1757
Battle of Leuthen
The setting
Near Leuthen (Lutynia), about 16 km west of Breslau, Silesia (then Prussia; now Poland)
Open, lightly rolling Silesian plain dotted with villages (Borne, Leuthen, Lobetinz), studded with low hills and patches of marsh; frozen winter ground.
Reveal the outcome
Recorded sideKingdom of Prussia (Frederick II 'the Great')
Recorded resultdecisive victory
Decisive Prussian victory against a much larger Austrian army
How the atlas explains it
The textbook oblique order. Frederick made a demonstration against the Austrian right to fix their attention and reserves, then used the screening hills to march his whole army obliquely across the front and mass overwhelming force against the unsupported Austrian left near Leuthen. The drilled Prussian infantry advanced in echelon and rolled up the line before Charles could redeploy his far larger but overextended army; concentrated cavalry (Driesen at Leuthen) shattered the Austrian counterattack.
What followed
With Rossbach a month earlier, it rescued Prussia in the Seven Years' War and reconquered most of Silesia. Regarded as one of the finest examples of tactical maneuver and concentration of force; Napoleon called it a masterpiece.