Battle of Guttstadt-Deppen

Battle of Guttstadt-Deppen
	Part of the War of the Fourth Coalition
	; The Stork Tower (Baszta Bociania) in Dobre Miasto
Date	5–6 June 1807
Location	Guttstadt, East Prussia (modern Dobre Miasto, Poland)53°59′N 20°24′E / 53.983°N 20.400°E
Result	See aftermath
Belligerents
French Empire	Russian Empire; Kingdom of Prussia
Commanders and leaders
Michel Ney; Nicolas Soult; J.-B. Bernadotte (WIA); Claude-Victor Perrin	Levin Bennigsen; Dmitry Dokhturov; Alexander Chechenskiy; Anton von L'Estocq
Strength
Guttstadt: 17,000; Lomitten: 6,000, 16 guns; Spanden: unknown	Guttstadt: 63,000; Lomitten: 12,000, 76 guns; Spanden: 6,000
Casualties and losses
Guttstadt: 2,042; Lomitten: 1,185; Spanden: unknown	Guttstadt: 2,000–2,500; Lomitten: 2,800; Spanden: 500–800

War of the Fourth Coalition

200km
125miles

Friedland

27

26

25

24

23

22

21

Eylau

20

19

18

17

16

15

14

13

12

11

10

9

8

Berlin

7

6

5

4

Jena–Auerstedt

3

2

1

⬤ current battle

⬤ Napoleon not in command

⬤ Napoleon in command

In the Battle of Guttstadt-Deppen on 5 and 6 June 1807, troops of the Russian Empire led by General Levin August, Count von Bennigsen attacked the First French Empire corps of Marshal Michel Ney. The Russians pressed back their opponents in an action that saw Ney fight a brilliant rearguard action with his heavily outnumbered forces. During the 6th, Ney successfully disengaged his troops and pulled back to the west side of the Pasłęka (Passarge) River. The action occurred during the War of the Fourth Coalition, part of the Napoleonic Wars. Dobre Miasto (Guttstadt) is on Route 51 about 20 kilometers (12 mi) southwest of Lidzbark Warmiński (Heilsberg) and 24 kilometers (15 mi) north of Olsztyn (Allenstein). The fighting occurred along Route 580 which runs southwest from Guttstadt to Kalisty (Deppen) on the Pasłęka.

At the beginning of June, Bennigsen launched an offensive against the forces of Emperor Napoleon I in East Prussia. The Russian commander planned to trap Ney's corps between several converging columns. To occupy the French troops on Ney's left, Bennigsen sent General-Leutnant Anton Wilhelm von L'Estocq's Prussians to attack Marshal Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte's troops at Spędy (Spanden) and ordered Lieutenant General Dmitry Dokhturov's Russians to assault Marshal Nicolas Soult's men at Stolno (Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship) [pl] (Lomitten). Although all three French marshals saw sharp fighting, the Russian plan failed to put significant numbers of French troops out of action. Afraid of being cut off in his turn, Bennigsen ordered a retreat on the night of the 7th as Napoleon instructed his forces to counterattack the Russians. The decisive Battle of Friedland was fought a week later on 14 June.