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Southeast German Front

To bolster his forces in besieging Silesian cities, Leopold Von Daun, commander of the 65000 strong main Austrian offensive army, recalled the 22000 strong Austro-Saxon army led by Joseph von Siskovits to enjoin with him to the east. Along the way, Siskovits would take towns in Eastern Saxony, pushing the Saxon front from the Elbe Schwrze Elster River. Fredrick the Great and Wilhelm von Seyditz, in command of Prussia’s last 50000 strong offensive army, had no intention of letting the two armies join up.

Battle of Bautzen

Siskovits crossed at Torgau and approached the city of Bautzen where he was intercepted by Fredrick and the Prussian’s. On May 30th and 31st, In a fierce two-day fight, Fredrick encircled and destroyed Siskovits Austro-Saxon army. Only via a desperate move to break out of the entrapment was Siskovits able to lead less than half his forces away to retreat to the east toward Daun, abandoning all of their guns and supply trains.

Battle Results:
Austro-Saxon Forces: ~9100 casualties and ~3100 taken prisoner
Prussian Forces: ~6300 casualties

Decisive Prussian Victory

Siege of Breslau, Liegnitz, and Wohlau

Daun had sent off a force of 6000 with guns to siege Breslau and 9000 to siege Wohlau while Daun besieged Liegnitz with his remaining main army, which would later be reinforced with the less than 10000 strong Austro-Saxon army. Daun made sure to position his forces within easy reach of the other cities in case Fredrick tried to lift any of the sieges.

Despite his great desire to do so, Fredrick knew he could not take on Von Daun presently, unless he drew his army out. Fredrick spent the summer while the sieges were on going, undoing the gains Siskovits had made in Saxony even going so far as to attack northern edges of Bohemia to entice Daun to move out and face him. His most desperate maneuver which nearly succeeded in drawing out Daun was to send Seyditz south with cavalry to raid Prague.

Raid on Prague

On June 30th, Seyditz and his cavalry rode into Prague and in a combination of arson, theft and ransoming wrought much destruction to the city in an attempt to get Daun and the Austrian army to abandon Silesia. Their numbers though were too few to hold the city, and Fredrick could not move south lest he leave Berlin open to both Russian Austrian attack, and Daun knew this.

Battle Results:
Austrian Forces: ~800 casualties during the sieges.
Prussian Forces: ~3500 garrison prisoners taken
(these were not counted in Prussia offensive army numbers)

Clear Austrian victories


Aftermath

Throughout it all, Daun never budged until the Sieges succeeded. In Late August and Early September, the cities finally fell and Austria took control of middle Silesia on September 16th.

Fredrick, after realizing Daun would not take the bait had recalled Seyditz, and after hearing of the Russian’s siege of Kolberg and their coming march on Berlin, moved north to Frankfurt on the Oder when word had reached him that the Russian army had reached Posen, to await battle with them while the Austrian were occupied with middle Silesia.

Fredrick, after rejoining withZieten and Manteuffel, his army numbered just over ~51000. This plus several thousand others in scattered, increasingly lightened garrisons across Brandenburg, eastern Pomerania, eastern Saxony and lower Silesia. Were all that remained of Prussia’s forces.

The Russian attack from Posen that Fredrick was expecting never came.