{ "slug": "kolin", "title": "Battle of Kolín", "status": "draft", "era": "1600–1760", "date_text": "18 June 1757", "start": "1757-06-18", "end": "1757-06-18", "war": "Seven Years' War", "cdb90_war": "THE SEVEN YEAR'S WAR", "place": { "name": "Heights between Křečhoř (Krzeczhorz) and Chocenice (Chozenitz), west of Kolín, Bohemia; today Czech Republic", "lat": 50.0289, "lon": 15.1219, "wikidata": "Q127299" }, "lede": "On 18 June 1757 Frederick the Great marched across the front of Daun's Austrian relief army near Kolín to turn its right, but his attack broke into piecemeal frontal assaults and was beaten. It was Frederick's first defeat, and it ended the siege of Prague.", "result": "Decisive Austrian victory", "result_cdb90": "attacker loss", "belligerents": [ { "role": "attacker", "name": "Prussian army", "commanders": [ "Frederick II", "Prince Moritz of Anhalt-Dessau", "Duke August Wilhelm of Brunswick-Bevern", "Hans Joachim von Zieten", "Johann Dietrich von Hülsen" ], "strength": { "value": 34000, "low": 33000, "high": 35000, "source": "s1" }, "casualties": { "value": 13773, "low": 13733, "high": 14000, "source": "s3" } }, { "role": "defender", "name": "Austrian army, with Saxon cavalry in Austrian service", "commanders": [ "Leopold Joseph von Daun", "Franz Leopold von Nádasdy", "Giovanni Battista Serbelloni", "Count Colloredo", "Friedrich August von Nostitz (Saxon cavalry)" ], "strength": { "value": 54000, "low": 53790, "high": 60000, "source": "s2" }, "casualties": { "value": 8114, "low": 8000, "high": 9000, "source": "s2" } } ], "sections": { "background": "In the spring of 1757 Frederick II invaded Bohemia to knock Austria out of the Seven Years' War before France and Russia could bring their weight to bear. On 6 May he beat Prince Charles of Lorraine outside Prague and shut the survivors, some 40,000 men by Carlyle's count, inside the city. While the Prussians bombarded Prague, Field Marshal Leopold von Daun, who had arrived too late for the battle, gathered stragglers and reinforcements around Čáslav until he had some 60,000 men. The Duke of Bevern, with a smaller Prussian corps, was watching him.\n\nVienna ordered Daun to relieve Prague whatever the cost. He began to advance, and Bevern fell back before him. On 12 June Daun sent officers in disguise to warn Prince Charles that he would be near Prague on the 20th; none got into the city, but word reached the Prussians. Next morning Frederick left Ferdinand of Brunswick to keep up the siege and marched east with what he could spare, joining Bevern near Kouřim. Prince Moritz of Anhalt-Dessau followed with more troops, and the combined army numbered about 34,000.\n\nDaun was cautious and skilled at choosing ground. On the evening of 17 June, worried that the Prussians edging north towards their bread ovens at Nymburk could turn his right, he swung his right wing and centre through ninety degrees. By morning his army lay along the Kamhajek ridge, about 2 km south of the Kaiserstrasse, the imperial high road from Prague to Vienna through Plaňany and Kolín, with its right flank at the hamlet of Krzeczhorz (Křečhoř).", "forces": "Frederick's army was about 33,000–35,000 strong: 32 battalions and 116 squadrons, with 28 heavy guns (including 21 twelve-pounders) and 62 light regimental pieces. Its infantry had already lost heavily at Prague, but Carlyle, following the Prussian accounts, rated it as fine as any soldiers in Europe. Zieten led the advance guard cavalry, Hülsen the infantry of the vanguard, Prince Moritz the centre and Bevern and Manstein the right.\n\nDaun had about 54,000 men, perhaps 60,000 by the highest count: 46 line and 9 Grenzer battalions, 43 grenadier companies and 158 squadrons, with 60 heavy guns and over 90 battalion guns. He outnumbered Frederick by about three to two, and on this ground his Grenzer light infantry and Croat parties could screen his line and harass a marching column. General Nádasdy's corps of hussars and cavalry held the right beyond Krzeczhorz, with infantry and Grenzers in the village and the oak wood behind it. Count Serbelloni's cuirassiers stood behind the right-centre and Stampach's cavalry on the left. A notable part of Nádasdy's corps was Saxon: three regiments of chevauxlégers (Prinz Albrecht, Prinz Karl and Graf Brühl) under General Nostitz. They had been in Poland when the Saxon army surrendered at Pirna in 1756, and had passed into Austrian service with old scores to settle.", "course": "CDB90 records one engagement, number 67 (KOLIN), from 14:00 to 21:00. That covers the assault and the Prussian withdrawal; the approach began at dawn. Times are approximate.\n\n**The approach (05:00–noon).** Fog hid the Austrians at daybreak. At 05:00 Tresckow's detachment cleared Grenzers from Plaňany, and the army marched east by its left, Zieten's cavalry and the first line along the Kaiserstrasse, the second line on the open ground north of it. Frederick rode with the vanguard to an inn near Novomiesto, climbed to the top storey and at last saw Daun's line along the ridge. He halted for over three hours to let the rearguard close up.\n\n**The plan (about noon).** Frederick judged Daun's left and front too strong to attack. The army would march on across the Austrian front, the vanguard would turn right at Krzeczhorz and roll up the flank, and each following division would turn in after it in succession; the right wing was to hold back as a reserve. Daun saw the danger and moved Colloredo's reserve, then Wied's and Sincère's divisions, to the slope between Krzeczhorz and the main line, with a 12-gun battery south-west of the village.\n\n**Krzeczhorz and the oak wood (from about 14:00).** The columns stepped off around 13:00 under ineffective fire from the ridge. Zieten charged Nádasdy's cavalry and drove it into the hollow of Radowesnitz (Radovesnice). Hülsen faced right, battered Krzeczhorz with six heavy guns and stormed it, taking the battery. But beyond the village he found the oak wood full of guns and Grenzers and a strong force behind it, and with no new battalions coming up he could only extend his line and cannonade.\n\n**The plan comes apart (about 15:00–16:00).** Far to the west, Manstein, goaded by Grenzer fire from the corn, turned a battalion of Regiment Bornstedt against them. The skirmish drew in regiment after regiment behind him, until the whole right wing was storming the slopes Frederick had ruled out. In the centre Frederick ordered Prince Moritz to face right at once; Moritz protested, then obeyed. A correction, half-left, came too late, and Moritz struck the Austrian line frontally west of Krzeczhorz, out of touch with Hülsen. By about 16:00 the whole Prussian line was engaged uphill along several kilometres, with no reserve left.\n\n**The cavalry battle (about 16:00–19:00).** Penavaire's cuirassiers, sent round Brzistwi, were disordered by a sunken road and artillery fire, threw back Serbelloni's first line, then broke under fire from the oak wood. Krosigk's cavalry reserve, with Seydlitz at the head of the Rochow Cuirassiers, rode in to support Hülsen; the Normann Dragoons cleared the wood, cut up the Platz Infantry and took a standard from the Saxon Karabiniergarde, though Krosigk was killed. Hülsen's infantry, reinforced from Tresckow's division, were close to breaking the Austrian right.\n\n**The Saxon counter-charge (about 19:00–20:00).** Daun, fearing his army would be driven into the marshes behind the ridge, had pencilled an order to retreat to Suchdol. His aide-de-camp could not find Nostitz and gave it to the Saxon Lieutenant-Colonel Benkendorf, who thought it premature and persuaded Nostitz to attack. The Saxon chevauxlégers, the Ligne Dragoons and the picked Kommandierten cavalry fell on the right flank of Hülsen and Tresckow, routed the Prussian horse and rode into the infantry, the Saxons reportedly crying \"This for Striegau!\" Hülsen's battalions formed squares but were broken and driven downhill, and the collapse spread west along the line.\n\n**Retreat (20:00–22:00).** Frederick handed the retreat to Bevern and Moritz and rode for Nymburk. Stampach's cavalry tried to clear the Prussian right but was beaten off by the First Battalion of the Guard and two others. Daun forbade his infantry to advance; Zieten and Hülsen left the field as rearguard, the last cavalry around 21:00–22:00.", "aftermath": "The Prussians lost about 13,700–14,000 men, some 40 per cent of the army, including 5,380 prisoners, with 45 guns and 22 colours; the losses fell mostly on the infantry. The Austrians lost about 8,100–9,000. Daun did not pursue. The news reached the siege lines at 02:00 on 19 June, and Frederick raised the siege of Prague on 20 June and fell back to Litoměřice. Daun, joined by Prague's garrison, followed with about 100,000 men, and the Prussians were eventually forced out of Bohemia into Saxony.\n\nIn Vienna the victory was celebrated with a new decoration, the Military Order of Maria Theresa, with Daun at its head. Frederick's own account blamed Manstein's unauthorised attack, and Prussian military opinion long agreed. Only decades later did Prince Franz of Anhalt-Dessau, Moritz's aide, let slip through Berenhorst that the King had drawn his sword on Moritz to force the premature turn; Carlyle argued that the fault was an unclear order rather than a change of plan. The story that Frederick shouted \"Kerls, wollt ihr denn ewig leben?\" (\"Rascals, would you live for ever?\") at hesitating Guards is widely repeated, but Carlyle dismissed it as \"pure myth\". Memorials stand on the field at Křečhoř and on the Bedřichov hill, Frederick's lookout.", "wargaming": "Kolín is a game about a plan unravelling. The Prussian player knows what Frederick wanted: march across the front, hook round Krzeczhorz, feed divisions in one after another. The question is whether he can do it under fire while the Austrian player shuffles reserves to the threatened flank. Some friction is essential. Without rules that can drag a column into a fight with skirmishers (Manstein) or garble an order (Moritz), the Prussians simply execute the textbook oblique attack.\n\nThe ground is gentle but full of detail: the Kaiserstrasse as the axis of march, the walled hamlets, the stream dells in the slope, Krzeczhorz and its church, the oak wood that flanked every Prussian charge, the sunken road at Brzistwi, and the marshes behind Daun that made him think of retreat. A front of about 8 km and some 88,000 men suit a grand-tactical scale with brigades or regiments as units; the fight for Krzeczhorz and the oak wood, roughly 2 km across, makes an excellent battalion-level game on its own.\n\nThe cavalry battle on the Austrian right is the heart of it: Zieten against Nádasdy, Penavaire and Krosigk against Serbelloni, then the Saxons. What ifs: Manstein keeps marching, Moritz gets the half-left order first time, Benkendorf passes on Daun's retreat order, or Daun pursues the beaten Prussians." }, "images": [ { "file": "File:Kärtchen zur Schlacht bei Kolin (18.06.1757).jpg", "kind": "map", "caption": "Sketch map of the Battle of Kolín, 18 June 1757.", "url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/92/K%C3%A4rtchen_zur_Schlacht_bei_Kolin_%2818.06.1757%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=original", "thumb": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/92/K%C3%A4rtchen_zur_Schlacht_bei_Kolin_%2818.06.1757%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled", "page": "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:K%C3%A4rtchen_zur_Schlacht_bei_Kolin_(18.06.1757).jpg", "licence": "Public domain", "licence_url": "", "artist": "", "credit": "", "width": 442 }, { "file": "File:Umgebungskarte Kolin 18 Juni 1757.jpg", "kind": "map", "caption": "The country between Plaňany and Kolín, with the Kaiserstrasse and the Austrian position south of it.", "url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b1/Umgebungskarte_Kolin_18_Juni_1757.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=original", "thumb": "https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b1/Umgebungskarte_Kolin_18_Juni_1757.jpg/960px-Umgebungskarte_Kolin_18_Juni_1757.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail", "page": "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Umgebungskarte_Kolin_18_Juni_1757.jpg", "licence": "Public domain", "licence_url": "", "artist": "", "credit": "This file is from the Mechanical Curator collection , a set of over 1 million images scanned from out-of-copyright books and released to Flickr Commons by the British Library in London, England. View in BL Georeferencer View image on Flickr View all images from book View catalogue entry for book .", "width": 1297 }, { "file": "File:Leopold Joseph Daun.jpg", "kind": "portrait", "caption": "Field Marshal Leopold Joseph von Daun, the victor of Kolín.", "url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/00/Leopold_Joseph_Daun.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=original", "thumb": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/00/Leopold_Joseph_Daun.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled", "page": "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Leopold_Joseph_Daun.jpg", "licence": "Public domain", "licence_url": "", "artist": "Unknown author Unknown author", "credit": "Unknown source Unknown source", "width": 610 }, { "file": "File:HGM Querfurt Die Schlacht bei Kolin.jpg", "kind": "painting", "caption": "The Battle of Kolín by August Querfurt (Heeresgeschichtliches Museum, Vienna).", "url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3d/HGM_Querfurt_Die_Schlacht_bei_Kolin.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=original", "thumb": "https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/3d/HGM_Querfurt_Die_Schlacht_bei_Kolin.jpg/960px-HGM_Querfurt_Die_Schlacht_bei_Kolin.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail", "page": "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HGM_Querfurt_Die_Schlacht_bei_Kolin.jpg", "licence": "Public domain", "licence_url": "", "artist": "August Querfurt", "credit": "( Original text: selbst erstellt im Heeregeschichtlichen Museum in Wien von Pappenheim ), (17 September 2010 (original upload date))", "width": 1009 }, { "file": "File:Erstes pr. Bataillon Leibgarde in Schlacht bei Kollin.jpg", "kind": "painting", "caption": "The First Battalion of the Prussian Guard at Kolín, after Richard Knötel.", "url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/35/Erstes_pr._Bataillon_Leibgarde_in_Schlacht_bei_Kollin.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=original", "thumb": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/35/Erstes_pr._Bataillon_Leibgarde_in_Schlacht_bei_Kollin.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled", "page": "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Erstes_pr._Bataillon_Leibgarde_in_Schlacht_bei_Kollin.jpg", "licence": "Public domain", "licence_url": "", "artist": "Richard Knötel", "credit": "https://web.archive.org/web/20170722034625/http://www.kuk-wehrmacht.de/gefechte/17570618kolin.html", "width": 745 }, { "file": "File:Frederick the Great after the Battle of Kolin by Julius Schrader.jpg", "kind": "painting", "caption": "Frederick after the defeat at Kolín, by Julius Schrader.", "url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/ca/Frederick_the_Great_after_the_Battle_of_Kolin_by_Julius_Schrader.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=original", "thumb": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/ca/Frederick_the_Great_after_the_Battle_of_Kolin_by_Julius_Schrader.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled", "page": "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Frederick_the_Great_after_the_Battle_of_Kolin_by_Julius_Schrader.jpg", "licence": "Public domain", "licence_url": "", "artist": "Julius Schrader", "credit": "http://www.britishbattles.com/frederick-the-great-wars/seven-years-war/battle-of-kolin/", "width": 407 }, { "file": "File:Křečhoř - památník bitvy u Kolína.jpg", "kind": "photo", "caption": "The battle memorial at Křečhoř.", "url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1b/K%C5%99e%C4%8Dho%C5%99_-_pam%C3%A1tn%C3%ADk_bitvy_u_Kol%C3%ADna.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=original", "thumb": "https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/1b/K%C5%99e%C4%8Dho%C5%99_-_pam%C3%A1tn%C3%ADk_bitvy_u_Kol%C3%ADna.jpg/960px-K%C5%99e%C4%8Dho%C5%99_-_pam%C3%A1tn%C3%ADk_bitvy_u_Kol%C3%ADna.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail", "page": "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:K%C5%99e%C4%8Dho%C5%99_-_pam%C3%A1tn%C3%ADk_bitvy_u_Kol%C3%ADna.jpg", "licence": "CC BY 2.5", "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5", "artist": "Prazak", "credit": "Own work", "width": 1000 } ], "sources": [ { "id": "s1", "title": "Battle of Kolín", "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Kol%C3%ADn", "kind": "web" }, { "id": "s2", "title": "1757-06-18 – Battle of Kolin (Project Seven Years War, kronoskaf.com; drawing on the Prussian General Staff's Die Kriege Friedrichs des Grossen, vol. 3, Tempelhof, Carlyle and Hoen)", "url": "https://www.kronoskaf.com/syw/index.php?title=1757-06-18_-_Battle_of_Kolin", "kind": "web" }, { "id": "s3", "title": "Thomas Carlyle, History of Friedrich II of Prussia, vol. 18, Book XVIII, ch. IV, 'Battle of Kolin' (1865; Project Gutenberg)", "url": "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2118", "kind": "book" }, { "id": "s4", "title": "Schlacht bei Kolin (German Wikipedia)", "url": "https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schlacht_bei_Kolin", "kind": "web" }, { "id": "s5", "title": "Micheal Clodfelter, Warfare and Armed Conflicts: A Statistical Encyclopedia of Casualty and Other Figures, 1492–2015, 4th ed. (McFarland, 2017)", "url": null, "kind": "book" }, { "id": "s6", "title": "Gaston Bodart, Militär-historisches Kriegs-Lexikon (1618–1905) (C. W. Stern, 1908)", "url": null, "kind": "book" }, { "id": "s7", "title": "Christopher Clark, Preußen: Aufstieg und Niedergang 1600–1947 (DVA, 2007)", "url": null, "kind": "book" }, { "id": "s8", "title": "Günter Dorn and Joachim Engelmann, Die Schlachten Friedrichs des Großen (Podzun-Pallas)", "url": null, "kind": "book" } ], "cdb90": [ 67 ], "order": 31, "url": "https://battles.georgewyrd.com/kolin/", "oob": [], "oob_lwtv": [], "scenarios": [], "orbat": null, "orbat_lwtv": null, "reading": { "prose": [ { "work_id": "ia:unterhaltungenm00kosegoog", "title": "Unterhaltungen mit Friedrich dem Grossen", "in": null, "author": "Henri de Catt", "life": "1725–1795", "year": 1884, "kind": "diary", "library": "Internet Archive", "url": "https://archive.org/details/unterhaltungenm00kosegoog", "language": "fre, ger", "contemporary": true, "subject": false, "references": 5, "page": "https://battles.georgewyrd.com/reading/unterhaltungen-mit-friedrich-dem-grossen-3e580e/" } ], "history": [], "fiction": [], "poetry": [ { "work_id": "ia:blackwoodsedinb224unkngoog", "title": "Blackwood's Edinburgh magazine", "in": null, "author": null, "life": null, "year": 1817, "kind": "poem", "library": "Internet Archive", "url": "https://archive.org/details/blackwoodsedinb224unkngoog", "language": "en", "contemporary": false, "subject": false, "references": 1, "page": "https://battles.georgewyrd.com/reading/blackwood-s-edinburgh-magazine-1fac3a/" } ] }, "reading_lwtv": { "prose": [], "poetry": [] }, "photos": [], "photos_kind": "photographs", "newspapers": null }