By the end of the first week of July 1836, most of Prussia's forces, under the command of General Yorck, had marched east from Hannover to arrive outside the Pomeranian port city of Swinemunde, which was being held by a force of British soldiers some 7,000 strong under a veteran of the Napoleonic Wars, General Hood. After several light skirmishes, the British invasion force was forced to retreat into an old fortified part of the city, the defenses of which they had expanded in the weeks since their arrival.
At this stage, General Yorck was unwilling to attempt an assault against the British positions until he could receive reinforcements and the heavy artillery he would need to breach the walls that the British had sheltered themselves behind. Those reinforcements were at least a five day march away, and Yorck settled in to wait. After only two days, however, Yorck found his hand forced. An urgent message arrived at his headquarters on the evening of July 14. It was an order from King Friedrich Wilhelm III himself to attack the British positions immediately. It was feared in Berlin that if the British were not driven from Swinemunde immediately, that they would soon be reinforced by a larger invasion army. Having no choice but to obey, Yorck attacked the British positions on July 15, with his reinforcements still a two day march away.
The Battle of Swinemunde
Yorck's dragoons, dismounted and fighting as infantry, charged the British positions three times throughout the afternoon, each time being driven back with heavy losses. Discouraged, Yorck ordered his forces to retire for the night and rest. At dawn the next day, Yorck personally led his men in another attempt to breach the enemy defenses. He chose a low barricade that the British had erected as an extension of the ports old fortifications as the point of attack. Through a determined effort, Yorck and his men broke through the barricade briefly before being forced to retreat in the face of a British counterattack. Again, losses were heavy with Yorck himself suffering a slight wound in the arm and having a horse shot from under him.
Before allowing his wound to be attended to, Yorck issued an order that no further attacks be made that day and his men once again left the battlefield to the British. After two days of fighting, the Prussians had lost nearly 1500 men to casualties to around 500 for the British.
The next day, July 17, Yorck's long awaited reinforcements and artillery arrived. Yorck personally saw to the positioning of the guns and they commenced firing on the British at noon. Before long, the Prussian guns were able to blast a hole in the British defenses and Yorck sent his fresh infantry into the breach.
Prussian troops breaching the wall at Swinemunde
With their defenses breached and Prussian troops pouring in, the tide of battle turned against the British. Though his men were able to put up a brave resistance for several more hours, General Hood was forced to surrender his army. At 6:00 pm, the proud British force marched out of Swinemunde and into captivity. Private Artur Bachmeier of the 3rd Guards Regiment recorded the scene:
After stacking their weapons the enemy marched out into our custody. Though they were stained with the grime of battle and many were wounded, one could not deny that they marched out to us with a certain dignity. Their ranks were perfectly straight and they held their heads high as if on parade and not marching to surrender themselves to the enemy. On their faces, where one might expect to see the shame of defeat, was a look of clear disdain. It was clear that these were not broken men. Rather, these were men who had only stopped fighting because their general asked them to. These British seem to make formidable enemies...
The battle, though a complete victory for Prussia, was a costly one. While the British lost their entire force of 7,000 to either casualties or capture, they had inflicted over 2,000 casualties on the Prussians. After the defeat of the British invasion army, Prussian diplomats approached their British counterparts with an offer of peace. It was immediately rejected.
