151 THE SEVEN YEARS WAR, 1756-63all our army behind. There's no space to retreat, and the only
way to go forward is to beat the enemy.' (Barsewisch, 1863, 32;
the enemy on this sector were actually wearing blue coats)Prince Moritz came up to Frederick watch in hand to remind him
that the short winter day was already well advanced, and the
Prussian lines finally moved forward into the attack shortly after
1 p.m. Even now Frederick sent adjutant after adjutant to tell the
leading battalions to moderate their speed.
The first enemy forces to feel the impact were regiments of
German auxiliaries, many of them Protestant Wiirttembergers, who
for some minutes put up a surprisingly strong resistance from behind a
line of willows marking a small field ditch (Frederick's 'earthwork').
The Germans suddenly took to their heels when the Meyerinck
regiment came on regardless, and the further Wiirttemberg battalions
to the east collapsed without ever having come under attack. The
Prussian infantry drove northwards in the direction of Leuthen vil-
lage, powerfully assisted by the extraordinarily mobile batteries of
heavy guns. The pieces of the right and centre opened fire first from
the Juden-Berg north-west of Sagschiitz, then joined the guns from
the advance guard on the broad Kirch-Berg.
Meanwhile, on the far Prussian right, Zieten was being forced to
commit all his fifty-three squadrons against his old enemy N£dasti,
who brought the cavalry of the Austrian left down to meet him. This
hard-fought contest ended with the Austrians defeated and in flight.
In the process the Prussian cavalry brigade of Lentulus captured
fifteen guns, and almost annihilated the Jung-Modena Dragoons.
At first Prince Charles of Lorraine sought to restore the battle
south of Leuthen by stripping individual battalions from his second
line, but soon the whole Austrian army had to be wheeled until it
formed along a new south-facing front which stretched through
Leuthen and for several hundred paces on either side. In some
locations the Austrians were piled thirty deep, presenting an excel-
lent target in enfilade for the Prussian guns which had been brought
up to the low swell of the Butter-Berg.
The second phase of the battle opened at about 3.30 p.m. when
the Prussians opened an assault on the new Austrian line, and
especially on the core of resistance in Leuthen village. The attacks of
the Garde Regiment were repeatedly repulsed from the perimeter of
low, brick-built cottages and barns, until finally the way into the
interior was opened by the Third Battalion under the leadership of
Captain Mollendorff, who forced an entry from the south through a
suite of stables (Hoffmann, 1912, 87). Even now the German auxili-
ary battalion of Roth-Wiirzburg offered a spirited resistance from the