Battle of Leuthen 1757
Recorded location from Wikidata; battle sites are often approximate.
Key facts
| Date | 5 December 1757 | Wikidata |
|---|---|---|
| Year | 1757 | Wikidata P585 (point in time) |
| Era | Early modern (1500–1799) | derived from year |
| Location | Poland | Natural Earth (modern borders) |
| Continent | Europe | Natural Earth |
| War / conflict | Seven Years' War, Silesian Wars | Wikidata P361 |
| Participants | Frederick II of Prussia, Habsburg monarchy, Kingdom of Prussia, Leopold Joseph von Daun, Prince Charles Alexander of Lorraine | Wikidata P710 |
| Coordinates | 51.1521, 16.7525 | Wikidata P625 |
About the battle
The Battle of Leuthen was fought on 5 December 1757 between Frederick the Great's Prussian Army and an Austrian army commanded by Prince Charles of Lorraine and Count Leopold Joseph von Daun. Frederick used maneuver warfare and knowledge of the terrain to rout the larger Austrian force completely. The victory ensured Prussian control of Silesia during the Third Silesian War, which was part of the Seven Years' War.
The battle was fought in and around the town of Leuthen (now Lutynia, Poland), 10 km (6 mi) northwest of Breslau, (now Wrocław, Poland), in Prussian (formerly Austrian) Silesia. By exploiting the training of his troops and his superior knowledge of the terrain, Frederick created a diversion at one end of the battlefield and moved most of his smaller army behind a series of low hillocks. The surprise attack in oblique order on the unsuspecting Austrian flank baffled Prince Charles, who took several hours to realize that the main action was to his left, not his right. Within seven hours, the Prussians had destroyed the Austrians and erased any advantage that the Austrians had gained throughout the campaigning in the preceding summer and autumn. Within 48 hours, Frederick had laid siege to Breslau, which resulted in the city's surrender on 19–20 December.
Leuthen was the last battle at which Prince Charles commanded the Austrian Army before his sister-in-law, Empress Maria Theresa, appointed him as governor of the Habsburg Netherlands and placed…
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Battle of Leuthen (revision 1379225511), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section; shortened by selecting paragraphs and trimming at a sentence boundary; formatting and citations removed. No text added.
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Other battles of the Seven Years' War
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- Battle of Lobositz 1756
- Battle of Minorca (1756) 1756
- Siege of Fort St Philip (1756) 1756
- Siege of Pirna 1756
- Battle of Breslau (1757) 1757
- Battle of Cap-Français 1757
- Battle of Chandannagar 1757
- Battle of Gross-Jägersdorf 1757
- Battle of Hastenbeck 1757
All 102 battles of the Seven Years' War →
Browse more: battles in Poland · Europe · Early modern battles