Battle of Kinburn (1855)

Battle of Kinburn
Part of the Crimean War
Illustration of the ironclad batteries bombarding Kinburn
Date 17 October 1855 Location Kinburn Spit, modern-day Ukraine Result Allied victory
Belligerents
French Empire  United Kingdom	Russian Empire
Commanders and leaders
Armand Joseph Bruat Edmund Lyons	Maxim Kokhanovitch
Strength
10 ships of the line 3 ironclad batteries 8,000 soldiers	1,500 soldiers 80 guns
Casualties and losses
2 killed 25 wounded[1]	c. 400[2]

The Battle of Kinburn, a combined land-naval engagement during the final stage of the Crimean War, took place on the tip of the Kinburn Peninsula (on the south shore of the Dnieper–Bug estuary in what is now Ukraine) on 17 October 1855. During the battle a combined fleet of vessels from the French Navy and the British Royal Navy bombarded Russian coastal fortifications after an Anglo-French ground force had besieged them. Three French ironclad batteries carried out the main attack, which saw the main Russian fortress destroyed in an action that lasted about three hours.

The battle, although strategically insignificant with little effect on the outcome of the war, is notable for the first use of modern ironclad warships in action. Although frequently hit, the French ships destroyed the Russian forts within three hours, suffering minimal casualties in the process. This battle convinced contemporary navies to design and build new major warships with armour plating; this instigated a naval arms race between France and Britain lasting over a decade.