Battle of Mollwitz

Background

When the Emperor Charles VI died in 1740, his daughter Maria Theresa succeeded to the Habsburg lands under the Pragmatic Sanction. In December the young Frederick II of Prussia invaded the rich province of Silesia. The First Silesian War soon opened the wider War of the Austrian Succession. Over the winter the Prussians overran most of Silesia, but the fortresses of Brieg and Neisse held out.

In late March Field Marshal Neipperg brought some 20,000 Austrians over the snowbound mountains from Moravia, unseen by the Prussians, and reached Neisse on 5 April. Frederick's army was scattered in winter quarters, and Holstein-Beck's corps never received his orders to join. On 8 April Frederick got the rest of the army across the Neisse at Löwen and Michelau and called in the Brieg blockade force. Marching south-west through blowing snow, his hussars learned from prisoners that Neipperg had just taken Grottkau. The Austrians now stood between the king and his magazines at Ohlau. That night, at Pogarell, Frederick wrote to his brother: 'To-morrow must decide our fortune.'

The 9th was a day of drifting snow and nobody moved far. Neipperg quartered his army in Mollwitz, Laugwitz, Grüningen and neighbouring hamlets and named the 10th a rest day. Frederick, with bread for one more day, resolved to march on Ohlau and fight whatever he met.

The armies

The two armies were of similar size but very different make-up. Frederick had some 21,600 men: 31 battalions of infantry, 33 squadrons including hussars, and 53 guns, 16 of them heavy. His father, Frederick William I, had drilled the infantry for twenty years, but it had never been under fire. Its iron ramrods let it outshoot opponents who still used wooden ones; Carlyle repeats a claim of 'five Prussian shots for two Austrian'. The cavalry was another matter: outnumbered two to one, and Frederick already thought poorly of Schulenburg's dragoons. To stiffen it, the king slipped grenadier battalions between the squadrons on each wing, an idea borrowed from Gustavus Adolphus.

Neipperg had about 19,000 men but only 19 guns. His 8,000 or more regular horse, in six cuirassier and five dragoon regiments, outnumbered the Prussian cavalry two to one; the Prussian infantry outnumbered his by about 17 to 10, and many of his foot were raw recruits. General Römer, a Saxon-born cavalryman whom Carlyle rates as excellent, led the six regiments quartered in Mollwitz. Göldy, a Swiss veteran, commanded the infantry beside him and Berlichingen the cavalry of the right. The Austrians despised their opponents: officers hurrying out of Laugwitz asked for their soup to be kept warm.

The battle

CDB90 records one engagement, number 55 (MOLLWITZ), from 12:00 to 18:45, which matches the Prussian deployment to the Austrian retreat. Times below follow the Prussian General Staff history.

The approach (dawn–noon). The morning was clear and cold, with nearly two feet of snow on the open, almost flat plain. The army formed in columns at Pogarell, and the last unit marched off towards ten. The snow and a ditch, the Neuer Graben, slowed it badly. Around 11:00 Colonel Rothenburg's vanguard surprised the Austrian posts at Neudorf and drove them back towards Mollwitz. He had orders not to engage, and Frederick did not rush the main body forward. Neipperg, warned by his fleeing outposts and by signals from Brieg, beat the alarm. Römer's cavalry rode out to the windmill hill east of Mollwitz while the infantry hurried in from the outlying villages.

The deployment (noon–about 13:30). Frederick deployed on the Neudorf–Brieg road, his right on Hermsdorf and his left on the marshy Kleiner Bach near Pampitz. The line proved more than 800 m too short for the 3,350 m first line, so the left-wing cavalry and seven battalions were squeezed out. Some were turned at right angles to cover the open right flank. The two lines then advanced with drums beating, as on the review ground. The heavy guns went ahead and began to hit Römer's horsemen from about 1,200 m. The left lagged, so the Prussian line slanted forward on the right, unintended.

Römer's charge (soon after 14:00). Neipperg had told Römer to wait until the army had formed, but his men grew restive under the cannon fire. With the Prussian right about 1,300 m away, Römer chose to charge to buy time. More than 4,500 horse swung towards Grüningen, then came on at the gallop and smashed Schulenburg's squadrons on the Prussian right. Frederick led the Carabiniers in a counter-charge and was carried away in the rout along the front. The Austrians took the heavy guns. But the grenadier battalions Bolstern and Winterfeldt stood fast and fired to front and rear, and the infantry beat off charge after charge. Schulenburg and Römer were both killed. Both Prussian lines began firing without orders, the second into the first. By about 15:30 the right-wing horse had all but gone, but the infantry still held.

The king leaves (about 16:00). Schwerin judged the battle not yet lost but feared for the king's life, and urged him to leave the command to him and ride for Oppeln. Frederick refused at first. After further charges, and with his adjutants backing Schwerin, he agreed. He sent word to the Old Dessauer that the battle was lost and rode off towards Löwen with a few companions.

Schwerin's advance (16:00–18:00). Asked where the army should retreat, Schwerin answered 'Over the enemy's bodies!'. He restored order and led the right wing forward, firing platoon volleys from 300 paces. Berlichingen's horse attacked the Prussian left but was beaten off by the battalion guns, and a last Austrian charge in the Prussian rear was repelled when the second line faced about. The Austrian infantry, firing from behind their knapsacks, crowded into knots round their colours. Short of cartridges, the Prussians took them from the dead. Schwerin, twice wounded, sent Kalckstein's left wing forward on Mollwitz, and that settled it.

The Austrian retreat (18:00 to night). At 18:00 Neipperg ordered a retreat, covered by his remaining cavalry. The Austrians went back through Mollwitz and reached Grottkau in the night. Gessler's ten squadrons from Ohlau arrived too late to do more than follow, and the pursuit stopped at the Conradswaldau brook.

Aftermath

Each side lost about 4,500–4,900 men, almost a quarter of its strength. The Prussians took 14 colours, 3 standards and 8 pieces of artillery, and retook two of their own lost heavy guns. Frederick reached Oppeln about midnight, found it held by some fifty Austrian hussars and was fired on at the gate. He rode back to Löwen, where an officer brought news of the victory, and rejoined the army on the 11th. Some of his party, Maupertuis among them, were captured. Frederick never spoke of the ride, and Carlyle says he never quite forgave Schwerin for the advice. Voltaire and the French envoy Valori spread stories of cowardice; Carlyle rejects them, and the General Staff history calls it hard luck that the king could not finish the battle himself.

Neipperg fell back to Neisse and stayed there through the summer. Brieg surrendered on 4 May. More important, Prussia had shown it could beat Austria in the field. France and its allies moved against Maria Theresa, and the war spread across Europe. Carlyle called Mollwitz 'the triumph of Prussian Discipline', a victory owed more to Frederick William's drill than to his son. Frederick himself said 'Mollwitz was my school'. He rebuilt his cavalry, and Prussia began raising more hussars that year. Some writers see in the slanting Prussian line the start of the oblique order. The General Staff history says it happened by accident. An obelisk raised by the church in 1878 was removed after 1945.

Wargaming it

Mollwitz is a small, clean battle, ideal for a first game of the period. About 40,000 men fought on a front of 3 km, on a near-featureless snowy plain. A battalion-and-squadron scale works well, and a club can fight the whole battle in an evening.

The asymmetry is the attraction. Austria has twice the cavalry and Römer's charge; Prussia has the guns and an infantry that can outshoot anyone. Rules need to reward both: cavalry that can sweep away horse but bounces off steady foot, and infantry fire strong enough to hold off five charges. Firing without orders, running short of ammunition, and cavalry that breaks up after repeated charges all matter.

The ground is simple but tight. The marshy Kleiner Bach covers the Prussian left and the Austrian right; Hermsdorf, Grüningen and Mollwitz anchor the rest. Too little frontage forces Prussian units out of line, and the snow should slow everyone.

The opening is a race: the Austrians scattered across four villages and forming in a hurry, the Prussians deploying slowly by the book. What ifs: Rothenburg and the main body charge straight in at 11:00; Römer waits as ordered; Göldy's infantry follows up the cavalry success; Frederick stays on the field; Gessler arrives in time to pursue.

Maps and pictures