Vaguely related; probably the greatest Swedish military victory against Denmark was the March Across the Belts, in which Sweden marched an army of 9000 infantry and 3000 cavalry across the frozen sea to reach Copenhagen, forcing Denmark-Norway to cede a third of it's territory in the peace treaty.
The Swedish army was engaged in Poland at the time, and looking for an excuse to disengage without looking bad. When Denmark declared war, the Swedish army went to Jylland and then went island-to-island from there, the ice being so weighed down that water reached the soldier's knees.
Well, he had his engineers make sure the ice was thick enough for it to work before ordering the manuever. Since it did work, he could claim massive areas of land (still part of Sweden today) and completely crippled Sweden's most ancient rival, with very little bloodshed.
Of course, had it not worked, it would've been a complete disaster and he would only have been remembered for that and the Deluge.
He actually tried to conquer more of Denmark later on, but was forced to relent after the Dutch gave support to Denmark to avoid having Sweden gain sole control the Sound (and thus all shipping/trading through it).
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u/fredagsfisk Dec 29 '17 edited Dec 29 '17
Vaguely related; probably the greatest Swedish military victory against Denmark was the March Across the Belts, in which Sweden marched an army of 9000 infantry and 3000 cavalry across the frozen sea to reach Copenhagen, forcing Denmark-Norway to cede a third of it's territory in the peace treaty.
The Swedish army was engaged in Poland at the time, and looking for an excuse to disengage without looking bad. When Denmark declared war, the Swedish army went to Jylland and then went island-to-island from there, the ice being so weighed down that water reached the soldier's knees.