Instructions for Prussian Officers

Truce of 1813

delivered by King Frederick William

As it has come to my notice that, during actions and battles, the various arms have not been always brought into action, and that dispositions in view of battle are generally unsatisfactory, I desire, upon the occasion of the coming resumption of hostilities, to recall the following rules of war: (1) In view of the manner in which our enemy is making war, it is generally unwise to begin a battle with cavalry, or to bring all the troops immediately into action. Owing to the way in which he uses his infantry, he succeeds in delaying and supporting the action; he carries villages and woods, hides behind houses, bushes and ditches: he knows how to defend himself skilfully against our attacks by attacking himself he inflicts on us losses with few troops, and when we advance against him in great masses; he then relieves those troops, or sends fresh ones into action, and, if we have on our side no fresh troops to oppose to his he compels us to give way. We must draw from this principle, which is the enemy's, that we must spare our forces and support the action until we turn to the main attack. (2) Our artillery has not produced a great effect, because it had been too much divided . . . (Editor's note: Items 3,4,5 intentionally ommited by the author) (6) War in general, but, above all, the issue of battle, depends upon superiority of forces on one point. (7) In order to secure this superiority of forces, it is necessary to deceive the enemy concerning the real front of attack and to make a false attack and a real attack. (8) Both attacks must be masked by skirmishers, so that the enemy should be unable to distinguish the difference. (9) A line of skirmishers is first of all to be sent out. The attention of the enemy is to be drawn by several battalions designed to fire on one of the wings, on which guns must be firing heavily at the same moment. Battle must be ordered in that fashion. (10) Meanwhile, the real attack is still postponed, and it only begins later on, at the moment when the enemy's attention is entirely turned on the false attack. (11) That real attack is made as quickly and as vigorously as possible, and above all by a large mass of artillery and infantry, of a superior force, if possible, while a particular corps goes round the enemy flank . . . In principle, a commander should devote one brigade to the false attack, two brigades to the real one, and have one brigade in reserve. These principles which are well known to you, and which have been many times commended. We have put them frequently into practise in our peace manoeuvres, but I remind you of them, because what is known is sometimes forgotten, because a simple thing may seem to be a commonplace, yet victory often depends on it. Unless one is careful to recall it everyday to mind, one indulges in combinations which are too scientific, or, what is worse, one goes into battle without having taken any dispositions whatever. Back to Table of Contents -- First Empire #42 Back to First Empire List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1998 by First Empire. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com