Battle of Hohenfriedberg
The battles of Hohenfriedberg or of Hohenfriedeberg (now Dobromierz in Poland) had place the June 4th 1745, between Autrichiens and Prussians during the War of succession of Austria. It was one of the triumphs of Frederic Large the.
Context
Trying to take again the Silesia with the Prussians, the Austrians are overcome with the Bataille of Mollwitz. They then send an large army under the command of the prince Charles-Alexandre of Lorraine, brother of Marie Therese of Austria.Frederic II has a very low opinion of its adversaries, providing of the prince Charles-Alexandre of Lorraine that he will make some stupid errors well . In fact, Frederic counts on the fact that Charles will try to cross the Riesengebirge, and built all his strategy on this assumption. During several days, its Hussards, ordered by Hans Joachim von Zieten, supervise the passage. Finally, the May 30th, Charles-Alexandre of Lorraine crosses indeed the mountain. It is the moment that Frederic waits to strike.
The confrontation must take place on the river Striegau. The plan of Frederic envisages to go night, in the greatest secrecy, to cross the bridge, to divide the enemy into attacking initially on the left the camp of Saxon, before encircling the remainder of the army.
The surprise must be total, the campfires were left lit in front of the tents. The soldiers start themselves in greatest silence, under the command of Richard de Moulin, of which the primary goal is to gain the two hills which are in front of the lines saxonnes. But the plan falls quickly. The bridge cannot be crossed of face by a great number and form a bottleneck on bank.
The battle
A small unit occupies these two hills since the day before. Inevitably alarm will quickly be given when the attackers are discovered and the effect of surprised tiny room to nothing. Also Richard de Moulin prefers to circumvent the hills and attacks the Saxon ones in Pilgrimshain around 7 hours of the morning.The duke of Vicenfells, ordering the Saxon ones, obtains well that a little cavalry comes to its help, but the Prussian cavalry the load and pushes back them. The Prussian infantry attacks the remainder of the camp and quickly puts the Saxon ones in rout. The left wing of Saxon, is half of the allied army, is completely destroyed in 3 hours.
At the same time, the Austrians, still in their camps located further at the south and more protected by the river are alerted by the noise of the battle and dispatch a few units towards the face. Part of the Prussian army which was not yet on northern bank of Striegau directs seems it spontaneously in the west and the search of a passage to cross the river.
The collapse of the bridge of the small town of Graben obliges the commander of cavalry, von Ziethen, to seek more in the south a practicable ford for the cavalry and the mules in charge of the provisioning.
Whereas the Autrichienne cavalry is famous to be best moment, a load of the Prussian cavalry picking literally with the vol. In the camp, the Austrian infantry tries to form a line and resists hopelessly.
A strong gust of wind blows the dust and the smoke of the mousquets and indicates an opening between the Prussian lines in which street the Austrian infantry. It is in this moment that the Prussian dragons of Bayreuth, composed of 1.500 riders, decide to write the battle. Spreading itself on line, they charge the first Austrian column, before attacking the following one.
The Austrians, exceeded of number, given up by their Saxon allies, without protection of cavalry, are destroyed by this load of cavalry and go in mass. Vis-a-vis thousands of infantrymen, the dragons of Bayreuth lost only 94 riders.
Assessment
This battle was a great victory for Frederic, that its contemporaries call already “Frederic the Large one”.The Austrians and the Saxon ones count 4.000 dead or wounded, 7.000 prisoners including 4 generals, and 66 guns. The defeat is total, the absolute disaster.
The Prussians lost only 2.000 men. The load of the dragons of Bayreuth was studied later by Prussian and German officers and perhaps regarded as model. Frederic the Large one had inculcated in his army the spirit of aggressiveness and tactical autonomy, which one will call later the Auftragstaktik (tactical mission). Moreover, the surrounding and the annihilation of the Austrian infantry, the fast and decisive way in which this battle it is played is also often compared with the Bewegungskrieg , generally known like Blitzkrieg (lightning war). Prince Charles of Lorraine was beaten as it had been with the Bataille of Chotusitz.
This battle, proved that the Prussians were completely able to draw up themselves against a numerically higher enemy and to crush it.
Frederic II, would have even composed a military march to him Hohenfriedberger in the honor of this battle.