Battle of Callantsoog

Battle of Callantsoog
Part of Anglo-Russian Invasion of Holland
Landing at Callantsoog by Dirk Langendijk
Date 27 August 1799 Location Callantsoog, The Netherlands 52°50′56″N 4°41′49″E / 52.849°N 4.697°E / 52.849; 4.697Coordinates: 52°50′56″N 4°41′49″E / 52.849°N 4.697°E / 52.849; 4.697 Result British victory
Belligerents
Batavian Republic	Great Britain
Commanders and leaders
Herman Willem Daendels	Ralph Abercromby
Strength
10,000	12,000
Casualties and losses
137 dead 950 wounded	74 dead 376 wounded

The Battle of Callantsoog (sometimes also called Battle of Groote Keeten) (27 August 1799) followed the amphibious landing by a British invasion force under Lieutenant-General Sir Ralph Abercromby near Callantsoog in the course of the Anglo-Russian Invasion of Holland of 1799. Despite strong opposition by troops of the Batavian Republic under Lieutenant-General Herman Willem Daendels the British troops established a bridgehead and the Dutch were forced to retreat.

The British government had long deliberated about the best place for the landing of the Anglo-Russian expedition on the Dutch coast. Possible locations taken into consideration were the Scheldt estuary (where in 1809 the Walcheren Campaign was aimed at) and the area around Scheveningen (near The Hague) where the planners expected support from partisans of the former stadtholder, William V, Prince of Orange. Eventually, it was decided however, to select the extreme northern part of the North Holland peninsula, because its shore was more easily accessible than other parts of the Dutch coast, that were encumbered with dangerous shoals and sandbanks; because it was only lightly defended, with only a few shore batteries at Den Helder; and because it offered the hope of capturing the northern squadron of the Batavian fleet, a most important strategic objective. Also, the British planners thought that the great city of Amsterdam could easily be approached and captured from this direction.

The project of the expedition was of course known to the Batavian and French governments and military commanders, but they were of necessity uncertain of the exact location of the landing. This compelled them to spread their forces thinly over a large area, from the Scheldt in the South to Groningen. One of the two divisions of the new Batavian army, under Daendels, was indeed positioned in North Holland. He had about 7,000 men in the northern part of the peninsula, around Alkmaar, while a reserve force under General Van Zuylen van Nijevelt was located at the narrowest part of the province of Holland, near Beverwijk. The second Batavian division, under Lieutenant-General Jean-Baptiste Dumonceau (who was a Belgian, later naturalized to Dutch nationality), was guarding the northern provinces, Friesland and Groningen, and therefore separated from the North-Holland peninsula by the Zuiderzee, which abutted its eastern shore. This implied that Dumonceau was several day marches away and could in the event not reach Daendels in time to support him. The same applied to the French forces under the command of General Guillaume Marie Anne Brune, the supreme commander of the Franco-Batavian forces in this theater of war.

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