Battle of Leuthen

Battle of Leuthen
Part of theThird Silesian War
Storming of the breach by Prussian grenadiers,Carl Röchling
Date 5 December 1757 Location Leuthen,Silesia,Prussia (present-dayLutynia,Poland) 51°09′08″N16°45′09″E Result Prussian victory
Belligerents
Prussia	Austria
Commanders and leaders
Frederick II	Charles Alexander of Lorraine Joseph von Daun
Strength
36,000 167 guns	65,000 210 guns
Casualties and losses
1,141 killed 5,118 wounded 85 captured Total:6,344 casualties	3,000 killed 7,000 wounded 12,000 captured Total:22,000 casualties 116 guns captured

Frederick the Great

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First Silesian War

Second Silesian War

Third Silesian War

TheBattle of Leuthen/ˈlɔɪtən/was fought on 5 December 1757 betweenFrederick the Great'sPrussian Armyand an Austrian army commanded byPrince Charles of LorraineandCount Leopold Joseph von Daun.Frederick usedmaneuver warfareand knowledge of theterrainto rout the larger Austrian force completely. The victory ensuredPrussiancontrol ofSilesiaduring theThird Silesian War,which was part of theSeven Years' War.

The battle was fought in the town ofLeuthen(now Lutynia,Poland), 10 km (6 mi) northwest of Breslau, (nowWrocław,Poland), in Prussian (formerly Austrian)Silesia.By exploiting the training of his troops and his superior knowledge of the terrain, Frederick created a diversion at one end of the battlefield and moved most of his smaller army behind a series of low hillocks. The surprise attack inoblique orderon the unsuspecting Austrian flank baffled Prince Charles, who took several hours to realize that the main action was to his left, not his right. Within seven hours, the Prussians had destroyed the Austrians and erased any advantage that the Austrians had gained throughout the campaigning in the preceding summer and autumn. Within 48 hours, Frederick had laidsiege to Breslau,which resulted in the city's surrender on 19–20 December.

Leuthen was the last battle at which Prince Charles commanded the Austrian Army before his sister-in-law, EmpressMaria Theresa,appointed him as governor of theHabsburg Netherlandsand placed Leopold Joseph von Daun in command of the army. The battle also established beyond doubt Frederick's military reputation in European circles and was arguably his greatest tactical victory. After theBattle of Rossbachon 5 November, the French had refused to participate further in Austria's war with Prussia, and after Leuthen (5 December), Austria could not continue the war by itself.

Background

Further information:Seven Years' War

Europe in the years after the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle. Austria is in yellow, and Prussia, with the Province of Silesia, is in purple.

Although theSeven Years' Warwas a global conflict, it acquired a specific intensity in the European theater as a result of the competition between Frederick II of Prussia, known asFrederick the Great,andMaria Theresa of Austria.Their rivalry dated from 1740, when upon Maria Theresa's ascension, Frederick had attacked and annexed the prosperous province ofSilesia.The 1748Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle,which concludedWar of the Austrian Succession(1740–1748) betweenPrussiaand Maria Theresa's allies, awarded Silesia to Prussia. Maria Theresa had signed the treaty to gain time to rebuild her military forces and forge new alliances and intended to regain her ascendancy in theHoly Roman Empireand to reacquire Silesia.Similarly,Francesought to break the British dominance of the Atlantic trade.

In 1754, escalating tensions between Britain and France inNorth Americaoffered the Empress the opportunity to regain her lost territories and to limit Prussia's ever-growing power. France and Austria put aside theirold rivalryto form a coalition of their own; Maria Theresa agreed that one of her daughters,Maria Antonia,would marry theDauphin of France,and her chief ministers negotiated a military and political pact advantageous to both parties. That drove Britain to align herself withGeorge II's nephew, Frederick II. Their alliance also involved theElectorate of Hanover,which was held inpersonal unionby George, along with George's and Frederick's relatives, who ruled thePrincipality of Brunswick-Wolfenbütteland theLandgraviate of Hesse-Kassel.That series of political manoeuvers became known as theDiplomatic Revolution.

When war broke out in 1756, Frederick overranSaxonyand campaigned inBohemia,where he defeated the Austrians on 6 May 1757 at theBattle of Prague.Learning that the French forces hadinvaded his ally's territory of Hanover,Frederick moved west. On 5 November 1757, an infantry regiment of about 1,000 men and 1,500 of his cavalry defeated the combined French and Austrian force of 30,000 at theBattle of Rossbachin a 90-minute battle. In his absence, however, the Austrians had managed to retake Silesia: the Empress's brother-in-law,Prince Charles,took the city ofSchweidnitzand moved on Breslau in lower Silesia.

Heading back to Silesia, Frederick learned of thefall of Breslauin late November. He and his 22,000 men covered 274 km (170 mi) in 12 days and, at Liegnitz, joined up with the Prussian troops who had survived the fighting at Breslau. The augmented army of about 33,000 troops, with approximately 167 cannons, arrived near Leuthen to find 66,000 Austrians in possession.

Terrain and troop strengths

Leuthen stands with rolling grasslands in which Charles distributed his troops in a long line across fields to the village visible in the distance. Charles directed his operations from the tower of one of the churches.

Most ofLower Silesiais a rolling plain of fertile land.It includes black andalluvialsoils near Breslau (Wrocław) and in river valleys, mixed with more sandy soils. Between theOderriver and the foot of theSudeten Mountains,it has mild climate, fertile soils and extensive water network, which made it a coveted agricultural resource.

In the area northwest of Breslau, the absence of steep hills makes the observation of an approaching enemy easy, and the relative flatness limited hiding manoeuvers. The presence ofalluvial soilguaranteed relatively-soft ground, less than what Frederick would faceat Kunersdorfin 1758 but enough to provide the occasional natural bogs to bar the passage of troops in some locations or to muffle the sound of marching and horses' hooves. The area around Leuthen included several hamlets and villages: principally,Nypern,about 5.6 km (3 mi) north;Frobelwitz,also to the north, about halfway between Leuthen and Nypern;Gohlau,3 km (2 mi) to the southeast; andLissa(now a district of Wrocław), 6.1 km (4 mi) to the east. A road connected the villages ofBorne,Leuthen, and Lissa with Breslau, across the Oder River and its tributaries.

Habsburgs

At Borne, Frederick the Great and his staff develop their battle plan, as illustrated byHugo Ungewitter

Aware of Frederick's approach, Charles and his second-in-command,Count Leopold Joseph von Daun,positioned the army facing west on a 8 km (5 mi) front in country of undulating plains.The Prince deployed his troops in two lines, the right wing at his northernmost point, anchored at Nypern.Leuthen served as the Austrian centre. Charles established his command post there by using a church tower as his observation post and stationing seven battalions in the village itself. The majority of Charles' forces stood on his right wing.A small advanced post stood at Borne, but with Frederick's arrival in force, it withdrew immediately to the east. The Austrian position intersected at right angles with the principal road between Borne and Breslau and passed through Frobelwitz and Lissa. He secured Nypern with eightgrenadiercompanies and placed his cavalry at Guckerwitz (now Kokorzyce, part of the villageKrępice). The Austrian line extended as far south as Sagschütz (nowZakrzyce), where his cavalry stood at right angles to the infantry and created a line between Sagschütz and Gohlau. The positions were secured with additional grenadiers and pickets. Troops filled villages and woods, and hastily madeabatisandredoubts.Pickets guarded all communication points as well as road and path crossings. The left wing was his shortest, with cavalry placed at the far end, near a stream by the village of Gohlau. Charles had an amalgamated force of Habsburg troops, including several contingents from theMilitary Frontierandimperial troopsfrom theDuchies of WürttembergandBavaria.

Prussia

Frederick had learned the countryside by heart on previous maneuvers. On 4 December 1757, from his position on the Schönberg, a knoll about 1.5 km (1 mi) west of Borne, he surveyed the familiar landscape with his generals, and a plan emerged. In front of him, a cluster of low hills dotted the landscape along an axis approximately parallel to the Austrian line. He knew the names of the hills: Schleierberg, Sophienberg, Wachberg and Butterberg. They were hardly hills, more like hillocks, but were high enough to provide a screen for his troops. Facing an army twice his size, he had to rely on his own army's tactical training and to use the terrain to maneuver his men into an optimal position.Frederick had one of the finest armies in Europe: any company of his troops fired at least four volleys a minute, and some of them could fire a phenomenal five, which was twice the rate of fire of most other European armies. Only the Russians could come close to achieving that rate. The Prussians could maneuver better than any of the armies in Europe and could march faster, and they had just come from a resounding success at Rossbach. His artillery could quickly deploy and redeploy to support his infantry. His cavalry, superbly trained, could maneuver and charge with horses flank to flank and riders knee to knee and move at a full gallop.

Battle

Prussian feint

The foggy weather made it difficult to see positions from either side, but Frederick and his commanders used the fog to their advantage.Leaving a cavalry unit and a cluster of infantry in front of the northernmost end of the Austrian line (the Austrian right), Frederick deployed the remainder, the bulk of his forces toward Leuthen itself. Charles saw them start their redeployment and may have interpreted the maneuver as withdrawal at least for a while.

At 4:00 a.m. on Sunday, Frederick moved toward the Austrian right wing in four columns, with infantry in the inner two and cavalry in the outer two. Using the knolls to block the Austrians' view of his movements, Frederick shifted the two columns of infantry and one of cavalry obliquely to his own right. The leftmost column of cavalry remained behind to convince the Austrians that it was still approaching directly at the latter end of the Austrian line, near Frobelwitz. The visible distraction screened Frederick's intent of executing an oblique maneuver like the one that he had used successfully only weeks earlier at the Battle of Rossbach. Prince Charles, watching from his vantage point, moved his entire reserve to his right flank. That not only weakened the left flank but also stretched his front from Leuthen past Frobelwitz and on to Nypern and extended it well beyond its original 4 km (2 mi).

While a single column of cavalry mesmerised Charles at his rightmost flank, the rest of the Prussians continued undetected, behind those hills across the Austrian front and overreached the Austrian left wing.

Oblique maneuver

Prussians advance at Leuthen, as imagined and illustrated byCarl Röchling(c. 1890)

The Prussian infantry marched southward and remained behind a line of low hills, out of the Austrians' sight. When the heads of both superbly-drilled Prussian columns, the distances between the marching platoons remaining exactly the width of each platoon's front, had passed the Austrian left flank, the columns veered left toward the enemy and continued their march until they had passed beyond the left Austrian flank. On command, the platoons of the columns then faced left atLobetinz,and the whole Prussian army stood in line of battle, two to three men deep, at a nearly-right angle to the weakest point of the Austrian left. Similarly,Hans Joachim von Zieten's cavalry had traversed the entire Austrian front and positioned itself at a 45-degree angle to the Austrian flank.

The Prussian artillery perched on the reverse slopes of the Butterberg and was hidden from the Austrians' view while it prepared to move to the crest to time their bombardment with the infantry's attack.The bulk of the repositioned Prussian army now faced the smallest component of the Austrian line. The only column of Prussian cavalry and the small reserve of infantry remaining at the Austrian far right continued todemonstratein front of the Austrians and even moved further north, as if an attack would occur there.

Attack

The Austrians were astonished at the Prussian appearance on their left flank, but the objective was soon clear. The Prussian infantry, now arrayed in the conventional two lines of battle, advanced on the weakest part of the Austrian line with the intention of rolling up the flank. The Austrian colonels on the scene did their best by turning their own lines 90 degrees and trying to take advantage of a shallow ditch, which faced the Prussian line.Franz Leopold von Nádasdy,who commanded the flank, asked Charles for support, a request that was ignored. Even in the late morning, with most of the Prussian army on his left flank, he still believed that any attack would come at the northern flank.Most of the men in the first Austrian line were Württembergers,Protestanttroops whose willingness to fight theLutheranPrussians had been called into question by the Austrian command. The Württembergers held out and maintained steady musket fire until the mass of Prussians emerged through the haze of gunpowder. They then ran for their lives, sweeping theBavariansdeployed by Nádasdy to support his flank with them.

The first wave of Prussian infantry, supported by Frederick's artillery, which now pounded away from the crest of one of the hillocks, pushed steadily toward Leuthen. Commanded byMoritz of Anhalt-Dessau,the seasoned infantry and grenadiers went into battle with 60 rounds per man, according to Prussian regulation. When they overwhelmed the first Austrian line, they had already run out of ammunition.Nádasdy sent his own small cavalry against the Prussian grenadier column and its infantry support but to no avail. Nádasdy withdrew his men in chaos with his troops disarrayed. Prince Charles and Daun finally realised they had been tricked and rushed troops from the right to the left, but they had extended the front, which was originally about 4 km (2 mi) long, to almost 10 km (6 mi), when they had repositioned forces earlier that day to meet Frederick's diversion.As the Austrians withdrew, the Prussian artillery raked them withenfiladefire. The Prussian infantry and grenadiers reached Leuthen in 40 minutes and pushed the Austrian troops into the village. Prussian grenadiers breached the wall first and stormed the church, where many of the defenders were killed.Hand-to-hand fightingraged throughout the village.Charles-Joseph Lamoral,eventually Prince de Ligne, was then acaptainin an Austrian regiment of foot:

Our Lieutenant-Colonel fell[,] killed almost at the first; beyond this we lost our Major, and indeed all the Officers but three.... We had crossed two successive ditches, which lay in an orchard to the left of the first houses in Leuthen; and were beginning to form in front of the village. But there was no standing of it. Besides a general cannonade such as can hardly be imagined, there was a rain of case-shot upon this Battalion, of which I, as there was no Colonel left, had to take command.

Leuthen was not a big village, troops were so closely packed they stood 30 to 100 ranks deep and the killing was terrible. Lamoral commented later that his battalion, usually some 1,000 strong, as well as some Hungarians and some grenadiers who had been separated from their own companies, gave him fewer than 200 men. He drew them back to the height at the edge of the village, where there was a windmill around which they could take shelter. Eventually, the Prussian Life Guards, commanded by CaptainWichard Joachim Heinrich von Möllendorfbroke through the village cemetery and forced them to abandon their post.

The Austrians briefly took the advantage when they moved a battery from the ridge north of the village to cover their infantry, and the fire from the battery allowed the infantry to deploy at right angles to their original front. Frederick responded by ordering the last of his reserved left wing to advance, but the Austrian battery drove it back. Finally, Frederick's heavy cannons on the Butterberg, a small knoll to the west of town, laid down a barrage. Some participants said that barrage, more than the Prussian infantry, won the battle.

The assault on the wall briefly exposed GeneralWolf Frederick von Retzow's infantry line. More than two hours had elapsed since the Prince had ordered his cavalry back to Leuthen, but it arrived opportunely. Commanded byJoseph Count Lucchesi d’ Avernathe cavalry hurried to take them in the flank; a successful cavalry charge at that critical moment could have turned the tide of battle. Unfortunately for the Austrians, 40 squadrons of Zieten's cavalry awaited them atRadaxdorfand charged their flank, and another 30 squadrons commanded byGeorg Wilhelm von Driesencharged their front. TheBayreuth Dragoonshit the other flank; and thePuttkamerHussars charged the rear. Lucchessi was killed by being decapitated by a cannonball,and his troopers were scattered. The cavalry mêlée soon swirled into the Austrian infantry line behind Leuthen, which caused more confusion. Overrun by the Prussian horse, the Austrian infantry broke. The infantry and then the cavalry retreated toward Breslau, where they crossed theSchweidnitzer Weistritzriver, then called the "Black Water".

Maps

Solid red lines indicate Habsburg positions. Solid blue lines indicate Prussian positions. Dotted lines show movement. Rectangles with a diagonal line indicate cavalry.

• The Battle in Four Maps
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  Upon Frederick's approach, Charles's advanced post (dotted red line) withdrew to Nypern. From Borne, Frederick evaluated the size and the disposition of the Austrian force (solid red line) and organised his troops for the oblique maneuver. On the far right is the village of Lissa, where Frederick ended his day.
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  While Charles sent most of his reserve north (red dotted lines) to protect his flank from the Prussian advance, Frederick maneuvered his troops past the Austrians and surprised them on their left flank.
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  Charles finally realised his danger and tried to bring his cavalry and troops from his right flank into the fray. The length of his line (solid red) extended for 8 km (5 mi), which meant that the troops had to march too far. The Prussians (dotted blue line) pushed the Austrians back.
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  Charles' troops withdrew from the field, and Frederick entered the small castle at Lissa.

Aftermath

Wilhelm Camphausen's 19th-century depiction of Frederick and his troops after the battle. The troops reportedly sangNun danket alle Gott( "Now Thank we all our God" ), still known widely as theLeuthen chorale.

Richard Knötel's depiction of Frederick's arrival at theSchloss von Lissaafter the Battle of Leuthen; he was greeted by astonished Austrian officers, the men wearing the white jackets.

As the smoke cleared, the Prussian infantry reformed its lines and prepared to pursue the fleeing Austrians. Snow began to fall, and Frederick halted the pursuit. A few soldiers, perhaps only one of them, started to sing the well-known choraleNun danket alle Gott(Now Thank We All Our God). Eventually the entire army may have joined in the song, but that story is likelyapocryphal.

Frederick pushed toward Lissa. Refugees from the battle had filled the town, and he found the courtyard of the local castle crowded with startled Austrian officers. Reportedly, after the King dismounted, he addressed them politely, "Good evening, Gentlemen, I dare say you did not expect me here. Can one get a night's lodging along with you?"

After a day of rest, on 7 December, Frederick sent half his cavalry with Zieten, chasing Charles's retreating army, now heading towardKöniggrätzbySchweidnitzand captured another 2,000 men and their baggage. With the rest of his army, Frederick marched on Breslau.By chasing Charles's army into Bohemia, the Prussians guaranteed the isolation of the Allied garrison holding Breslau.The Austrian general left in command of the city, Lieutenant Field MarshalSalman Sprecher von Bernegg,had a combined force of French and Austrian of 17,000 men. Breslau was a well-fortified city of walls and moats. The Austrians were determined to hold Breslau not only because losing it would cost them control of Silesia and considerable diminution of prestige but also because of the immense quantities of stores that the city held. The Austrian commander, recognizing his grim plight, posted placards on gallows and poles throughout the city and warned that anyone who spoke of surrender would be hanged immediately. On 7 December, Frederick laidsiege to the city,and the future of Austrian control of Breslau and the region looked grim. Indeed, Breslau surrendered on 19–20 December.

Casualties

Out of an army of approximately 66,000 men, the Austrians lost 22,000, including 3,000 dead, 7,000 wounded and an astonishing 12,000 captured. Of the dead and wounded, the Austrian demographer and historianGaston Bodartestimated that almost 5% were officers.He also placed such other losses as capture and desertion at 17,000, almost 26%.Charles lost entire regiments, which scattered in the first attacks or overrun at the end; they simply dissolved in the waves of Prussian blue coats.The Prussians also captured 51 standards and 116 of the 250 Austrian cannons. Of the Prussian army of 36,000, Frederick lost 6,344, including 1,141 dead, 5,118 wounded and 85 captured. He lost none of his artillery.

Despite the victory, its cost was high: Frederick lost one fifth of the men he had taken into battle,including two of his major generals.

The battle presented a severe blow to Austrian morale. The army had been soundly beaten by another half its size with fewer guns and tired after a long march over twelve days. Charles and his second-in-command, Count Leopold Joseph von Daun, sank "in the depths of despondency", and the prince could not fathom what had happened. Charles had a mixed-to-poor record against Frederick in past encounters, but he had never fared so badly as at Leuthen. After the crushing defeat, Maria Theresa replaced him with Daun. Charles retired from military service and later served as the governor of theHabsburg Netherlands.

The Austrians also learned some lessons, such as not to fight the Prussians in open fields and to choose their own ground for battle. They later used those lessons.

Assessments

Frederick had benefited from an obliging enemy. Firstly, Charles saw what he wanted to see regarding the principal attack, instead of using his efficient light cavalry to scout the Prussian movements. Frederick commented later that a lone patrol could have uncovered his plan. The cavalry that Frederick had left demonstrating in front of the northernmost position of the Austrian line was simply a diversion to hide his real movements. Secondly, the Austrians obliged him by their failure to post pickets on their unprotected flank south of Leuthen. Nádasdy's omission of outposts on his open flank south of Leuthen was a surprising oversight for an officer with his long years of experience against the Prussians. He should have considered the possibility of an attack from an unexpected place because that was Frederick'smodus operandi.Thirdly, even when confronted with the attack on his left, the diversion on the right flank near Frobelwitz continued to mesmerize Charles. When he ordered cavalry to move from the north to support the faltering troops in and around Leuthen in the south, they had too far to travel in too little time.

The battle was Frederick's greatest victory so far, perhaps the greatest use of tactics in his career, and showed the superiority of Prussian infantry.In one day, Frederick had regained every advantage the Austrians had won earlier that year at Breslau and Schweidnitz and ended the Austrian attempt to reclaim Silesia.The battle became anexemplaron the use of 18th-century linear tactics. Frederick had learned valuable lessons atBattles of PragueandKolinin which his infantry had run out of ammunition and lost the initiative. At Leuthen, ammunition wagons moved with the advancing lines of grenadiers and infantry battalions, which allowed the troops to be resupplied quickly without losing momentum.Although some infantrymen fired as many as 180 rounds, the advance never halted for lack of ammunition. The Prussian cavalry successfully protected the infantry's flanks, most notably during Nádasdy's assault on the Prussian grenadiers at Leuthen's church. The cavalry also provided tactically important charges, disrupting Austrian attempts to reform, which eventually turned the defeat into a rout. Frederick'shorse artillery,which was sometimes called the flying artillery for its ability to move rapidly, maintained its fire and kept pace with the army and deployed and redeployed its guns as needed. In addition to the physical damage they wrought, the distinctive sound of the horse artillery's 12-pounder cannon, sometimes calledBrummers,heightened Prussian morale and reduced that of the Austrians.

The victory changed the attitude of Frederick's enemies. Before the battle, he was often referred to in an unflattering, even demeaning, manner, but after Leuthen, he was widely called theKing of Prussiain both polite and popular conversation. The victories at Leuthen andRossbachearned Frederick respect and fear, which even his bitter enemies held for the rest of the war and the subsequent peace.Both battles probably saved Prussia from conquest by Austria. Half-a-century later,Napoleoncalled Leuthen "a masterpiece of movements, maneuvers and resolution".

Memorials

A memorial erected in 1854 honoured the Prussian army at Leuthen. Frederick's great-great nephew, KingFrederick William IV,ordered a victory column with a gilded goddess of victory atHeidau5 km (3 mi) north-west of Leuthen. TheBerlinarchitectFriedrich August Stülerprovided the design for the monument, andChristian Daniel Rauchcreated the goddess of victory. The sculptorHeinrich Menzelfrom Neisse constructed the column in his workshop, in local white-gray stone.Moritz Geissexecuted the plinth and the goddess in zinc casting and gilded the statueVictoriafor a better effect. Befitting its importance in the establishment of the Prussian state and themythosof Frederick the Great, the monument reached 20 meters (66 ft).During or after theSecond World War,soldiers or partisans dynamited the monument, and only ruins of its pedestal remain, renovated in 2011.

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  Memorial to the battle erected in 1854 and demolished in 1945
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  Remains of the memorial erected in 1854

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