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Chapter 29: 1759 part 5
The Line along the Rheine and Main
The Duke of Brunswick had attained his main goal of pushing the French back west across the Rheine. Observers were stationed at river crossings and in many cases bridges were destroyed in efforts to keep control over the passages across the Rhe[FONT="]ine[/FONT]. His second objective was to keep the French and Austrian forces from joining, which was partly achieved after the defeat of the Astro-Bavarian forces in Marburg last year. They had fled east then south, wintering on the south side of the Main river, putting the western line of advance by Austria up to the Main river. Brunswick simply needed to keep a wedge between the potential French and Austrian link-ups, and based on intelligence knew the remains of the army that had escaped him had gathered at Hanau, with support of French and Austrian allied Hessen-Darmstadt forces.
Battle of Hanau
On April 4th, The Duke of Brunswick led a combined force of 20,000 British, Hanoverian, Brunswick and Hesse-Kassel troops against the small Austro-Bavarian contingent of 6,000 stationed in Hanau. A short decisive battle resulted in the Austro-Bavarian forces retreating southwards.
Brunswick would not pursue the retreating army though, because intelligence reports indicated a large French force had crossed the Rhine south of the Neckar river and joined with a force from the Duchy of Wurtemburg. With forces in Darmstadt also building to his west, and grumbling from officers among the British troops about being this far inland, prompted Brunswick to retreat back to the north to gather more forces.
On the Battlefields of Silesia
Battle of Jauer
Fredrick and von Daun would be facing off again in another round over Silesia. Austria had suffered a significant defeat at Hirschburg over a month prior, but it had not involved the bulk of either sides army. Both hoped for a decisive battle that would put an end to the other sides army once and for. This chance presented itself near the city of Jauer in lower Silesia on the 3rd of May.
Fredrick II commanded a Prussian force of 40,000 against the Austria forces led by Leopold Von Daun numbering some 65,000. The Austrian forces were still awaiting reinforcement to regain full strength before further offensives, while Fredrick hoped to finish them off before they could fully regain their strength, then continue on to recaptured Shweidnitz.
Both sides found good defensive positions and after initial skirmishes the battle turned into a day’s long artillery duel. When Austrian forces began to run low on rounds they attempted to flank Fredrick’s, and partly succeeded due to Fredrick own forces running low as well, but were forced back by a heavy charge from Fredrick’s cavalry. Neither side had made much headway, and Fredrick was weary of losing too many more troops, and could not win a war of attrition. When scouts reporting the arrival of some Austrian reinforcements, Fredrick decided to pull back, retreating north to Leignitz.
Despite the arrival of a couple thousand reinforcements (a number smaller than what was reported to Fredrick) the Austrian army was in no position to pursue. In truth, the Austrians had come close to breaking, if not for Daun's leadership and those of his officers keeping them together.
Both sides had hoped to destroy the other, and neither side succeeded. Austrian forces bled heavily for the battle, losing over 2 men for every Prussian soldier lost. While Daun may have successfully fought off Fredrick and maintain Austria’s hold over middle Silesia, the damage they incurred would severely limit their capacity to pursue offensives in Silesia as had originally been planned.
Manpower had become Fredrick's most scare resource as his armies dwindled, and many good soldiers had been lost this day, but he managed to keep Austria in check for a while longer.