Storming of Martaban - Burma 1852

Unit/ Formation: Royal Marines

Location: Burma

Period/ Conflict: Second Anglo-Burmese War

Year: 1852

Date/s: 5th April 1852

HMS Fox at the very start, 10 January 1852, of the Second Anglo-Burmese War at the mouth of the Yangon River. Burmese Stockades. View towards Rangoon, with the interpreters boat in tow , War steamer Hermes, Burmese King's ship Yathunah-gee-mhon (King Pagan's royal ship), H.M.S. Fox. The Illustrated London News, 27 March 1852

Fox frigate at Rangoon, at the mouth of the Rangoon river. The stockades erected 12 miles below the town of Rangoon. The Hermes ordered take possession and tow out the King's ship, while the towing was underway the Burmese commenced the war by firing upon the Fox. This view is the moment the steamer approached the stockades before the firing commenced. The frigate destroyed the stockades in about 2 hours along with about 60 boats drawn up on the beach.

Martaban is is on the opposite side of the river from this place.

Increasingly concerned about French and American commercial influence in the delta region of the Irrawaddy River, Lord Dalhousie now sent a larger expedition under the command of General Henry Godwin. Known as the ‘Army of Ava’, this force primarily consisted of troops from the Madras Army and Bengal Army, reinforced by a small British Army contingent of three infantry battalions.

Godwin, with his expeditionary force, set sail from Bombay on 28 March 1852, aiming for the mouth of the Irrawaddy River, where he was to be joined by forces sent from Madras. There, he found a naval force led by Admiral Austen on board HMS Rattler, with ships of both the Royal Navy and the Indian Navy.

Amphibious Operations were supported by Sailors and Royal Marines.

Martaban had originally been captured by the British in the First Anglo-Burmese War of 1824–1826, but returned to Burmese administration after the war. It became the border town however as the entire Tenasserim coast from Mawlamyaing down became British territory.

Capture of Martaban - Burma 1852

Fighting began in earnest on 5 April 1852 when after a furious cannonade a British amphibious assault, 6 - 8,000 men, captured Martaban (now Mottama) a critical fortress city located in Lower Burma on the Rangoon River which was defended by Burmese forces.

It was a new small steam-powered gunboats that gave Britain’s armed forces a crucial tactical edge during these operations. Under 200 feet long, with pivot-mounted guns and a crew of around thirty, its greatest asset was its manoeuvrability.

A two-mast sailing rig gave it speed and agility in open sea, while its steam engine allowed it to chug up navigable rivers, deep into hostile territory. ‘The gunboat’, writes one naval historian, ‘made the Royal Navy for the first time a power on land as well as at sea. Without the gunboat, the navy could never have fulfilled its role as global policeman, intervening at the request of British officials and merchants virtually anywhere in the world.’ At no time was the gunboat more effective than during the Second Burma War of 1852–3.

After the initial capture, a subsequent attempt by Burmese forces to reclaim the area was repulsed on May 26, 1852.

This victory secured a key position on the Salween River provided the British with a strategic base in the region facilitating the subsequent British advances in Burma including the attack on Rangoon (Yangon) and Pegu and led to the British annexation of the Pegu province, effectively cutting Burma off from the sea.

Related Royal Marines 'Dits'

Attack on Rangoon & Assualt on the Dallah Stockades

References/ Further Reading:

National Army Museum - Second Burmese War