Battle of Gitschin

Battle of Gitschin

Part of: German War

Area map of the Battle of Gitschin

date	June 29, 1866
place	Jičín , Bohemia
output	Victory of the Prussians

Parties to the conflict
Prussia	Austria Saxony
Commander
Friedrich Karl Wilhelm von Tümpling August von Werder	Crown Prince Albert Eduard Clam-Gallas Josef von Ringelsheim
Troop strength
24 battalions and 36 guns	33 battalions and 96 guns
losses
71 officers and 1,482 men dead or wounded	183 officers and 5111 men dead or wounded (including at least 217 prisoners)

The Battle of Gitschin was a battle of the German War that took place on June 29, 1866 between Prussia on the one hand and Austrians and Saxony on the other. Crown Prince Albert of Saxony tried to stop the Prussian troops, but could not stop the adversary's advance towards the Elbe .

prehistory

After the Austrian I. Corps under General of the Cavalry Clam-Gallas withdrew on June 28, 1866 after the battle of Münchengrätz together with the allied Saxons, the Saxon Army Corps under Crown Prince Albert resumed the fight on the afternoon of June 29. General Clam-Gallas had led his defeated corps back in the direction of Gitschin in order to make a new attempt at defense. In false expectation of the advance of the Austrian Northern Army under the command of FZM Ludwig von Benedek to the west, he tried again to stop the Prussian advance. Opposite the Saxons, the pursuing Prussian 1st Army was under the command of Prince Friedrich Karl of Prussia , whose divisions advanced simultaneously from the west and north against the new position. Prince Friedrich Karl fully fulfilled the requirements of General von Moltke's campaign plan , which provided for holding the enemy. The bond with the enemy also gave the Prussian 2nd Army from the east, invading Bohemia, the necessary time to catch up for the planned main battle.

March

The Prussians prevented the enemy from withdrawing to the south by the fact that the faster marching Elbarmee outstripped the Austrian marching columns by pushing them towards Jung-Bunzlau , Unter-Bautzen and Libun. The line of retreat of the Austrian I. Corps was threatened at the same time by the 4th Division under General Friedrich Herwarth von Bittenfeld . Involuntarily, General Clam-Gallas and the Saxons, who were gathering for renewed resistance, were pushed onto the northern and western aprons of Gitschin. After the Austrian rearguard had been driven out of Podkost and Sobotka by Prussian attacks in nightly battles , the Saxons and Clam-Gallas took their positions north and west of Gitschin in a large semicircle. The northern apron of Gitschin, taken as a new position, presented difficult terrain for attacks: uneven hills dominated by several peaks and gorge-like terrain in between. Around the walled village of Lochow, two gorges 80 to 100 feet deep, difficult to cross, provided unique defensive opportunities. The villages of Dilez and Brada were other important military defense points. The right wing of the Austrians found mighty supports in front of the Kozlow and Tabor mountains. The northern outposts at Eisenstadtl , Breska and Ginolitz stood on terrain that was difficult to access for the opposing cavalry. The front in the center of the semicircle stretched over the Prachower Heights towards Brada and Wohawez. The left wing was supported on an extensive ridge via Wohawez to Podhrad .

course

Cavalry meeting at Gitschin

Around 3:30 p.m. the Prussian 5th Division under General von Tümpling had arrived in front of Dilez and Podulez and met the Saxons. The Prussians shot Podulez on fire and stormed the place. Austrian cavalry under General von Edelsheim tried to intervene, but was driven out by the Prussian rifle volleys, three regiments fled back to Brada with heavy losses. The Prussian infantry regiments No. 8 and 48 began the attack on Dilez under a hail of Saxon bullets. The fight in the streets, houses and hedges was decided by the needle gun . In order not to be cut off, the Saxons evacuated Dilez and went back fighting along the Czidlina towards Gitschin, where further heavy fighting broke out.

While the fight at Dilez was not yet decided, Tümpling ordered the bypassing of the enemy columns on the Prachower Heights by infantry regiments No. 12 and 18 . The Prussian reserve, formed by the 6th Division under General von Manstein, advanced to attack Brada and Prachow. The cut off garrison from Podulez was about to withdraw when they were being held and captured by the Prussians. The Austrian occupation of Prachow initially relied on the batteries, which tore serious gaps in the Prussian columns from the Prachower Heights. After the loss of their own cavalry, the Austrians left this position to the Prussians and fled back to Gitschin.

Around 4 p.m., the Prussian II Army Corps under Lieutenant General von Schmidt arrived at the battlefield and advanced via Wohawez against the enemy battle line, which stretched on the hills north to Brada, south to Waharziz and Wostruszna. The Prussian 3rd Division under General von Werder began the attack immediately, the area here was cut by four deep and barely passable ravines. The terrain on both sides was covered with old fir forest, which was densely occupied by riflemen from the Austrian Brigade von Ringelsheim and which was difficult to attack. The Saxon hunter battalion of the Leibbrigade was also involved in these battles. General von Werder sent the battalions of the Grenadier Regiment "King Friedrich Wilhelm IV." (1st Pomeranian) No. 2 forward, while uncovered tirailleurs kept up violent fire against the coniferous forest on the edge of the gorge . General Ringelsheim tried to hide the heavy losses caused by the superior Prussian rifle from his own people by inserting new men. The Austrians had to back down, but faced the enemy again in a third, lower section of terrain, behind which the village of Lochow was. Thrown again, they opened a fourth line of defense along the last existing gorge, which stretched between Lochow and Oitschin and was rushed through by a stream. In a bitter infantry battle, the Prussians secured the possession of the village of Lochow and pushed against the last position of the Austrians before Gitschin.

Evening had already broken in when Ringelsheim's troops were finally thrown into the gorge and backed off to Gitschin. At around nine o'clock the Austrians withdrew to Kosteletz, where the Saxon 1st Division under Lieutenant General Schimpff had taken a defensive position. The Prussian divisions Werder and Tümpling reached Fühlung around ten o'clock in the evening. Prince Friedrich Karl ordered the attack on Gitschin to be continued. When Clam-Gallas received the news towards evening that Feldzeugmeister Benedek had given up his original intention to stop the Prussians west of the Elbe, he had the fight stopped. The Czidlinabrücke fell during the night fighting and forced the Austrians to retreat. The Prussians stormed Gitschin in street fighting at night , while the defeated Alliance troops retreated south-east of the city towards the upper Elbe . The Saxons took on the role of the barrier guard ; they themselves had suffered badly at Dilez and now covered the Austrian retreat in an exemplary manner. The Saxon 2nd Division under Lieutenant General Stieglitz withdrew in the evening through Gitschin to Milicowes. The Saxon cavalry division under Lieutenant General Freiherr von Fritsch gave up their position at Cejkowitz south of Gitschin and withdrew via Smidar in the direction of Königgrätz.

consequences

War memorial near Gitschin

The battle for Gitschin had been carried out mainly by the Prussian Regiments No. 12 and 48 (5th Division) and No. 2 and 54 (3rd Division). The Prussians lost 71 officers and 1,482 men in this battle, the Austrians and Saxons had 183 officers and 5,111 men, of which 217 were prisoners in losses, 20 guns, 5 flags and 3 standards were the Prussian trophies for victory. The Saxons in detail suffered losses of 26 officers and 566 men in the battle of Gitschin, of which 83 men were killed.

After the capture of Gitschin, Prince Friedrich Karl dispatched a dragoon regiment to inquire about the position of the 2nd Army, and soon the news arrived that the Crown Prince's vanguard was already in Arnau and the unification of the two Prussian armies for the next day should be produced at the Königinhof .

literature

• Theodor Fontane : The campaign in Bohemia and Moravia 1866. Königl. Secret Ober-Hofbuchdruckerei R. v. Decker , Berlin 1871.
• 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 .
• Wilhelm Riistow : The war of 1866 in Germany and Italy. Schultheß, Zurich 1866.
• Karl Winterfeld: Complete history of the Prussian War of 1866. Gustav Hempel Verlag, Berlin 1866, p. 194.

Web links

• The German-German War of 1866 on preussenweb.de

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d} Theodor Fontane : The German War of 1866 . (Complete edition in 2 volumes :) Vol. 1: The campaign in Bohemia and Moravia (reprint from 1871/2003), ISBN 3-936-03065-0 .
2. ↑ Austrian Military Journal. Year 1866, issue 3, pp. 65–74.