1757 Campaign - the Second Battle of White Mountain - Set-up

I'm using that name to distinguish it from the actual Battle of  Prague in 1757. This one will be fought on the western side of Prague, around the same ridge that the White Mountain (Weißberg or Bela Hora) is on.

Charles, aided by Marshall von Browne (or 'Brovna' in the contemporary German pronunciation), concentrated their force to the west of the city, where Frederick's forces were gathering. The Ridgeline there gave them good views of the plains to the north and west. The city and the River Moldau protected their right flank, and they would also gain some protection by the streams. before and to the left-rear of the position. If the worst came to the worst, the Austrians could fall back into the city.

As things turned out, the combined armies of Frederick and Schwerin, including the previously separate forces under Bevern and Winterfeldt, outnumbered the Austrians. Also, having a superior force of hussars and dragoons, the Prussians were able to scout out the Austrian positions before deciding on their attack plan.

The respective orders of battle included:

Austrians

• Artillery: 3 brigades
• Cuirassiers: 2 brigades
• Dragoons: 2 brigades
• Hussars: 2 brigades
• Grenadiers: 1 brigade
• Musketeers: 13 brigades
• Grenzers: 1 brigade 

Prussians

• Artillery: 3 brigades
• Cuirassiers: 4 brigades
• Dragoons: 3 brigades
• Hussars: 3 brigades
• Garde infantry: 1 brigade
• Grenadiers: 5 brigades
• Musketeers: 9 brigades
• Freikorps: 1 brigade

Things are set for what could be the showdown of the campaign.

The Prussian plan. The Moldau is impassable except at the pontoon bridge and the bridge in the city. Streams are passable, except for the blue blobs (i.e. ponds).

The map is based on an interactive map of the present day Prague area, complete with contours. I had to strip away most of the built up area. I then added in the position of Prague as it was in the 1750s. The city is shown on the table, mostly for show, but also for where the Austrians might retreat to. I've added in the villages' German names based off a map of the Battle of White Mountain, 1620, coupled with a bit of detective/deductive work on the modern Czech names. Much of the ground is fairly flat beyond the positions where I've shown the Austrians, at least in so far as it affects the game, and especially in the open space in the west (where Vaclav Havel Airport is today!).

Here are a few snaps of the field. Including a grid on the uncovered board which helped me position the DVD boxes/hills).

The basic 240x120cm board (8 by 4 ft in old money) with hastily drawn 12 cm grid. Extra table top left for Schwerin's starting position.

Before roads and soldiers added. The trees are just for decoration.

Prague

The large building on the right HAD to be included since it is a model of a building in Prague (bought on a work trip years ago).

Looking from the west. Top left is Schwerin's position. I've not set-up the table to show the Moldau in that corner.

From behind Winterfeld's position

Austrian lines from the west

Austrian lines from the Kleine Seite of Prague.

This is going to be a mammoth game. One of, if not the, biggest I've played, since I did Prague a few years ago. Rules will be Twilight of the Soldier Kings, as ever. The two smaller battles at Königgrätz and Prosek have already been played. No news has reached the combatants west of Prague yet.

1757 Campaign - Turn 3 - Moves

Wow! That was a longer gap between posts than I expected. A variety of 'Real Life' issues and incidents intervened.Nothing really serious, but it all left me feeling listless and demotivated. But I'm back. From outer space. Things began to hot up in the 1757 campaign. Here's a summary of Turn 3. Following this there will be reports on the three battles listed at the bottom.

The Prussians concentrated on Prague. Frederick (Jon), Bevern and Winterfeld (both Dave B) all advanced on the city west of the Moldau, where they came face to face with Charles and his deputy Browne). From the east, Schwerin (Dave C) beetled up the Kaiserstrasse from Königgrätz to the Bohemian capital from the east. At the same time Keith (also Dave B) was ordered from Zittau to Jung-Bunzlau on the road to Prague. Further east Prince Henry's small force, much recovered from his defence at Jaromiersch, was ordered forward once again from Nachod towards Prague via Jaromiersch and Königgrätz.

Serbelloni, at Jaromiersch, decided* to attack Schwerin who he thought was still at Königgrätz. He was too late! The old Prussian Feldmarschal had already quitted the town for the capital. Pausing for breath on the plateau outside Königgrätz, Serbelloni found Henry hot on his tail. Time to teach the King's brother another lesson!

* I diced against a table of options: remain at Jaromiersch, advance towards Silesia via Nachod, attack Schwerin. The dice gods chose the last of the 3.

Meanwhile, Königsegg heeded the call of Prince Charles of Lorraine to come to Prague. He arrived from the north east via Alt-Bunzlau around the same time that Schwerin was approaching Prague from the east.

The situation after the Turn 3 moves, but before any potential battles. Approximate positions of Prussians in blue and Austrians in black. But where is Keith?

The Prussians around Prague had the edge over the Austrians in scouting so were able to establish their overall strength. They knew the main force under Charles was west of the city near the old 1620 battlefield of the White Mountain, and they knew Königsegg was closing on the city from the NE from the Alt-Bunzlau direction.

Schwerin detached Moritz of Anhalt-Dessau with a small force to block Königsegg's road. The Prussians were throwing a pontoon bridge over the Moldau a few miles north of Prague at Selz to link the King's army with Schwerin. This route must also be protected. Schwerin was confident in Moritz and hoped the Young Dessauer would trap Königsegg between himself and Keith*. His main force would remain on the heights east of Prague waiting to spring the trap on Charles' army should the latter seek to escape from the King.

* Keith should be on the same road to Prague somewhere behind Königsegg, but where? I won't be telling until after the battles were played out at the end of the turn.

Whilst this was going on Frederick was preparing his order of battle and plan of assault on Charles' lines on the western heights.

There were thus three battles in the offing:

• Henry v Serbelloni at Königgrätz
• Moritz v Königsegg at Prosek, NE of Prague
• Frederick v Charles at White Mountain, west of Prague

The next posts will outline what transpired at these simultaneous confrontations.

Shameful

If only there had been a sign that the lying, cheating, draft dodging, insurrection promoting rapist was a piece of excrement.

The Battle of Jaromiersch - a 1757 Campaign game

As trailed in the previous post, the first turn moves led to a battle. Dave C, in the guise of Prince Henry of Prussia, had marched a small force down from the Silesian border to the town of Jaromiersch (modern day Jaroměř in Czechia).  Detecting a much weaker force, Serbelloni seized his opportunity.

The name Jaromirz, as shown on the German Great General Staff ('3GS') map which I used as the campaign map, rang a bell. I consulted Duffy, and in Frederick the Great: A Military Life, there was a map from the War of the Bavarian Succession of the rival positions at Jaromiersch. A bit of cross-referencing showed that this was indeed the same place and the map in Duffy was used as a basis for the table top game. I drew on roads (interpolated from another 3GS map of the region). Dave was invited to place Henry's force anywhere on the map and to give his general orders for the battle.

Henry placed a brigade of infantry at Jaromiersch, one at Schlorten and a unit of Freikorps at Schurz to contest the crossings as long as possible, with a brigade each of hussars and dragoons in between to cover the expected retreat. Austrians advanced from the left.

Looking south towards Jaromiersch. Schlorten in the foreground on the right bank. This is a 1m x 1.2m table by the way.

Serbelloni concentrated the larger part of his army on Jaromiersch, with a smaller grouping of infantry of infantry and dragoons at Schlorten. A unit of hussars was sent to scout and, if practicable, force the crossing at Schurz. A powerful artillery battery was formed across from Jaromiersch to soften up the Prussian defenders, who had no heavy guns of their own. After a protracted bombardment the Prussians retired to the rear of the town. As a long march column of Austrian infantry approached the bridge, the Prussian dragoons advanced towards the town to keep the Austrians pinned or to catch them in column. The dragoons themselves began to suffer from the artillery and retreated out of range.

Austrian guns moved up to the river, and are about to deploy to bombard the Prussian cavalry

Meanwhile at Schlorten, two brigades of infantry, backed up by dragoons, assaulted the village occupied by Prussian fusiliers. There ensued a lengthy musketry dual which was indecisive for a long time. Up at Schorz all was quiet with the respective light troops keeping a watchful truce. Live and let live eh?

Austrians march up to assault Schlorten

Back in the south, as the Austrian infantry crossed the bridge and began to form into line at right angles to the road, the Prussians emerged from the buildings and began to pour volleys into the Austrians. The Austrians took some losses, but so did the Prussians. Enough to make the brigade break. [i.e. they suffered a third hit].

Musketry battle by the Elbe

At Schlorten, both sides suffered losses, but the Prussians came off worse. With Jaromiersch lost, the Prussians' retreat could be cut off, so they withdrew to the opposite bank of the Elbe in good order, covered by the hussars.

Angry looking Death's Head Hussars

Grrr!

There was no vigorous pursuit by Serbelloni. He was satisfied throwing the Prussians back over the Elbe, and he was conscious at having left Königgrätz vulnerable.

A brief game (c.1/2 hour) with the Prussians suffering twice as many hits as the Austrians. But in the Post Battle phase, they recovered a base (effectively wiping off 3 hits, thus levelling the score). This was helped by the lack of a pursuit. The withdrawal by the Prussians was optional and not enforced because of a failed morale test. Therefore there would be no pursuit.

One valuable outcome of the battle for the Prussians is that they have gained a good appreciation of the size and composition of Serbelloni's force, which they didn't have before.

The Campaign Commences

April 1757. Early spring in Central Europe. The usual reports came to Brown in Prague of the King of Prussia wasting his efforts in shuffling soldiers around Saxony and Silesia. Earlier he had launched a raid toward Franconia, but other than that no significant movement was noted or expected. It's far too early to find enough forage for a large army. The Empress's rich province of Bohemia was safe for now. Once the Hofkriegsrat in Vienna made its mind up, Browne would lead an army to liberate Saxony.

The quiet borderlands between Saxony and Bohemia

Hussars and Croats patrol the borders

The grass is still too brown to support many horses

Frederick has been ensconced in one of the Polish King's hunting lodges (the Polish King also being Elector of Saxony, exiled because of Frederick's invasion the previous year)

Carp ponds close to the hunting lodge.

Then the reports began to trickle in. Of Prussian incursions along a broad span of the frontier. From Saxony into north western Bohemia. And from Silesia in the north east. But this could not be an invasion surely, with such a dispersal of forces. If it was, the King deserved to be beaten.

In a matter of days Frederick's forces had penetrated the thin cordon of Austrian light troops. At Teplitz and Komatau, a few marches from Prague). And more worrying, at Podersham to the west of Prague. In the north east Schwerin crossed the Silesian border, marching through Trautenau on his way to Neu-Paka, driving a wedge between Königsegg guarding the Lusatian border, and Serbelloni at Königgrätz. Meanwhile, Prince Henry with a small force, fixed Serbelloni's attention in the Jaromirz direction.

Prussian positions after their first move. Austrian starting points are shown as the red shaded areas. The map is from the German General Staff history. Tweaked to add a few towns and blot out others. Movement is point-to-point as in the original Age of Reason Bohemian Blitzkrieg game, but to offer more variation in routes, I've gone for a slightly bigger map with more towns and roads.

Intelligence was not so easy to come by on the Prussian side either. The Austrians concentrations were where expected (Wintefeldt's spy-ring had been active over the winter). But powerful screens of cavalry had prevented close inspection of the Austrian forces. In possession of many hussars and croats, Serbelloni had kept a watchful eye on the border in the Nachod direction (less so towards Trautenau) and discovered the size and composition of Henry's weak force. He would outnumber him 2 or 3 to 1. His Milanese pride could not resist such a tempting target (he rolled a 5 when he needed a 5 or 6 on the Initiative Test). What will Henry’s reaction be?

More on the game: As mentioned before, this is based on the Age of Reason campaign game 'Bohemian Blitzkrieg' but with a few key differences. It is being played 'one-sided', i.e. a team of players are all on the Prussian side, with the Austrians controlled but the Gamesmaster (i.e. me). The map is different, as described above. Players are given free rein to allocate their forces and commanders so don't necessarily follow either historical deployments or those in Bohemian Blitzkrieg. The Prussian units available are based on the orders of battle given in Kronoskaf here. Austrian commands and units are based on the historic positions and organisation as far as I have been able to ascertain, with a little bit of tweaking to add to the 'fog'. I've developed scouting and screening rules further, to allow 'operational scouting' as well as the grand tactical scouting in Bohemian Blitzkrieg.

The players are: Jonathan Freitag from Palouse Wargaming Journal, David from the Ragged Soldier and Dave C from St Cyr on Wheels. Jon is taking on the role of Frederick (Old Freitz - sorry couldn't resist), Dave C is Schwerin and Henry, whilst Dave B fills the boots of Keith, Bevern and Winterfeldt.

Ken Burns meets Yankee Doodle Dandy

 https://deadline.com/2025/02/ken-burns-the-american-revolution-london-tv-screenings-1236281377/

This is one to look forward to going by his treatment of the US Civil War and the Vietnam War.

E.Molesey to Walton-on-Thames

Sunday was bright and sunny*, if a tad cold, and as I'd had a football day on Saturday, I readily agreed to a walk with the Margravina. Let's go by the river for a change, I said, park in Bushy Park then walk from Hampton Court to Kingston then back down to the car through Bushy Park (a nice D-shaped route). Parking proved as difficult as we expected (the World and his wife, plus kids and Labradoodle were out). So an off the cuff Plan B was to cross the river by Hampton Court Bridge and try to park along Riverbank or as close to it as we could. We ended up having to go so far down that we changed walking route and headed upstream rather than down.

* isn't that tautological?

There and Back Again: from the red dot towards top right, to the blue dot, bottom left and back. Around 6 miles by the Thames river path. Hampton Court Palace top right.

This turned out to be one of those serendipitous eventualities, for we had a wonderful walk. The number of walkers soon reduced as we got further from the starting point (until we got to the other end). It's not far and it's flat! There were many stops for photo opportunities on the way out. We earned our roast dinner at the pub by the blue dot, and hot-footed it back to the car the way we had come. Only with far fewer stops.

[Incidentally, Blogger is playing up again. At least when trying to post pictures. Messing up the order if you post more than a few at a time, then making them disappear when you try to type captions.]

Some impressive house boats along this stretch (by Ash and Taggs Islands)

Surely one of the oldest cricket clubs.

View of Hampton riverside. This is in Greater London! Incidentally, the top side of the river on the map is within Greater London, the bottom side of the map is in Surrey. The London side presented the more picturesque buildings by and large. The Surrey side is hardly any less developed, but "oh no, we couldn't possibly be included in London, we're Sarrey don't you know". Such were the vagaries of local government reorganisation in the early 60s.

The Astoria Houseboat, built for music hall impresario Fred Karno in 1913. Fred entertained Charlie Chaplin here. Moored on the Middlesex (left) bank, near Hampton. Karno had a hotel built on Taggs Island, 'the Karsino', which later became the 'Thames Riviera'. The 111 bus from Kingston to Heathrow has recorded announcements for the upcoming stops, one of which is 'Thames Riviera'.

Garrick Villa (former residence of ac-tor David Garrick). Also another bus stop! 

Garrick's temple (now the wrong side of the road from the villa

St Mary's Church, Hampton

This and the next few pics are plaques on concrete plinths that form part of a monument to the history of Hurst Park, Molesey, Surrey. Many concern sporting events in the 18th and 19th centuries which attracted crowds up to 200,000!

If you stand on the circle with the appropriate month name your shadow tells the time. Almost right.

Almost snapped a kingfisher. Dithered too long over getting the right pic: don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good! I had never seen one so close before. Weird and stunning looking creature.

This brick wall, backed and topped with an earth bank got me thinking of 'Vauban' fortifications. It was just an old reservoir

What's this?

Real defensive works (tank traps)?

The Margravina, a pretty small human, showing the scale of the thing.

Looks like a life raft from an oil rig. But small.

Sunbury Lock. To the right is a weir. The water rushing down gave a magnificent display of power. On the lock side the river was calm as a mill pond, as seen in the next pic.

Someone's lawn in Sunbury (Middlesex bank)