Prussia's Glory - Christopher Duffy

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Résumé :
Rossbach and Leuthen are included in the Great Battles of History. Frederick made himself one of the Great Captains by these victories. Prussian military prowess became legendary. The Franco-German army swept away at Rossbach, and the Austrian army routed at Leuthen, were not only larger and had a fair share of professional soldiers, but the Austrians had beaten the Prussians not long before. So how were they so humiliated? What made Frederick Great? For more than a century people believed it was because the Prussians were just naturally suited for war. Until 1945 many Germans, and their foes, remembered how Frederick miraculously saved Prussia against overwhelming odds, by marching through the snow towards Leuthen church. As always, it was not so simple. The expert on 18th-century armies, Christopher Duffy, shows why French, Austrian and Reichsarmee soldiers, though often enough brave and skilful, marched to defeat, and how Frederick, often unaware of the legend he was creating, won these famous battles. It is no longer left to myth, but to reliable accounts of hard fighting, quick decisions, and the fate of the soldiers and civilians swept up by the fighting....

Biographie:
Christopher Duffy was the 'acclaimed and highly-regarded doyen of eighteenth-century military history' (The Herald). His works are grounded on unpublished sources and physical realities, and are characterized by the attention that is given to the visual presentation - and not least the maps, which he drew himself. Dr Duffy was born in 1936. He was a contemporary and friend of John Keegan at Balliol College, Oxford - gaining a first-class degree in Modern History in 1958 and his doctorate in 1961. In that year he joined the Department of Military History at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, and retired from there in 1996 as Senior Lecturer in War Studies. After a research professorship at De Monfort University (1996-2001), he became involved in a variety of voluntary work - taking in historical advice and fundraising for the National Trust for Scotland's center at Culloden. As such, he was heavily engaged in the effort to save this and other 'Jacobite' battlefields from the threat of development, which has now become acute. He was a founder member of the British Commission for Military History and the Scottish Battlefields Trust, and was Vice-President of the Military History Society of Ireland and Chairman of the 1745 Association. Sadly, Christopher passed away in 2022....

Sommaire:
Rossbach and Leuthen are included in the Great Battles of History. Frederick made himself one of the Great Captains by these victories. Prussian military prowess became legendary. The Franco-German army swept away at Rossbach, and the Austrian army routed at Leuthen, were not only larger and had a fair share of professional soldiers, but the Austrians had beaten the Prussians not long before. So how were they so humiliated? What made Frederick Great? For more than a century people believed it was because the Prussians were just naturally suited for war. Until 1945 many Germans, and their foes, remembered how Frederick miraculously saved Prussia against overwhelming odds, by marching through the snow towards Leuthen church. As always, it was not so simple. The expert on 18th-century armies, Christopher Duffy, shows why French, Austrian and Reichsarmee soldiers, though often enough brave and skilful, marched to defeat, and how Frederick, often unaware of the legend he was creating, won these famous battles. It is no longer left to myth, but to reliable accounts of hard fighting, quick decisions, and the fate of the soldiers and civilians swept up by the fighting....