Battle of Saint Cast

Battle of Saint Cast
Part of the Seven Years' War
Battle of Saint-Cast in 1758 during the Seven Years' War.
Date 11 September 1758 Location near Saint-Cast, France Result French victory
Belligerents
Great Britain	France
Commanders and leaders
Thomas Bligh George Anson Richard Howe	Richelieu, duc d’Aiguillon
Strength
Total: 42,500 32,500 sailors and 10,000 land troops	7,000 and militiamen
Casualties and losses
3,000 including 800 prisoners	300

The Battle of Saint Cast was a military engagement during the Seven Years' War on the French coast between British naval and land expeditionary forces and French coastal defence forces. Fought on 11 September 1758, it was won by the French.

During the Seven Years' War, Britain mounted numerous amphibious expeditions against France and French possessions around the world. In 1758 a number of expeditions, then called Descents, were made against the northern coast of France. The military objectives of the descents were to capture and destroy French ports, divert French land forces from Germany, suppress privateers and spread panic and confusion in France. The battle of Saint Cast was the final engagement of a descent in force that ended in disaster for the British.

The expedition contained sizable naval and land forces. The naval forces were two squadrons consisting of: Admiral Anson's 22 ships of the line with 9 frigates crewed by 15,500 men and Commodore Howe's 1 ship of the line of 64 guns, 4 of 50 guns, 10 frigates, 5 sloops, 2 fire-ships, 2 bomb ketches, 6,000 sailors, 6,000 marines, 100 transports, 20 tenders, 10 store-ships and 10 cutters with crews totaling some 5,000 merchant seamen. The land forces were four infantry brigades consisting of: the Guards Brigade made up of the 1st battalions of the 1st, Coldstream and 3rd Foot Guards and three brigades made up of the 5th, 24th, 30th, 33rd, 34th, 36th, 38th, 67th, 68th and 72nd Regiments of Foot, as well as an artillery train of 60 cannon with 400 artillerymen and a few hundred Light Dragoon cavalry, totaling over 10,000 soldiers.

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