Battle of Trautenau

Infobox Military Conflict
conflict=Battle of Trutnov
partof=Austro-Prussian War


caption=
date=June 27 1866
place=Trutnov, Bohemia, modern day Czech Republic
result= Pyrrhic Austrian victory.
combatant1=flagicon|Prussia|1803 Prussia
combatant2=flagicon|Austrian Empire Austria
commander1=???
commander2=???
strength1=???
strength2=???
casualties1=1338
casualties2=4787

The Battle of Trautenau ( _de. Schlacht bei Trautenau) or Battle of Trutnov was fought on on June 27 1866 during the Austro-Prussian War. It ended in an Austrian victory over the Prussians but at a large cost.

The Prussian Second Army invading Bohemia had to split up in order to negotiate the difficult passes of the Giant Mountains. As they emerged on the Bohemian side they met Austrian forces. At Nachod the Austrians were soundly beaten, but on the same day, as Adolf von Bonin’s 1st Corps emerged from the passes it was caught in the open on its way through Trautenau towards Pilnikau, where it was hoped to link up with the First Army. The Austrians, under Gablenz, appeared like Red Indians on the Galgenberg and Johannesberg hills above the village. The Prussians drove them off the hills by force of numbers, but Bonin foolishly advanced down the other side without further reconnaissance, and now found himself faced by fresh enemy troops. The Austrians now retook the heights, and a furious fight developed between Prussian and Silesian troops who drove the Prussians away from their lines of communication. Bonin decided to retreat before he was surrounded or cut off, so the 1st Corps did not stop until it had reached its bivouac of the day before. The Prussian rifles took a fearful toll – 5000 Austrian casualties to Prussia’s 1200. To make matters worse, the Prussian Chief of Staff, Leonhard Graf von Blumenthal, assumed that Bonin was still in contact with the enemy, and ordered the Corps of Guards to head for Trautenau, imagining that this would outflank the Austrians. It was now open to the enemy to round on the Prussian 5th Corps before disposing of the rest of the Second Army piecemeal. This was precisely what the Austrian Intelligence Officer, Tegethoff, a relative of the Admiral and spectacular naval victor over the Italians, urged.

Fortunately for Prussia, however, Ludwig von Benedek refused to change his prepared strategy which was to make straight at the Prussian First Army as fast as he could.