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28 November in military history: Battle of Oliwa, 1627

Military history · 28 November · Polish-Swedish WarFull calendar

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Seventeenth-century watercolor of the Battle of Oliwa: warships under sail and in clouds of gunsmoke off the coast, one ship exploding in flames on the left, more ships on the horizon by the Hel peninsula, and in the foreground a beach, a wooden pier and a fortified harbor tower with a red-and-white striped flag.
The Battle of Oliwa, 1627, a watercolor in the album amicorum of Heinrich Böhme, 1638. Public domain. Wielkopolska Digital Library (WBC Poznań), via Wikimedia Commons.
Quick answer

On 28 November 1627 ten ships of the Polish-Lithuanian royal fleet sailed out from Wisłoujście, at the mouth of the Vistula, against six Swedish ships blockading Gdańsk. Off Oliwa they captured the Swedish flagship Tigern, and the galleon Solen was blown up by her own master. The blockade was lifted, but the Polish admiral, Arend Dickmann, was killed.1

The Battle of Oliwa, 1627: Poland's great naval victory

28 November 1627 · 398 years ago

The Battle of Oliwa was fought on 28 November 1627 off Gdańsk during the Polish-Swedish War. The young navy of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, ten mostly small ships under Admiral Arend Dickmann, attacked a Swedish squadron of six ships blockading the port.

Read the full story of The Battle of Oliwa, 1627: Poland's great naval victory ›

Battle of Beaune-la-Rolande, 1870: the Army of the Loire's road to Paris blocked

28 November 1870 · 155 years ago

The French XX Corps under General Crouzat, seeking to relieve besieged Paris in the Franco-Prussian War, struck three Prussian brigades resting in the village of Beaune-la-Rolande. Despite their numbers, the mostly conscript French failed to take it and were driven back.

Read the full story of Battle of Beaune-la-Rolande, 1870: the Army of the Loire's road to Paris blocked ›

Frequently asked questions

Who won the Battle of Oliwa?

The royal fleet of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. On 28 November 1627 it defeated a Swedish squadron off Gdańsk and broke the Swedish blockade of the port.2

Who commanded the Polish fleet at Oliwa?

Admiral Arend Dickmann. He was killed by a cannonball during the battle and is buried in St. Mary's Church in Gdańsk.3

What happened to the Swedish ship Solen?

She was boarded, and her master blew her up rather than surrender. Her wreck was found in 1969 near the mouth of the Vistula.4

Notes

A number in the text points to a note; each note names the works that paragraph draws on, listed in full under Sources.

  1. dzieje.pl, “Gdańsk”; Dariusz Kaczor, “Bitwa pod Oliwą 28 XI 1627”; R. C. Anderson, via Internet Archive. ↩
  2. dzieje.pl, “Gdańsk”; Dariusz Kaczor, “Bitwa pod Oliwą 28 XI 1627”; R. C. Anderson, via Internet Archive. ↩
  3. dzieje.pl, “Gdańsk”; Dariusz Kaczor, “Bitwa pod Oliwą 28 XI 1627”. ↩
  4. Dariusz Kaczor, “Bitwa pod Oliwą 28 XI 1627”; R. C. Anderson, via Internet Archive; Vrak, “Solen”. ↩

Sources

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