Battle of Helsingborg The Battle of Helsingborg ( February 28 , 1710 ) was Denmark ' s failed and final attempt to regain the Scanian lands , lost to Sweden in 1658 . On the Ringstorp heights northwest of Helsingborg , 14 , 000 Danish invaders under Jørgen Rantzau were decisively defeated by an equally large Swedish army under Magnus Stenbock . Prelude . Denmark had been forced out of the Great Northern War by the treaty of Traventhal in 1700 , but had long planned on reopening hostilities with the goal of reconquering the lost provinces Scania , Halland and Blekinge . After the Swedish defeat at Poltava in 1709 , the Danes saw an opportunity and declared war on Sweden the same year . The declaration of war arrived at the Swedish state council on October 18 , 1709 . The pretext given were that Sweden had been cheating with the Sound Dues , and that the population of Scania , Halland , Blekinge and Bohuslän had been mistreated . In late fall 1709 , an enormous Danish fleet gathered in Øresund , and on November 2 the a landing was made off Råå . The Danish invasion army was led by general Christian Ditlev Reventlow and consisted of 15 , 000 men divided into six cavalry regiments , four dragoon regiments , eight infantry regiments and six artillery companies . It was met with virtually no resistance from the Swedes . The Swedish army was in terrible shape after Poltava , when several regiments had been completely annihilated . The work on reconstructing and recruiting the regiments had begun immediately after Poltava , but by late summer 1709 , Magnus Stenbock only had one Scanian regiment in battle - fit condition . The Swedish counterattack would have to wait and the army retreated into Småland . In the beginning of December , the Danes controlled almost all of central Scania except for Landskrona and Malmö . Their objective was to take the naval base at Karlskrona in Blekinge , and the Danish army worked its way quickly into Sweden . In January 1710 , it defeated a smaller Swedish force outside Kristianstad . Stenbock had frantically tried to gather a new Swedish army and several new regiments had begun to assemble in Växjö , from where Stenbock had planned to march . The raw recruits were exercised daily on the ice of a frozen lake close to the city . By February 5 Stenbock had moved to Osby where additional units joined in . By now , about 16 , 000 men were part of his host . Helsingborg was the key to Scania and Stenbock intended on marching over Rönneå to Kävlingeån , in doing so cutting off the Danish supply lines . The Danish commander Reventlow saw the threat and turned immediately to meet the Swedes , but when they reached Ringsjön in central Skåne , Reventlow was suddenly taken ill and had to yield command to lieutenant - general Jørgen Rantzau . Rantzau feared being wedged between the Swedish army and the Swedish garrison in Malmö and therefore moved towards Helsingborg . Once in the city , Rantzau could be reinforced and when he camped his force amounted to 10 , 000 foot soldiers and 4 , 000 horsemen . Stenbock received the news of the Danish march too late and had to race to Helsingborg . The night of February 28 , he camped northeast of the city . The Swedish army was at the time as large as the Danish army , with more cavalry and fewer infantry . The battle . On the morning of February 28 Stenbock marched south towards Helsingborg . When he approached the Danish positions he ordered his army to take battle positions . A thick morning fog lay over the area and hid the two parties from each other . When the fog lifted the two commanders could review over their respective armies . Rantzau saw that the Swedish army outflanked his own left flank in the west and was forced to reinforce it quickly . Rantzau had deployed his artillery on the heights of Ringstorp , from where he started firing at the Swedish troops at noon . Instead of profiting from the weak Danish west flank Stenbock instead turned his army eastward to the Danish right flank . This was perceived by the Danes as an attempt to encircle the Danish eastern flank , and to prevent this it marched further east which opened up gaps in the Danish line that couldn ' t be filled . In the east , by Brohuset , the first skirmishes took place . The Swedes were repelled and Swedish commander Burenskiöld was captured . However , the rest of the Swedish east flank was able to improve the situation and soon the Danes were at a disadvantage . Rantzau participated in the fighting personally , not thinking of the direction of the battle , and was eventually wounded by a bullet through the lung . At the same time a rumor developed in the Danish east flank that the Swedes had encircled them and were attacking from behind , which caused the entire formation to collapse with the troops fleeing towards Helsingborg . Rantzau ' s disappearance from the field became noticeable in the middle of the Danish line where the Swedish forces had begun to attack . The Danes had great difficulties withstanding the assault , and when the troops saw how the eastern flank was faring , the middle started to collapse . The Danish elite forces Gardet and the corps of grenadier s which were deployed on the edges could prevent the Swedish advance long enough to allow the other forces to pull back , but many of the fleeing troops were cut down by the Swedish cavalry . Now the Swedes attacked the gap that had formed between the Danish center and its western flank . Here too the Danes had no leadership , since the commander von Dewitz had been ordered to the eastern side of battle . The Swedish cavalry chased off the Danes and thus surrounding the grenadiers . The other elite force , Gardet , had already been forced to retire and the situation became untenable for the Danes . Major general Valentin von Eickstedt ordered the Danish retreat . Aftermath . The remainder of the Danish army had sought refuge within the walls of Helsingborg , and Stenbock avoided attacking them as they had too advantageous a position . Instead he besieged the city and invited the Danes to capitulate , but the offer was dismissed by von Dewitz . A Swedish council of war determined that Swedish forces were too weak to storm the city , and instead started a bombardment of the city . By March 5 the last remains of the Danish army left Scania after slaughtering all their horses and sabotaging their cannons . The Danes lost over 7 , 500 men , who had been either killed , wounded , or captured . The Swedish losses amounted to 2 , 800 dead or wounded . The Danish army left Scania , never to return again . The city of Helsingborg was hit hard by the battle , due both to the Swedish bombardment which destroyed its buildings , and all the remaining human and horse cadavers poisoned the wells . A plague epidemic then harrowed the town and further reduced its population . Helsingborg did not recover until the middle of the 19th century .