Review of "The Battle of Koniggratz," by Gordon Craig

 Review of

The Battle of Koniggratz, by Gordon Craig

Five out of five stars

History changing battle is an understatement.

July 3, 1866 was a day when the course of European history changed. On that day, Prussian forces attacked the Austrians at the city of Konnigratz in what is now the Czech Republic. It was a titanic battle, involving nearly a half million troops. At the end of the day, the Austrians were defeated and with that defeat it became certain that Germany would be unified under the leadership of Prussia. A great deal of historical analysis has been created as a consequence of the unification under the House of Hohenzollern.

 Craig does an excellent job in setting the background for the battle as well as how it was carried out. He includes several diagrams of the movement of the various forces and describes the action down to the unit level, including the commanders. It is clear from the explanation that while the end result was a complete defeat of the Austrian forces, it was in the paraphrased words of Wellington, “it was a close-run thing.”

 If even a few units on the Austrian side had moved faster or some on the Prussian side had moved slower, the end could have been at best a stalemate from the perspective of the Prussians. The end result could have been a defeat of the Prussians, with significant differences to the development of the German nation.

 Craig also describes the new weapons technologies used in the battle and explains how they made a difference. Breech-loading weapons were rapidly replacing the muzzle loaders and the power and accuracy of artillery were improved over what had been used in previous European battles. The man later known as the “Iron Chancellor” of Germany, Otto von Bismark, was present at the battle at the side of his king.

  There have been few battles with the short and long-term significance of the battle of Koniggratz, so to understand the course of European history, it is necessary to understand this battle. That knowledge is available in this book.

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