Day 6: Hohenfriedberg & Leuthen

Mollendorf's Gate at the Leuthen Church

Today we travelled into Poland to see The Big One: the Battle of Leuthen fought on December 5, 1757 as well as Hohenfriedberg, fought in October 1745. Leuthen is Frederick the Great's military masterpiece in which he employed the oblique order tactic to perfection, allowing the 39,000-man Prussian army to defeat the larger  Austrian army of 65,000 troops.

Hohenfriedberg was fought in 1745, during the Second Silesian War and is notably for several things: (1) it was the largest battle ever fought in Silesian with over 120,000 total combatants, and (2) it is the battle in which the Prussian Bayreuth Dragoons won everlasting fame with their cavalry charge that routed the Austrian army, capturing 5 cannon, 67 colours, and 2,900 men in a span of only 20 minutes, while losing only 94 men.

Information sign at Hohenfriedberg 

Memorial at Hohenfriedberg.

The ground over which the Bayreuth Dragoons charged into the Austrian army.

Here are some pictures taken at the site of the Battle of Leuthen:

Mollendorf's Gate

The inside of the church courtyard showing how high the walls were.

Charles Grant and Ken Bunger stand guard outside the church walls, depicting the height of the walls relative to that of a man.

The unusual corner turrets of the churchyard walls.

A view of Leuthen from the church.

The approach March or attack of the Prussian army from south to north.mbarely visible in the background are the two church spires in Leuthen 

The flat open terrain outside of Leuthen

I was last in Leuthen in 1998 and I'm sorry to report that suburban development is starting to envelope the town of Leuthen. There were many new houses built since my last visit and I could see several,blocks of row houses being built just to the north of the town. I dare say that in about ten years the whole battlefield will be lost to the developers as Leuthen has become a bedroom suburb of Wroclaw.