Helder Expedition

Anglo-Russian Invasion of Holland
Part of the War of the Second Coalition
Departure of the Anglo-Russian troops from Den Helder.
Date 27 August – 19 November 1799 Location North Holland, Netherlands Result Convention of Alkmaar French-Batavian victory Anglo-Russian force withdraws.
Belligerents
France  Batavian Republic	Great Britain  Russian Empire
Commanders and leaders
G-M-A Brune Herman W. Daendels	Duke of York Johann H. von Fersen Ivan Essen
Strength
30,000	40,000
Casualties and losses
7,000 killed and wounded; 25 ships lost	18,000 killed, wounded or captured

The Anglo-Russian invasion of Holland (or Anglo-Russian expedition to Holland, or Helder Expedition) refers to the campaign of 27 August to 19 November 1799 during the War of the Second Coalition, in which an expeditionary force of British and Russian troops invaded the North Holland peninsula in the Batavian Republic. The campaign had two strategic objectives: to neutralize the Batavian fleet and to promote an uprising by followers of the former stadtholder William V against the Batavian government. The invasion was opposed by a combined Franco-Batavian army of approximately equal strength. Tactically, the Anglo-Russian forces were successful initially, defeating the defenders in the battles of Callantsoog and the Krabbendam, but subsequent battles went against the Anglo-Russian forces. Following a defeat at Castricum, the Duke of York, the British supreme commander, decided upon a strategic retreat to the original bridgehead in the extreme north of the peninsula. Subsequently, an agreement was negotiated with the supreme commander of the Franco-Batavian forces, General Guillaume Marie Anne Brune, that allowed the Anglo-Russian forces to evacuate this bridgehead unmolested. However, the expedition partly succeeded in its first objective, capturing a significant proportion of the Batavian fleet.

In the 1780s, a pro-French Patriot rebellion failed to establish a democratic republic without the House of Orange-Nassau, when the latter's power was restored following the 1787 Prussian invasion of Holland. The Dutch Republic, again ruled by the Orangists, had been a member of the First Coalition that opposed the revolutionary French Republic after 1792. In 1795, at the end of their Flanders Campaign, the forces of stadtholder William V of Orange, and his British and Austrian allies were defeated by the invading French army under General Charles Pichegru, augmented with a contingent of Dutch Patriot revolutionaries under General Herman Willem Daendels. The Dutch Republic was overthrown; the stadtholder fled the country to London; and the Batavian Republic was proclaimed.

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