Chapter 37 War

June 14, 1866.

Prussia declared war on Austria, accusing it of mismanaging Holstein.

On the day of the declaration of war, the Prussian Army on the Western Front attacked the northern German countries with lightning speed and quickly took over the government organizations and railway hubs of these countries.

Due to the years of power and marriage between the Habsburg family of the Austrian Empire, the only German states that supported Prussia were a few small countries with basically no military power, and those larger countries all stood on the side of Austria.

At the last German Confederation Parliament, Prussia's attempt to resolve the German issue through force was rejected by many countries in the parliament.

This parliament made Prussia realize that it had basically no allies in the German region, so Prussia quickly declared war on these small countries in northern Germany after the war broke out.

At this time, Prussia was divided into two parts on the map, and in the middle were these scattered small German countries.

Most of these small countries were surrounded by Prussia, but they were still bold enough to stand on the side of Austria. The Prussian army, which had no martial ethics, naturally would not negotiate with these small countries, but would directly launch a war to take over their regimes.

This time, Prussia's determination to unify the entire northern Germany and realize the Small Germany plan is unprecedented. If these small countries still do not appreciate it, they will have to be destroyed.

It would be fine if those few countries in the south that have some strength opposed Prussia, but you small countries and free cities have basically no military strength, and you are located in the heart of Prussia, yet you still dare to make such a fuss.

As the Prussian army on the western front advanced directly into the northern German countries via the railway lines, these small countries were naturally unable to stop them, and Prussia successfully seized the power of their administrative organs.

First, get rid of these ungrateful small countries to prevent them from stabbing you in the back, and at the same time, completely ensure the traffic safety of Prussia's east-west railway network.

The Bohemian battlefield was the main battlefield of the Austro-Prussian War. Both sides gathered hundreds of thousands of troops here, but Prussia was obviously more efficient than Austria.

One was that in 1862 Prussian von Roon implemented several military reforms, ensuring that all Prussian citizens were obliged to be conscripted.

Prior to this, the size of the army had been determined earlier without taking into account population growth, thus making conscription unfair and unpopular.

While some Prussians remained in the army or in the reserves until age 40, about a third (and even more in some areas where population had increased significantly due to industrialization) were assigned minimal duties in their home armies.

Universal conscription was introduced within three years, increasing the size of the active army and providing Prussia with a reserve force equal in size to, and superior to, Austria's.

Prussia considered that if France under Napoleon III attempted to interfere with the Prussians' actions, they could also call up an equal or greater number of troops through the reserve system to fight against Napoleon III's army.

While Prussian conscription was a constant process of training and drill, some commanders in the Austrian army routinely sent infantrymen home on permanent leave soon after conscription, retaining only a number of permanent soldiers in the barracks or on missions for long periods of time.

Therefore, Austrian conscripts had to start their training almost from scratch when they were recalled to the army after the outbreak of war.

So the Prussian army was better trained and disciplined than the Austrian army, especially in terms of infantry.

Although the Austrian cavalry and artillery were as well-trained as their Prussian counterparts, and Austria possessed two elite heavy cavalry divisions, advances in both weapons and tactics since the Napoleonic Wars had made the cavalry charge obsolete.

The Prussian Army was locally based and organized into military districts, each of which contained a corps headquarters and its component units. Most reservists lived near their regimental depots and could be mobilized quickly.

Austrian policy was to ensure that troops were stationed far from home to prevent them from taking part in separatist rebellions.

Conscripts on leave or reservists called back to their units during mobilization faced journeys that could take weeks to report to their units, making Austrian mobilization much slower than that of the Prussian army.

At the same time, the Prussian rail system was more developed than the rail system within Austria. The railroads made it possible to supply more troops than before and allowed for the rapid movement of troops within friendly territory. The more efficient Prussian rail network allowed the Prussian army to concentrate more quickly than the Austrians could.

Moltke, reviewing his plans for Rouen, said: "We have the inestimable advantage of being able to transport our 285,000 field armies on five railway lines and to concentrate them almost in 25 days. ... Austria, with only one railway line, will require her 45 days to assemble 200,000 men."

Moltke the Elder had said earlier, “Nothing could be more welcome than to have the war we must have now.”

Austrian troops under Ludwig von Benedek in Bohemia.

Previously thought to enjoy the advantage of a "central location" as they were able to concentrate on launching successive attacks along the border areas.

But the faster Prussian concentration offset this advantage. When the Austrians were fully assembled, they could not prevent the other two Prussian armies from attacking their flanks and rear and threatening their lines of communication while they were concentrating on one Prussian army.

In the south, the presence of Italians forced Austria to disperse its troops to fight the Kingdom of Italy, and Austria even took the initiative to withdraw from Venice.

The war situation was unfavorable to Austria from the very beginning. The old Austria had to ask Napoleon III for help, but Napoleon III still underestimated Prussia. He agreed to Austria's request but did not intervene for a long time.

On June 23, the Prussian army assembled on the line from Zavidow to Zittau.

On June 26, the Battle of the Yunna River took place between the Prussian and Austrian armies.

The chief of the Prussian army's staff, Moltke the Elder, carefully planned the battle formation and concentrated his firepower to attack Austria. When the Austrian army concentrated on invading Silesia, he transferred his troops to Saxony and Bohemia to join the Prussian King William I who had already assembled a large army there.

On July 3, the Prussian army launched a massive offensive and defeated the Austrian army at the Battle of Königgrätz (also known as the Battle of Sadova). The Austrian army had an advantage in numbers, but suffered seven times as many casualties as the Prussian army, all because of the Prussian army's superior equipment and proper strategy.

With the exception of Saxony, the other states had limited influence on the war. The Hanoverian army defeated the Prussian army at the Battle of Bad Langensalza on June 27, but was soon surrounded and surrendered. The Prussian army confronted Bavaria head-on at the Main River and fought at Nuremberg and Frankfurt. Würzburg in Bavaria was besieged by the Prussian army, but did not surrender until the armistice.

Austria, however, performed unexpectedly in its war with Italy, defeating the Italian army in the naval battles of Custoza on June 24 and Lissa on July 20 (Lissa is in present-day Vis, Croatia).

(End of this chapter)