User:Tinkaer1991/Siege of Wolgast

The Siege of Wolgast (Belagerung von Wolgast, ) was a siege on the Swedish city of Wolgast from 1–10 November 1675 initiated by Frederick William of Brandenburg during the Swedish invasion of Brandenburg. The siege would be successful for the German army and the Swedish garrison marched off Wolgast after a ten-day siege.

Background
In 1674, Sweden invaded Brandenburg as an act of being France's ally. Denmark–Norway, who wanted to regain its territories lost in 1658, supported Brandenburg-Prussia and invaded the Swedish possessions in Germany in 1675. In autumn, the Swedes had already been pushed back to the North German Coast, and the Brandenburgians, under Elector Frederick William, subsequently lauched a siege on one of the Swedish Empire's last continental holdings, Wolgast. Wolgast was of the greatest importance for both parties, because of its location within the mouth of the Peene.

Siege
On November 1, the Elector arrived at Wolgast and began to besiege the castle. The building of artillery batteries was made difficult, partly fire from the castle and partly fire from ships. However, on the ninth day of the siege, the batteries were finished and they opened fire on the Swedish garrison. It did not take long before two of the castle's bastions were completely destroyed, and a bomb that fell into the Gunpowder Cellar blew up half of the castle's floors. As the Elector had at the same time made a Bridgehead to the Castle Island, the storm could be initiated. However, the Swedish Commander, Major Blix, did not want to wait for that, and subsequently negotiated with the Brandenburgians. These negotiations led to him and his crew of 820 men being able to march off the castle freely.

Aftermath
Despite the Swedes being able to march off freely, the German-borns in the garrison would be forced to enlist in the Brandenburg-Prussian Army. After this conquest, Frederick William turned his attention to Anklam, which he sought to seize in order to better approach Stettin.