The battle of Kunersdorf became one of the main battles of the Seven Years War. Despite the fact that it was crucial, the winner could not use the results of triumph for a number of reasons. Thus, the outcome of the Seven Years War was not determined by the Battle of Kunersdorf, but by a number of other factors. Nevertheless, this fact does not detract from the significance of this battle in the history of military art.
Reasons for the Seven Years War
The main reason for the Seven Years' War was the growing controversy between the largest European powers: Prussia and Great Britain on the one hand and the Holy Roman Empire of the Habsburgs, France, Spain and the Russian Empire on the other. A number of smaller states joined the conflict. The subject of contention was the land in the overseas colonies, as well as the territorial dispute between the Prussian Hohenzollerns and the Austrian Habsburgs over Silesia.
Most of the great European states were dissatisfied with the rise of Prussia, which violated the existing system of geopolitical relations. At the same time, there were ongoing disputes between the British crown and France overseas colonies, turning into local wars. This pushed the British into an alliance with the Prussians, who were opposed by the French. The Russian Empress Elizabeth was also not happy with how strengthened Frederick II - King of Prussia.
Start of war
The first hostilities began Prussian troops. On their part, it was a kind of preventive strike. Frederick II - King of Prussia - did not want to wait for his many enemies to gather all their strength and come forward at a convenient time for them.
In August 1756, Prussian troops invaded the territory of the Elector of Saxony, which was an ally of the Austrian Habsburgs. They quickly occupied this principality. Immediately after this, the Russian and Holy Roman Empires declared war on Prussia.
Throughout 1757, the battles between the Habsburg and Prussian troops went with varying success. At the same time, Sweden and Russia joined the active hostilities, whose field commander was Field Marshal Stepan Fedorovich Apraksin. Quite productive actions of the Russian troops ended in a brilliant victory at Gross-Egersdorf.
In 1758, the command of the Russian army was entrusted to General Fermor. Initially, under his leadership, the troops acted quite successfully. But in August, the Zorndorf battle took place, which did not bring victory to either side, but it cost huge sacrifices.
Military action on the eve of the Battle of Kunersdorf
In the spring of 1759, General-General Peter Semenovich Saltykov was appointed commander-in-chief of the Russian forces. He was considered a reliable and experienced commander, but until then no outstanding merit was attributed to him.
Under his leadership, the Russian army moved west towards the Oder River, intending to unite with the Austrian troops. During this transition, on June 23, 1759, the Prussian corps, consisting of 28,000 people, was defeated at Palzig. So successfully P. S. Saltykov started his military company. Soon, the Russian and Austrian armies joined in Frankfurt an der Oder.
At the same time, Frederick II was moving towards the combined forces, wanting to defeat them in a key battle and thereby secure a decisive advantage in the course of the entire war.
On August 12, opposing armies met to try to decide the fate of the war in the battle known as the Battle of Kunersdorf. The year 1759 was marked by this great battle.
Forces of the parties
To the site of the battle, which later became known as the Battle of Kunersdorf, the Prussian king Frederick II led an army of 48,000 soldiers. Most of them were experienced veterans who went through the Prussian military school and took part in more than one battle. In addition, the Prussian army had 200 artillery pieces.
The Russian forces included forty-one thousand soldiers. In addition, P. S. Saltykov had a cavalry consisting of 5200 Kalmyk horsemen. Austrian troops led by Ernst Gideon von Lauden numbered 18,500 soldiers and horsemen. The Union Army had a total of 248 artillery pieces.
Location of troops before the battle
The Prussian army settled down in a standard way. The main troops were in the center, cavalry was located on the sides, and a small advance guard was advanced a little forward.
Russian-Austrian troops are located on three hills. Thus, they tried to gain an advantage over the enemy. The hills were convenient for the defense of their positions, but for the enemy they represented a rather substantial obstacle.
It was this arrangement of the allied forces that had a significant impact on how the battle of Kunersdorf went. The commander Saltykov was with the main forces in the center. The left flank of the Russian army was commanded by Prince Alexander Mikhailovich Golitsyn. Since this was the weakest link of the allied army, staffed in a significant number of recruits, Frederick II intended to deliver the main blow to his army.
Battle progress
The battle at Kunersdorf began at nine in the morning, when firing on the Allied army was opened from Prussian artillery. The direction of the fire was concentrated in the direction of the left flank of the Russian troops, commanded by Prince Golitsyn. At 10 am, Russian artillery returned fire. However, its effectiveness was much less than Prussian. An hour later, enemy troops inflicted an infantry strike on the weakest left wing of the Russian troops. Before the overwhelming Prussians, the unit under the command of Prince Golitsyn had to retreat.
In the course of the further battle, the troops of Frederick II managed to capture almost all of the Russian artillery. The King of Prussia was already triumphant in victory and even sent a messenger to the capital with this message.
But the allied forces did not even think about stopping the resistance. Peter Semenovich Saltykov ordered the transfer of additional forces to the height of Svalbard, for which at that time there were the most fierce battles. To squeeze the allied forces, Frederick II decided to use cavalry. But due to the hilly terrain, its effectiveness was significantly reduced. The Allied forces managed to throw off the Prussian offensive and throw off the army of Frederick from the height of Spitsberg.
This failure was fatal for the army of Prussia. Many of its commanders were killed, and Frederick himself miraculously escaped death. To correct the situation, he connected his last reserve - cuirassiers. But they were swept away by the Kalmyk cavalry.
After that, the total allied offensive began. The Prussian army fled, but the stampede at the crossing exacerbated the situation. Frederick II had not yet known such a crushing defeat. Of the 48,000 soldiers, the king was able to withdraw from the battlefield only three thousand combat-ready soldiers. Thus ended the battle of Kunersdorf.
Loss of parties
During the battle, 6,271 people from the Prussian army were killed. 1356 soldiers went missing, although most likely most of them also found death. 4,599 people were captured. In addition, 2055 fighters defected. But the most significant share among the Prussian losses was wounded - 11342 people. Naturally, they could no longer be considered full-fledged combat units. The total number of losses of the Prussian army amounted to 25623 people.
In the allied forces, the losses were no less. So, 7060 people were killed, of which 5614 Russians and 1446 Austrians. 1150 soldiers were missing, of which 703 were Russian. The number of wounded by the total number exceeded 15300 people. In addition, at the beginning of the battle, Prussian troops captured five thousand soldiers of the Union Army. Total losses amounted to 28,512 people.
After the battle
Thus, the Prussian army suffered a brutal defeat, which marked the battle of Kunersdorf. 1759 could be a time of complete destruction of the kingdom of Prussia. Frederick II only had three thousand combat-ready soldiers who could not provide worthy resistance to the Allied army, numbering tens of thousands of people. The path to Berlin for the Russian troops was open. Even Frederick at that time was confident that his state would soon come to an end. Already this year, the results of the Seven Years War could be summed up. True, then she would not have been called that.
The Miracle of the Brandenburg House
Nevertheless, despite such bright prospects for the Allied army, the battle of Kunersdorf could not make a decisive turn in the course of hostilities. This was due to the presence of a number of contradictions between the leadership of the Russian and Austrian troops. At the time when it was necessary to organize a lightning march to Berlin, they withdrawn their armies, without reaching agreement on further joint actions. Moreover, both Russian and Austrians blamed just the other side for violating the agreements.
This inconsistency of the Union Army inspired Friedrich, who had already lost all hope of a successful outcome for his country. In just a few days, he was able to recruit a thirty-three thousandth army again. Now everyone was sure that the Allied forces would not be able to enter Berlin without fierce resistance. Moreover, there were great doubts that the Prussian capital could even be taken.
In fact, due to the inconsistency of command actions, the Allied forces lost the enormous advantage that they received after the Battle of Kunersdorf. This fortunate set of circumstances Frederick II christened the “Miracle of the Brandenburg House”.
The further course of hostilities
Although Prussia managed to avoid a complete catastrophe, further hostilities in 1759 were not in her favor. The troops of Frederick II suffered one defeat after another. Prussia and England were forced to ask for peace, but Russia and Austria, hoping to finish off the rival, did not agree.
Meanwhile, the English fleet managed to inflict a major defeat on the French in the Gulf of Cyberon, and Frederick II defeated the Austrians at Torgau in 1760. However, this triumph cost him very dearly.
Further fighting went with varying success. But in 1761, the Austrian and Russian armies again inflicted a series of crushing defeats on the Prussian state, from which few believed that it would recover.
And again Frederick II was saved by a miracle. The Russian Empire made peace with him. Moreover, she entered the war on the side of a recent adversary. This was explained by the fact that Empress Elizabeth Petrovna, who always saw a threat in Prussia, was replaced on the throne by a German by birth Peter III, who literally idolized Frederick II. This led to the fact that the Prussian crown was once again saved.
The End of the Seven Years War
After that, it became clear that in the near future none of the parties to the conflict could achieve a final victory. At the same time, human losses in all armies reached a huge number, and the resources of the warring countries were depleted. Therefore, the states participating in the war began attempts to agree among themselves.
In 1762, France and Prussia agreed on peace. And next year the war was over.
General Results of the Seven Years War
The general results of the Seven Years' War can be characterized by the following points:
1. None of the parties to the conflict achieved complete victory, although the coalition of Great Britain and Prussia managed to achieve greater success.
2. The seven-year war was one of the bloodiest conflicts of the eighteenth century.
3. The battle of Kunersdorf and other successful actions of the Russian army were offset by the inconsistency of positions with the Austrians and the separate world of Peter III with Frederick II.
4. Great Britain managed to capture a significant part of the French colonies.
5. Silesia finally claimed the Austrian Habsburgs to Prussia.
Consequences of the Seven Years War
Even after the conclusion of peace, the contradictions between the groupings of countries were not resolved, but only intensified even more. But the enormous human losses and economic exhaustion of the warring parties as a result of the Seven Years War made it impossible to resume a large-scale military conflict between coalitions of European countries until the very end of the 18th century, when the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars began. However, local conflicts in Europe quite often arose even during this period. But the main wars with the goal of colonizing the world were still ahead.