By Force of Arms

To avenge defeats in a former war, Austria assembled a massive superiority in forces thanks to powerful alliances, and an army reformed and far more effective than ever before. But Prussia hung on, to force a long war and a bloody draw. The brilliance of Frederick the Great and the Prussian army have been given credit for this outcome, but Austria had more than its fair share of good soldiers and skilled generals. Wars never turn out as expected when there are formidable foes, and this book tells what went wrong. This is more than an account of battles and marches. The story of the Seven Years War in Central Europe has been long neglected, and yet it was there that the Austrians (followed closely by the Prussians) broke with the former rigidity of the armies of monarchical Europe, and not just foreshadowed but put into actual effect initiatives that are normally associated with the campaigns of the Revolution and Napoleon. The myth of a limited war leading to indecisive battles is no longer tenable. Not that it lacks a good story of excellent soldiers, some of them left in the limelight when Frederick the Great’s legend was created, and of battles long forgotten. A wealth of maps and as many eyewitness accounts as possible have been used to explain what actually happened. This is a superb account of the war in central Europe, with its emphasis and focus on the operations of the Austrian army, based firmly on primary sources, the majority never before fully explored.