|
The Battle of Dybbøl ((デンマーク語:Slaget ved Dybbøl); (ドイツ語:Erstürmung der Düppeler Schanzen)) was the key battle of the Second Schleswig War and occurred on the morning of 18 April 1864 following a siege starting on 7 April. Denmark suffered a severe defeat against Prussia, which decided the war. Dybbøl was also a battlefield in the First Schleswig War. == Background == Following the annexation of the Duchy of Schleswig in November 1863 by the Danish king Christian IX (who was also the Duke of Schleswig), Prussian and Austrian troops invaded Jutland in January 1864. The defending Danish army were equipped with smaller guns and an older type of rifle. The Prussian army used the Dreyse needle-gun, a breech-loading rifle that could be loaded while the user was lying down. Since the Danes had to load their older muzzle-loading rifles while standing, they were better targets for the Prussians. The Dybbøl fort lies in a short blunt peninsula that defends against access to the fort by land and featured an enclosed pier for the ferry across the Alssund to Sønderborg on the island of Als. The Dybbøl position was ill-prepared as a result of too much effort having been expended on fortifying the Dannevirke. In particular, it lacked safe shelters in the forward line, but worse, technological developments in artillery (particularly long-range rifled guns) had made the geography of the position unsuited for a lengthy defence. The line had too little depth, and across the waters of the southern inlet (forming the southern part of the peninsula) modern guns could subject the main defensive line to raking fire along the length of the line. This meant that not only was the position effectively saturated during the approximately two months of bombardment, but also most of the defending crew had to be withdrawn far behind the line because of attrition by the bombardment and lack of effective shelters, and when the storm assault was finally initiated, the line was consequently undermanned by tired and demoralised troops. The Danes did have one major advantage in that they had more or less unchallenged command of the sea and so were able to deploy the modern ironclad ''Rolf Krake'' to the scene to support Danish ground forces at Dybbøl with shore bombardments from its turret-mounted eight-inch guns. For much of the siege, ''Rolf Krake'' was used as a mobile heavy seaborne artillery platform and the Prussians were almost helpless to counter it since they had no naval forces of their own capable of matching the Danish navy, a fact that sapped Prussian morale. The firepower of the ''Rolf Krake'' was not exploited as well as it could have been. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Battle of Dybbøl」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|