Battle of Königgrätz
Decisive battle of the Austro-Prussian War / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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50.27°N 15.75°E / 50.27; 15.75
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Battle of Königgrätz | |||||||
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Part of the Austro-Prussian War | |||||||
The Battle of Königgrätz, Georg Bleibtreu | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
Prussia |
Austria Saxony | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Helmuth von Moltke Prince Friedrich Karl Crown Prince Frederick William Karl Bittenfeld[1] |
Ludwig Benedek[2] Prince Albert | ||||||
Strength | |||||||
220,984[3] |
206,000–215,000[4] | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
9,172 killed, dead, wounded, and/or missing[6] |
31,000[7] to 43,000[8] killed, wounded, and/or missing Austrians, including up to 22,170 prisoners[9] 1,501 killed, dead, wounded, and/or missing Saxon[10] |
The Battle of Königgrätz (or Sadowa) was the decisive battle of the Austro-Prussian War in which the Kingdom of Prussia defeated the Austrian Empire. It took place on 3 July 1866, near the Bohemian city of Hradec Králové (German: Königgrätz) and village of Sadová, now in the Czech Republic. It was the single largest battle of the war, and the largest battle in the world since the Battle of Leipzig in 1813.[11][12]
Prussian forces, totaling around 285,000 troops,[13] used their superior training and tactical doctrine and the Dreyse needle gun to win the battle and the entire war at Königgrätz on their own.[14] Prussian artillery was ineffective and almost all of the fighting on the Prussian side was done by the First Army under Prince Friedrich Karl and one division from the Second Army.[15] The Prussian 7th Infantry Division and 1st Guards Infantry Division attacked and destroyed 38 out of 49 infantry battalions of four Austrian corps at the Swiepwald and Chlum at the centre of the battlefield, deciding the outcome of the struggle and forcing an Austrian retreat at 15:00, before any Prussian reinforcements could even seriously engage the Austrian flanks.[16]