Mobilization
Railways allow Prussia to move its armies into Bohemia. The plan assumes the corps will join before Austria can exploit their dispersion.
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War
Austro-Prussian War
1866
Railway timetables and the needle gun give Prussia a decision in Germany
Military history
The strategic problem
The Austro-Prussian War is short because Prussia combines military reform, a railway network and a command system able to concentrate several armies. Austria has a substantial army and dangerous artillery, but its decisions are slower and its army must deploy against several threat axes.
Contacts in Bohemia
Initial fighting pins the Austrian forces and gives the Prussian Second Army time to approach despite command and terrain friction.
Königgrätz and decision
Frederick Charles’s First Army attacks alongside the Army of the Elbe. The arrival of the Second Army under Crown Prince Frederick William breaks the Austrian deployment.
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1 published battles, in chronological order
Military history
Sources
Contemporary sourceHelmuth von Moltke, rapports sur la campagne de Bohême
Orders, concentration of armies and the Prussian justification of operations.
Military monographGeoffrey Wawro, The Austro-Prussian War
Forces, technology, command and the course of Königgrätz.
Historical studyGordon A. Craig, The Battle of Königgrätz
Convergence, political decisions and the significance of the Prussian victory.
Case referenceFrédéric, Diaries of the Emperor Frederick
Entrées des 2–3 juillet 1866, pp. 33–52 : ordre nocturne, marche, Horenowes, Chlum et renforts.
Arrival of the Second Army, incomplete information and resistance at Chlum; rumours and immediate figures are not adopted. Limited to the case of Sadowa; this reference does not cover the whole conflict.
View ↗Institutional overviewDeutsches Historisches Museum, Die Schlacht bei Königgrätz 1866
Notice d’Arnulf Scriba, version du 6 septembre 2014 ; paragraphe sur les trois armées prussiennes et leurs commandants.
Identifies the commanders of the three Prussian armies and distinguishes Frederick Charles’s First Army from Crown Prince Frederick William’s Second Army.
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