Battle of Leuthen In the Battle of Leuthen or Lissa , fought on 5 December 1757 , Frederick II used maneuver and terrain to decisively defeat a much bigger Austrian army under Prince Charles Alexander of Lorraine , thus ensuring Prussia n control of Silesia during the Seven Years ' War . Background . While Frederick II was campaigning in central Germany , routing a combined Franco - Imperial army at the Battle of Rossbach , the Austrians had managed to slowly retake Silesia . Vance had arrived on 28 November to find that the primary city in Silesia , Breslau ( Wrocław ) , had just fallen to the Austrians . He arrived near Leuthen ( Lutynia ) to find an army that was twice the size of his . The commanders in charge of the Austrian army had earlier argued about whether to march out of Breslau to face Frederick , Prince Charles had won the argument . The weather was foggy , but the entire area had once been a training ground for the Prussian army , so Frederick the Great knew the terrain intimately . Diversion . Frederick marched directly toward the Austrian army with its center at Leuthen , its front stretching four miles , significantly larger than the average front of the time . Until the Napoleonic Wars the European armies were quite small for a number of reasons : disease , the quality of food and medicine and the levée en masse ( mass conscription ) had not yet been introduced . The Austrian army was stretched out to such an incredible length in order to prevent it from being out - flanked by Frederick , as was his favorite tactic . Frederick had his cavalry launch an assault on Borna as a feint and then face the Austrian right flank , appearing as though it would act as a spearhead for a right flank attack . Screening his army with his cavalry , Frederick moved his infantry toward the Austrian left in columns . Maneuver . The infantry marched to the south , out of sight of the Austrians , behind a line of low hills . Prince Charles , although in the tower of the church at Leuthen , failed to note the maneuver and responded by moving his reserve to his right flank instead of the threatened left . The Prussian army had seemed to simply vanish , appearing to the Austrians as a retreat ; Prince Charles was heard to say " The good fellows are leaving , let ' s let them go . " But when the heads of the two Prussian columns , ( the distances between the marching platoons remaining exactly the width of each platoon ' s front ) , had passed the Austrian left flank , the columns veered left toward the enemy and continued their march until the heads of the two columns had passed beyond the Austrian left flank . Then , on command , the platoons of the columns turned left at Lobetinz , the whole Prussian army lay in line of battle at nearly a right angle to the left flank of the Austrian position . The Prussians had carried out , with their whole army , a maneuver to attack their enemy in the flank . This is often compared with the tactic used by Epaminondas against the Spartans at the Battle of Leuctra in 371 BC , although there the flank attack was accomplished through force disposition more than through movement . In the age of linear tactics , as in the days of Epaminondas , such a flanking maneuver can be lethal to the victim . The least - regarded soldiers of the Austrian army had been put on the left flank in a position protected by the hills as their fighting ability was doubted . Austrian collapse . The Prussian infantry , arrayed in the conventional two lines of battle , then advanced and rolled up the Austrian flank . Frederick was fortunate in that not only had Prince Charles moved the cavalry from his army ' s left to the right , but the infantry on the Austrian left were Protestant Württemberg troops sympathetic to the similarly Protestant Prussians . After firing a few half - hearted volleys , they broke ranks in front of the advancing Prussian line . The other Austrian infantry on their left , when beset with 12 - pounder Prussian artillery and devastating volleys from the advancing Prussians , quickly broke ranks as well . Prince Charles rushed troops from his right to his left , forming a hastily - made line along the town of Leuthen ( formerly the Austrian center ) . The Austrians desperately attempted to realign themselves , but since their line of battle was so long , it took soldiers from the right flank one and a half hours to get into place . The long Prussian line did not halt their advance , assaulting Leuthen with artillery support . The Prussians took the village while both armies ' artillery pounded away at each other . Now the Austrian cavalry , seeing the exposed Prussian line , hurried to take them in the flank , but the Prussian cavalry intercepted them . The cavalry melee soon swirled into the Austrian line behind Leuthen , causing widespread confusion and havoc . The Austrian line then broke ; the battle lasted a little more than three hours . After seeing his army defeated , Prince Charles was heard to have said " I can ' t believe it ! " Aftermath . The key to victory in this battle was the pre - battle operational maneuvers . Frederick was able to hide his intentions , achieve complete surprise and strike a massive blow at the enemy ' s weakest point , a tactic reminiscent of ' Bewegungskrieg ' , more commonly known as Blitzkrieg . The Austrians fell back into Bohemia , saving Silesia for the Prussian state . It was one of Frederick the Great ' s greatest victories , and again showed the world the superiority of Prussian infantry at the time . Soon after , Maria Theresa demanded the resignation of Prince Charles , her double brother - in - law .