Battle of Ekeren

After taking Bonn on May 15, Marlborough now wanted to conquer Ostend, Antwerp, or force the French to an open battle. He ordered the Dutch general, Coehoorn, to march to Ostend and lay siege to it. Dutch general Van Sparre would march south west of Antwerp, Dutch general Obdam would march south from Bergen op Zoom, and Marlborough himself would march on Lier.

The Battle of Ekeren by Constantijn Francken

Obdam had to send several of his battalions to join Coehoorn. Obdam's depleted force marched on 28 June from Bergen op Zoom to Antwerp. It arrived the next day at Ekeren, seven kilometres north of Antwerp, just south of Dutch held fort Lillo (top left of map).

After hearing about this, Villeroi sent a detachment force-marching from Diest to support the troops already around Antwerp to pounce on Obdam's force, before it could dig in or be reinforced.

The Battle of Ekeren by Jasper Broers

Early in the morning of 30 June French dragoons marched from Merksem and Ekeren in the direction of Kapellen to cut off the escape route near Hoevenen for the Dutch to return to Breda and Bergen-op-Zoom. The Marquis of Bedmar and his Spanish troops were positioned near Wilmarsdonk. This ensured that the Dutch forces were surrounded on all sides by a force outnumbering them four to one.

Soon Dutch reconnaissance discovered the French dragoons and Obdam immediately sent his cavalry to Hoevenen, but it was too late, the village was packed with French troops. An attempt to conquer neighboring Muisbroek also failed. Then the French attacked, and Obdam tried to take Oorderen, an attack which was briefly successful before the French retook the village.

The fighting went on for the entire day. The engagement was long and bloody. Dutch drill and independently and quick thinking lower commanders made up for their lack in numbers. Towards the end, many units were out of ammunition, and several Dutch units continued to fight with fixed bayonets only. By eight o'clock there was no more sign of Obdam, and Slangenburg decided to attack Oorderen to force a breakthrough to safety. Friesheim sent his men wading through the water, appearing where the French had not expected them to. Here too the fighting was long and hard, but the attack was a success: the encirclement was broken and the Dutch troops could retire under cover of the night to fort Lillo.

General Slangenburg

The battle was undecided, but both sides claimed victory. The French because they ended up occupying the battlefield, the Dutch because they had forced the French from the battlefield, allowing the outnumbered Dutch to retire to safety. It may be considered an operational victory for the Two Crowns, because it stopped the Dutch move along the Scheldt. And it may be considered a tactical victory for the Dutch, because they managed to save 8,000 troops instead of losing 10,000.

Boufflers was blamed for letting a perfect chance slip through his fingers. Obdam had panicked in the afternoon and had managed to get through the enemy line with a handful of riders by throwing away their green field signs and orange sashes so everyone around thought them to be French. His behaviour was not forgiven by the Dutch military, and his military career was destroyed. Slangenburg, for his part, was acclaimed as a Dutch hero. He was also furious at Marlborough, who had been outmanoeuvered by the French and had not come to the aid of the Dutch.

The Dutch took one gun, 2 sets of dragoon drums and at least 17 banners (several other had been reused as scarfs before they could be collected). The French and Spaniards lost at least 2,800 men: over 1,200 killed, 1,200 wounded and several hundred missing. The Dutch lost over 2,400 men: around 700 killed, 1,000 wounded and 700 taken prisoner or missing.

Exact Dutch losses: 2,423 combatants out of 10,629 (23%), of which 2,049 were infantry (553 killed, 862 wounded, 634 prisoner or missing, or 27% of the infantry) and 374 cavalry (162 killed, 152 wounded, 60 prisoner or missing, or 12% of the cavalry; and 376 horses: 279 killed, 58 wounded and 39 missing, or 13% of the horses). Losses from the train were 17 men, 22 wagons and 30 horses (7 men wounded, the others missing).

A large part of the battlefield, including the villages of Oorderen, Wilmarsdonk and Lillo, has disappeared under the Port of Antwerp expansion in the 1960s.

• Detailed but inaccurate Flemish description of the battle