Seven Years War
6 May 1757
Prussians: Frederick II, approx. 64,000 (45,000 infantry, 17,300 cavalry, 210 guns)
Austrians: Charles of Lorraine and Count von Browne approx 61,000, (48,000 infantry, 12,600 cavalry, 189 guns)
Weather: A beautiful day in the neighborhood.
Dawn Twilight: 03:52 Sunrise: 4:29 Sunset: 19:28 Twilight Ends: 20:06 Moonrise: 22:21 nearly full
(calculated from U.S.Naval Observatory site)
I've decided to add to my collection of Seven Years War battles, since I haven't done one in, oh, eight years, longer than the war itself lasted. (the last one I wrote about was Zorndorf 1758). And this one, Prague, was fairly early in that war. It preceded Frederick's first tactical and strategic defeat at Kolin a little over a month later. Also this was itself a near-run battle, with both sides making tactical mistakes that could have easily flipped the victory. In fact, one could argue about whether either side won, considering the Prussians paid for their taking the field with far more casualties than the Austrians, and failed to capture Prague (Frederick's stated strategic objective). Also a little over a month later the Austrians pretty well spanked Fritz's ass good.
The other notable aspect of this obscure battle is that it was a massive one, rivaling nearly any other battle during the 18th century in numbers of combatants (including the early Napoleonic battles) and casualties. It was also significant in that it pitted a then-smaller European power (Prussia) against the dominant military power (Austria) of the Holy Roman Empire.
As to the casus belli of what came to be known as the Seven Years War, let's just say it was the same as pretty much every other war throughout history: Self-entitled autocrats wanting to sacrifice the lives of millions of their subjects for personal, political, or territorial gain. In that sense, Frederick, seizing Silesia (as he did in the previous War of the Austrian Succession), Saxony, and now Bohemia from Austria, was no different than Putin today trying to seize Ukraine for Russia. It was actually Britain that started the war in North America in 1754 by George Washington seizing some frontier forts from France. This escalated with nearly all the European powers joining either the French or the British in a global war, what Winston Churchill later described as the true First World War.
But it doesn't matter. I'm writing about these battles for themselves, not necessarily how they fit into the vast context of human folly. And I gather that most of my readers just want me to get to the carnage. As my hilarious grandfather used to say whenever we'd set down to watch a war movie on TV, "More fun! More people killed!"
Campaign map up to Battle of Prague on 6 May. Composed from the meticulous, day-to-day description and maps culled by Kronoskaf from the Kriege Friedrichs des Grossen, volume III by the German Grosser Generalstab. (map image protected by Digimarc copyright, © Jeffery P. Berry Trust, all rights reserved)
The Prelude
Then came Charles.
Well..."pretty damn good" just turned into damned. In the first place, Serbelloni, who was supposed to be blocking Schwerin in the northeast, was doing a pretty shitty job. For some reason he pulled all his covering cavalry and grenzer (irregular) forces in to concentrate them in Königgratz in eastern Bohemia. Then, when he was ordered by Browne to pull back and join the main army at Prague, he took his own sweet time. Instead, he moved all his personal belongings south to Pardubitz, (see map above) to protect them from Schwerin's raiders. And he didn't move at all for over a week.Then, Königsegg, who was supposed to block Bevern up north, botches that assignment too. He splits his force, and is defeated by an inferior force (16,700 Austrians to 14,550 Prussians) at a minor action at Reichenberg on 21 April. He and his outlying wing under Macquire (10,200) then spend the next week retreating down to the Elbe to the crossing at Brandeis, which they were then supposed to block to hold off the combined corps of Schwerin and Bevern. But he diminishes his own remaining force by dispatching some 6,000 men under d'Ursel 16 miles (26 km) east to the town of Nimburg to defend a magazine there, as well as several detachments of hussars and grenzer up and down the Elbe to watch any other crossing points.
On the 29th, Maria Theresa's brother-in-law (apparently feeling much better now, thank you) finally arrives at Prague to take command. As he approaches the city he notices signs of panic on the road, with thousands of civilians evacuating eastward with cartloads of their furniture. The city's streets themselves are clogged with the baggage trains of Browne's retreating army coming in from the north. Not a good omen.
Archduke Charles of Lorraine Maria-Theresa's Brother-in-Law |
At 0600 on 6 May, Frederick's and Scwherin's combined forces meet just south of Gbell, just two miles northeast of the Austrian entrenchments. Schwerin's men had made a night march and hadn't slept in 48 hours. Austrian hussars and grenzers posted north of the Roketnitzer stream had reported all this to headquarters. Charles moved from Nusle over to Maleschitz, directly behind the hinge of the two wings of his army. His army was deployed in three lines from the Ziskaberg over to the heights above the ponds at Kej, approximately 4.4 miles (7 km). It was then bent south (en potence as they used to say in 18th century military jargon) to cover a possible attack from the east.
Even though his scouts reported that the Prussians seemed to be moving east instead of attacking his positions along the ridge, Charles didn't feel that Frederick would attack that day His defenses were so strong, in fact, that he doubted Frederick would have the nerve to attack him at all, but was merely heading off east to avoid contact. Flawless reasoning.
But...he was wrong.
The deployment of the Austrian army at dawn on the 6th. Obviously, Charles expected an attack from Frederick from due north, where everyone could see he was assembling his forces. Browne, his second-in-command, was worried about the vulnerable right flank and set up batteries and emplacements to cover that sector. He also had the right flank cavalry face east, just in case.
Note that the regiments on this map, as with all my other maps in this blog, are rendered in proportion to their actual footprint size on the battlefield, and also in the uniform coat color, accented with the regimental facing color. Though the Austrian army did not yet number their regiments until later in the century, I have annotated them here with that eventual number to aid in keeping track of them and researching their uniform colors for all you wargamers. In the Prussian army , regimental numbers had already been in effect.
(map image protected by Digimarc copyright, © Jeffery P. Berry Trust, all rights reserved. Hi-res versions of these maps are available from the author at jeffery.berry@comcast.net.)
The Austrians stand down.
Well. Charles was wrong about Frederick wanting to avoid battle. Incredibly, in spite of the observed rendezvous of Frederick and Schwerin on the heights to the north near Prosek, and in spite of their mysterious movement to the east, Charles ordered his army to stand down. He gave the order for the men to cook breakfast and then take their tents down. Browne, who was in charge of the right wing, thought this was imprudent and countermanded the order to stand down on his command. Good thing (spoiler alert!).Browne, on the east edge of the Austrian position up on the ridge above Hlaupetin, could see the truth: The Prussians were going to turn their flank! He had some guns in emplacements on that ridge which began to take long range potshots at the Prussian columns. By 0700 these columns started turning to the south toward Unter-Poczernitz. Browne ordered Königsegg's infantry and Lucchesi's cavalry to file right and move south to counter the coming flank attack. Lucchesi moved his 42 squadrons south of the village of Stebohol and Königsegg reformed his two brigades facing east along the high ground known as the Taborberg, down to the ridge known as the Homoleberg. Austrian heavy artillery were in the process of filing out of Prague and as those batteries came up, Browne positioned them facing east in front of the infantry. He also sent an alert to Charles to the threat and called for support from the grenadier companies of the left wing to come over and extend the line (see 1000 map below).
Schwerin loses his head. Literally.
By this time, Browne had managed to shore up his eastward-facing lines on the heights of the Taborberg and the Homoleberg. And he had brought up much of the Austrian reserve artillery to augment the three-pounder battalion guns supporting his infantry. The gap between his right flank and Lucchesi's cavalry down below Sterbohol had been filled by the 22 grenadier companies under Col. Guasco and two regiments from Arenberg's second line (Los Rios and Harrach). And Charles had already dispatched his second line under Wied and Clerici, as well as Maquire's reserve infantry back at Direktorhof to shore up Browne's lines. These latter two, however, Charles countermanded the order to redeploy and then, after some more persuading, countermanded his countermand, so they got a late start.
On the Prussian side, after having given the order to General Winterfeldt,to attack at once with the first line of Prussians, without waiting for supports or artillery, Schwerin galloped down to Prince Schönaich's cavalry who were just lining up south of Sterbohol. He gave Schönaich the same order to attack the Austrian cavalry at once. The Prussian cavalry commander pointed out that his supporting dragoons had not yet come up (they were still negotiating the narrow causeway at up at Unter-Poczernitz) and that across the field, if the good Field Marshal would notice, the Austrian horse outnumbered him. The good Field Marshal didn't want excuses. He ordered the attack without delay and galloped back up toward the north to see how Winterfeldt's infantry assault was doing.
Not great.
These regiments got underway one at a time, and not in a concerted motion. As Winterfeldt led the line of Prussians up toward the Austrians, they met an onslaught of cross cannon fire, both from the high ground in front of the Austrian position and from their left as a battery of twelve pounders hammered their line obliquely from the Homoleberg. It was estimated that they had lost almost half their men before they even got within musket range of the Austrian line. As I pointed out earlier, they had almost none of their own artillery to answer the Austrians. When they neared the main Austrian line, they were met with rolling musket volleys and canister from the three-pounder battalion guns. Winterfeldt himself was shot in the throat and taken from the field. At this point one regiment after another started to hesitate and fall back. Seeing this, the Austrian infantry cheered and spontaneously surged forward in a counter-attack. This caused the whole Prussian line to break. It was reported that many recent Catholic Silesian draftees among the Prussians, not thrilled at being here in the first place to fight their countrymen and coreligionists, actually stayed behind to hand their loaded muskets over to the attacking Austrians. Oh, the shame!
It was about this time that Schwerin galloped up to witness the collapse of the Prussian line. He was there to see Winterfeldt shot, and ordered him to be evacuated. Riding up to his own regiment (Schwerin #24) he rallied some of them, seized the regimental flag and started to lead them back to the attack. Just then a canister blast hit him directly in the heart and stomach and ripped off half his head. Needless to say, his horrified regiment resumed their flight. (Oh, and yes, he was dead, if that wasn't obvious.)
When the bad news was brought to Frederick about the death of his old friend and mentor, he was reported to have said "There is nothing we can do about that. Let's be determined as he was. March on!" But he must've been devastated. After the battle a memoirist says he came across the king sitting on a stump crying, and lamenting his dead friend.
Sanitized illustration of Marshall Schwerin getting his brains blown out rallying the #24 Schwerin Regiment. Artist: Richard Knötel
, 1895.
And
then there's this even more sanitized version of his death painted in the 18th century by Johann Frisch. Ahhh. Doesn't he look
peaceful? The artist should've put a sad puppy in the picture.
Map of Situation about 1000. Browne and Charles finally notice that the Prussians are making an end-run and begin to redeploy to meet the new threat from the east. Kheul's troops and O'Donell's lone brigade of cavalry are left to guard the northern flank, in case this is just a feint. But all the other Austrian forces are frantically marching east, including the reserves. Most of the Austrian cavalry are moved to the southeast to keep the Prussians from enveloping that flank.
Though hopelessly outnumbered, the Prussian cuirassiers resolutely charged home against Lucchesi's first line, who waited to fire a salvo from their carbines and then launched a short counter-charge. The Prussians crashed into this line and drove it back. But then the supporting line of Austrians drove into these now-disordered Prussians and drove them back. They were also hit in the flank by the swarm of Hadik's hussars. So the survivors all retreated back to their start point south of Sterbohol to reform.
Things begin to fall apart for the Austrians
Up
north, after the initial Austrian success in driving back the first
Prussian infantry assault, Browne was at some pains to rally his
victorious infantry, who had chased the fleeing enemy down the hill and
were masking the big batteries up on the plateau. The reinforcements
from Wied and Clerici had not yet come over into position to support
them. The old marshal was in the process of rallying his disordered
infantry when he was hit in the leg with a cannonball, shattering his
tibia. He wasn't killed but had to be taken back to Prague. Königsegg and
the other commanders of the right wing were also trying to get their
infantry back up onto the hill behind the batteries, but as this was
happening, 22 new battalions of Prussians led by General Hautchamoy and
supported by Bevern began to show up on the north side of the Austrian
line, near Hostawitz. Was this a Prussian victory?
The history books say so. Under the genteel customs of 18th century warfare, the side which camps on the field of battle can declare victory. So, under that criterion, Frederick claimed it. But at a horrific cost. The Austrians suffered 9,089 casualties (killed and wounded), including Browne (probably their best general) and Clerici, plus another 4,235 taken prisoner, for a grand total of 13,324. But the carnage was even worse on the Prussian side with 14,287 casualties, including some of their finest generals--Schwerin, Winterfeldt, Hautcharmoy, and Fouqué among them. While the Prussians also captured some 33 Austrian cannon and some regimental flags, the Austrians also hauled in four Prussian guns, and a number of colors. They also managed to save 156 guns, 82% of their original artillery, not including all the garisson guns inside Prague. They were hardly a defreated army.Formations
- Frederick takes more time to deploy on the east. This would allow for the Prussian player to bring up his full strength. But it would also provide more time for the Austrian player to shore up his.
- Frederick attacks from the south. Prussian player makes an even wider circuit (as Frederick did at Zorndorf the following year) and attacks from the south, which was not as swampy.
- Charles is sick from the start and doesn't take part. This would give the Austrian player (as Browne) more flexibility in deployment.
- Austrian Cavalry is halved in strength. Assume that the half of the troopers that were given leave the night before don't make it back from the city to rejoin their regiments in time.
- Serbelloni and Daun both show to save the day. It would be fun to see what would happen if, even late in the day, Daun's 64,000 showed up from the east. You could devise a roll of the die after, say, noon to see if they showed up.
Orders of Battle
The following OOB lists were compiled primarily from the Kronoskaf article on the battle. The units only include those actually participating in the battle and not the Austrian garrison inside Prague itself, or Gen. Keith's Prussian forces besieging the city from the western bank of the Moldau.Command, besides listing the name of each command, this cell is also color-coded for the primary uniform coat color of the regiment. The numeric code before each name is the later numerical designation in the Prussian and Austrian armies. Prussia began numbering its regiments as early as 1737. Austria didn't start numbering its regiments until after 1769, but I have included the later number of those for aid in your own research since the inhaber (owner/commander) of each regiment changed over the course of its history. Kronoskaf or Duffy (see References below) are both excellent resources to look up the history of each regiment.
Facing is color-coded in the facings of the regiment (e.g. cuffs, lapels, etc.) For more precise uniform information I refer you to Kronoskaf or Duffy. Under this column, too, is the Military Symbol coding for the command (division , brigade, regiment, squadron, etc. as well as the code for the type of unit; infantry, cavalry, artillery).
Flags displays miniatures of the flags carried into battle by the units, both the colonel's color on the left (carried by the 1st company of the first battalion) and the regimental colors ( also known as ordnance flags), carried by all the rest in the regiment. Where units did not carry flags on campaign (like hussars or combined grenadier battalions), this cell is left blank.
Strength MAJOR CAVEAT: Kronoskaf and other sources I used gave approximate total strengths of the participants. To get to these estimates, I took an attrition rate based on those approximations and applied that to the official parade states of all the units evenly, rounding to the nearest ten--unless Kronoskaf reported a specific roster from a particular regiment for the day of the battle--that's clear, isn't it? So, it should go without saying: Do not use these precise numbers in any academic context without taking that caveat. Of course, each individual regiment probably varied considerably from what I have listed here. These are still approximations.
Ranks is the standard deployment depth for each type and army at the time of the battle for each army. Later in the war, both armies would reduce their tactical ranks, but as of 1757, both were still deploying according to older doctrine.
Subunits, list the building blocks for each type of command, for instance a Prussian musketeer regiment would have two battalions of five companies. For further details on subunits, I again refer to the Kronoskaf site.
References
I relied on the following references in composing this post, maps, and OOB, with most of the detail coming from Duffy and Kronoskaf, the latter probably the finest amalgam of information on this war and period.
Asprey, Robert, "Frederick the Great: A Magnificent Enigma", Ticknor & Fields, ISBN 0-89919-352-8
Duffy, Christopher, "The Army of Frederick the Great", Emperor Press, ISBN 1-883476-02-X
Duffy, Christopher, "Frederick the Great: A Military Life", Routledge, ISBN 0-415-00276-1
Duffy, Christopher, "The Army of Maria Theresa", Terence Wise, ISBN 0-7153-7387-0
Duffy, Christopher, "Instrument of War: The Austrian Army in the Seven Years War", Emperor's Press, ISBN 1-883476-19-4
Duffy, Christopher, "Military Experience in the Age of Reason," Atheneum, 1987, ISBN 0-689-11993-3
Duffy, Christopher, "By Force of Arms: Vol 2 of The Austrian Army in the Seven Years War", Emperor's Press, ISBN 1-883476-39-4
Frederick the Great, "The Art of War", Da Capo Press, 1999, ISBN 0-306-80908-7
Haythornethwaite, Philip, "Frederick the Great's Army 1 Cavalry", Osprey Publishing, ISBN 1-85532-134-3
Haythornethwaite, Philip, "Frederick the Great's Army 2 Infantry", Osprey Publishing, ISBN 1-85532-160-2
Haythornethwaite, Philip, "Frederick the Great's Army 3 Specialist Troops", Osprey Publishing, ISBN 1-85532-225-0
Haythornethwaite, Philip, "The Austrian Army 1740-80: 1 Cavalry", Osprey Publishing, ISBN 1-85532-415-6
Haythornethwaite, Philip, "The Austrian Army 1740-80: 2 Infantry", Osprey Publishing, ISBN 1-85532-418-0
Haythornethwaite, Philip, "The Austrian Army 1740-80: 3 Specialist Troops", Osprey Publishing, ISBN 1-85532-4180
Millar, Simon, "Kolin 1757: Frederick the Great's first defeat", Osprey Publishing, Campaign 91, 2001, ISBN 1-84176-297-0
Nosworthy, Brent, "The Anatomy of Victory: Battle Tactics 1689-1763" Hippocrene, ISBN0-87052-785-1
Online References:
Kronoskaf: Seven Years War: Battle of Prague
Plan der Schlact bei Prag, Die Kriege Friederchs des Grossen II, 1890, Berlin, Prussia. Armee. Grosser Generalstab. Kriegsgeschichtliche Abteilung This source was invaluable for my creation of the battle maps and the position and composition of the contending forces.
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Excellent, as usual. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteFrederick was defeated without a battle in 1744. Charles, greatly aided by his chief of staff Marshal Traun, operated against the Prussian supply lines, forcing a retreat bordering on rout out of Bohemia. Frederick's losses in desertions and prisoners approached 40%. He allowed that he had been schooled by M. Traun, who died in 1748. Charles didn't do so well with without his chief of staff.
Thank you. DIdn't know that about the 1744 campaign. I did know that Charles was, as my dad used to use this epithet, "a rimless cypher" (i.e.nothing). And a great chief of staff can make all the difference. I wonder, had Browne not been taken out of this battle early, if he might've won it for Charles.
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