Enlightenment · Europe · War

1757

Leuthen - Frederick's Tactical Masterpiece

December 5, 1757

A month after Rossbach, Frederick faced a larger Austrian army in Silesian snow. Using a screen of hussars, he marched his line diagonally across the Austrian front - the famous 'oblique order' - and crushed their flank. Napoleon would later call Leuthen the greatest battle of maneuver of the age.