Battle of Bomarsund

British bombardment of Bomarsund

Date	August 1854
Location	Bomarsund, Åland Islands (now part of Finland)
Result	Anglo-French victory

Belligerents

United Kingdom

French Empire

Russian Empire

Commanders and leaders

Charles Napier

Parseval-Deschenes

Jakob Bodisco

Strength

20,000 seamen and marines,
12,000 soldiers (landing force)

2,000–3,000 soldiers

Casualties and losses

85 dead or wounded

53 dead
1,700 captured

The Battle of Bomarsund, in August 1854, took place during the Crimean War, when an Anglo-French expeditionary force attacked a Russian fortress. It was the only major action of the war to take place at Bomarsund in the Baltic Sea.

Bomarsund was a 19th-century fortress, the construction of which had started in 1832 by Russia in Sund, Åland Islands, in the Baltic Sea. Bomarsund had not been completed (only two towers of the planned twelve subsidiary towers had been completed). When the war broke out the fortress remained vulnerable especially against forces attacking over land. Designers of the fortress had also assumed that narrow sea passages near the fortress would not be passable for large naval ships; while this assumption had held true during the time of sailing ships, it was possible for steam powered ships to reach weakly defended sections of the fortress.

On 21 June 1854, three British ships bombarded the Bomarsund fortress. Artillery from the shore, however, responded and, while both sides suffered some damage, the casualties were light. The first battle was indecisive. During the battle, Charles Davis Lucas tossed overboard a shell which had landed on board. The shell exploded before it reached water. For saving his ship he was the first man to be awarded the Victoria Cross.

While the first battle had been a brief clash and artillery duel, the second battle was a different affair. By the end of July 1854, a British fleet of 25 ships had surrounded the fortress and only waited for the French ground troops to arrive. Both defender and attacker had acknowledged that the fort could not be defeated by naval forces alone and made preparations accordingly, Russian forces destroyed the surrounding countryside in an effort to force British and French forces break away from the assumed siege.

Landing on 8 August, the British troops established a battery of three 32-pounder guns on a hill, the French establishing several batteries. On 13 August 1854, the French artillery opened fire on a tower and by the end of the day were in a position that while artillery suppressed the defenders of subsidiary tower of Brännklint, French infantry assaulted it. Defenders found their position to be hopeless and withdrew the bulk of their forces to the main fort leaving only small detachment behind to supervise demolition of the tower. While French troops managed to capture the tower before it was demolished, it did not save the tower since the Russian artillery now opened fire at the captured tower and on 15 August 1854 scored a hit to the gunpowder magazines. The resulting explosion demolished the tower.

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Wikipedia