Prussia
Leuthen
At Borna, Frederick the Great and his staff develop their battle plan, as illustrated by Hugo Ungewitter To the Prussians’ disbelief, their infantry could calmly dress their lines after their march and advance almost unnoticed. Drawing up in line, their first volley caused the startled WĂĽrttembergers to break and flee. Five minutes later a second volley dispersed the Bavarians. In…
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Wilhelm Stieber I
Having provided us with Clausewitz, Germany supplied an antidote in the guise of Wilhelm Stieber (1818–92). Not from Prussia himself, Stieber was born in Merseburg, Saxony, and had an English mother named Daisy who claimed descent from Oliver Cromwell. In 1820 the family moved to Berlin where his father held…
Wilhelm Stieber II
With war looming, Bismarck ordered Stieber to shut down his intelligence service in Austria so that there would be no clues that Prussia had spied on Austria in peacetime.5 Stieber’s concluding report to Bismarck included the allegation that Austrian emperor Franz Joseph had begun using a double on public occasions…
Hochkirch, Saxony, 1758 Part I
Preliminaries to Battle at Hochkirch In the interim, the king laid plans to attack Laudon and, driving him from the road in from Bautzen, to shove him back towards his allies. He had to possess this route for two reasons: (1) It would put the main army astride the road…
Hochkirch, Saxony, 1758 Part II
The battle of Hochkirch, october 14,1758, during the Seven-Yars War between Austria and Prussia, between Empress Maria Theresia and King Friedrich II, over the possession of Silesia and Saxony. Canvas October 10, the Prussian convoy reached Bautzen, and the Prussians at once rose and moved towards the villages and hills…
Hochkirch, Saxony, 1758 Part III
In the meantime, the main column reached its destination—the jumping off point before the Prussian camp—without interference. Laudon, over by Wuischke, was also moving into attack position. Here the marshal’s men stood in three varying columns of troops, waiting for sound of the bell announcing 0500 hours. On his end…
The Battle of Tannenberg 1410 Part I
Background Two conflicts formed the bookends, so to say, of the fourteenth century in Prussia. The first, which began in the first decade of the century, was the order’s acquisition of West Prussia, originally known as Pomerellia. This was a vital territory in several senses: its eastern border was the…