Capture of Habelschwerdt – a Successful Raid during the War of the Bavarian Succession in 1779

Abstract

In the final months of the War of the Bavarian Succession (1778–1779), the Imperial-Royal Army designed a plan for a daring raid against Prussian troops that had withdrawn to their winter quarters. Their objective was to capture the town of Habelschwerdt and its surroundings in the County of Glatz, Silesia. The approximately 8,000 soldiers participating in the attack were led by Lieutenant General Dagobert Sigmund von Wurmser. This large-scale attack—unprecedented in the context of the hostilities of the War of the Bavarian Succession—was crowned with success thanks to precise planning and execution. In this work, the author makes an attempt to reconstruct the events as accurately as possible.