Pomeranian War

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Pomeranian War
Part of the Seven Years' War
Map of Pomerania
Date 13 September 1757 – 22 May 1762 (4 years, 8 months, 1 week and 2 days) Location Swedish Pomerania, Prussian Pomerania, Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Schwerin Result Prussian victory[1] Treaty of Hamburg Territorial changes Status quo ante bellum
Belligerents
Sweden  Russian Empire	Prussia
Commanders and leaders
Mattias Alexander von Ungern-Sternberg Augustin Ehrensvärd Gustaf Fredrik von Rosen (1688–1769) [sv] Axel Lagerbielke Pyotr Rumyantsev Ivan Ivanovich Möller-Sakomelsky	Heinrich von Manteuffel  (POW) Wilhelm Sebastian von Belling Carl Heinrich von Wedel
Strength
30,000+ in battle 28 ships	25,000+ in battle 13 ships
Casualties and losses
3,473	2,590 9 ships

The Pomeranian War was a theatre of the Seven Years' War. The term is used to describe the fighting between Sweden and Prussia between 1757 and 1762 in Swedish Pomerania, Prussian Pomerania, northern Brandenburg and eastern Mecklenburg-Schwerin.

The war was characterized by a back-and-forth movement of the Swedish and Prussian armies, neither of whom would score a decisive victory. It started when Swedish forces advanced into Prussian territory in 1757, but were repelled and blockaded at Stralsund until their relief by a Russian force in 1758. In the course of the following, renewed Swedish incursion into Prussian territory, the small Prussian fleet was destroyed and areas as far south as Neuruppin were occupied, yet the campaign was aborted in late 1759 when the undersupplied Swedish forces succeeded neither in taking the major Prussian fortress of Stettin (now Szczecin) nor in combining with their Russian allies.

A Prussian counter-attack of Swedish Pomerania in January 1760 was repelled, and throughout the year Swedish forces again advanced into Prussian territory as far south as Prenzlau before again withdrawing to Swedish Pomerania in the winter. Another Swedish campaign into Prussia started in the summer of 1761, but was soon aborted due to shortage of supplies and equipment. The final encounters of the war took place in the winter of 1761/62 near Malchin and Neukalen in Mecklenburg, just across the Swedish Pomeranian border, before the parties agreed on the Truce of Ribnitz on 7 April 1762. When on 5 May a Russo-Prussian alliance eliminated Swedish hopes for future Russian assistance, and instead posed the threat of a Russian intervention on the Prussian side, Sweden was forced to make peace.

The war was formally ended on 22 May 1762 by the Peace of Hamburg between Prussia, Mecklenburg and Sweden. The hopes of the Swedish Hats party to recover territories lost to Prussia in 1720 were thwarted, and the unpopular and costly war contributed to their subsequent downfall.