The siege of Bergen op Zoom took place during the Austrian War of Succession, when a French army, under the command of Count Löwendal and the overall direction of Marshal Maurice de Saxe, laid siege and captured the strategic Dutch border fortress of Bergen op Zoom on the border of Brabant and Zeeland in 1747.

[13] Bergen op Zoom was a fortress town with a population of some 5,000 people and an initial garrison of 3,000 under the command of the 86-year-old, vigorous Governor General Cronström.

Additionally, an entrenched camp at Roosendaal, defended by three forts: Moermont, Pinsen, Rovers, and trench lines connecting to the city on the northeast, were held by the Prince of Hildburghausen with 20 battalions of infantry and 14 squadrons of cavalry that could reinforce or relieve the garrison.

Further, because of the low-lying ground, large areas fronting the defenses were inundated by the Dutch using various sluices and channels and this prevented any French approach in those parts of the field.

[16] Bergen op Zoom was well-garrisoned and well-supplied, so the siege by French forces did not cause immediate alarm in the Netherlands.

However, the allies had an army under Prince Waldeck nearby which posed a continuing threat to French supply lines.

[19] On the night of the 14 July the French opened the trenches using 2,400 workers supported by 10 companies of grenadiers and 5 battalions of infantry.

On 25 July Loudon's Highlanders, also known as the 64th Foot, made a sally from Fort Rover which took and destroyed a major French battery.

The 75 mines sprung, 43 by the Dutch and 32 by the French, between the bastions Coehoorn and Pucelle[26] exemplify the intensity of these operations around the covered way.

[27] On 8 August the allied army, formerly under Waldeck but now commanded by Prince Schwartzenberg, in conjunction with the corps of Hildburghausen, made a badly coordinated and poorly executed night attack on the French in an attempt to break the siege.

Lowendal, advised that several breaches in the defensive fortification were practicable,[29][30] stormed the city in a coup de main attack on the early morning of 18 September 1747.

In addition the first battalions of the regiments Montmorin, Royal de Vaisseaux and Beauvoisis would march in support of the attack.

[32] The Enfants Perdus, or Forlorn Hope, consisted of 200 volunteers, 2 companies of grenadiers supported by a battalion of infantry and were destined to attack Diden, the half-moon, or ravelin.

[34] The brigade of Loudon's Highlanders[35] put up a tenacious defense against the French through the streets of the city, making a stand in the market place losing two-thirds their number but enabling Governor Cronström to escape.

After the fall of the town, the garrisons of the forts of Rovers, Pinsen, Moermant, and Kijk-in-de-Pot in the lines outside the city were either taken by assault or surrendered.

[42] A widely read account of the siege and assault was published by Jacob von Eggers, who participated as a volunteer observer on the French side.