Attack on Brest

English plan of the battle of Camaret

Date	18 June 1694
Location	Brest, France
Result	French victory

Belligerents

England,

Dutch Republic

France

Commanders and leaders

Thomas Tollemache,
Marquess of Carmarthen

Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban

Strength

10,000-12,000 men
36 ships of the line
12 bomb vessels
80 transport ships

Several hundred

Casualties and losses

1 ship of the line,
2 other ships,
800 killed or wounded in the landing,
400 killed on the warships,
466 captured

45 wounded

The Battle of Camaret was an amphibious landing at Camaret Bay on 18 June 1694 by the English and Dutch in an attempt to seize the French port of Brest and destroy part of the French fleet stationed there, as part of the Nine Years' War. It was successfully opposed by Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban (in his only ever field command).

At the start of 1694, Louis XIV decided to take the fight to the Mediterranean and Spain. Aiming to support Maréchal de Noailles in the capture of Barcelona and to force Spain to sign a peace treaty, Tourville sailed out of Brest on 24 April with 71 ships of the line and Chateaurenault's squadron followed him on 7 May. Informed of this fact, the English and Dutch planned to take Brest, thinking that this would be easy in the absence of Tourville and his fleet, and to land a strong army of occupation there of 7,000 to 8,000 men.

After Tourville's victory at Lagos in 1693, William III of England had sent an expedition to take reprisals against Saint-Malo and planned to mount other similar operations against other French ports. Having got wind of the plan against Brest via spies, Louis XIV made Vauban military commander of Brest and the four lower-Breton dioceses, from Concarneau to Saint-Brieuc.

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Wikipedia