How a premature attack cost Frederick the Great his first defeat in 1757
On June 18, 1757, Frederick the Great faced his first major setback of the Seven Years' War. Attempting to envelop the Austrian right flank at Kolín, his forces were goaded into a disorganized frontal assault. The resulting disaster forced a retreat from Bohemia and shattered his march on Vienna.
By June 1757, Frederick II of Prussia had already secured a bloody victory at Prague and was actively besieging the city. However, the arrival of Austrian Marshal Daun, who had gathered 16,000 survivors from previous engagements, threatened to relieve the city. Recognizing that his forces were too thin to maintain the siege while simultaneously blocking Daun, Frederick marched 34,000 men to intercept the Austrian army near Kolín.
The Austrian defensive position on the rolling hills near Kolín was formidable, consisting of over 53,000 troops and 154 guns. Frederick’s tactical plan relied on a concentrated envelopment of the Austrian right wing. He intended to keep his center and right wing passive while his left wing swung around to deliver the decisive blow. However, the plan unraveled when Croatian light infantry harassed the Prussian lines, provoking Generals von Manstein and von Tresckow into a premature frontal attack.
The battle devolved into five and a half hours of chaotic combat. Despite a late-stage effort by Prussian cuirassiers under the newly promoted Major-General von Seydlitz, the Prussian assault was crushed by Austrian cavalry. Frederick lost over 13,700 men compared to 8,100 Austrian casualties. The defeat forced Frederick to abandon the siege of Prague on June 20 and retreat to Saxony. The victory was significant enough for Empress Maria Theresa to establish the Military Order of Maria Theresa, and the event remains memorialized in Křečhoř and Nová Ves I.
The aftermath of Kolín fundamentally shifted the strategic landscape of the Third Silesian War. With the Prussian army in retreat, the Austrians were able to link up with the 48,000 troops previously trapped in Prague. This combined force of 100,000 men pursued the Prussians, eventually inflicting a severe check on Prince August Wilhelm at Zittau. Frederick’s failure at Kolín proved that even his highly disciplined army could be undone by tactical impatience and the effective use of terrain by a defensive opponent.
Source: Battle of Kolín
