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Schematic plan · War of the Austrian Succession

Battle of Hohenfriedberg

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A schematic plan, generated from the statistics of the CAA Database of Battles: the armies' size and width, the hours of fighting, the plan of attack and the outcome are as recorded; the ground and the positions are not.
Rolling, Mixed groundCentreHorseHorseLeft wingRight wingHorseHorseCentreReserveLeft wingRight wingReserveGunsGuns01 km2 kmN

Prussia (Pr Army, 50,000 men under Frederick II) attacked Habsburg Empire (Aus & Sax Army, 66,000 men under Lorraine) in Silesia. The CAA Database of Battles records 7 hours of fighting on a front of 4.8 km, a frontal attack against hasty defense, and that Prussia won. Losses: Prussia 4,737 (9%), Habsburg Empire 13,176 (20%).

This plan is generated from those figures. It shows the shape of the battle the database describes: the size and width of the armies, the plan of attack and the outcome. It does not show where the units actually stood.

The armies

Prussia

Frederick II

UnitArmMen
Prussia left wingInfantry6,533
Prussia centreInfantry8,710
Prussia right wingInfantry6,533
Prussia reserveInfantry5,444
Prussia cavalry of the leftCavalry9,950
Prussia cavalry of the rightCavalry9,950
Prussia artillery (192 guns)Artillery2,880
Frederick IICommander—
In this plan50,000

Habsburg Empire

Lorraine

UnitArmMen
Habsburg Empire left wingInfantry10,124
Habsburg Empire centreInfantry13,499
Habsburg Empire right wingInfantry10,124
Habsburg Empire reserveInfantry8,437
Habsburg Empire cavalry of the leftCavalry11,000
Habsburg Empire cavalry of the rightCavalry11,000
Habsburg Empire artillery (121 guns)Artillery1,815
LorraineCommander—
In this plan65,999

What the sources report

PrussiaHabsburg Empire
Strength, this plan50,00066,000
Losses, this plan4,73713,176

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 59, “Hohenfriedberg”, compiled for the US Army to study what decides battles. These are the figures a what-if engine can be calibrated against.

Fighting
7 hours
Winner
the attacker
Terrain
Rolling, Mixed
Weather
Dry, Sunny, Temperate, Summer, Temperate
Defender’s posture
Hasty defense
Front width
4.8 km (attacker), 5.5 km (defender)
ForceStrengthLossesHorseGunsPlan and outcome
Prussiaattacker50,0004,73719,900192Frontal attack; Breakthrough; Pursued
Habsburg Empiredefender66,00013,17622,000121Defensive/offensive plan; Frontal attack; Withdrew

Attacker’s advantages leadership +1 · initiative +1 · surprise +1 · combat effectiveness +2

CDB90 (US Army Concepts Analysis Agency, 1990), tidy edition by Jeffrey B. Arnold; data under ODC-BY 1.0.

Notes

On this reconstruction

Generated automatically from the statistics in CDB90. Frontages, depths, distances, the order of events and the terrain are schematic: they follow the recorded strengths, front widths, hours of fighting, tactical plan and outcome, not maps or accounts of the battle. The sources give no hours; the timing is conjectural.

Sources

Facts gathered from Wikidata (CC0), Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0) and Wikimedia Commons (licence per file); the plan and its text are timeastra’s own.