abstract
| - The Battle of Ahrensbök was one of the climactic battles of the Ostend War, and its only major land battle. With the destruction of the League's blockade of Lübeck, coalitions of French and Danish forces were forced to retreat toward their respective homelands. Gustavus decided to let the Danes retreat, as he wanted a political solution with Christian IV of Denmark. However, the French had to trek hundreds of miles across Germany with little opportunity to replenish supplies. Lennart Torstensson and forces under his command intercepted the retreating French forces near Ahrensbök. In its first real test, the USE army's Flying Artillery units faced, and broke, a French cavalry charge. This allowed the USE's cavalry to remain fresh, and to pursue the routed French. This shattered the French left flank, sending it into the forces of Charles de Valois, Duke of Angoulême that were facing Torstensson. After being pounded by artillery, Angoulême left the field along with the remaining French cavalry, leaving Charles de La Porte in effective command. De la Porte ordered an advance, knowing that, since he had nowhere to retreat to and the USE had superior artillery, his only options were win or surrender. He quickly realized that he could not win, and surrendered. While this was taking place, the flying artillery was moving to intercept Angoulême, whose forces were no longer pretending they weren't in full retreat. Near the village of Nutschel, the volley gun batteries were able to block the road that ran alongside the Trave River. After being hit with five volleys, one of the French officers managed to jury-rig a surrender flag. Angoulême tried to escape, but was captured by Thorsten Engler after falling off his exhausted horse. However, at least two hundred French officers did escape that trap.
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