184 THE SEVEN YEARS WAR, 1756-63Fliess. These wetlands could be traversed only by two narrow cause-
ways, and Frederick decided that it would be sufficient to keep the
enemy amused on this side by bringing up Lieutenant-General
Schorlemer with forty squadrons and Lieutenant-General Finck with
the eight battalions of the reserve corps. The king had something
more ambitious in mind for the main army, which he resolved to take
on a wide left-handed circuit through the woods of the Neuendorfer-
Heide around to the south-eastern or far side of the allied camp,
which he assumed to be unfortified. Again the parallels with Zorn-
dorf are very close.
How capable were Frederick's troops of responding?
The heat and the dust were frightful... the soldiers had put
their weapons in good order, and now they had thrown
themselves down on the grass and the burning sand and given
themselves up to sleep. The horses were lying round about.
They were tormented by mosquitoes and flies, and they were
just as spent and exhausted as the men. It was usual in such
circumstances for the men to do their cooking, but this time
hardly anyone availed himself of the opportunity - the heat,
dust and exhaustion were all too much. (Lojewsky, 1843, II,
252)
The evening air brought a little coolness, but it also carried the sound
of church bells from distant villages, awakening melancholy
thoughts among those soldiers who were still awake.
Between 2 and 3 a.m. on 12 August the two columns of the main
Prussian army began their silent march along the woodland paths.
The tracks were obstructed by roots, undergrowth, ditches and mud-
dy patches, and Frederick did what he could to cheer the troops as
they were struggling forward. The Westphalians of the regiment of
Puttkamer (9; see Map 22, p. 370) were two hours into the woods
when they encountered Frederick, who was standing at the wayside.
'As we marched past he greeted us with a "Good morning, lads!" He
added in Low German: "A good plate of beans would be nice just now,
wouldn't it?" "Yes!" we replied. "Well then, wait a bit and we'll see
what we can do" ' (Dominicus, 1891, 50).
The king reached the edge of the woods beyond Kunersdorf
village in daylight, and he found that he had made two terrible
miscalculations. First, the undulating ground along the south-
eastern side of the enemy camp was far more heavily fortified than
the northern side (only Loudon's corps near Frankfurt was looking
north) - in other words Frederick had obliged the Russians by taking
his army on an exhausting march just to attack them where they