Page 109 - 150° Anniversario II Guerra d'Indipendenza - Atti 5-6 novembre 2009

the austrian army in the War of 1859 109

Denmark 1864, but it terribly failed against the Prussian troops in the War of
1866.
The breech loading rifles of the System „Dreyse” of the Prussian Army
(the first models were introduced already in 1842) could be loaded by stand-
ing, kneeling and also lying soldiers. The rate and the volume of rifle fire of
Prussian battalions, regiments and brigades would make any frontal attack of
massed infantry (and also cavalry) over open range unsuccessful and would
inflict unbearable losses on the enemy.
The field artillery would need now more than 600 paces distance from the
enemy, because the fire from hostile infantry, equipped with modern rifles,
could easily decimate the own gun crews. Exactly this would happen to many
Austrian gun crews in the campaign of 1866.
In the War against Prussia the initial deployment and nearly all actions
proved the inadequacy of effective reforms in the Army of the Habsburg after
the defeat in the campaign of 1859, which would have been necessary to
compete with the armies of emerging European powers on the battlefield.
The effects of these misunderstandings could be clearly seen in the battle
of Königgrätz on the 3 July 1866, which was a classical example of a great
rd
military disaster and a cruel carnage, bloodier than the battle of Solferino.
Vigorous attacking, whole Austrian infantry brigades were shot to pieces by
Prussian units. Only in defensive actions in local sectors of the battlefield
some Austrian infantry and artillery units could hold their positions, but only
for some time.
Exactly seven years before, the outcome of the actions fought by the
Austrian Army against French and Sardinian-Piedmont forces in Northern
Italy in the summer of 1859 was a „writing on the wall” that made clearly
visible what would happen to an army misguided by political misinterpreta-
tions before the war and severe military miscalculations during the cam-
paign.
But all these points of critic should never be a belittlement of the valor and
the sufferings of many of the soldiers of the Army of the Habsburg Empire
in the campaign of 1859.
They are worth not to be forgotten.