Battle of Leuthen
Frederick the Great destroyed an Austrian army twice his size at Leuthen on 5 December 1757, and Napoleon called it a masterpiece. Prussia was close to collapse that autumn. Frederick had lost Silesia's fortresses, a Prussian army had been beaten in the east, the Russians were in East Prussia and the French and imperial forces in Saxony — until he destroyed the latter at Rossbach in ninety minutes on 5 November. He then marched his army 270 kilometres east in twelve days and found some 66,000 Austrians drawn up on a front of about eight kilometres near the village of Leuthen, with about 35,000 men of his own. He had campaigned over that ground in peacetime manoeuvres and knew it in detail. The manoeuvre he used was the oblique order. He showed his army in front of the Austrian right, then marched the bulk of it south behind a line of low hills, screened by cavalry, and reappeared at right angles against the Austrian left with his whole force concentrated on a fraction of theirs. The Austrians had to change front under attack, the line concertinaed back on the village, and their cavalry counterattack on the flank was met by Prussian horse coming out of dead ground. They lost some 22,000 men and 116 guns to about 6,400 Prussian casualties. Breslau surrendered a fortnight later and Silesia was recovered. The battle is the standard demonstration of what drilled infantry and a commander who has walked the ground can do against numbers.
- Year: 1757 CE
- Category: Military
