Battle of Kolín

The Battle of Kolín on 18 June 1757 saw 54,000 Austrians under Count von Daun defeat 34,000 Prussians under Frederick the Great during the Third Silesian War (Seven Years' War). The Prussians lost 14,000 men, while the Austrians lost 8,000 men.

Battle of Kolín
Part of the Third Silesian War (Seven Years' War)

The battle
Date18 June 1757
Location
Kolín, Bohemia, (now the Central Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic) about 55 kilometres (34 mi) east of Prague
50°01′44″N 15°07′19″E
Result Austrian victory [1]
Belligerents
Austria Prussia
Commanders and leaders
Leopold von Daun Frederick the Great
Strength
53,790
154 guns		 34,000
Casualties and losses
8,100[2]
6,600 killed or wounded
1,500 captured		 13,733[2]
8,353 killed or wounded
5,380 captured
45 guns
Location within Czech Republic

Background

Frederick II of Prussia had won a bloody battle against Austria and was now besieging Prague. Austrian Marshal Daun arrived too late to participate in the Battle of Prague, but picked up 16,000 men who escaped from the battle. With this army he slowly moved to relieve Prague, forcing the Prussian forces to split.

Frederick took 34,000 of his men to intercept Daun.[2] Daun knew that the Prussian forces were too weak to both besiege Prague and keep him away from Prague for a longer time (or to fight the Austrian army reinforced by the Prague garrison), so his Austrian forces took defensive positions on hills near Kolín. Frederick was forced to attack the Austrians, who were waiting on the defensive with a force of 35,160 infantry, 18,630 cavalry and 154 guns.[2] The battlefield of Kolín consisted of gently rolling hill slopes.

Frederick's plan was to envelop the Austrian right wing with most of his army. Along the Austrian lines (Prussian right wing and center) he kept only enough troops to hide the concentration on the Prussian left wing. The Prussian main force would turn right toward the Austrians to attack their right flank. The Prussian left wing would locally outnumber the Austrians. After the Austrian right wing was defeated the battle would be decided.

Battle
Leibgarde battalion at Kolin

Frederick's main force turned toward the Austrians too early and attacked their defensive positions frontally instead of outflanking them. Austrian Croatian light infantry (Grenzers) played an important role in this; harassing the regular Prussian infantry under Generals Christopher Hermann von Manstein and Joachim Christian von Tresckow, they provoked them into a premature attack.

The disunited Prussian columns blundered into a series of uncoordinated attacks, each against superior numbers. By the afternoon, after about five hours of fighting, the Prussians were disoriented and Daun's troops were driving them back. Prussian cuirassiers under Oberst Friedrich Wilhelm von Seydlitz (promoted to major-general on that day) finally showed up. There were many charges and counter-charges on the Křečhoř Hill. The first Guard battalion under General Friedrich Bogislav von Tauentzien saved the Prussian army from a worse fate, covering the Prussian retreat.

Kerels, wollt ihr den euwig leben?
(Rascals, would you live forever?)

— Frederick the Great, to the hesitating Guards, Battle of Kolin[3]

Results
Frederick II after the Battle of Kolin

The battle was Frederick's first defeat in this war, and forced him to abandon his intended march on Vienna, raise his siege of Prague, and fall back on Litoměřice. The Austrians, reinforced by the 48,000 troops in Prague, followed them, 100,000 strong, and, falling on Prince August Wilhelm of Prussia, who was retreating eccentrically (for commissariat reasons) at Zittau, inflicted a severe check upon him. The king was compelled to abandon Bohemia.

Reception
  • Following the battle, the Empress Maria Theresa founded the Military Order of Maria Theresa [4]
  • The Kolingasse in the 9th District of Vienna was named after this victory in 1870.
  • Memorials to the battle were erected in Křečhoř and on Bedřichov.

Footnotes
  1. https://www.britishbattles.com/frederick-the-great-wars/seven-years-war/battle-of-kolin
  2. Clodfelter 2017, p. 187.
  3. Seldes, 1985
  4. Peter Broucek: Der Geburtstag der Monarchie, S. 135.

References
  • Asprey, Robert. "Frederick the Great: A Magnificent Enigma", Ticknor & Fields, 2007 ISBN 0-89919-352-8
  • Chase Maenius. The Art of War[s]: Paintings of Heroes, Horrors and History. 2014. ISBN 978-1320309554
  • Clodfelter, M. (2017). Warfare and Armed Conflicts: A Statistical Encyclopedia of Casualty and Other Figures, 1492-2015 (4th ed.). Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland. ISBN 978-0786474707.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Duffy, Christopher. 2013 "By Force of Arms: Vol 2 of The Austrian Army in the Seven Years War", Emperor's Press, ISBN 978-1-883476-30-4
  • Duffy, Christopher. "The Army of Frederick the Great", Emperor Press, ISBN 1-883476-02-X
  • Duffy, Christopher, "The Army of Maria Theresa", Terence Wise, ISBN 0-7153-7387-0
  • Millar, Simon. 2001 "Kolin 1757: Frederick the Great's first defeat", Osprey Publishing,ISBN 1-84176-297-0
  • Seldes, George. 1985. The Great Thoughts. Ballantine Books, New York. p. 143

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