This is part of a multi-part article of a campaign which was run by myself at The Adventurer's Guide of Riverside. Other players were Mark Parker, Trow Davis, Marco Quesada, John Hanor, Bill Heizer, Erick Rotarius, Eugene Rodriguez, and myself No names have been matched with any country to protect the innocent. These rules were inspired and adapted from SPI's "Frederick The Great" and AVALON HILL's magazine "THE GENERAL", Vol 20, Number 3.
PART I
In mid-August of 1756 King Frederick of Prussia left Brandenburg at the head of his army (22SP) and crossed the border into East Saxony aiming for Dresden.
The Saxons, surprised in Dresden (8SP) settled in for a siege while sending messengers to their Austrian allies for a relief force.
The main Austrian army under General Browne (20SP), was posted in Northeast Bohemia watching the smaller Prussian army of General Ferdinand (12SP) in Middle Silesia. Browne's opening move was to invade Middle Silesia and try to destroy Ferdinand before any help could reach him. Ferdinand toiled this move by marching into Breslau and Browne soon left and returned to North East Bohemia.
Meanwhile Frederick had been busy building a siege depot and had quickly found a weak spot in the defenses of Dresden, capturing it in mid-September. The Saxon garrison was allowed the Honors of War and retired to Torgau.
Hearing this news Browne hurriedly crossed Bohemia and entered East Saxony summoning the Saxons at Torgau to join him. They needed to defeat Frederick before he could lay siege to Torgau. Browne knew the loss of Torgau would drive Saxony from the war and deprive Austria of a valuable ally and staging area for attacking Prussia.
Frederick wished to avoid battle because he had summoned Ferdinand from Middle Silesia and he was only as far as Lower Silesia and out of supporting distance. However Browne caught Frederick in late September in the rough district around Torgau and forced a battle. Browne, with the Saxons as one-third of his army, outnumbered Frederick by almost fifty percent (Aus 21SP, Sax 8SP. vs Pr 19SP).
The Battle of Torgau
Frederick needed to quickly find a position from which he could cover his siege train as it made its way to Torgau. Fortunately he found an almost perfect position to defend from.
A long low ridgeline running perpendicular to the river Elbe and almost abutting against it would protect the left flank. A large wooded area off to the right and behind the ridgeline would help cover the right. Frederick's infantry barely covered the ridgeline while his cavalry was positioned to attack anyone emerging from the woods or trying to pass through the two small gaps on the right. Browne's army advanced towards the Prussians and pinned them to their positions very nearly mirroring their deployment with two supporting lines of infantry and artillery to face the ridge and all the cavalry on his left to push through the woods and engage the outnumbered Prussian cavalry.
On the left Browne's rnain advantage besides numbers was his brigade of Grenzers to take and hold the woods for him and to act as fire support in the attack. As the Austrians drew close Frederick thought he detected a weakness in their deployment. The Saxon infantry made up the tar right of the line and though they could not be turned because of the river they were facing Frederick's best troops, his Guard and Grenadier battalions. These Frederick thought would surely be able to break the Saxons and roll up their entire line. As Frederick prepared to launch his attack the Austrians infantry on their left made the first of several attacks up the end of the ridge which continued till the end of the battle. Though eventually all driven off they did cause a good deal of troop shuffling amongst the Prussians as they tried to keep their units from getting too disordered and relieving them with fresh or previously withdrawn and recovered units. All this was helped by the lack luster performance of the Austrian's infantry center which was more than happy to simply trade artillery shots and not close up with the enemy for the first half of the battle.
Frederick ordered the guard and grenadier forward and off they went with parade ground precision pitching themselves right into the first Saxon line which much to Frederick's amazement had absolutely no desire to roll over and play dead for the Prussians. The Prussians soon noticed they were getting the worst of it as one battalion was destroyed and all the others were disordered while doing little damage to the Saxons. Now a dangerous fighting withdrawal was started with the Prussians aiming to get back to the ridge and reform while the Saxons smelled revenge in the air for past grievances. Fortunately for Frederick the Saxons were a little too slow in following up and at the mid point of the battle a ragged thinner Prussian line was patched together to hold the left. Also at this time the Austrians had pushed their cavalry, screened by the Grenz, through the woods on the Prussians' right and would soon be able to deploy. Browne saw all this and decided now was the time for applying pressure against the entire Prussian position and ordered all his commands to attack. All at once the entire Allied army surged forward. The Saxons attacked on the right.
The as yet uncommitted center closed up on the ridge line, the left flank infantry went back up yet again and the cavalry, lagging a little behind in their timing, deployed and charged as soon as they came up. For the Prussians it was a moment of crisis. However after a couple of hours it became apparent that the ridge was providing the Prussians with more than enough of an advantage to throw back and inflict heavy casualties on all of the Allied infantry assaults. Only on the far Austrian left did they meet with any success, destroying the first line of Prussian cavalry including the Guard du Corp regiment. The Austrian center was especially suffering as the Prussians fell confident enough to counter attack off of the ridge and destroyed the Austrian grenadier brigade
Browne observed, or was informed, all of this and needed to make a decision. The Saxons on the right were down to half strength, the Austrian center mostly down to a thin line of Bavarian allies, the left flank of Austrians infantry was a spent force. and his flanking cavalry was only slowly and painfully gaining ground. Browne decided to sound the retreat. His cavalry reserves would provide more than enough cover to discourage any pursuit and the Austrians retiring into Torgau would increase the garrison size to the point that the Prussians would not have enough troops to undertake a siege. "Damn that ridge," muttered Browne as the orders went out.
Frederick sighed with relief as the Austrian army started withdrawing. There would be no pursuit of the Austrians as he looked at his exhausted army and the large cavalry screen the enemy had placed. "Thank God for the ridgeline," Field Marshall Schwerin exclaimed as he rode up to his king. -Thank your drill sergeants also," said Frederick. "Now let us advance on Torgau and wait for Ferdinand." (Losses- Aus 6SR Sax 4SP vs Pr 3SP)
After the Battle of Torgau, Browne retired into Torgau and soon found Frederick, joined by Ferdinand from Lower Silesia, besieging him. As Browne attempted to reorganize his dispirited army during early October, Frederick hurried his engineers along. Yet again the Prussian engineers proved their worth finding a weak spot in the walls of Torgau and making a breach in late October. Browne had an unpleasant choice to make. He could ask for the Honors of War and save his Austrians or force the Prussians to assault. Assaulting would cost the Prussians tremendous casualties but would also destroy Austria's only field army. Asking for the Honors of War would save the army but leave Austria's ally Saxony in the lurch. The Saxon army would have no fortress of their own to retreat to and Prussia would demand its disbandment. Browne swallowed hard, reminded himself he was an officer of the Empress and told the Saxon officers under his command of his decision with an offer for them to come and serve Austria it their consciences permitted. The last days of October saw the Austrians entering the fortress of Prague in Northwest Bohemia and passing on to Koniggratz in Northeast Bohemia as the Prussians oversaw the disbanding of the Saxon Army and their garrisoning of Torgau.
As Browne finished reorganizing his army in Koniggratz he began thinking of striking the Prussians in Lower Silesia. While his plans were being laid however, Frederick force marched from Torgau to Prague (NW Bohemia) and started building another depot while summoning his siege artillery.
Browne decided to abandon his attack and reinforce Prague with his entire army. Slipping into Prague in mid November with all the supplies he could gather, Browne determined to hold out as long as possible and hope for an early winter. Frederick finished his siege preparations just after Browne arrived and began the formal siege in late November. Browne led an active garrison that held off Frederick until mid January 1757, when he was forced to call off the siege after suffering more losses outside Prague then at the Battle of Torgau. (Pr 5SP lost)
This ended the campaign of 1756 with Prussia driving Saxony from the war while garrisoning its fortress, Austria losing a major battle while outnumbering Prussia by nearly fifty percent, and Frederick finding Bohemia a harder nut than Saxony was.
More Great Saxon War 1756
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© Copyright 2000 Hal Thinglum
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