naval battle won by a French cavalry charge but I couldn't remember when and where it had happened... Thanks for reminding me of that!Redolegna said:
Yeay! I'm very curious to see how things are going to go with the British Navy... It's already autumn, and you don't want to send a fleet to the Baltic in winter (that was the reason Palmerston cited to explain why he had not intervened in the Schleswig-Holstein matter). Especially not if Denmark and Sweden are on the same side militarily and can blockade the entrance.
So, basically, Karl Johan knows that winter is coming, and he intends to use it for his advantage... He is learning fast how to play the role of a King in the North...
So, basically, Karl Johan knows that winter is coming, and he intends to use it for his advantage... He is learning fast how to play the role of a King in the North...
Oh, they sure are.
The answer is: not very. For starters, both the tsar and his heir are besieged in Prague with roughly half the Russian army. The other half is mostly with Benningsen and Blücher in Poland. Okay, there are other bits hanging in the Caucasus and in the Ukraine, but they need to stay there lest the Persians and the Ottomans begin to have ideas. So the most senior commander in the field is Benningsen and the man is... well, there is no way to put it nicely. He is out for himself and not too good at anything except shameless self-promotion. Then, there is the matter that he is going to have to face Davout. So the decisions will have to be made in St Petersburg where news are only now trickling in about Bernadotte's radical turn-around. Thus, most of the first-rate corps and division commanders are far out west with the best units. Russia can scrap together a force to send to Finland, but it's going to be long, difficult and not an army seen as very good: expect it to be mostly made of narodnoe opolcheniye. They have to hope the Finnish strongholds will keep the Swedes at bay. But Petersburg is not immediately threatened: Viborg/Viipuri is in the way.
He can't crew them. His sailors don't have the experience with them and ice is soon coming to the Baltic. He either will keep them in Karlskrona which is a very defensible harbour as @Ares96 has pointed out (which is part of the reason why so many sailors were on shore leave) or have them sailed to a more northern port. Expect them to be used as bargaining chips in any peace deal.
I'll do my best. Thanks again for the encouragements!
Yeah, you read about the Australian cavalry charging trenches at Beersheba in WW1 and think, 'surely that was the maddest thing cavalrymen ever pulled'. And then you realize it is not.
Heh. When your country is considered a second rate power and you want to punch above your weight, you have to use every trick up your sleeve. And he's only the Crown Prince in the North, for now.
The British Navy has the same problem as everybody right now: they have no freaking clue what's happening. This also includes Napoléon and his allies but as they are counting on disruption and chaos, they can't complain. There are two ships of the line still out there in the Baltic, together with the three Russian ships and frigates, sloops and merchantmen are all over the place and most likely heading away because that's how trade works in that sea. But they'll have to run the gauntlet of the Belts and the Skagerrak. They'll make it out, mostly (even at their height, the Dano-Norwegians could only inflict relatively light losses on convoys) but it's going to take time. When the British Admiralty learns the news, it will want to react as soon as possible, but they can't spare as many ships as they'd want and winter in the Baltic is not a pleasant experience. They might decide to release the Russian ships and give them the task of forcing their way through but it's going to be painful one way or another. In addition, they have lost access to all their naval bases on the southern coast of the North Sea and the Baltic Sea. Which means embarking heavy contingent of marines for a descente maybe even a siege. Let's just say that Graham Moore took an action that will be seen as just anticipating the court-martial's decision.
Thanks! Looking forward to give you more.
Do I smell another charge on ice?
Bernadotte was at Austerlitz. He knows how horribly wrong things can go if guns can fire on ice. The problem in 1795 was that the guns could not be depressed enough to pull it off. But he was probably familiar with the action. Most importantly, he has no experience of naval command and he didn't want to risk an open-sea battle where he could lose some ships, a very finite resource. By that point, he also knows that he will be viewed as worse than Judas by Coalition members, so he might well embrace it. And I'll point out it's not even the craziest scheme French marshals have pulled off. In the 1805 campaign, the Austrians had set explosives all along the bridges crossing the Danube and leading to Vienna. The bridges were under heavy guard with order to detonate them should the French approach. So what do Murat and Lannes do? They march straight towards the enemy commanding officer and ask him why his troops are not standing down since an armistice has been signed. It seems a sergeant found this suspicious and tried to raise his superiors' attention. Murat and Lannes asked haughtily if the Austrian officers were in the habit on taking orders from NCOs. All the while, a column of French soldiers is walking over the bridge, preventing the Austrians from detonating it. And Murat and Lannes suddenly say that there is no armistice and that the Austrians are their prisoners.
Apparently, being bold as brass and able to brazenly lie in the face of evidence was a requirement for French marshals.
Same feelings here. Sadly the author seems to have put this TL on a long hiatus.