The Battle for the Swiepwald: Austria’s Fatal Blunder at Koniggratz, The Climactic Battle of the Austro-Prussian War, 3 July 1866

The battle of Königgrätz was the largest battle ever fought in western Europe until 1914 and its political consequences were no less epic - the demise of Austria as a European Great Power, the loss of her historic pre-eminence among the German nations, and the final, incontestable rise of Prussia. Whether Austria could have prevailed at Königgrätz on 3 July 1866 and salvaged her Great Power status is debatable, what is not, is the part the struggle for the Swiepwald played in her ultimate defeat. The insubordination of two Austrian Corps Commanders, and the decision to engage in their epic struggle for control of the Swiepwald forest, would leave 12,000 men dead or wounded within its shattered environs, and the Austrian right flank wide open to the Crown Prince of Prussia’s advancing Second Army. This meticulous translation of Heidrich’s brilliant monograph takes us through the fighting, hour by hour and foot by bloody foot, in a narrative unsurpassed for detail or accuracy.