The Siege of Pondicherry (1748)

On September 14, 1746, shortly after the outbreak of hostilities in India, parts of the French army besieged the Madras fortress held by the British and seized it by storm on September 21. Thanks to this, the initiative for the next two years passed into the hands of the French, who, however, failed to capture the largest stronghold of their opponents, Fort . In July 1748, the Admiral of the British Navy, Edward Boscauen , landed on the territory of the fort, which was in charge of 8 warships and a contingent of troops of 1,400 people. From a certain time, his actions were coordinated together with Admiral , as well as the British East India Company , therefore, under the command of Boscauen there were 30 warships, 3,700 military personnel of European descent and 2,000 sepoys ^[1] . According to Edward, these forces were enough to win as a result of the planned siege of Pondicherry.

The garrison totaled 4,800, including 1,800 Europeans and 3,000 sepoys under the command of Joseph Francois Duplay ^[1] . By decree of Duplea, a number of additional fortifications and a fortress located two miles to the south, Arianankopang, were erected in the Pondicherry area.

Initially, Boscauen planned to occupy this fortress lying on the way to Pondicherry. He led his troops into a frontal attack, planning to easily take Ariankopang, but the French managed to recapture it, having suffered huge losses. After which a long siege began. Hard times have come for the French. The commandant of the fortress, Swiss officer M. Paradis, to repel the advancing British, allocated a small cavalry formation, which was supposed to take control of the trenches in which there were soldiers of the British naval brigade. As a result of the act, the British began to panic, and the French captured Major Stringer Lawrence, who had previously defeated the enemy during the battle of Cuddalore . However, after some time, an ammunition depot explosion occurred in Ariankopang. Having disarmed the fortress, the French retreated to Pondicherry after three weeks of fighting.

Huge damage inflicted on Boscaen by the incompetence of British engineering units during the siege of the city. On September 6, they started work in the area of ​​the first parallel, however, they had to do undermining in the same places twice, which only increased the amount of time spent ^[1] . The French made a sortie, which was unsuccessful, during which they killed Paradis, which the British took advantage of.

Successful hostilities brought on their side the nabob of Karnatik, , but the French forces were still huge, despite their apparent weakness. The British took a month to build two gun batteries. During this time, Dupleys managed to modernize the fortifications. On October 7, the British launched a bombardment, but the fire of the French counter-battery battery exceeded the British fire twice. The fire of the ships of the British Navy, standing in shallow water, due to their location at a distance of 1000 yards from the fortress, was completely ineffective. In 1748, the rainy season in India began much earlier than usual, and the trenches of besiegers who were inactive until this time were filled with water ^[1] .

On October 11, on the fourth day after the start of the bombardment, Boscauen, realizing that he was suffering heavy losses, decided to storm the infantry units of the fortress. During the British attack, the French destroyed about 1,000 European troops serving in the British Army, as well as countless sepoys. The assault was not successful.

By then, the war for the Austrian inheritance in Europe was drawing to a close, and a peace treaty was concluded in Aachen on October 18. In November, news of a ceasefire reached India, and hostilities were temporarily halted. According to the agreement Madras passed into the hands of the British, and Louisburg located in Canada - to the French ^[1] . For a short period of time, peace has been established in India. In 1749, the Second Carnatic War began, during which there was a struggle for power of various Indian princes, some of which were supported by Great Britain, and others by France.

• Rickard, J. Siege of Pondicherry, August-October 1748 . historyofwar.org (12 December 2011). Date of treatment November 27, 2014.