Fall of Prussia - A Raptor1 vs. Crécy RoP PBEM AAR

[Oberon]

I expect plenty of particularly marvellous moustaches.

[Raptor1]

On August 29th, 1756, following the outbreak of war between France and Great Britain, the Prussian army crossed the border into the Austrian-allied Electorate of Saxony in a preemptive attack against an anticipated invasion of Silesia, which was taken during the War of the Austrian Succession ten years previously. This action, in the annals of the history of the war, shall be recognized as the Kingdom of Prussia's first mistake.

The invasion proceeds rapidly, and the Saxon capital of Dresden soon falls. The Saxon army, realizing that any attempt at direct engagement with the Prussians is hopeless, retreats into its fortified camp at Pirna to await relief by the Austrian army. At the start of September, the Prussian Elbe Armee, personally led by the King, is encamped in Dresden and Bautzen with some 65,000 men, the majority of which are organized into five major columns:

Prince Ferdinand von Brunswick - 9,724 infantry, 5,724 cavalry, 96 guns
Prince Wilhelm von Preußen - 5,416 infantry, 2,497 cavalry, 72 guns
General James Keith - 12,512 infantry, 5,555 cavalry, 96 guns
Major General Moritz von Anhalt-Dessau - 3,640 infantry, 3,144 cavalry
Major General Johann von Wedell - 10,702 infantry, 3,173 cavalry, 96 guns

General Kurt von Schwerin also stands ready with an army of 16,556 infantry, 3,090 cavalry and 96 guns in Silesia. In addition to those forces, detached cavalry units number approximately 15,000 men.

September, 1756

When the Prussian army began its invasion of Saxony, it had two major goals envisioned: The first, to destroy the Saxon army before it can be relieved by Austria; the second, to advance towards Bohemia and capture the two major fortresses of Prague and Königgrätz before the onset of winter.

In his misguided aspiration to achieve these objectives, Frederick's plans for September called for the main body of the Elbe Armee in Dresden to advance past the Saxon encampment in Pirna, seizing the road leading from Dippoldiswalde and advancing towards the banks of the Eger river near Lobositz and Brux. By doing so, the Elbe Armee hoped to isolate the Pirna Camp and gain strong defensive positions against the inevitable Austrian counterattack by forcing a river crossing.

Wedell's column, located across the Elbe river in Bautzen, would secure the crossroads and bridge east of Pirna, then turn southward to advance along the Elbe's eastern bank, allowing it to scout enemy positions near Prague and possibly endanger the flank of the Austrian army. Meanwhile, Schwerin's Schlesien Armee will advance directly from its position in Glatz to Königgrätz, laying siege to the fortress. Once Königgrätz is taken, Schwerin could proceed towards Prague.



The first two weeks of September go mostly according to plan. The Elbe Armee leaves behind Prince Wilhelm to directly besiege Pirna and Moritz to guard Dippoldiswalde, then advances towards Lobositz, where it briefly meets the Advance Guard of the Austrian army. The latter force, unwilling to give battle against the bulk of the Prussian army on its own, retreats behind the Eger without engaging. Schwerin advances quickly, encountering no opposition and laying siege to Königgrätz. The cavalry detachments of Karl von Katte and Friedrich Leopold Gessler link up near Bautzen to form a cavalry corps of some 12,000 men in support of Schwerin's army.

The only engagement during the first half of September occurs as the culmination of a raid by Hans von Zieten's two Hussars battalions against an Austrian supply depot in Karlsbad. After crossing the mountains between Chemnitz and Karlsbad, the Hussars assault the depot, hoping to capture it in a coup de main. However, the garrisoning infantry company takes up defensive positions inside the depot and, despite suffering heavy casualties, thwart Zieten's attempts to capture it.



As the third week of September starts, Wedell has successfully secured the area east of Pirna and begins moving southwards. Meanwhile, Ferdinand von Brunswick's column is ordered to advance towards Brux, where it can block the Austrian army from attempting to outflank the Elbe Armee in Lobositz. This would become the second mistake of the Kingdom of Prussia.



Towards the end of the month, leading units of the Austrian army commanded by Maximilian Browne, moving faster than anticipated by the Prussian General Staff, crossed the river into Brux in the course of their well-predicted flanking attempt. It is not clear whether Ferdinand disregarded, misinterpreted or never received Frederick's explicit orders to assume defensive positions, but as his column enters Brux on September 25th, Ferdinand immediately moves to attack the Austrian army, beginning the first major battle of the war.

Taking command of the battle, Frederick barely managed to hold the Prussian forces together long enough for the columns of Keith and Moritz, force-marching to join the battle, to arrive and even the odds. However, the damage incurred to Ferdinand's column by this point is too great, and shortly after the arrival of reinforcements it withdraws from the field. Once again outnumbered by the Austrians, the Elbe Armee makes a valiant stand before effecting a general retreat towards Lobositz.



Though total forces in the Battle of Brux prove to be nearly equal, with both armies fielding approximately 45,000 men, poor coordination on the Prussian side allowed the Austrians to enjoy at least a two-to-one advantage in numbers for the majority of the engagement. This, in addition to Ferdinand's decision to attack the Austrians rather than take up defensive positions, have culminated in a clear strategic defeat. However, the well-trained Prussian units have managed to extract a heavy toll from the Austrians; casualties on both sides are high, with Austria losing nearly 12,000 men to the Prussians' 10,000.

With both sides exhausted by the bloody battle, September of 1756 ends as both the Prussian and Austrian armies stop to recover and reconsider their operational plans.

[Raptor1]

Originally Posted by Oberon

I expect plenty of particularly marvellous moustaches.

Not quite as many as you might think. Will powdered wigs do instead?

[Raptor1]

October, 1756

As the Brux campaign unfolded in the west, Schlesien Armee continued siege operations against Königgrätz, bombarding the fortress with its dedicated battalion of 24 siege guns and numerous field cannon. By the end of September, a sizable portion of the walls have been effectively reduced, allowing Schwerin to assault the fortress at the start of October. The attack is brief and bloody, and Schwerin's infantry soon makes their way inside the fortress, compelling the remaining defenders to surrender. Alongside the fortress itself, 44 guns of the defensive battery and a sizable amount of supplies are also captured.



Scouts from Gessler's cavalry corps, arriving in Jungbunzlau on the opposite bank of the Elbe from Prague, report that there are no Austrian field units near Prague itself. Acting on this intelligence, Gessler and Wedell's columns begin crossing the river towards Prague, where they can either lay siege to the fortress or cut off the Austrian army opposing Frederick. Meanwhile, the Elbe Armee takes up defensive positions in Lobositz as it continues to recover from the Battle of Brux.

These are the third and fourth mistakes of the Kingdom of Prussia.



Gessler's cavalry corps, moving faster than Wedell's column, crosses the Elbe with no initial opposition. However, a previously unspotted army of 30,000 Austrians under Aeneas Piccolomini moves into the province at the same time, soundly defeating Gessler and forcing his remaining forces back across the river while distance and poor organization leave Wedell's forces out of reach.

Meanwhile, the main Austrian force in Brux has split. The majority of the army appears to retreat back to Prague, where they come across the now isolated forces of Johann von Wedell and crush it, forcing the column to retreat across the Elbe in disarray as well.

More disastrously, the remaining Austrian force in Brux, comprising the First Line commanded by Joseph Lucchese, bypasses Elbe Armee and enter Dippoldiswalde, which in a fit of idiocy the Prussian army has neglected to reinforce after Moritz von Anhalt-Dessau left his position to join the Battle of Brux, completely unopposed. Lucchese then moves on to Pirna, where he engages Prince Wilhelm outside the walls of the fortified camp. Outnumbered two to one and without support, Wilhelm retreats back to Dresden after a brief engagement, allowing the Austrians to link up with the Saxon army and effectively breaking the siege.



It is at this point that Prussian army's command staff collectively punched itself in the face and began looking at how to put the situation back in its favour. It is nearly certain that the enemy expects Elbe Armee to pursue the Austrian army back to Pirna, where together with the Saxon army it can take up defensive positions in the mountainous terrain and defeat it, so this course of action must be avoided. Instead, with Schwerin's army now free to pursue further operations after the successful capture of Königgrätz, a plan is put in motion to attack Prague, hopefully catching the Austrians by surprise and allowing the defeat of the now joined armies of Maximilian Browne and Piccolomini.



The operation proceeds exactly as predicted. The Austrians and Saxons, as expected, combine their forces outside of Pirna and prepare for attack, but the only move made by the Prussian army in that direction is to leave Hans von Zieten's Hussar Brigade in Dippoldiswalde to watch the Austro-Saxon army and cut it off from supplies.

Elbe Armee and Schlesien Armee both head towards their objective, and on October 28th the Battle of Prague begins as Frederick's forces begin crossing the Moldau river and are engaged by Browne's army. An hour later, Schwerin joins the battle alongside Gessler and Wedell, taking the Austrian army in the flank. The battle continues for some time more, but with the Austrians now outmaneuvered Browne's army begins retreating in disarray to the east and south.



The largest engagement of the war so far, the Battle of Prague sees nearly 75,000 Prussians and 50,000 Austrian troops actively engaged. As with the Battle of Brux, losses prove nearly equal, largely owing to the Austrians' defensive positions on the Moldau, with 8,000 Prussian casualties to Austria's 10,000. While the Prussian army has successfully taken the field and routed the Austrians from Prague, it has unfortunately not managed to decisively destroy Browne's army.

[HunterICX]

That's indeed a large and bloody battle, guess the Prussians caught the Austrians without their wigs on and received commanding penalties for that.

HunterICX

[Oberon]

Originally Posted by Raptor1

Not quite as many as you might think. Will powdered wigs do instead?

Aaah yes, wrong era.

Looking good so far, if a bit confusing.

[Raptor1]

Originally Posted by Oberon

Looking good so far, if a bit confusing.

Yeah, I tried to make it less confusing but, like my attempts to stop writing novel-length posts, I didn't achieve much. If someone wants something specific unconfused, I can try explaining it, and if anyone has a suggestion on how to make things clearer that would be helpful.

[Raptor1]

November, 1756

Over the second half of October, reports begin filtering in that Austria is redeploying dozens of battalions from Hungary and Transylvania to reinforce their armies, which is terribly unsporting. If that was not bad enough, with the start of November snowfalls begin across the theater in Saxony and Bohemia. The continuous operations of the last couple of months, combined with the battles of Brux and Prague and the dubious state of the Prussian supply lines, have resulted in Elbe Armee running very low on supplies. At such a state, winter attrition will result in disastrous casualties.

The most prudent course of action in this situation is to fall back to Königgrätz and take up winter quarters until the next year. However, there is another possibility. It is likely snow will be intermittent until December or January; if the time until then can be used to successfully besiege and capture Prague, the Austrians will be forced to either fall back to their depots and abandon any chance of counterattack or face massive attrition, while captured supplies could be used to replenish the Prussian armies and the fortress could be used to greatly strengthen Prussia's position for the following year's campaign. It is this course of action that King Frederick chooses to pursue; a decision that will quite likely become the fifth mistake of the Kingdom of Prussia.

To resolve coordination difficulties that have arisen from operating under two separate army commands, Kurt von Schwerin's Schlesien Armee is disbanded, and his 16,500 men force, as well as Friedrich Leopold Gessler's 10,000-strong cavalry corps, is placed under the command of Frederick's Elbe Armee, bringing its total strength around Prague to 66,000 men.

Wedell's column, still across the river in Jungbunzlau, is ordered to begin construction on a depot that could serve as shelter for the winter and will also allow the distribution of supplies coming from Königgrätz across the northern bank of the Elbe. The army columns that lack an undepleted supply trains, namely those of Moritz von Anhalt-Dessau and Gessler, are moved across the river to the new depot, while the rest of the army stays in Prague to begin siege operations. Additionally, two Dragoon battalions are detached from Gessler's force and sent to secure the supply route from Königgrätz to the new depot in Jungbunzlau.



Siege operations begin immediately, and Elbe Armee follows its simple orders to bomb, bomb, BOMB the fort to the ground. Under the combined firepower of no less than 72 siege guns and well over a hundred field pieces breaches in the walls begin appearing immediately. But Prague is a mighty fortress, and despite suffering terrible damage, it manages to survive the entire month just intact enough to prevent an assault. Meanwhile, the Austrian army in the Bohemisch Brod, just east of Prague, stays in place and watches, likely waiting for the Prussian army to vacate Prague or for reinforcements by the Saxon force to attempt to drive it out and break the siege.

The Austro-Saxon army itself makes no move to break out of Pirna for the first half of the month, likely fearing winter attrition. However, the snowfall stops at the beginning of the second half of the month. Using this opportunity, the Austro-Saxon army takes the opportunity to head south. The blocking force under von Zieten fights several small skirmishes with the enemy army, managing to inflict some casualties, but it is too small to stop it and the enemy manages to arrive at Lobositz by the end of the month.

Meanwhile in Great Britain, Thomas Pelham-Holles, the Duke of Newcastle, resigns as Prime Minister because of repeated defeats against France in North America and Minorca. William Pitt and the Duke of Devonshire form a new government. In other news, Austria redeploys even more troops from the Netherlands and Croatia.

[Raptor1]

December, 1756

Surveying the damage done to Prague on the first day of December, Frederick decides that the walls have taken sufficient damage to allow an assault. The Prussian infantry is immediately formed up into assault columns and sent in to storm the fortress through the thick snow. A savage melee with the defenders begins as the Prussian troops climb the ruined walls, with each side losing some 1,000 men, and as the weight of Prussian numbers becomes too great the remaining defenders surrender.



The capture of Prague arrives just in time. By December, Elbe Armee has effectively run out of basic supplies, and winter attrition begins to take its toll on the army. As soon as it falls, Prague is immediately pillaged for any useful supplies, and winter quarters are arranged inside the city for the exhausted Prussian troops. Additionally, much of the fortress battery is captured intact with 82 guns, alongside a most curious prize of eight Bateuax river boats.



Throughout these events, the Austrian army east of Prague stands and watches without intervening. As the second half of the month starts, it withdraws towards the south, likely to take shelter in the cities of southern Bohemia, abandoning Prague to the Prussian army. Similarly, the Austro-Saxon army begins moving southwest after its breakout, likely towards Karlsbad or Eger. Hopefully these winter marches have cost the Austrian army a sizable amount of men.

Meanwhile, a brigade of some 5,000 men arrives in Dresden to reinforce Wilhelm's column, which decides against besieging and taking the now nearly evacuated Pirna until the end of the winter. Zieten's Hussar brigade, also reinforced with its other two battalions, is sent out to open the road from Dresden to Prague before returning to shelter.

And so ends the year 1756.

[Raptor1]

January, 1757

With the capture of Prague and the reopening of supply lines, Elbe Armee's supply situation stabilizes, and attrition is brought down to a minimum as the Prussian army takes up winter quarters inside Dresden, Jungbunzlau and Prague. The Austrians remain out of sight and are presumably doing the same thing. No action is undertaken by either side.



Meanwhile, reports from the rest of the world arrive in Berlin. Marshal Browne, the commander of the Austrian army during the campaign of 1756, is incapacitated by disease and replaced by Prince Charles of Lorraine, Empress Maria Theresa's brother-in-law, who has no great record of victories, having been thoroughly defeated in multiple battles during the War of the Austrian Succession. In India, a British East India Company force under Robert Clive recaptures Calcutta from the forces of the Nawab of Bengal.





In addition to those come news of the declaration of war by the Holy Roman Empire against Prussia, bringing those German states under Austrian influence into the war. Even more worryingly, the Russian Empire signs the Treaty of Versailles, allying itself with France and Austria, on whose side it will likely soon join the war.



The most likely route of Russian advance in its very probably invasion attempt of the Kingdom of Prussia is through East Prussia and Pommerania. In the direct line of the Russians would be the two East Prussian fortress of Memel and Königsberg, the latter of which is a large fortress with a garrison of nearly 4,000 men, but which will likely not deter the Russian army for long. Beyond these is the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, whose territory cuts off East Prussia from the rest of the Kingdom, which is technically neutral but, having lost the majority of its power over the previous century, now allows both sides to do as they please in its territory.

The fortress of Kolberg lies along the only major road along the Baltic coastline after Poland-Lithuania, with a garrison of 3,000 men. This fortress also houses the only Prussian field units in the area, an army of 23,000 men under Hans von Lehwaldt, which has been moved there from its forward position in Königsberg because it is far too small to threaten the Russian army. Finally, Stettin and Schwedt bar the way towards Brandenburg and the capital of Berlin.



The shortage of field units in the area means that any attempt to oppose the Russian army directly is likely doomed to failure, at least not without major reinforcements. However, the many fortresses in the way could slow down the Russian advance for a long time, possibly even until the following winter depending on when they choose to join the war, which might allow the Prussian army to set up proper defences. Additionally, the poor infrastructure in the region might allow light cavalry to harass Russian supply lines as they besiege the forts along the way.

Besides this route, the Russian might also choose to advance towards the south after taking Königsberg before moving west, allowing them to arrive much closer to Berlin, or go even further to link up with the Austrian army in Bohemia. Both these options will likely stretch Russian supply lines very far, however, as they will require extended operations inside the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Whether they attempt either of these options remains to be seen.