page_title: Siege of Galle (1640)
section_title: Dutch army
hierarchical_section_title: Siege of Galle (1640) / Opposing forces and the Galle fort / Dutch army
caption_attribution_description: English: Dutch troops attack Portuguese forces during the Battle of Mannar.
context_page_description: The Siege of the Portuguese fort Santa Cruz de Gale at Galle in 1640, took place during the Dutch–Portuguese and Sinhalese–Portuguese Wars. The Galle fort commanded 282 villages, which contained most fertile cinnamon lands in southern Sri Lanka It was also an important strategic coastal defense of Portuguese Ceylon. The Dutch, who were in an alliance with the Kingdom of Kandy, landed an expeditionary force under Commodore Willem Jacobszoon Coster of Akersloot, at the Bay of Galle, on 8 March 1640. After bombarding the fort for four consecutive days, Dutch troops stormed the fort and secured a victory on 13 March 1640. The Portuguese garrison, led by Captain Lourenço Ferreira de Brito, mounted a stiff resistance and unexpectedly high casualty rates among Dutch troops gave rise to the proverb “Gold in Malacca, lead in Galle”. With this victory the Dutch gained access to a large port which they later used as a convenient naval base to attack Goa and other South Indian Portuguese defenses. They also gained access to the Sri Lankan cinnamon trade and gained a permanent foothold on the island.
context_section_description: Although called "the Hollanders" by the contemporary sources the VOC army consisted of any European that could be recruited resulting in a multi ethnic army. Apart from the Dutch, there were also German, English, Scottish, Irish, and French troops on the field. In contrast to the Portuguese troops in Ceylon, the Dutch army used similar tactics to other contemporary European armies, which formed in tight blocks of pike-men and musketeers. They were arranged into companies of 100 men and supported by auxiliary troops that consisted of Javanese and Malays. These Malay troops were organized under their own chiefs with little effort to provide proper military training or up to date weapons.
  Unlike the Portuguese, Dutch troops wore armor, which consisted of breastplates and morions. Their primary weapons were matchlock muskets, pikes and spears, but Queiroz states that the Dutch used flintlock muskets in addition to matchlocks during the siege. Additionally, describing the Dutch troops who fought in Galle, he wrote that “... the Batavian brought on this occasion great leaders, picked and well armed men.”
caption: Dutch troops during the battle of Mannar (1658). Note their weapons and armor.
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