The Fall of Ghent occurred on 15 July 1745 during the War of the Austrian Succession when a 5,000 strong French force under Ulrich Frédéric Woldemar, Comte de Lowendal surprised and captured the town of Ghent in the Austrian Netherlands.

A British regiment, including James Wolfe, had left shortly before the fall of the town and narrowly avoided becoming prisoners of war.

[2] A column of 4,000 to 5,000 British, Hanoverian, Dutch and Austrian reinforcements sent by the Duke of Cumberland was defeated by the French at the Battle of Melle with only some 1,000 men getting through to Ghent.

Without hope of relief or reinforcement[3] and with Lowendal strengthened by 15,000 the garrison of the citadel was demoralised and fell to a coup de main on July 15.

[6] The following year the town was used as a staging point for a French advance which culminated in the Siege of Brussels.