On 17 July 1788 the Swedish fleet under Duke Charles of Södermanland fought the Russian Baltic Fleet under Admiral Samuel Greig off the island of Hogland in the Gulf of Finland. Each side took one enemy ship and both claimed victory, but Sweden's plan to land an army near St. Petersburg failed. In 1453 John Talbot fell at Castillon.
Battle of Hogland
17 July 1788 · 238 years ago
Gustav III's gamble
Turkey declared war on Russia in 1787, and with Russia's strength tied down in the south, Gustav III of Sweden saw his chance to strike. The Swedish plan depended on the fleet: it was to beat or drive off the Russian fleet, so that the army could be carried across the Gulf of Finland and landed near St. Petersburg to force Empress Catherine to terms.1
Russia had meant to send part of its fleet to the Mediterranean against the Turks. Instead Admiral Samuel Greig, a British-born officer in Russian service, took the Baltic Fleet to sea to find the Swedes.2
The Swedish fleet sailed under the king's brother, Duke Charles of Södermanland, but the Svenskt biografiskt lexikon and the Marinmuseum agree that his flag captain, Otto Hindric Nordenskjöld, led it in practice. It had 15 ships of the line and five frigates, which had to take their place in the line; Greig had 17 ships of the line.3
An evening battle off Hogland
Hogland, Gogland in Russian and Suursaari in Finnish, is an island in the Gulf of Finland, and the fleets met west of it. Swedish sources date the battle 17 July; Russian ones, using the Julian calendar, 6 July.4
The two lines closed in the late afternoon. Greig in the 100-gun Rostislav went for the Swedish flagship Gustaf III, with the duke on board, and her next astern, Fädernesland. In the Russian rear only three ships, Boleslav, Metcheslav and Vladislav, came to close quarters, while the rest kept their distance. The wind died away to an almost complete calm, and the fight broke up into separate actions.5
The Swedish Prins Gustaf, flagship of Count Wachtmeister, who commanded the Swedish van, was battered by Rostislav until she struck her colors, at about nine in the evening by Anderson's account and about ten by the Russian ones. In the darkness the Russian Vladislav, which had pushed ahead of her line, was left without support among the Swedish ships and had to surrender. Greig learned of it only when a boat from her reached him late that night.6
Counting the cost
Both fleets were badly knocked about. The Russian figures for their own dead run from 321 in Anderson to as many as 580 in Russian accounts, with 700 or more wounded, not counting the men lost with Vladislav. The Swedes gave their own losses as 130 killed and 334 wounded. The Russians took 539 prisoners from Prins Gustaf.7
Two victories, one result
Both sides claimed the victory. Sweden celebrated it as a great victory, and a medal was struck for it; in Russia Greig received the Order of St. Andrew, and captains who had held back were court-martialed. Nordenskjöld was promoted to rear admiral. Later historians mostly call the battle indecisive: Anderson, the Royal Collection Trust and Lappalainen, while the Marinmuseum writes that it was close to a draw, though celebrated as a great Swedish victory.8
The result was strategic. The Swedish fleet fell back to Sveaborg off Helsingfors to repair and take on ammunition, and the landing near St. Petersburg could not go ahead. When Greig appeared off Sveaborg in August, the Swedish Prins Gustaf Adolf ran aground, surrendered and was burnt. Greig did not outlive the year: he fell ill and died on board Rostislav in 1788.9
Also on 17 July: Castillon, 1453
In July 1453 a French army laid siege to the English-held town of Castillon on the Dordogne and ringed the royal artillery of the Bureau brothers with a ditched camp. John Talbot marched from Bordeaux to relieve the town. The chroniclers give his strength very differently, from about 5,000 to as many as 10,000 men.10
Talbot arrived at daybreak on 17 July and first drove the French archers out of an abbey near the town. Then he led his men against the camp itself. For about an hour the English attacked the ramparts under heavy gunfire, until the Breton contingent came up and the attack broke. Talbot's horse was brought down by a gunshot and he was killed beneath it, and his son died with him. His body was so disfigured that his own herald could hardly recognize it.11
Castillon surrendered the next day.12
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17 July 1943 · 83 years ago
While the battle of Kursk raged to the north, the Red Army attacked German Army Group South along the Mius river in the Donbas in World War II. After early gains the Soviet push was halted, and German counterattacks drove the Soviets back across the Mius.
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