{ "slug": "hohenfriedberg", "title": "Battle of Hohenfriedberg", "status": "draft", "era": "1600–1760", "date_text": "4 June 1745", "start": "1745-06-04", "end": "1745-06-04", "war": "War of the Austrian Succession", "cdb90_war": "WAR OF THE AUSTRIAN SUCCESSION", "place": { "name": "Between Striegau (now Strzegom) and Hohenfriedberg (now Dobromierz), Silesia; today Poland", "lat": 50.9611, "lon": 16.3444, "wikidata": "Q688448" }, "lede": "On 4 June 1745 Frederick the Great let an Austro-Saxon army come down from the Silesian mountains, marched through the night and attacked at dawn, beating the Saxons and then the Austrians before nine. It kept Silesia Prussian and made his name.", "result": "Decisive Prussian victory", "result_cdb90": "attacker win", "belligerents": [ { "role": "attacker", "name": "Prussian army", "commanders": [ "Frederick II", "Wilhelm Dietrich von Buddenbrock", "Prince Dietrich of Anhalt-Dessau", "Peter Ludwig du Moulin", "Friedrich Leopold von Gessler", "Hans Joachim von Zieten" ], "strength": { "value": 59000, "low": 58800, "high": 70000, "source": "s1" }, "casualties": { "value": 4737, "low": 4737, "high": 5000, "source": "s2" } }, { "role": "defender", "name": "Austrian and Saxon army", "commanders": [ "Prince Charles of Lorraine", "Johann Adolf II, Duke of Saxe-Weissenfels", "Franz Leopold von Nádasdy", "Adam Sigmund von Thüngen" ], "strength": { "value": 59000, "low": 59000, "high": 75000, "source": "s1" }, "casualties": { "value": 13176, "low": 10400, "high": 16000, "source": "s1" } } ], "sections": { "background": "Frederick II had taken most of Silesia from Austria in the First Silesian War, and the Treaty of Breslau in 1742 confirmed it. Maria Theresa never accepted the loss. In August 1744, fearing that Austria would turn on Silesia once the French were out of Bohemia, Frederick struck first and invaded Bohemia, taking Prague. The campaign then fell apart. Field Marshal Traun refused battle and starved the Prussians of supplies, and by the end of 1744 Frederick had retreated to Silesia with heavy losses.\n\nIn January 1745 the Union of Warsaw tied Saxony to Austria, Britain and the Dutch Republic, and it was the Austrians and Saxons who would invade Silesia. Frederick decided to wait for them inside the province. He gathered his army near Frankenstein at the end of May and let the enemy think he was beaten. Carlyle tells how he found that one of his spies was also reporting to Prince Charles, and sent him back with the news that Frederick feared being cut off from Breslau; Frederick also ordered repairs to the roads leading there.\n\nThe Austro-Saxon army under Prince Charles of Lorraine and the Duke of Saxe-Weissenfels crossed the Giant Mountains to Landeshut on 29 May. Expecting a Prussian retreat, the allies decided on 3 June to come down on to the plain between Hohenfriedberg and Striegau in eight columns, leaving their baggage behind. Frederick had meanwhile moved north-west and camped between Schweidnitz and Jauernick, hidden in the valleys, watching the exits from the hills. From the Fuchsberg he watched the allied columns descend that afternoon and decided to attack the next morning.", "forces": "Frederick had some 59,000–65,000 men and 192 guns, with an unusually strong cavalry arm of about 17,000. Old Field Marshal Buddenbrock, aged 72, led the cavalry of the right; Zieten's hussars and Lieutenant-General Nassau's cuirassiers were on the left. Prince Dietrich of Anhalt-Dessau led infantry of the right, and Lieutenant-General du Moulin an advance guard with six grenadier battalions. The Bayreuth Dragoons, Dragoon Regiment No. 5, stood in General Gessler's brigade in the second line: ten squadrons, about 1,500 sabres.\n\nPrince Charles had roughly 59,000–75,000 men and 121–122 guns. The Austrians, about 40,000 with their hussars and Croats, held the right and centre. The Saxon corps of some 19,000–25,000 under Weissenfels, including uhlans, held the left near Pilgramshain and the heights north of Striegau, with some Austrian cavalry attached. The Saxon infantry would prove stubborn, but the allied army was spread over several miles of bivouacs at the foot of the hills, its commanders expected a Prussian withdrawal rather than an attack, and Charles slept that night at Hausdorf, in the centre of the line.", "course": "CDB90 records the battle as a single engagement, number 59 (HOHENFRIEDBERG), from 04:00 to 11:00. The night march before it is outside that window. Times are approximate and differ by up to an hour between sources.\n\n**The night march (20:00–02:00).** At about 20:00–21:00 on 3 June the Prussians left their camp between Jauernick and Schweidnitz, leaving their watch-fires burning and their baggage at Schweidnitz. They marched in silence, with no pipes lit, to the bridge over the Striegauer Wasser at Striegau, wading in places through water to mid-leg. Du Moulin's advance guard, sent ahead earlier, pushed Saxon parties off most of the hills north of Striegau after dark. By about 02:00 the main army was at its start line, and Frederick issued orders: the right was to fall on the Saxons near Pilgramshain at first light. Nádasdy's scouts reported the Prussian camp quiet.\n\n**The Saxon wing (04:00–07:00).** At dawn du Moulin's guns opened on the Saxons holding the last hill. The Saxons were farther north and east than Frederick had expected, so the Prussian right had to wheel before it could engage. Buddenbrock's 46 squadrons charged downhill and, after three clashes, broke the Saxon and attached Austrian horse. The Saxon infantry, posted among woods, ditches, villages and carp ponds, fought for nearly two hours with their regimental guns, and General Truchsess von Waldburg was killed leading a Prussian division. Prussian infantry, eventually 21 battalions, pressed them back with close-range volleys and the bayonet, and by about 07:00 the Saxons were in retreat towards the hills. The Austrians had not helped them: Charles, woken late at Hausdorf, at first took the gunfire for the Saxons attacking Striegau.\n\n**The left wing and the broken bridge (about 06:30–08:30).** Frederick now swung his unengaged troops left against the Austrians, who were forming between Günthersdorf and the Striegauer Wasser. The bridge at Teichau broke under Nassau's cuirassiers, leaving about ten squadrons cut off on the far bank, and the Prussian line had a gap in its centre. Charles did not exploit either. Zieten found a ford upstream, splashed across with his hussars and other regiments, and after hard fighting the Austrian cavalry of the right were driven off. At about 08:30 the Prussian left, some 18 battalions, advanced on Günthersdorf and Thomaswaldau, exchanging fire with the Austrian infantry at very short range.\n\n**The Bayreuth charge (about 08:00–09:00).** The Austrian line, unbroken but bunching up, began to waver around the regiment Thüngen. Gessler, behind the gap in the Prussian line, had the infantry make room and sent the Bayreuth Dragoons through in two columns, one led by Lieutenant-Colonel Chasot. They overran grenadiers who could not form in time and then rode through the Austrian infantry, routing some 20 battalions. In well under an hour they took about 2,500 prisoners and 66 or 67 colours, losing fewer than a hundred men.\n\n**Retreat (09:00–11:00).** Charles ordered a retreat; covered by guns and by Nádasdy's rearguard, his army went back through Hohenfriedberg into the mountains towards Bolkenhain by about 10:00. The Prussians, exhausted by the march and the fighting, followed only a short way.", "aftermath": "The Prussians lost about 4,700 killed and wounded. The allies lost some 13,000–15,000, including between 5,600 and 7,200 prisoners, with 63–72 guns and dozens of colours. Thüngen and several other Austrian generals were killed. Frederick wrote to his mother that there had been no such defeat since Blenheim, and Charles, by Asprey's account, wrote that night that his troops had behaved like idiots. Frederick was later criticised for not pursuing; he said his men were too tired.\n\nThe victory secured Silesia but not peace. Maria Theresa fought on, and only after further Prussian victories at Soor on 30 September and Kesselsdorf on 15 December did Austria and Saxony sign the Peace of Dresden on Christmas Day 1745, leaving Silesia to Prussia.\n\nThe Bayreuth Dragoons' charge became a Prussian legend. The regiment was given a letter of grace from the king, wore '67' on its cartridge pouches, and was allowed to play the infantry's grenadier marches as well as cavalry fanfares. The march 'Der Hohenfriedberger' carries the battle's name, and tradition says Frederick composed it that evening at Rohnstock. That attribution is doubtful: the march is first recorded in a piano version of 1795, and its words, which hail the 'Ansbach-Bayreuth' dragoons, date from the centenary in 1845, long after the regiment acquired that title.", "wargaming": "Hohenfriedberg is two battles fought one after the other: the Prussian right against the Saxons from dawn, then the left against the Austrians. That makes it unusually good for a game with timed arrivals. The allied player starts asleep and scattered, the Austrian right cannot act until its commander wakes up, and the Prussian left has to file across one weak bridge and a ford before it can deploy.\n\nThe ground suits a grand-tactical game with regiments or brigades as units on a front of about 8 km, with marshy ground, carp ponds, woods and villages around Pilgramshain making the Saxon sector slow and bloody. A regimental or battalion-level game works well for either half on its own: the Saxon fight as an infantry slog, or the Austrian wing with the bridge, the Zieten ford and the Bayreuth charge.\n\nRules should reward close-range volleys and penalise infantry caught out of formation by cavalry, and allow a large dragoon regiment to exploit a gap. The decisions: does Frederick keep his right attacking after the Saxons break, or swing it left? Does Charles see and use the gap in the Prussian centre, or the cuirassiers stranded by the bridge? What ifs: the Austrians waking an hour earlier and supporting the Saxons, the bridge failing completely, or Gessler holding back." }, "images": [ { "file": "File:Battle of Hohenfriedeberg MKL Bd. 8 1890 (130918802).jpg", "kind": "map", "caption": "Plan of the battle from Meyers Konversations-Lexikon (1890), showing the Prussian attack across the Striegauer Wasser.", "url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/36/Battle_of_Hohenfriedeberg_MKL_Bd._8_1890_%28130918802%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=original", "thumb": "https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/36/Battle_of_Hohenfriedeberg_MKL_Bd._8_1890_%28130918802%29.jpg/960px-Battle_of_Hohenfriedeberg_MKL_Bd._8_1890_%28130918802%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail", "page": "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Battle_of_Hohenfriedeberg_MKL_Bd._8_1890_(130918802).jpg", "licence": "Public domain", "licence_url": "", "artist": "Unknown author Unknown author", "credit": "National Library of Poland", "width": 1008 }, { "file": "File:Kaart van de slag bij Hohenfriedberg, RP-P-1911-2886.jpg", "kind": "map", "caption": "A contemporary engraved plan of the battle by Georg Paul Busch, 1745 (Rijksmuseum).", "url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1b/Kaart_van_de_slag_bij_Hohenfriedberg%2C_RP-P-1911-2886.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=original", "thumb": "https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/1b/Kaart_van_de_slag_bij_Hohenfriedberg%2C_RP-P-1911-2886.jpg/960px-Kaart_van_de_slag_bij_Hohenfriedberg%2C_RP-P-1911-2886.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail", "page": "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Kaart_van_de_slag_bij_Hohenfriedberg,_RP-P-1911-2886.jpg", "licence": "CC0", "licence_url": "http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/deed.en", "artist": "Rijksmuseum", "credit": "http://hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.89638", "width": 5692 }, { "file": "File:Hohenfriedeberg - Attack of Prussian Infantry - 1745.jpg", "kind": "painting", "caption": "The Prussian grenadier guard battalion attacks at Hohenfriedberg, by Carl Röchling.", "url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9a/Hohenfriedeberg_-_Attack_of_Prussian_Infantry_-_1745.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=original", "thumb": "https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/9a/Hohenfriedeberg_-_Attack_of_Prussian_Infantry_-_1745.jpg/960px-Hohenfriedeberg_-_Attack_of_Prussian_Infantry_-_1745.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail", "page": "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hohenfriedeberg_-_Attack_of_Prussian_Infantry_-_1745.jpg", "licence": "Public domain", "licence_url": "", "artist": "Carl Röchling", "credit": "Scan by AlexvonF , (Nach einem Gemälde von Röchling, aus:Svensen, Konungarnas tidehvarf , Norrköping 1913)", "width": 1019 }, { "file": "File:Preußische Grenadier-Bataillone schlagen die Sachsische Garde.jpg", "kind": "painting", "caption": "Prussian grenadier battalions beat the Saxon Guard, by Carl Röchling (Military History Museum, Dresden).", "url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/01/Preu%C3%9Fische_Grenadier-Bataillone_schlagen_die_Sachsische_Garde.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=original", "thumb": "https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/01/Preu%C3%9Fische_Grenadier-Bataillone_schlagen_die_Sachsische_Garde.jpg/960px-Preu%C3%9Fische_Grenadier-Bataillone_schlagen_die_Sachsische_Garde.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail", "page": "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Preu%C3%9Fische_Grenadier-Bataillone_schlagen_die_Sachsische_Garde.jpg", "licence": "Public domain", "licence_url": "", "artist": "Carl Röchling", "credit": "https://c2.staticflickr.com/8/7403/14079884065_b5fc2ed166_b.jpg", "width": 2048 }, { "file": "File:Charge of the Bayreuth Dragoons at the Battle of Hohenfriedberg.jpg", "kind": "illustration", "caption": "The charge of the Bayreuth Dragoons, after Adolph Menzel.", "url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/36/Charge_of_the_Bayreuth_Dragoons_at_the_Battle_of_Hohenfriedberg.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=original", "thumb": "https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/36/Charge_of_the_Bayreuth_Dragoons_at_the_Battle_of_Hohenfriedberg.jpg/960px-Charge_of_the_Bayreuth_Dragoons_at_the_Battle_of_Hohenfriedberg.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail", "page": "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Charge_of_the_Bayreuth_Dragoons_at_the_Battle_of_Hohenfriedberg.jpg", "licence": "Public domain", "licence_url": "", "artist": "Adolph von Menzel", "credit": "http://syw2.tripod.com/bayreuth.html", "width": 1445 }, { "file": "File:Antoine Pesne - Friedrich II. als Feldherr (1745).jpg", "kind": "portrait", "caption": "Frederick II as commander, workshop of Antoine Pesne, about 1745.", "url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/91/Antoine_Pesne_-_Friedrich_II._als_Feldherr_%281745%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=original", "thumb": "https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/91/Antoine_Pesne_-_Friedrich_II._als_Feldherr_%281745%29.jpg/960px-Antoine_Pesne_-_Friedrich_II._als_Feldherr_%281745%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail", "page": "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Antoine_Pesne_-_Friedrich_II._als_Feldherr_(1745).jpg", "licence": "Public domain", "licence_url": "", "artist": "Workshop of Antoine Pesne", "credit": "1. www.dhm.de 2. Bridgeman Art Library : Object 695167", "width": 1263 }, { "file": "File:Martin van Meytens 007.jpg", "kind": "portrait", "caption": "Prince Charles Alexander of Lorraine, by Martin van Meytens, 1743.", "url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bc/Martin_van_Meytens_007.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=original", "thumb": "https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/bc/Martin_van_Meytens_007.jpg/960px-Martin_van_Meytens_007.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail", "page": "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Martin_van_Meytens_007.jpg", "licence": "Public domain", "licence_url": "", "artist": "Martin van Meytens", "credit": "Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien, Bilddatenbank .", "width": 1048 } ], "sources": [ { "id": "s1", "title": "Battle of Hohenfriedberg", "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Hohenfriedberg", "kind": "web" }, { "id": "s2", "title": "Schlacht bei Hohenfriedberg (German Wikipedia)", "url": "https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schlacht_bei_Hohenfriedberg", "kind": "web" }, { "id": "s3", "title": "Thomas Carlyle, History of Friedrich II of Prussia, called Frederick the Great, Book XV (1862; Project Gutenberg)", "url": "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2115", "kind": "book" }, { "id": "s4", "title": "'Hohenfriedberg', Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th ed. (1911), vol. 13 (Wikisource)", "url": "https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/1911_Encyclop%C3%A6dia_Britannica/Hohenfriedberg", "kind": "article" }, { "id": "s5", "title": "The Battle of Hohenfriedberg (britishbattles.com)", "url": "https://britishbattles.com/frederick-the-great-wars/the-battle-of-hohenfriedberg", "kind": "web" }, { "id": "s6", "title": "Der Hohenfriedberger", "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Der_Hohenfriedberger", "kind": "web" }, { "id": "s7", "title": "Christopher Duffy, The Army of Frederick the Great (David & Charles / Hippocrene, 1974)", "url": null, "kind": "book" }, { "id": "s8", "title": "Dennis Showalter, The Wars of Frederick the Great (Longman, 1996)", "url": null, "kind": "book" }, { "id": "s9", "title": "Robert B. Asprey, Frederick the Great: The Magnificent Enigma (Ticknor & Fields, 1986; History Book Club, 1999)", "url": null, "kind": "book" }, { "id": "s10", "title": "David Chandler, The Art of Warfare in the Age of Marlborough (Spellmount, 1990)", "url": null, "kind": "book" }, { "id": "s11", "title": "2nd (Pomeranian) Cuirassier Regiment \"Queen\"", "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2nd_(Pomeranian)_Cuirassier_Regiment_%22Queen%22", "kind": "web" } ], "cdb90": [ 59 ], "order": 28, "url": "https://battles.georgewyrd.com/hohenfriedberg/", "oob": [], "oob_lwtv": [], "scenarios": [], "orbat": null, "orbat_lwtv": null, "reading": { "prose": [], "history": [], "fiction": [], "poetry": [] }, "reading_lwtv": { "prose": [], "poetry": [] }, "photos": [], "photos_kind": "photographs", "newspapers": null }