Battle of Hohenfriedberg

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Part of the Second Silesian War of the War of the Austrian Succession

Battle of Hohenfriedberg, Attack of the Prussian Infantry , by Carl Röchling. Oil on canvas.

Date	4 June 1745
Location	Striegau, present-day Poland
Result	Decisive Prussian Victory

Combatants

Austria
Saxony

Prussia

Commanders

Prince Charles Alexander of Lorraine

Frederick the Great

Strength

unknown

Casualties

4,000 dead or wounded
7,000 captured

2,000 dead, 2000 wounded

War of the Austrian Succession
Mollwitz – Dettingen – Toulon – Fontenoy – Hohenfriedberg – Soor – Kesselsdorf – Havana

Map of the Battle

The Battle of Hohenfriedberg (or Hohenfriedeberg) was a decisive battle fought during the War of the Austrian Succession in Silesia. On the morning of June 4, 1745. This battle was not the be the last between Austrians and Prussians, but it is immortalized in German military history as one of the crowning achievements of Frederick the Great.

1 Background
2 Frederick Waits
3 The Night March
4 Battle at the Saxon Camps
5 Battle with the Austrians
6 Charge of the Dragoons
7 Legacy
8 References

[edit] Background

When the Austrians again tried to take back the territory of Silesia from the Prussians that they had lost following the Battle of Mollwitz, they sent a large army made up of Saxons and Austrians into Silesia under the command of Prince Charles Alexander of Lorraine, who was the brother in law of Maria Theresa.

[edit] Frederick Waits

Frederick had a very low opinion of his enemy counterpart, saying about Prince Charles Alexander of Lorraine that "there will be some stupid mistakes". In fact, Frederick was counting on the fact that Charles would try to cross the mountains of Riesengebirge, and when he did, Frederick fully intended the pounce on his army and crush it in one decisive blow. On June 30 when the Prince finally did cross, Frederick saw his opportunity to attack, because under Hans Joachim von Zieten, his Hussars had been shadowing the enemy army almost daily waiting for the right moment to strike their blow.

[edit] The Night March

After getting a fix on the enemy forces behind the Striegau River, Frederick's plan was to march his army north during the night in total secrecy with his commander, Richard de Moulin, leading the way. They were going to march right in front of the enemy across the bridge dividing them and attack the Saxon left camp first, rolling the entire Austro-Saxon army up. They left their campfires burning, their tents pitched, and soldiers were not allowed to talk or smoke during the march in order to enable his army to have the advantage of complete surprise. Soldiers started to get bunched up and a bottleneck appeared at the bridge, and so limited forces were able to make it over. Richard de Moulin's first objective was a series of two hills in front of the Saxon lines, but the plan fell apart rather quickly.

[edit] Battle at the Saxon Camps

The Saxons had already occupied these two hills in front of their camp the previous day with a small force, and so when Richard de Moulin encountered this small force of Saxons, a small battle ensued with shouts and guns being fired, enough to destroy the complete element of surprise that Frederick had been hoping for. De Moulin decided to simply bypass the hills and launch a surprise attack on the Saxon camp at around 7:00AM in the morning at Pilgrimshain. The Duke of Vicenfells, commander of the Saxons, managed to get a small amount of cavalry out on the field, but the Prussian cavalry soon charged and routed them. Afterwards the Prussian infantry then charged the rest of the Saxon camp and quickly routed the entire Saxon force, defeating the small amount of Saxon infantry that managed to be thrown in their way, as well as a small number of Austrians. Easterly wind blowing smoke and dust on the Saxons' eyes was also advantageous for the Prussians, and the entire left and Saxon half of the Austro-Saxon army was soon destroyed in 3 hours in the dawn's light.

[edit] Battle with the Austrians

By now the Austrians in their camps further to the South and more protected by the river were alerted to the battle and were rushing units to the front. The portions of the Prussian Army that had still not crossed the Striegau River to the north seemed to spontaneously wheel to the west and advance through river crossings wherever they could find them, and found enough fords through the river to accomplish this. A bridge collapse at the small town of Graben forced the cavalry commander, von Ziethen, to immediately find a ford further south through which to funnel cavalry and pack mules carrying supplies. A charge of the Prussian cavalry put the Austrian cavalry to flight, since the Austrian cavalry were the first force that could be mustered up, and then the Austrian infantry mustered from their camp to form a battle line wherever they could. The Austrian infantry fights bravely despite the fact that it is alone and outnumbered, exchanging many volleys of shot at close-range with the Prussian infantry.

[edit] Charge of the Dragoons

It was at this point that the Prussian Bayreuth Dragoons decided to enter the battle. They were an oversize unit of horsemen numbering 1,500. A strong gust of wind blew the smoke of musket-fire and the dust away and revealed an opening between the Prussian lines through which to charge at the vulnerable Austrian infantry. It deployed into line and began to trot, then gallop, then charge at full speed, first turning north to annihilate the first Austrian column, then turning south to annihilate the second Austrian column. The Austrians, outnumbered, having been abandoned by their Saxon allies, and without cavalry protection were smashed by this cavalry charge and began to surrender en-masse. The Bayreuth Dragoons had faced off against thousands of Austrian infantry and only suffered 94 casualties. The last of their forces had given out and it was an absolute disaster and utter defeat for them.

[edit] Legacy

This battle was a great victory for Frederick, and soon he was being called "Frederick the Great" by his contemporaries. The Austrians and Saxons lost 4,000 killed and wounded, 7,000 prisoners, including 4 generals, and 66 guns. The Prussians lost 2,000. The charge of the Bayreuth Dragoons was studied by later Prussian and German officers as a model for aggressiveness, and the entire spirit of aggressiveness that Frederick the Great had instilled in his army as well as the large amount of autonomy given to his officers was likened to the tradition of Auftragstaktik. Also, the encirclement and annihilation of the Austrian infantry and the quick and decisive manner in which this battle played out is also often likened to Bewegungskrieg, or more commonly known as Blitzkrieg. Prince Charles of Lorraine had been defeated again like he had been at Battle of Chotusitz. This battle, however, showed that the Prussians could stand up against a numerically superior or equal enemy and utterly crush them. This battle was toward the end of the Second Silesian War, which was the last part of the war that Prussia would take part in. Later the Prussians would nearly lose at the Battle of Soor against the Austrians, whom were again led by Prince Charles of Lorraine. Soon after, the peace at Dresden was signed, thus ending the Second Silesian War. A Prussian military march, the Hohenfriedberger was allegedly composed by Frederick in honour of this battle.