PRUSSIA'S GLORY: Rossbach and Leuthen

by Christopher Duffy

They called it Prussia's Glory. Rossbach and Leuthen are included in the Great Battles of History. Frederick made himself one of the Great Captains by these victories. Prussian military prowess became legendary.

But the Franco-German army swept away at Rossbach, and the Austrian army routed at Leuthen, were not only larger and had a fair share of professional soldiers, but the Austrians had beaten the Prussians not long before. So how were they so humiliated? What made Frederick Great?

For more than a century people believed it was because the Prussians were just naturally suited for war. Until 1945 many Germans, and their foes, remembered how Frederick miraculously saved Prussia against overwhelming odds, by marching through the snow towards Leuthen church.

As always it was not so simple. The expert on 18th century armies, Christopher Duffy, shows why French, Austrian and Reichsarmee soldiers, though often enough brave and skilful, marched to defeat, and how Frederick, often unaware of the legend he was creating, won these famous battles. But it is no longer left to myth, but to reliable accounts of hard fighting, quick decisions, and the fate of the soldiers and civilians swept up by the fighting.

Genres: History, Military History, 18th Century

208 pages, Hardcover

First published November 1, 2003

About the author

Christopher Duffy (born 1936) is a British military historian. Duffy read history at Balliol College, Oxford, where he graduated in 1961 with the PhD. Afterwards, he taught military history at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst and the college of the British General Staff. He was secretary-general of the British Commission for Military History and vice-president of the History Society of Ireland. From 1996 to 2001, he was research professor at the De Montfort University, Leicester. Today he lives and works as a freelance author.

Duffy's special interest is the military history of the European modern age, in particular the history of the German, Prussian and Austrian armed forces. He is most famous for his writings about the Seven Years' War and especially Frederick the Great, which he called self-ironically "a product of the centuries-old British obsession with that most un-British of creatures". Duffy is fluent in six languages and has published some twenty books about military history topics, whereof several were translated into German.

Reviews

[Gary Klein · Rating 5 out of 5]

Outstanding history of the Battles of Rossbach and Leuthen, masterfully told with the preceding history, global context of the Seven Years War, and finished with some of the reverberations up to the 21st Century. This book rightfully focuses a bit of Frederick the Great, but it includes dozens of other political and military leaders from Austria, France, Germanic States, and Prussia as well.

From a military point of view, these battles are masterful examples of the importance of key terrain, reconnaissance of the enemy and friendly routes, maneuverability, and striking the enemy's flank. Frederick's numerically inferior force was able to defeat forces significantly larger than his own by using and exploiting those four qualities.

[Kevin Barnes · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was very informative and easy to read. The double word sets are very bad editing. I wonder what became of the rank and file prisoners? The action was fast paced and the style of Mr. Duffy's writing matched. It is easy for an American to forget that The French and Indian war is better known through out the rest of the world as The Seven Years War. I recommend this book if you have any interest in this time period.

[Takipsilim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Shows why Old Fritz is one of the great commanders in history.