The Battle
Frederick ordered an immediate assault, but Schwerin convinced him to make a reconnaissance around the Austrian right flank. He returned with the information that gradually sloping green meadows offered a better chance for attack at the Austrian rear. The Prussian army started marching around 7 am, and succeeded in staying largely out of sight till the Austrian generals noticed the movements around 10 am Field Marshal von Browne shifted six infantry regiments to take up position to the south east.
Schwerin, accompanied by General Winterfeldt, was finally prepared to attack. The attack was led by the infantry of Winterfeldt. The Prussian infantry soon found themselves not in meadows, but in the remains of fish ponds. While they struggled through, Winterfeldt was hit by a musketball. The Prussian infantry wavered and Schwerin rallied them, leading them from the front. He was hit several times by Austrian canister. Frederick, when he heard the news, ordered to press on with the assault.
The Austrian infantry smelled the Prussian confusion and started to press the Prussians back down the slope, opening a gap between themselves and the remainder of the Austrian line still facing north. At this time von Browne was mortally wounded by Prussian infantry fire and carried into Prague.
While King Frederick and General von Zieten reorganised the Prussian infantry in the south for another attack, the generals Hautcharmoy and Bevern spotted the gap in the Austrian line and started to filter infantry into the gap. Austrian Croats had engaged Prussians to the north of the Austrian left flank, but with the gap in the Austrian line being exploited by a steady stream of Prussians he pulled back and formed a new line running south from the west end of the Tabor mountain.
The final phase of the battle started around 3 pm, with Prussians engaging the still-forming Austrian line and outflanking them from the south. Charles withdrew into the town, the retreat being covered by his cavalry.
Read more about this topic: Battle Of Prague (1757)
Famous quotes containing the word battle:
“... the big courageous acts of life are those one never hears of and only suspects from having been through like experience. It takes real courage to do battle in the unspectacular task. We always listen for the applause of our co-workers. He is courageous who plods on, unlettered and unknown.... In the last analysis it is this courage, developing between man and his limitations, that brings success.”
—Alice Foote MacDougall (1867–1945)
“In the domain of Political Economy, free scientific inquiry meets not merely the same enemies as in all other domains. The peculiar nature of the material it deals with, summons as foes into the field of battle the most violent, mean and malignant passions of the human breast, the Furies of private interest.”
—Karl Marx (1818–1883)