Friedrich, again & some more

Still following Alte Fritz through his career, & gotten as far as the fiasco of Torgau(1), almost at the end of the Seven Years War. I have to say, looking over his battles, that the celebrated oblique attack looks a lot less impressive than its' proponents would have: one dazzling success, at Leuthen, one total fiasco (Zorndorf), and a series of minor victories or draws, mostly notable by the fact that the Prussians held the field at the end of the day, at the cost of considerably higher casualties than their opponents sustained (and with less ability to endure such casualty rates).

In fact, the whole problem seems to be that it is almost impossible to surprise your opponent with the whole march-to-a-flank manouevre, as your army is largely visible, and your opponent will have you well-scouted (unless he's an absolute idiot). Once your manouevre has been spotted, the defender actually has the advantage of interior lines, in order to redeploy to face you (although the restrictive methods of mid-18th century armies does nullify that somewhat).

I also need to bear in mind that these manouevres were conducted in the face of teh Austrians under Daun, who seems to have been careful and cautious to the point of supine indolence.

And what made the victory at Leuthen so singular? the presence of a range of low hills that screened the march columns as they headed to the flank, plus the surprise effect, as it was the first time Frederick has tried this against the Austrians.

So, summing up, the oblique attack will only really have great effect when terrain or other aspects grant the opportunity of (at least some) surprise. In other circumstances, it seems to partially nullify the disadvantage of superior numbers, but leads to very bloody and expensive attacks. I suspect, in the absence of surprise, it also exposes you to dangerous intercept attack opportunities against a dynamic and watchful opponent.



(1) over which, btw, I'm totally with Napoleon on this - he deserved to lose, dividing his forces in the face of a numerically superior enemy is a shocking risk to take, even against so supine an opponent as the Austrians: and given that he had not cut their line of retreat in doing so, the upside if everything went right did not nearly match the downside of the potential elimination of the royal army.