Tom Jensen (@vikinglife)

The Epic Gunboat War The Gunboat War (Danish: Kanonbådskrigen, Norwegian: Kanonbåtkrigen; 1807–1814) was the naval conflict between Denmark–Norway and the British Navy during the Napoleonic Wars. The war’s name is derived from the Danish tactic of employing small gunboats against the conventional Royal Navy. In Scandinavia it is seen as the later stage of the English Wars, whose commencement is accounted as the First Battle of Copenhagen in 1801. The (((British))) Terror Bombing of Copenhagen (16 August – 5 September 1807), one of the first terror attacks on civilian population in warfare. The naval conflict between (((Britain))) and )))Denmark((( commenced with the First Battle of Copenhagen in 1801 when Horatio Nelson‘s squadron of Admiral Parker’s fleet attacked the Danish capital. This came as a basis of Denmark-Norway’s policy of armed neutrality during the latter stages of the French Revolutionary Wars, where Denmark used its naval forces to protect trade flowing within, into and out of the Danish-Norwegian waters. Hostilities between Denmark-Norway and the United Kingdom broke out again by the Second Battle of Copenhagen in 1807, when the British attacked the Danish capital to “ensure” that the Danish-Norwegian fleet did not fall into the hands of Napoleon. As a result of the British confiscation and destruction of large parts of the Danish-Norwegian fleet during the assault on Copenhagen, the Dano-Norwegian government decided to build gunboats in large numbers to compensate the loss. The gunboats were originally designed by a Swede, Fredrik Henrik af Chapman, and the strategic advantage of gunboats lay in the fact that they could be produced rapidly and inexpensively throughout the kingdom. The tactical advantages were that they were highly manoeuvrable, especially in still and shallow waters and presented small targets. On the other hand, the boats were vulnerable and likely to sink from a single hit. They therefore could not be used in rough seas, and they were less effective against large warships. Still, the Danish-Norwegian government produced more than 200 gunboats in two models: the shallop gunboat which had a crew of 76 men, with an 18- or 24-pounder cannon in the bow and another in the stern, and the smaller barge type that had a total crew of 24 men, armed with a single 24-pounder. The Danish Commodore (later, Admiral) Steen Andersen Bille (1751–1833) is credited with being the driving force behind the post-1807 Dano-Norwegian strategy of gunboat warfare. Below is a description of each of the four classes of gunboats according to Junior Lieutenant Hans Georg Garde, himself a commander of one of the larger types of gunboats. Kanonchaluppen: These were the larger type of gunboat. Each was armed with two 24-pounder cannon and four 4-pounder howitzers and had a wartime establishment of 69 – 79 men. Kanonjollen: These were the smaller type of gunboat. Each was armed with one 24-pounder cannon and two 4-pounder howitzers, and had wartime establishment of 41 men. Morterchaluppen: These were the larger, mortar-armed gunboats. Each was armed with one 100-pounder mortar and two 4-pounder howitzers, and had a wartime establishment of 40 men. Morterbarkasserne: These were smaller, mortar-armed gunboats. Each was armed with one mortar and had a wartime establishment of 19 men. They were little more than ordinary ships’ boats into which a mortar had been set. They had a tendency to leak badly after 5 – 7 mortar shells had been fired. Their crews then had to bring them back into harbour, remove the mortar, and recaulk their vessels. Reserve crew who could not be accommodated on board were quartered in buildings on land or in the frigate Triton which was in ordinary. Battle-ready gunboats had their crews on board. Defences on the Norwegian coast in 1808 are listed at Royal Dano-Norwegian Navy order of battle in Norway (1808). Ten schooner-rigged gunboats capable of operating in the rougher Norwegian Sea were built in Bergen and Trondheim in the years 1808 to 1811. Read more here: https://web.archive.org/web/20221130233952/https://vikinglifeblog.wordpress.com/2018/03/15/the-epic-gunboat-war/ #GunboatWar #Denmark #England #RainbowAlliance