Battle of Tres Forcas
1856 CE.
Shown on the map at 35.438°, -2.974°.
The Battle of Tres Forcas was a battle on 7 August 1856 between boat crews from the Prussian Navy corvette SMS Danzig (then on a foreign cruise, commanded by Heinrich Adalbert) and the Moroccans. It occurred at Cape Tres Forcas in Morocco, and was one of the first examples of Prussian or German gunboat diplomacy. The Treaty of Paris of 1856 had decided that a Prussian warship should be deployed to the River Danube's outlet into the Black Sea and, on its way there, Prince Adalbert decided to explore the Rif coast of Morocco. There, four years earlier, on 7 December 1852, the Prussian warship Flora had been shot at by pirates, with one sailor killed and its captain injured. On 7 August 1856, Prince Adalbert manned two boats and deployed them along the coast. After the boats came under fire from the moroccans, Danzig moved to only 600 metres from the shore to give the boat crews supporting fire. Adalbert then ordered a landing operation by 14 officers and 53 non-commissioned officers, sailors, and marines, led by Adalbert in person. Around noon, he led a surprise attack on a steep rock face nearly 40 metres high under heavy enemy fire.
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