Battle of Kunersdorf

Battle of Kunersdorf
Part of the Seven Years' War
Painting by Alexander Kotzebue, 1848
Date 12 August 1759 Location Kunersdorf, Neumark Margraviate of Brandenburg Result Russo-Austrian victory
Belligerents
Prussia	Russia Austria
Commanders and leaders
Frederick the Great	Pyotr Saltykov Ernst Gideon von Laudon
Strength
50,900 230 guns	59,500 total: Russian: 41,000 soldiers, including 5,200 cavalry Austrian: 18,523 248 guns
Casualties and losses
19,100 27 banners 2 standards 172 guns	Russian: 13,477 -14,000 Austrian: 2,300-4,300 Total: c. 15,500

59,500 total:

At the Battle of Kunersdorf, in the Seven Years' War on 12 August 1759, near Kunersdorf (Kunowice), east of Frankfurt (Oder), more than 100,000 men clashed in a decisive battle. A combined allied army commanded by Pyotr Saltykov and Ernst Gideon von Laudon included 41,000 Russians and 24,000 Austrians defeated Frederick the Great's army of 50,900 Prussians. Only 3,000 soldiers from Frederick's original 50,900 comprising the Prussian army returned to Berlin after the battle, though many more had only scattered and rejoined the army afterward. This represented the penultimate success of the Russian Empire under Elizabeth of Russia and arguably was Frederick's worst defeat.

By 1759, Prussia had reached a strategic defensive position in the war; Russian and Austrian troops surrounded Prussia, although not quite on the borders. Upon leaving winter quarters in April 1759, Frederick assembled his army in Lower Silesia; this forced the main Habsburg army to remain in its staging army in Bohemia. The Russians, however, shifted their forces into western Poland, a move that threatened the Prussian heartland, Brandenburg, and potentially Berlin itself. Frederick countered by sending an army corps, commanded by Friedrich August von Finck, to contain the Russians. Finck's efforts were defeated at the Battle of Kay, on 23 July. Subsequently, the Russian forces, commanded by Pyotr Saltykov, occupied Frankfurt an der Oder, Prussia's second largest city, on 31 July, and began entrenchment of their camp to the east, near Kunersdorf. To make matters worse for the Prussians, an Imperial corps of 19,200 soldiers, commanded by Ernst Gideon von Laudon, joined them on 5 August. King Frederick rushed from Saxony, took over the remnants of Lieutenant General Carl Heinrich von Wedel's contingent at Müllrose and moved across the Oder River. By the time he reached Kunersdorf, his forces had been enhanced by Finck's defeated corps, and another corps moving to the Lausitz region: by 9 August, he had 49,000 troops.

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