Battle of chicken water
| date | June 26, 1866 |
|---|---|
| place | Chicken water , Bohemia |
| output | Victory of the Prussians |
| Parties to the conflict | |
|---|---|
| Commander | |
| Troop strength | |
| 1,500 | |
| losses | |
|
50 dead and wounded |
277 dead, wounded and prisoners |
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German War and
3rd Italian War of Independence (both 1866)
Custozza - Hühnerwasser - Podol - Nachod - Trautenau - Langensalza - Skalitz - Münchengrätz - Gitschin - Queen's Court - Pig Skull - Königgrätz - Dermbach - Kissingen - Main Campaign - Frohnhofen - Aschaffenburg - Lissa - Bezzecca - Blumenau - Hundheim - Tauberbischofsheim - Werbach - Helmstadt - Gerchsheim - Gerchs - Helmstadt Uettingen / Roßbrunn
The battle near Hühnerwasser (Böhmisch Leipa district) was the first battle of the German War between Prussia and Austria on June 26, 1866.
initial situation
After the Elbarmee under General Herwarth von Bittenfeld with a strength of 46,000 men , coming from Torgau through the evacuated Saxony via Dresden (June 18), had reached the Bohemian border, they advanced on June 23 parallel to the First Army via Waltersdorf and Schluckenau in long Columns of the army entered Bohemia without any resistance at the passes .
The Austrian commander-in-chief Benedek had originally only planned to delay the two Prussian armies in Bohemia, while he wanted to advance with the rest of his northern army from Olomouc to Gitschin to defeat the two Prussian armies Bittenfeld and Friedrich Karl before the second army of the Crown Prince could attack. Contrary to the original plan, however, on June 26th around 3 p.m., the order was issued to Clam-Gallas as commander of the Austrian and Saxon troops in north-western Bohemia to hold the line on the Jizera at any cost. Clam-Gallas and Prince Albert of Saxony were with the main force near Münchengrätz , about 10 km east of Hühnerwasser .
In order to push back the outposts of the Elbarmee, Leopold Gondrecourt proceeded with approx. 1,500 men, hunters from Slovakia and a mixed battalion of Hungarian and Romanian line infantry, on chicken water. At that time, the troops of the Elbarmee had not had a day of rest since Dresden on June 20 and were accordingly exhausted. There were two battalions from the 31st Brigade in the village .
The battle
The Austrians were able to work their way through dense forest to just before the village and then came across a Prussian company around 6 p.m. , which was resting under some trees on the outskirts. The Prussians immediately opened fire and alerted their comrades in the village, who immediately intervened in the fighting. The Prussians did not form any formations at all, but went straight to the attack as tirailleurs and tried to reach the edge of the forest. Gondrecourt then lined up his troops on the road to Münchgrätz, had three volleys fired and then proceeded to attack with the bayonet . At this point there were about four Prussian companies ready for action. After the first salvo of the Prussians, order was lost among the Austrians, and the officers tried, sometimes unsuccessfully, to force their soldiers on to attack again. After the second volley of the Prussians from a distance of 300 meters, the first Austrians fled the battlefield. While Gondrecourt had his reserve companies line up in storm columns, he had to recognize that more Prussian units were advancing from Hühnerwasser at a run. In view of these reinforcements and the high losses he had already suffered, he broke off the planned attack and retreated in the direction of Münchengrätz.
The battle not only showed that the Prussians fired very quickly, but that this fire was also very precise. When the Austrians had to break off the fight, the Prussians had not even switched to "rapid fire", in which each soldier led the fire fight independently. The rapid fire enabled a significantly higher rate of fire than with the coordinated volleys.
It also became clear that the Prussian infantry lost no time in forming formations and lines, but proceeded in small and very small groups, and was thus able to strengthen its own lines very quickly. Therefore, the exact number of Prussians who took part in the battle is not precisely documented.
losses
In this first brief skirmish, the Prussians lost a total of 4 officers and 46 soldiers to dead and wounded. The Austrians, on the other hand, lost 13 officers and 264 soldiers to fallen, wounded and prisoners. The failure of almost 20% of the entire deployed troops in such a short meeting was a loss that was previously not thought possible. Approx. 50 Austrians were captured.
On June 27, the Elbarmee was able to unite with the First Army, which for its part had made the transition over the Iser at Turnau and Podol that same evening . This was followed on June 28th by the Battle of Münchengrätz .
literature
- Heinz Helmert, Hans-Jürgen Usczeck: Prussian-German wars from 1864 to 1871 - military course. 6th revised edition. Military publishing house of the German Democratic Republic , Berlin 1988, ISBN 3-327-00222-3 .
- Geoffrey Wawro: The Austro-Prussian War. Austria's was with Prussia and Italy in 1866. Cambridge Univ. Press, 1996, ISBN 0-521-62951-9 .
- Theodor Fontane : The German War of 1866. Volume 1: The campaign in Bohemia and Moravia. 2003, ISBN 3-936030-65-0 , pp. 125-130. (Reprint from 1871)
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e Geoffrey Wawro: The Austro-Prussian War. Cambridge University Press, 1997, ISBN 0-521-62951-9 , pp. 129 ff.
- ^ Wawro: The Austro-Prussian War. 1997, p. 130.
- ^ Official press of Prussia from July 4, 1866.
Coordinates: 50 ° 34'26.8 " N , 14 ° 49'25.7" E