Battle of Heligoland (1864) 1864
Recorded location from Wikidata; battle sites are often approximate.
Key facts
| Date | 9 May 1864 | Wikidata |
|---|---|---|
| Year | 1864 | Wikidata P585 (point in time) |
| Era | 19th century (1800–1913) | derived from year |
| Nearest landmass | At sea (nearest continent: Europe) | Natural Earth (modern borders) |
| Continent | Europe | Natural Earth |
| War / conflict | Second Schleswig War | Wikidata P361 |
| Participants | Austrian Empire, Denmark, Kingdom of Prussia | Wikidata P710 |
| Coordinates | 54.0500, 7.8500 | Wikidata P625 |
About the battle
The Battle of Heligoland (or Helgoland) was fought on 9 May 1864, during the Second Schleswig War, between a Danish squadron led by Commodore Edouard Suenson and a joint Austro-Prussian squadron commanded by the Austrian Commodore Wilhelm von Tegetthoff. The action came about as a result of the Danish blockade of German ports in the North Sea; the Austrians had sent two steam frigates, SMS Schwarzenberg and Radetzky, to reinforce the small Prussian Navy to help break the blockade. After arriving in the North Sea, Tegetthoff joined a Prussian aviso and a pair of gunboats. To oppose him, Suenson had available the steam frigates Niels Juel and Jylland and the corvette Hejmdal.
On the morning of 9 May, the two squadrons encountered each other off the island of Heligoland, then controlled by neutral Great Britain. Tegetthoff attacked with his two frigates while the slower Prussian vessels lagged behind, unable to effectively engage the Danish warships. Tegetthoff's flagship, Schwarzenberg, bore the brunt of the Danish gunfire and caught fire three times, the last of which could not be put out quickly and forced Tegetthoff to seek shelter in the neutral waters around Heligoland.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Battle of Heligoland (1864) (revision 1370442827), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section; shortened by selecting paragraphs and trimming at a sentence boundary; formatting and citations removed. No text added.
Nearby battles
- Second Battle of Heligoland Bight 1917 · 19 km
- Battle of Heligoland Bight (1914) 1914 · 27 km
- Siege of Tönning 1714 · 77 km
- Battle of Hemmingstedt 1500 · 80 km
- Battle of Jemmingen 1568 · 94 km
- Battle of Heiligerlee (1568) 1568 · 114 km
Other battles of the Second Schleswig War
- Battle for Königshügel 1864
- Battle of Als 1864
- Battle of Dybbøl 1864
- Battle of Jasmund (1864) 1864
- Battle of Lundby 1864
- Battle of Mysunde (1864) 1864
- Battle of Sankelmark 1864
- Battle of Vejle 1864
All 9 battles of the Second Schleswig War →
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