User:Lord Cornwallis/Capture of Emden

Capture of Emden
Part of Seven Year's War
Date March 1758 Location Emden, East Friesland Result Anglo-German victory
Belligerents
Great Britain Hanover Prussia Hesse-Kassel	France Austria
Commanders and leaders
Charles Holmes
Strength
Small British naval squadron	3,720

The Capture of Emden (or Battle of Emden) occurred in March 1758 when a force of German troops paid by subsidies by Great Britain, and under the overall command of Ferdinand of Brunswick attacked the town of Emden which was then evacuated by its French and Austrian defenders. The capture was a combined operation which involved the use of Ferdinand's troops and a British naval squadron operating out of the North Sea. Emden was subsequently garrisoned by British troops and became a major supply base for Allied forces during the remainder of the war. The town's fall opened the way to active participation of British troops in the continental war.

Background

Further information: Invasion of Hanover (1757)

Emden was a non-contiguous part of Prussia located in East Friesland and connected to the North Sea by the River Ems. Emden had been captured by French forces in July 1757 as a precursor to France's Invasion of Hanover. By November 1757 French forces had occupied most of the Electorate of Hanover following the Battle of Hastenbeck. The outnumbered Army of Observation led by the Duke of Cumberland agreed to the Convention of Klosterzeven by which they agreed to disband and allow much of Hanover to come under formal French occupation.

The Convention provded to be extremely unpopular in Prussia and Britain, both allies of Hanover and shorty afterwards George II as Elector of Hanover formally revoked the Convention and began to reassemble the Army of Observation, which was taken entirely into British pay. The reformed army, now led by Ferdinand, Duke of Brunswick took the offensive in an attempt to drive the French from Hanover. Brunwick's winter attack managed to drive the French back some distance, and restore morale amongst the German allies in British pay.

Capture of Emden

The capture of Emden was a major milestone towards British forces being deployed on the Continent to support their ally Frederick II of Prussia

.

Commodore Charles Holmes was selected to lead the British North Sea squadron which had been operating during the previous year in support of the Allied Army. Holmes

that the garrison's supplies came up the River Ems

On 12 March Holmes' ships entered the Ems and pushed their way up the river despite difficult conditions and the grounding of a frigate. The sudden appearance of Holmes off Emden came as a surprise to the garrison who had considered the river impassable.

Aftermath

Brunswick's forces had taken the strategic post of Minden on 14 March which made the French position at Emden untenable.

Clermont had given orders to abandon the post

The battle was one of the closest occasions British forces came to open fighting with Austria, a country they were not formally at war with despite being allied to opposing belligerents.

In gratitude, Admiral Holmes was awarded the Freedom of the City of Emden.

By the terms of the Anglo-Prussian Convention agreed in April 1758, the British agreed to provide a garrison for the port of Emden. This marked the beginning of major British involvement on the European Continent, and saw a dramatic reversal in the policy of the British government which had previously strongly resisted any such prospect despite Prussian requests. William Pitt, in particular, had recently vocally opposed such a policy.

In June 1758 this was followed by the despatch of a force of 9,000 British troops to join Ferdinand's Army of Observation. Emden was used as a major supply base for the army, with ammunition, supply and reinforcements being shipped from Britain. It remained in Allied hands for the remainder of the war and was returned to Frederick following the Treaty of Paris which ended the war in 1763.

Bibliography

• Black, Jeremy. Debating Foreign Policy in Eighteenth-Century Britain. Routledge, 2016.
• Corbett, Julian Stafford. England in the Seven Years' War: A study in Combined Operations. Volume I. London, 1907.
• Dull, Jonathan R. The French Navy and the Seven Years' War. University of Nebraska, 2005.
• Middleton, Richard. The Bells of Victory: The Pitt-Newcastle Ministry and the Conduct of the Seven Years' War, 1757-1762. Cambridge University Press, 1985.