_ „., THE THEATRE OF WAR
immediately above Schweidnitz in the region of Waldenburg, as they
did in 1760 and 1762. As some compensation the Prussians usually had
the facility of a second strongpoint: the important road junction of
Landeshut, standing about fifteen miles west-south-west of Schweid-
nitz. Landeshut was sited in a hollow, but in 1758 Fouqu6 built ten
forts on the surrounding hills, which made the place into the strategic
equivalent of a fortress. Ahead of Landeshut again the Prussians had
an important defensive camp between Liebau and Schomberg, just
short of the enemy frontier.
More than twenty miles of the Silesian-Bohemian border were
absolutely barred to strategic movement by the curtain of the Riesen-
Gebirge. This was the highest ground in Central Europe, and patrols
faced a climb of nearly 5,000 feet to the top of the ridge. They passed
through rocky forests of tall spruce, then a zone of waist-high pine
(Pinusmughus), and emerged at last on a clattering scree of dark grey
stones. They were rewarded by a view which stretched deep into
Saxony, Silesia and Bohemia, taking in the scene of two-thirds of
Frederick's campaigning.
The invasion route closest under the eastern flank of the Riesen-
Gebirge ran by way of the Liebau position toSchatzlar and Trautenau
in Bohemia. It was winding and steep, and decanted the Prussians
into the depths of the Konigreich-Wald. They usually found it more
convenient to use the avenue to Braunau and Nachod which, as we
have seen, presented no natural difficulties, 'besides the Braunau
route is to be preferred because, whenever we are campaigning in
Silesia, we must regard the Oder as our nursing mother' ('Principes
Generaux', 1748, Oeuvres, XXVIII, 10). Here Frederick was thinking
about the facility of communications from the river at Breslau.
The effective strategic border of north-east Bohemia ran about
fifteen miles inside the political one. It was easy enough for the rival
armies to pass through Nachod and Braunau, but they came into
prolonged confrontation in the area of Jaromiersch and Koniggratz.
This was where the dark masses of the Konigreich-Wald and the
Koniggratzer-Wald came together, and where the Aupa, the Mettau
and the Adler converged on the upper Elbe - an accumulation of
natural obstacles which formed the most important choke point in
the theatre of Frederick's wars. The king came this way in 1744, 1745,
1758, and again as an old man twenty years later. It was no coinci-
dence that the last battle between Prussia and Austria was to be
fought on the same ground in 1866.