Battle of Breslau 1757 : SYW

Leaving the Ogres to feast for a while we return to the Seven Years War. The Battle of Breslau 22nd November 1757. Earlier in the month Frederick had defeated the combined French and Austrian army at Rossbach. But whilst he was moving west the Austrians had started to retake Silesia, moving at the end of the month to take Breslau hoping to achieve this before the Prussians could combine their armies in defence. The duke of Brunswick-Bevern was covering Breslau but with only around 28,000 Prussians. The Austrians under the Prince of Loraine and Von Daun sought to combine their forces. They were then further supported by Nadasdy bringing their combined force to between 60-80,000.

The Prussians held a strong position SW of Breslau protected on two sides by the Rivers Oder and Lohe, the later being somewhat smaller. The Prussians had dug in a pretty strong position with many entrenchments, a series of abatis blocking the northern most section of the lohe and had dismantled several bridges. Historically Nadasdy took his corps round to the south, the Prussians under Von Zieten held them off on high ground and this flank attack then came to a stand still. For the purposes of our battle the. We have excluded this section of the fighting. The main Austrian assault was directly across the Lohe river, they had built a number of pontoon bridges. The Prussians held a series of fortified villages where much of the fighting took place. In the end the Prussians held the Austrians off till darkness before pulling back in the face of very superior numbers and the following day pulling out of Breslau all together.

My interpretation of the battlefield some licence but the main elements in place. The Austrians broadly attack in three blocks, infantry followed by cavalry. They have extensive artillery support to help them do this. For objectives the Austrians must try and capture the five villages running from Kosel to Grabischen. We allowed Von Zieten to filter a few troops into the battle from the high ground. Historically the Austrians pounded the defences for several hours before the attack, given our constraints it became clear this wasn’t having the desired effect and the Prussian artillery would be too dominating, so we implemented a rule where by Prussian cannons would have to roll to see if they ran out of ammo during the battle this worked well as the prussian artillery gradually filtered away back to Breslau. One final quirk is using Honours of war we rolled for each brigade commander. Almost every Austrian commander rolled dithering and all,st every Prussian ordered inspiring ! So there was a serious risk the Prussians might go charging across the river on the attack !

The Austrian left wing attack Prussian grenadiers through the village of Pilsnitz

A view down the battlefield the bridge at Pont de Pelz ?can be seen heavily defended beyond that the Austrians are crossing a pontoon bridge in numbers. historically I have read that the Prussian orders were to let the Austrians cross and then counter attack ! Prussian cavalry reserve can be seen on the left holding back for now

The Austrian reserve corps cavalry advances towards Grabischen, Prussians cavalry can be seen sweeping around the village, a significant combat took place ( which I forgot to photo) with both sides cavalry forced to withdraw from the battle exhausted/beaten.

Von Zieten sends some infantry to hold the crossing.

The defenders of Klein Mochbern have been temporarily driven back where they do eventually regroup

To the north the Pilsnitz crossing is proving too tough and the Austrians decide to occupy the village and fire long range cross the river.

The leading Austrians infantry is across the river and fighting and now the Austrian cavalry (lots and lots of it) is moving to the advance

Seeing the risk the Prussian cavalry edges forward seen here on the right behind the villages

Fighting continues in the south but the Austrians have the numbers in any fight in the open

The Prussians pull back to the village

Carnage in the centre, a massed cavalry battle in the foreground, more Austrian cavalry arising in the centre and further back move Austrian cavalry being held back on the Pont de Pelz. Hot work everywhere !

Having won the intital combat the Prussian cavalry is just able to regroup back behind the villages before being destroyed by Austrian artillery. The Prussians have very little in reserve now.

Fighting to the last at Grabischen but the village is about to fall.

Much of the Austrian cavalry has been driven back over the river where it is regrouping, but the Prussian infantry is only just clinging onto the villages at the moment 

The crossing at Pilsnitz has proved too tough for the Austrians to force, where almost the whole Austrian right wing has been tied up

But in the end numbers begin to count as the Prussians held villages are gradually surrounded 

In the end given the objectives we felt a draw was right, the technically both side were holding two villages each with. Third unoccupied but about to be taken by the Austrians.

We both really enjoyed the battle, given the relatively unequal sides it provided a great battle with plenty of twists and turns. The balance was almost perfect, anymore Prussians and the crossings wouldnt have been possible any less and the Austrians would have come galloping across. Interestingly the Austrians did suffer from their dithering command but by virtue of the overall commander being inspiring this allowed re-rolls without this the Prussians may never have gotten off the start line.

Hard not to enjoy this one and wargaming pretty much at its best 👍

Thanks for taking the time to check out my activity in the dungeon

Matt ❤️