The first Battle of Bomarsund had been…

The first Battle of Bomarsund had been a brief clash and artillery duel, but the second battle is a different affair.

By the end of July 1854, a British fleet of twenty-five ships had surrounded the fortress and waited only for the French ground troops to arrive.

Both defender and attacker had acknowledged that the fort could not be defeated by naval forces alone and made preparations accordingly.

Russian forces have dstroyed the surrounding countryside in an effort to force British and French forces to break away from the assumed siege.  

Landing on August 8, the British troops establish  a battery of three thirty-two-pounder guns on a hill, the French establishing several batteries.