Standalone short: July 1719 — 6,000 men against 350, and commandant Lillie's refusal to surrender Nya Älvsborg. Besieged, never taken. Leif + Margareta.
Six thousand men. Three hundred and fifty defenders. And one commandant who simply would not give up. [pause] July 1719, on a little island in the mouth of the Göta älv.
The Danish admiral Tordenskjold landed mortars on two little islets offshore — exactly the weak spot Dahlbergh had warned of years before — and opened fire. Over a thousand bombs fell on the island. A powder magazine took a hit and erupted; the tower and church were hammered to rubble.
Tordenskjold offered honourable surrender. Commandant Lillie sent back: “To give up a fortress that can still be defended is always a villainy. On Älvsborg, we are resolved to let the last drop of blood run in its defence.”
And he held. A Swedish colonel dragged cannon onto the Hisingen shore, got behind the Danish mortars, and drove them off the islets. Tordenskjold sailed away beaten. Besieged — never taken. Lillie was made a baron, and ‘Nya Älvsborg 1719’ is a battle honour the regiment carries to this day.