Battle of Prague

JAN 01 1757 · 12:00

Prussians before Prague, 1757. Hugo Schüllinger, illustration for the Obrázkové dějiny národa českého (Illustrated History of the Czech Nation), 1893. Schwerin falls in the morning, the Austrians break by afternoon, and Frederick II settles into a six-week bombardment of the city. Place: Plain east of Prague, between Šterboholy and Hloubětín; subsequent siege of the city Figures: Frederick II of Prussia · Field Marshal Kurt von Schwerin (killed) · Prince Charles of Lorraine, Austrian commander · Field Marshal Leopold von Daun, relieving force Frederick II enters Bohemia in April 1757 with four armies on converging axes, intending to knock Austria out of the war in a single campaign. On 6 May he meets Prince Charles of Lorraine east of Prague with sixty-four thousand men. The Austrian line is anchored on a ridge near Šterboholy. The Prussian flank attack stalls in marshy ground; Schwerin grabs a regimental colour and leads the second line in person. He is killed by canister shot within minutes. Frederick takes the field by nightfall at a cost of fourteen thousand casualties to the Austrians' thirteen thousand. It is the largest battle in the western theatre of the war to that point, larger than anything Marlborough fought. Forty thousand men lie dead or wounded across six kilometres. The surviving Austrian army does not retreat south; it falls back into Prague.