The Battle for Breslau

Last week four of us fought a battle based on Bevern's defence of Breslau in 1757. The terrain and units on the table represented just the middle third of that battle. The Austrians (led by Lacy) had to put pontoon bridges across the river and storm two towns. The Prussians had two infantry brigades and one cavalry brigade and some independent units and later were reinforced by a 2nd cavalry brigade and some hussars. The Austrians started with a large grenadier assault brigade and much heavy artillery, which dominated the Prussian side of the river. Prussian units that attempted to engage the Austrians early were be shot to pieces.

Other Austrian arrivals were a cavalry brigade, two infantry brigades, and another cavalry brigade, arriving serially after the preceding formation crossed the river. Unfortunately, one regiment of the first cavalry brigade got stuck on a bridge because it was in road column and could not charge Prussian units covering the eastern end of the bridge. This left the grenadiers on their own for quite some time. They were brought to a halt by a fusilier brigade and cavalry and light infantry threats to their flanks. (Half of the Prussian force had to stay in position elsewhere because Austrian reinforcements could arrive anywhere along their edge of the table.)

By the time the A grens and the P fusiliers had beaten each other silly, the A infantry flooded over the bridges and one P occupied town seemed to be doomed. However, just before we called the game, two P cav regiments that had been standing on the A left flank next to the river decided to charge. The A heavy and super heavy arty was being moved to the bridges to aid the advance, so the P cav did not have to worry about flank shots mowing down rows of horsemen. They were charging two fresh Aus. inf. bns head on.

One Aus. inf. bn. failed its morale and ran. The other had its bayonets broken and had to retreat. Both P cav regs. exploited, one into a recovering A gren. bn. and the other into the flank of an A cav. reg. Both were wiped out. The final exploitation took the P cav (dragoons) into the rear of the fleeing A infantry. Austrian soldiers lept into the river to try and escape the carnage. It had looked as though it was going to be an Austrian win because it would be too hard for them to take the second town, but this settled all doubts about who had won. The P dragoon commanders and the few surviving fusilier commanders were awarded medals.

- KvK

I meant to write that it had looked as if the Austrians were NOT going to win. The ordinary soldiers in the decorated Prussian regiments were allowed to go to sleep early that night and were not whipped.

Sounds like a great game and loads of fun. Would have liked to have witnessed that massive Grenadier assault Very Happy

_________________
Regards

Frederick The Great

" Does the General want local maps or general maps?' "What a question to ask! I'm a General, I want General maps!'