Siege of Dunkirk ( 1793 ) " See also the Battle of Hondschoote " The Siege of Dunkirk took place in 1793 when British , Hanoverian , Austrian , and Hesse - Kassel troops under the command of Prince Frederick , Duke of York besieged the fortified French border port of Dunkirk as part as the Flanders campaign of the French Revolutionary Wars . Following a Coalition defeat at the Battle of Hondshoote they were forced to raise the siege and withdraw northeast . Siege . The plan to besiege Dunkirk was taken not by military commanders , but by the British government , chiefly by Pitt ' s closest advisor , War Minister Henry Dundas . Right from the beginning of the campaign Dundas had considered the possession of Dunkirk as desirable , both as a bargaining counter in peace negotiations and as a potential British base in Europe . As a military objective towards winning the war however its value was far less significant , as it arguably prevented York from supporting the main Allied thrust further inland . Nevertheless York obediently followed instructions and through the latter days of August moved rapidly north - west , the French remaining mystified as to his objective . On 22 August he marched from Furnes to invest Dunkirk at the head of 20 , 000 British , Austrians and Hessians , driving the French advance posts in confusion from the left bank of the Yser to an entrenched camp at Ghyvelde and capturing 11 guns in the process . The Advance Guard ( Austrian " Sztarray " Infantry Regiment and O ' Donel ' s Freikorps ) lost 50 men in killed and wounded . The Commander of the Armée du Nord , Jean Houchard was disgusted when he heard of the flight , writing to the Minister " The soldiers are good , but the cowardice and crass ignorance of the officers make them learn cowardice , and to fly before the enemy is nothing to them " . To protect York ' s left flank Freytag commanded a corps of 14 , 500 Hessian and Hanoverian troops which he spread across surrounding villages in a broad military cordon along the Yser to the south of Dunkirk . On the right Feldmarschall - Leutnant József Alvinczi commanded the Austrian contingent , Lieutenant General s Ralph Abercromby and Sir William Erskine , 1st Baronet led the British forces , and on the left Lieutenant General Buttlar led the Hessians . Not only were the French surprised by York ' s advance , Dunkirk ' s defences were in a dilapidated condition . The town would most likely have fallen quickly had the promised Royal Navy fleet arrived on time . An English civilian witness wrote to the " Public Advertiser " that the town would have surrendered outright had it not been for Commissioners arriving from Paris to prevent it . Meanwhile in Paris the election of Lazare Carnot and Pierre Louis Prieur to the Committee of Public Safety was to have immediately beneficial consequences for the Republican field armies . Carnot realised that a defeat for Britain before Dunkirk would be a humiliating blow , and consequently 40 , 000 men from other sectors were ordered to concentrate to the south of Dunkirk in support of the 5 , 000 defenders of the town under Joseph Souham . Most of these forces were concentrated near the entrenched camp at Cassel to take part in Carnot ' s intended flank attack , however on 24 August a column under the command of Jourdan reached Loon , having been diverted from Lille over the head of Houchard by the Représentant en mission , and he was able to reinforce the Dunkirk garrison by 2 , 500 reinforcements to nearly 8 , 000 , while the remainder occupied Bergues ( Burne indicates these reinforcements were the repatriated former garrison of Valenciennes , who were supposed to be non - combatant ) . Jourdan was then transferred to command troops at the Cassel entrenched camp and replaced at Bergues by Leclaire . With the able assistance of his chief of staff , the young Lazare Hoche , Souham , and later Jean Henri Becays Ferrand were able to act vigorously to bolster the demoralised defenders . On the 24th York ' s reserve column ( Austrian troops plus the flanks companies of the British and Hessian regiments ) under the Austrian Feldmarschall - Leutnant Graf Eduard d ' Alton took the suburb of Rosenthal and bundled the French back inside the walls of the town . " We suffered very little from their musketry , because they never attempted to dispute the ground with us , but kept firing and retreating ; but they no sooner got under cover of their own guns , than they began to open upon us with both grape and round shot , and in our retreat to a convenient cover , we suffered considerably " York reported " Unfortunately the ardour and gallantry of the troops carried them too far in spite of a peremptory order from me , three times repeated , they pursued the enemy upon the glacis of the place when we had the misfortune to lose many very brave and reliable men by the grapeshot from the town . " Fortescue says York lost almost 400 casualties , though the Officer of the Guards gives returns as Austrians 170 , British 74 , Hessians 55 killed and wounded . The casualties included d ' Alton , who was shot and killed towards the end of the day . Thereafter York ' s command began entrenching in a line from Tetteghem to the sea . Confidence was high , however York was about to face a number of disappointments . Dundas had omitted to provide York with adequate equipment for a siege , and most importantly no heavy siege artillery . Siege guns had been due to arrive at Nieuport on the 26th , but the only vessels in sight were French gunboats that began bombarding York ' s right seaward flank with impunity . On 27 August , transports arrived to disembark the gun crews ( but no guns ) , on 30 August Admiral John MacBride arrived to coordinate naval operations , but without any fleet . Equally worrying for York was the news of a further check on the Dutch forces of the Prince of Orange near Menin on the 28th , which widened the gap between his command and that of the main Austrian Army further south . Though he could ill afford it , York dispatched six squadrons of Hessian cavalry to bolster the Dutch line . York was in a difficult position . Souham had opened the town sluices , which slowly inundated the fields connecting York to Freytag and filled British trenches on the dunes with two feet of water . " The inundations increasing daily , rendered the ground , on which the British encamped , a perfect swamp " , and soon " An epidemical disorder called the " Dunkirk Fever " , soon broke out amongst the troops , increased daily , and carried off the soldiers rapidly " . York hadn ' t the man - power to invest Dunkirk on more than one side , so the French were able to reinforce the town at any time ; his right flank was constantly bombarded by French gunboats , and he had no siege equipment . In the end the British were only able to find ordnance by disarming a frigate at Furnes ; these cannons arrived by canal at Dunkirk on the 27th . York ' s retreat . On 6 September Houchard led the French forces at the Cassel entrenched camp against Freytag ' s covering Hanoverian corps at the Battle of Hondshoote . On the same day the defenders of Dunkirk made a strong sally in order to pin down York ' s command , the focus of the attack being Alvinczi ' s Austrians on York ' s right flank . This assault was beaten back after intense close - quarter fighting and very considerable loss on both sides , Powell records the 14th Foot had 9 out of 11 officers injured and 253 men killed and wounded . One of the killed this day was York ' s chief of Engineers Colonel Moncrief . On York ' s left flank Freytag ' s Hanoverians were eventually driven back to the town of Hondschoote , where , under command of Wallmoden , they were attacked again on the 8th and eventually forced to withdraw after a very hard defence . With news of his left flank exposed The Duke of York gave orders for his heavy baggage to be withdrawn to Furnes , then at a Council of War on the 8th it was decided to lift the siege of Dunkirk . Souham had rendered the canal unusable for transport , so the 24 - pounder naval guns had to be spiked and abandoned . At 11 . 00 on the evening of the 8th York ' s corps began withdrawing to the coastal city of Furnes ( now Veurne in Belgium ) , with Erskine commanding the rearguard . Progress was hindered by the weather and baggage , much of which was abandoned , Furnes was reached by 7 . 00 the next morning where contact was made with the remnants of Wallmoden ' s troops . York then moved off towards Dixmuyde , leaving Abercromby behind at Furnes with 3 , 000 men , which remained until the 14th before marching through pouring rain to Thurout . Aftermath . On 11 September MacBride ' s fleet finally appeared off Nieuport , three weeks too late . Out of a total of 29 , 700 infantry and 5 , 400 cavalry in the whole operation , the Coalition forces lost 2 , 000 killed and wounded , plus a great many more to sickness due to the swampy environment . The " Officer of the Guards " estimated a total loss of 10 , 000 men ( which probably includes the casualties from Hondschoote ) . In addition , they abandoned the 32 requisitioned naval guns to the French . The 8 , 000 - man French garrison suffered 1 , 000 casualties , plus 14 guns , two mortars , six ammunition wagons , 17 colors , and three standards captured . Assessment . Alfred Burne devotes several pages assessing the Siege of Dunkirk and Hondschoote , including much of the Duke of York ' s subsequent correspondence to the King . York ends his report : " " I think therefore that I am justified in saying that there were three grand causes which made this expedition miscarry : the first owing to the promises and assurances I received from your Majesty ' s Ministers not being in any way fulfilled ; the second owing to the alteration made in the plan of campaign by the Armies of the King of Prussia and of General Wurmser , by which means the enemy was able to bring the whole of the Army of the Moselle against the Field Marshal and Me ; and the third owing to the Field Marshal ' s " ( i . e . Freytag ' s ) " own conduct . " " An officer wrote to the " Morning Chronicle " just two days after the battle of Hondschoote : " " There is but one sentiment throughout the whole camp . If the gun - boats and floating batteries had been ready , according to the express promise to co - operate with the Duke of York , and if his alacrity had been at all seconded on the part of the officers in England there is no doubt that Dunkirk would have fallen at the first attack . Every man that has since perished . . . is to be set down to the score of the ministers , who have sacrificed their duty to the holiday mummery of camps or to the amusements of partridge shooting " . " Burne also points out the oft - overlooked fact that the French broke the terms of capitulation at Valenciennes , which dictated that released prisoners were not to fight again , and sent repatriated prisoners - of - war straight to reinforce the garrison of Dunkirk . " Had the French not broken the terms of capitulation of Valenciennes and used it ' s garrison for the relief of Dunkirk , that town would probably have fallen . " Historian Digby Smith argues that Dunkirk represented a missed opportunity . He blames the British government for its insistence on mounting this operation instead of properly supporting their Austrian allies against the French field armies . Burne however believes that although it transgresses the principle of concentration , in this case it ' s extremely doubtful whether the Austrians would have marched on Paris without first taking Maubeuge and Quesnoy ; therefore the British army was better employed capturing Dunkirk than helping the Austrians take Quesnoy .