Battle of Bomarsund

Overview

The Battle of Bomarsund, in August 1854, took place during the Åland War, which was part of the Crimean War, when an Anglo-French expeditionary force besieged, captured, and subsequently destroyed a Russian fortress. It was the only major action of the war to take place at Bomarsund in the Baltic Sea.

Overview adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Significance

The Battle of Bomarsund was the only major engagement of the Crimean War fought in the Baltic Sea theater, during the subsidiary Åland War campaign. An Anglo-French expeditionary force under British commanders Napier and Deschenes brought overwhelming numerical superiority — roughly 32,000 troops against a Russian garrison of 3,000 — to bear on the Russian fortress at Bomarsund. The operation resulted in the siege, capture, and destruction of the fortress, inflicting approximately 2,000 Russian casualties. While the broader Crimean War centered on operations in the Black Sea and the Crimean Peninsula, Bomarsund demonstrated Allied capacity to project force into the Baltic and strike Russian positions far from the primary theater, though the action remained strategically isolated with no further major Baltic operations following it.

Forces & casualties

Commanders (2)