The Datafile PD-CD 5/DATAFILE_PDCD5.iso/education/b/waterloo/SYWPics/FGNotes

Text File | 1997-05-24 | 3.5 KB | 63 lines

These five sprites are all from the English translation of Franz Kügler's
1840 biography of Frederick the Great; my version is dated 1877. The text
itself is an uncritical hagiography but the artist, Adolf Menzel, is famous
as the man "whose detailed and on the whole very accurate portrayal of men
and events has fixed the ‘primal image' of Frederick for succeeding
generations" (Christopher Duffy, The Army of Frederick the Great, 2nd
Edition 1996).

The illustrations show:

1) FGFinck - In late 1759 during the Seven Years War (1756-1763) Lieutenant-
General Friedrich August von Finck, much against his own judgement, was sent by
Frederick with only 15,000 troops to hold an isolated plateau at Maxen south
of Dresden, very close to strong enemy positions. Inevitably he was
surrounded by overwhelming numbers of Austrians and their allies, and on the
afternoon of 20th November most of his command was forced to surrender. In
the fracas Finck himself was set upon by Austrian cavalry and nearly cut to
pieces, but was saved by the intervention of a senior Austrian officer,
after his groom (centre of picture) had tried to protect him. This is the
scene we see depicted.

2) FGKolin - On the 18th of June 1757 (again during the Seven Years War) a
rash attack by Prussian forces under Frederick on a strong Austrian
defensive position east of Prague led to the worst disaster of Frederick's
career as a general. This picture shows the Austrian heavy cavalry carving
up the Prussian infantry in the final decisive attack of the battle.

3) FGMaxen - Here we see some of the 13,000 Prussian prisoners captured at
Maxen led into captivity by Austrian cavalry. The two figures on the left
are Prussian hussars or light cavalrymen, whose job on campaign was usually
to act as scouts and to pursue the enemy after a battle.

4) FGMollwitz - This shows the rout of Frederick's cavalry during the first
battle of his first campaign during the War of the Austrian Succession,
Mollwitz on 10th April 1741. The battle was actually won by Frederick's
infantry after he had fled the battlefield, thinking the day lost!

5) FGVignette - This picture shows Prussian infantry recruits being drilled
by NCOs or Non-Commissioned Officers (the equivalent of the corporals and
sergeants of the British army). Although the Prussian discipline was
infamous throughout Europe, in fact the treatment of raw recruits was very
patient and did not involve physical violence. However, any fully-trained
soldier who annoyed or irritated an officer or NCO in any way was likely to
feel the blows of their sticks on his head, shoulders and back.

[Recommended reading: Christopher Duffy's books on the armies of 18th
century Europe are excellent; they are both very readable and very
scholarly, an unusual combination. His book "The Army of Frederick the
Great" has recently been published in a heavily revised 2nd edition, and
"The Army of Maria Theresa" (on the Austrian armies of the 18th century) was
reprinted a few years ago.]

David Morfitt, 25.3.1997

Telephone: [phone]

[Converting these files with David Pilling's !Trace program produced huge,
unwieldy files. Redrawing them by hand would be a long job, especially if
one wanted to be faithful to the originals! Anyway, sprites can be very
useful, despite the prejudice against them; they compress well when not in
use, are much faster to use on screen than drawfiles, especially with slower
processors, and, unless you really have to enlarge them, they can be very
detailed and often print well.]