William Fermor, a Scottish emigre in Russian service, had taken Apraksin’s place in autumn 1757, and on January 22, 1758, he captured the East Prussian capital of Königsberg (now Kaliningrad, Russia). With the onset of spring, however, thawing snows made the northern roads impassable, and his force was temporarily immobilized. In Russia itself, the anti-French Bestuzhev was arrested, and power came into the hands of his rival Vorontsov.
Ferdinand of Brunswick, with his Anglo-Hanoverians, launched a successful offensive against the French in Westphalia, and on March 27 he crossed the Rhine River at Emmerich, near the Dutch frontier. On June 23, with 40,000 men, he defeated 70,000 men under Louis de Bourbon, comte de Clermont, at Krefeld. The effect of that victory, which enabled him to secure all of northwestern Germany, was scarcely offset by subsequent French successes farther to the south, in Hesse and Thuringia. Apart from reinforcing Hanover, on April 11 the British signed a new treaty with Prussia, promising an annual subsidy of 4,000,000 talers (£670,000), and both parties undertook not to make a separate peace with any of the other belligerents.
Frederick began the year’s campaign with an offensive in Silesia, where Schweidnitz fell on April 16. He then advanced into Moravia to lay siege to Olmütz (now Olomouc, Czech Republic). In July, however, the Austrians forced Frederick to abandon the siege by threatening his supply bases. In the north, meanwhile, a new Swedish attack on Prussian Pomerania was being fended off by Lehwaldt, but the Russians were on the march again, going southwestward from East Prussia toward the Oder River and Brandenburg.
To evade the Austrians, Frederick had to march first northwestward into Bohemia, then northward across Silesia. Fermor’s 52,000 Russians, having reached the Oder, began a siege of Küstrin (now Kostrzyn nad Odra, Poland) on August 15, but Frederick was at Frankfurt an der Oder by August 20. He then moved around Fermor’s east flank and, with a total of 36,000 men, attacked the Russians at Zorndorf (now Sarbinowo, Poland) on August 25. In the bloodiest battle of the war, the Russians lost 42,000, with 21,000 killed, and the Prussians lost 13,500. Leaving Christoph von Dohna to pursue the defeated Russians, Frederick hastened back to Saxony to save his brother Prince Henry from attack by superior Austrian forces under Daun. Daun fell back until he found a strong position at Kittlitz, where he decided to stand with his 90,000 men. Frederick, with 37,000, advanced as far as Hochkirch, not believing that Daun would venture an offensive. Daun’s attack, in the early morning of October 14, took the Prussians by surprise, but Hochkirch would prove to be an expensive victory for Daun. He lost 7,500 men (the Prussians lost 9,500), and he was unable to interfere with Frederick’s retreat into Silesia. Daun advanced on Dresden again, but the news of Frederick’s approach through Lusatia caused him to withdraw to Pirna in November.
Hochkirch put new spirit into the French, who after Krefeld and Zorndorf had been inclined to despair of their European war. Étienne-François de Choiseul, duc de Choiseul, became foreign minister in December in the place of the exhausted Bernis, whose overtures for a separate peace had been scorned by the British government.
1759
The Third Treaty of Versailles, already drafted by the end of December 1758, was signed in March 1759 and ratified in May. Under its terms French obligations of direct help to Austria in men and money were considerably reduced, and the 1757 plan concerning the Netherlands and Parma was discarded. The French, however, were still to maintain 100,000 men in Germany. On April 13 Ferdinand of Brunswick, who had advanced against the French in southwestern Germany, was defeated by Victor-François, 2e duc de Broglie, at Bergen, near Frankfurt am Main. Broglie took Minden, on the Weser River, on July 9, once again opening a passage into Hanover. When Marshal Louis Georges Érasme, marquis de Contades, joined Broglie, the French could field 60,000 men against Ferdinand’s 43,000 Anglo-Hanoverians. On August 1, however, at the Battle of Minden, Ferdinand contrived to lure Contades into an engagement which—thanks partly to accident and partly to extraordinarily stubborn fighting by British regiments—resulted in the complete rout of the French.
Choiseul had relieved France of its heavier commitments to Austria in order to prosecute the war against Great Britain with greater vigour. He planned an ambitious cross-Channel invasion, with landings around London and in Scotland. To transport and escort the expeditions, the Mediterranean fleet from Toulon was summoned to join the Atlantic fleet at Brest. On its way northward the former fleet was attacked and scattered by Boscawen in the Battle of Lagos (August 19) off the Portuguese coast. Meanwhile, Edward Hawke was maintaining a blockade of Brest. On November 9 Hawke withdrew to English waters, and the Brest fleet took to sea. Hawke then reappeared, and in the Battle of Quiberon Bay (November 20–21) the French suffered a decisive defeat. Not only was the planned invasion scrapped, but British naval superiority was established for the remainder of the war.
Minden, Lagos, and Quiberon Bay, together with outstanding successes in North America—the capture of Fort Niagara on July 24 and, of far more significance, that of Quebec on September 13—made 1759 the annus mirabilis for the British. From its strong position, the government began negotiations for peace with France. Britain’s terms were too stiff to be accepted by the French, and its proposals were made in association with its Prussian ally, which, at the end of the year, was in no position to expect favourable treatment from its enemies. Furthermore, Austria and Russia strongly objected to France’s treating separately with the British.
In May 1759 the Russian command had been transferred from Fermor to Pyotr Saltykov. Advancing across Poland through Poznań and into Brandenburg with 70,000 men, Saltykov defeated 26,000 Prussians under Carl Heinrich von Wedel at Züllichau (now Sulechów, Poland), east of Crossen an der Oder (now Krosno Odrzańskie, Poland), on July 23. Saltykov then moved down the Oder toward Frankfurt while Daun sent 35,000 Austrians under Gideon Ernest, Freiherr von Laudon, northward from Saxony to join forces with him. Frederick, who had been facing Daun, promptly moved to block the Austro-Russian junction, but he failed to do so. Having joined forces with Wedel and with another Prussian army, under Friedrich August von Finck, Frederick, now commanding some 50,000 men, boldly assailed the Austro-Russian position at Kunersdorf (now Kunowice, Poland), east of Frankfurt, on August 12. The result was an appalling disaster for Frederick, who in six hours lost more than 18,000 men. Saltykov made no immediate use of his victory, but Daun, advancing against the diminished Prussian forces in Saxony, took Dresden on September 14.
Attempts at further concerted action by Daun and Saltykov were frustrated by Frederick’s skillful movements after Kunersdorf. When lack of supplies forced Saltykov to retire from the scene, Frederick turned on Daun again. Finck was sent with more than 12,000 men to attack Daun’s rear, but he was surprised by 42,000 of Daun’s men at Maxen, south of Dresden, and had to surrender (November 21). The year had been a bad one for Frederick, and the necessity of reinforcing him after Kunersdorf had precluded the full exploitation of Ferdinand’s victory at Minden.