Capture of the Dutch fleet at Den Helder

Capture of the Dutch fleet by the French hussars

Date	23 January 1795
Location	Now Wadden Sea, Netherlands
Result	Capture of the Dutch fleet

Belligerents

Dutch Republic

Republican France

Commanders and leaders

H. Reintjes (POW)

J-G de Winter

Louis Lahure

Strength

14 warships
850 guns in total

One hussar regiment
One infantry battalion

Casualties and losses

14 warships (850 guns), and several merchant ships captured

None

The Capture of the Dutch fleet at Den Helder or the Battle of Texel occurred in the night of the 23 January 1795, and presents a rare occurrence of a "naval" battle between warships and cavalry, in which a French Hussar regiment surprised a Dutch fleet frozen at anchor between the port of Den Helder and the island of Texel. After an extraordinary charge across the frozen Zuiderzee, the French cavalry captured 14 Dutch ships and 850 guns. A capture of ships by horsemen is an extremely rare feat in military history. However, some sources (Dutch) say that no battle actually took place, and that the French Hussars merely accepted a previously agreed-upon surrender of the Dutch fleet.

The French units were the 8th Hussar Regiment and the 15th Line Infantry Regiment of the French Revolutionary Army. Jean-Charles Pichegru was the leader of the French army that invaded the Dutch Republic. The Dutch fleet was commanded by H. Reintjes. The actual capture was accomplished by Jean-Guillaume de Winter and Louis Joseph Lahure. The action happened during the War of the First Coalition, part of the French Revolutionary Wars.

Den Helder is located at the tip of the North Holland peninsula, south of the island of Texel, on what was then the shallow Zuiderzee bay (Dutch for Southern Sea ; cf North Sea). The Zuiderzee has been closed off and partly pumped out in the 20th century, and what is left of it now forms the freshwater IJsselmeer.

During the War of the First Coalition of the French Revolutionary Wars, General of Division Jean-Charles Pichegru was commanding the autumn 1794 campaign during which the conquest of the Netherlands occurred. The French Army entered Amsterdam on the 19 January 1795 to stay there over winter. Well informed, the general found out that a Dutch fleet was anchored at Den Helder, approximately eighty kilometers north from Amsterdam.

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Wikipedia