Death at Poltava:
The clock has just past behind midnight Monday the 28 of June 1709. It has been one and a half year since the 44’000 strong Swedish army with King Karl XII in the lead crossed the river Weichsel and marched east through Ostpreussen and Poland.
They have the entire time been at the heels of the Russians army that’s led by Tsar Peter. The campaign has been surprisingly hard. The Tsar has used the burned earth tactic and leaves nothing behind. Where ever the Swedes turn they are faced with burned out crops, buildings and there’s nothing to eat. During the previous winter loads of Swedish soldiers froze to death in the blazing cold winter, some of them still sitting in their saddle with a tight grip around the reins. The enemy, they rarely see. Like a ghost army they remain, only visible as dark shapes at the horizon, attacking at night by Russian riders that disappears as quickly as they appear leaving a handful of dead Swedish soldiers.
The Swedish reserve is running short and the black powder is getting weak (the black powder at that time had a limited time of usage). One big battle is what they can take. If they want to keep the army intact they have to use their last strength, bullets and black powder to defeat the Tsar and his army that has laid camp by the Ukrainian city Poltava. The war tired Swedish soldiers look forward to a real battle with a real ending so that they can get an end to this tiring shadow war. Even King Karl XII, the warrior king that has led the Swedes from victory to victory, is looking tired.
Today it’s exactly 300 years since the battle at Poltava where the crushing defeat of the Swedish army ended their role as one of the supreme nations of the world, only to be exchanged by the Russians.
The element of surprise is lost
At first the Swedish infantry doesn’t notice anything other than the compact darkness and the rhythmical sound of their own footsteps. But they can soon see traces of their enemy around them – smell of smoke, burning fire places in the woods, the sound of hammer-blows. The Russians are apparently working on the redoubts, a line of defenses that is starting one kilometer from their camp. Everyone is tense when the infantry is making a halt only 500 meters from the enemies’ outermost redoubt to await the cavalry – since some of them have gotten lost in the dark forest. In the east the sky is bighting up.
Suddenly a shot can be heard. The echo lingers in the light morning haze over the plains. After that a drum roll – more drum rolls tune in. Shots and Russian commands can be heard. For a moment Rehnskiöld, the Swedish field marshal, is standing perplexed; his plan to surprise the Russians has failed and he is standing with 16’000 men against the Russians with over 35’000 men.
The Swedes have chosen to leave the artillery in their camp far behind them. The Russians on the contrary have numerous cannons. Suddenly the Swedes can see a flash that is quickly followed by a whining sound. With a tremendous force plows a Russian cannon ball right through two Swedish soldiers that dies immediately.
The Swedes has two options. Either they turn around and flee through a deserted and burned down land, which would probably lead to starvation for the most of them. Or they can risk it all and fight against a superior enemy.
Rehnskiöld turns over to Lewenhaupt, the commander of the Swedish infantry.
“What say you, count leijonhufvud?”
“I hope with god’s help it will go well”, answers Lewenhaupt.
Rehnskiöld takes a quick decision and turns to the king.
“In the name of God then, let us go forward”
The time is four in the morning and the sky is as red as the blood that is already flowing on the dry ground on the plains close to Poltava.
Above is a translated quote from a Swedish history magazine´that I found were enthralling. I chose to only translate a small part of the beginning of the article, otherwise it would have been a to long post since the whole article is six pages.
It's funny to think about how things could have been if we, the Swedes, didn't lose that day. and it's also funny when you think about how three great nations did the same mistake to invade Russia.
Sweden Was the first to underestimate the Russians then there was the French under the command of Napoleon that was defeated at Moscow when the Russians burned it down to the ground, and lastly the Germans under Hitler that was defeated at Stalingrad.
If any one wants to learn more about this battle I recommend you reading the book "Poltava 1709. Russia comes of Age"
You can read some of it on this web site:
http://books.google.se/books?id=kiHKMK7aayMC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_navlinks_s
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