Battle of Lobositz

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Battle of Lobositz
Part of: Seven Years War
Map of the battle (1872)
Map of the battle (1872)
date October 1, 1756
place Lobositz , Bohemia
output Prussian victory
Parties to the conflict

Prussia KingdomKingdom of Prussia Prussia

Holy Roman Empire 1400Holy Roman Empire Habsburg ( Austria , Imperial )

Commander

Friedrich II of Prussia

Maximilian Ulysses Browne

Troop strength
28,000 men 35,000 men
losses

2,906 dead, wounded and prisoners

2,863 dead, wounded and prisoners

Seven Years War (1756–1763)
Eastern theater of war

The Battle of Lobositz (also Lowositz) took place on October 1, 1756 between the Prussian and Imperial Austrian armies. King Friedrich II of Prussia defeated the Austrians in the Seven Years' War under Field Marshal Maximilian Ulysses Browne , who had tried in vain to come to the aid of the Saxon army enclosed near Pirna .

prehistory

The Prussian invasion of Saxony began on August 29, 1756, and Dresden was occupied on September 6 . The Saxon army was trapped with about 20,000 men at Struppen not far from Pirna on September 10th . To secure the western bank of the Elbe , a corps under Field Marshal Jakob Keith had been pushed south to Aussig to prevent the Austrians from relieving the Saxons. On September 28th, Frederick II himself took command of 26 battalions, 61 squadrons and 102 artillery pieces in the Prussian camp near Johnsdorf. Opposite him, Field Marshal Browne had holed up behind the Modlbach and Morellenbach between Lobositz and Sollowitz with 52 battalions, 72 squadrons and 98 cannons.

Course of the battle

The Prussian march took place between the 420 meter high Lobosch Mountain and Wawczin. The main battle developed in front of Lobositz , the aim of the attacking Prussians was to push the Austrians back onto the Elbe. The right wing under Prince Ferdinand von Braunschweig leaned against the Homolka mountain, the left wing under the Duke von Bevern began to form on the vineyards of Lobosch opposite the Austrians under General Lacy . An infantry brigade under Lieutenant General von Kleist secured the center, behind the right wing almost the entire cavalry (52 squadrons) marched in three meetings under Field Marshal Graf Geßler . The Austrians numbered about 35,000 men, the Prussians 28,000 men. The attack of the Prussian cavalry, which unexpectedly encountered the enemy, was repulsed after the arrival of the Austrian cuirassiers under General Radicati and Major General Karl Claudius O'Donnell, but the Prussian infantry stormed the town of Lobositz in the final phase and forced the Austrians to retreat .

The battle was marked by misunderstandings on all sides: The Prussian cavalry attack happened against the orders of Friedrich, after which he had already given up the battle and left the battlefield. When the Prussians stormed Lobositz, they believed they had defeated the Austrians, and Friedrich returned. However, Lobositz was only occupied by the Austrian vanguard, the main army was still intact, and the cavalry on the left wing under Count Lucchesi was still intact. However, Browne did not realize that the Prussians had already "shot their powder" and withdrew.

The Prussians lost 97 officers, 109 NCOs, 2,600 dead and wounded, as well as 260 prisoners and deserters. Field Marshal Browne had lost 2,863 men, including 123 officers, General Radicati had fallen, 2018 other men had fallen and wounded, 718 men were captured.

On the Prussian side, the Swiss mercenary Ulrich Bräker also took part in the Battle of Lobositz . In his autobiographical work The Poor Man in Tockenburg , he later described the turmoil in an impressive manner - not without mentioning that he used it together with other soldiers to desert .

See also

literature

  • Ulrich Bräker : The poor man in Tockenburg . Reclam, Stuttgart 1993, ISBN 978-3-15-002601-4 , section 55 (contemporary witness, Itzenplitz Regiment ).
  • Hans Delbrück : History of the Art of War . tape 4 , book 3. Berlin 1920, p. 441 f .
  • Olaf Groehler: The Wars of Frederick II. Brandenburg Publishing House, Berlin 1989.
  • Great General Staff, War History Department II (Ed.): Pirna and Lobositz. (= 1st volume of: The Wars of Frederick the Great. Third Part: The Seven Years' War. 1756–1763 ). Mittler and Son, Berlin 1901.
  • Bernhard Jahn: The mediality of war. On the problem of depicting battles using the example of the Battle of Lobositz (October 1, 1756) in the Seven Years' War , in: Wolfgang Adam / Holger Dainat (ed.): "War is my song". The Seven Years' War in the contemporary media (writings of the Gleimhaus Halberstadt 5), Göttingen 2007, pp. 88–110.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Archenholtz, 1982, p. 19.
  2. ↑ Archenholtz, 1982, p. 20.
  3. ^ Karl August Varnhagen von Ense : Life of Field Marshal Jakob Keith . Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1844. p. 127.

swell

Web links