| Theatre War | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of theRusso-Swedish War of 1788–1790 | |||||||||
 The affair at Quistrumbro Anthon Christoffer Rüde, 1790 | |||||||||
| |||||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||||
 Denmark–Norway Russian Empire (Russo-Swedish War (1788–1790)) |  Sweden | ||||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
| Christian VIICharles of HesseJohann Friedrich | Gustav IIIRudolf du RietzJan Verner Tranefelt | ||||||||
| Strength | |||||||||
| 8,000–10,000 | At least 850 people | ||||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
| 1,500–3,000 killed, wounded or captured[a] | At least 5 dead, 845 captured and 60 wounded | ||||||||
TheTheatre War (Swedish:Teaterkriget),Cowberry War,Cranberry War orLingonberry War (Norwegian:Tyttebærkrigen,Danish:Tyttebærkrigen), was a brief war betweenDenmark–Norway andSweden, starting on 24 September 1788, formally lasting until 9 July 1789. Although the decision to launch the attack was taken inDenmark, the majority of the attacking soldiers wereNorwegians from theNorwegian army.
The attack was directed towards the region known asBohuslän in Sweden, and was supposed to act as a diversion to relieveRussia, who was an ally of Denmark–Norway and had recently been attacked by Sweden (Gustav III's Russian War). This forced Denmark–Norway to honour theiralliance between the two states that had been signed in 1773.
WhenGustav III of Sweden on his own initiative, andunconstitutionally, attackedRussia in 1788 and thereby started theRusso-Swedish War of 1788–90, Denmark-Norway found itself in an awkward position. In the 1773Treaty of Tsarskoye Selo, Denmark–Norway had committed itself to assist with 12,000 men, sixships of the line and threefrigates in the case Russia were to be attacked. Soon after the Swedish attack, the Russians demanded that Denmark–Norway keep its promise, and Denmark–Norway was thus forced to join the war. When Gustav III received news of this, he exclaimed "I am saved!".
Considering that the attack on Russia was Gustav's own initiative, that many Swedish officers and the king's opponents were strongly against the war (seeAnjala conspiracy), and that the war was not being fought very successfully, this exclamation might seem strange. However, Gustav III the astute politician saw this as a golden opportunity to turn the Swedish opinion in his favour. He left the battlefront in Finland and proceeded to Stockholm and thenDalarna where he managed to incite severalfree corps to participate in the defense against the Danes and Norwegians. Despite strong popular support, Sweden had only 10,000 men that had to be divided betweenSkåne,Jämtland andBohuslän.
The first Danish-Norwegian force of about 8,000-10,000 men under the command of PrinceCharles of Hesse attacked Bohuslän from Norway on 24 September and advanced quickly towardVänersborg meeting feeble Swedish resistance. Colonel Johan Werner Tranefelt ensconced himself inKvistrum north ofUddevalla with his 700 men but was defeated on 29 September by a much larger Danish–Norwegian force led byMajor GeneralJohann Friedrich von und zu Mansbach. In a week the Danish–Norwegians took Uddevalla, Vänersborg, andÅmål and on 6 October they demanded thesurrender ofGothenburg.
The invading troops met little resistance, and occupied Uddevalla, Vänersborg and Åmål within a week, but were later stopped at Gothenburg. Out of 10,000 soldiers, the Norwegians lost only 8 in the ensuing confrontations.
By this time, Gustav III himself had arrived in the city and took resolute action; he dismissed the passiveLieutenant GeneralAnders Rudolf du Rietz and replaced him with Lieutenant GeneralJohan Sparre af Söfdeborg. The defenses of Gothenburg were quickly strengthened. In addition, the British ambassador to Copenhagen SirHugh Elliot arrived in Gothenburg and brokered a shortarmistice with the Danish–Norwegian commander on 9 October. Delaying and stalling tactics prolonged the armistice in stages to May 1789.
Faced with the armistice, threats of a joint attack onHolstein from both Great Britain andPrussia, and an ever more strongly defended Gothenburg, the Danish–Norwegian troops marched off on 12 November 1788 toward Norway, and Gustav III could use this as an excuse to call it a victory. This was convenient for Sweden since the fighting on the Finnish front was very much still in progress.
The success could have turned into a debâcle when it was revealed that a lieutenant Benzelstjärna with the king's approval had planned to burn the seven Russian ships in theCopenhagen harbor. Through the revelation the plans were never carried out.
The attacking Danish–Norwegian force only lost eight men through acts of war. The almost frivolous Swedish and Norwegian names for the conflict do not reflect the real suffering caused by it: the Danish–Norwegian army lost 1,500-3,000 men to hunger, disease, poor sanitary conditions, and exposure to continual autumn rainfall. On 12 November, the Norwegiandivision retreated back to Norway.
On 9 July 1789, before the threat of a combined might of Britain and Prussia, Denmark-Norway agreed to cease active engagement in the conflict. A statement ofneutrality was issued by Denmark-Norway, not a formal peace treaty.
Frederik von Haxthausen took part in this campaign as an officer. As a result of the disastrous provision of the troops, which was the cause of a fatal plague among them, he travelled abroad in 1793 in order to study military supply provision. To do this he visited the Prussian, Austrian and other armies.[4]
The Swedish term "Theatre War" reflects the view in later times that the war in practice was a theatrical spectacle rather than a "real" martial conflict.
In Norwegian, the war is known asTyttebærkrigen after the Norwegian word for themountain cranberry, in remembrance of how the Norwegian troops, denied assistance by the local population, had to live off the land in berry season.
Danmark tvingas inleda detta krig enligt förplikteser med Ryssland. Danskarna måste den 9 juli, under hårt diplomatiskt tryck från England och Preussen, avge en neutralitetsdeklaration. Med tanke på att Danskarna tvingas ur kriget kan man med viss tvekan kategorisera utfallet som en svensk seger.
Ett vapenstillestånd ingicks, och den 12 november gav danskarna slaget förlorat och tågade tillbaka till Norge. Formellt avslutades kriget utan landavträdelser för någondera parten i juli 1789.