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5.0 out of 5 stars
Old Fritz: The Great Soldier-King, January 14, 2009
This review is from: The military life of Frederick the Great (Hardcover)
This is a military biography of Frederick II, king of Prussia 1740-1786, known to history as Frederick the Great. He was the soldier-king who elevated the art of war to its highest expression in the old monarchical order of early modern Europe.
The author Duffy does an admirable job of sticking to his topic of a strictly military account. Unlike many modern biographers, he resists the impulse to place Old Fritz on the therapist's couch, and relates background information about Frederick's upbringing and family relationships only insofar as they relate to the building of the Prussian army and Frederick's development as a soldier. He mentions his stern upbringing and attempts to rebel against his father, and his possibly unconsummated marriage. Duffy does not, however, engage in speculation about Frederick's sexual proclivities or lack thereof.
Duffy demonstrates Frederick's on-the-job training as a general after inheriting a small but well trained and disciplined army from his father. The battles in the First Silesian War were won by steadfast infantry, despite wavering cavalry. But Frederick improves the cavalry, and by the battle of Hohenfriedburg in the Second Silesian War, it is cavalry that carries the day for Frederick and wins him a reputation throughout Europe for his martial prowess.
It is in the Seven Years War that we see the fullest flowering of Frederick's generalship. He does suffer setbacks, most notably early on at Kolin, in June of 1757. He then demonstrates one of his remarkable skills as a general: that of quickly rebuilding a damaged army. He does so in time to deal his enemies perhaps the most memorable one-two punch in the history of warfare: the defeat first of the French at Rossbach on November 5, 1757 and then the Austrians at Leuthen exactly one month later.
For all his reputation as an "enlightened" monarch, with his francophilia, flute playing, poetry writing and correspondence with the luminary Voltaire, Duffy's Frederick emerges as first and foremost a soldier. He may well have been an Enlightenment paragon but his raison d'etre was war, and his most influential contribution to history was the aggrandizement of Prussia by a little bit of administration and diplomacy but mostly by the force of arms. He was never more at home than when on campaign, in his simple blue coat, sharing the perils and privations of his men. His presence with his army and his Spartan ways and simple appearance stood in stark contrast to the pomp of other European monarchs.
In terms of speed and maneuver, skillful interaction of the separate arms of infantry, cavalry and artillery, oblique order, flanking marches and creative use of terrain, Frederick was forward looking and his body of work presages that of Napoleon. However, in terms of command and control, officer training and rank-and-file troop demographics, Old Fritz is securely ensconced in the early modern period: his officer corps being open to only those of noble birth, and the ranks filled with peasantry, foreign mercenaries or impressed former enemies. Ultimately, Duffy leaves us convinced that given the societal and technological strictures of his time, it is unlikely that anyone could have surpassed Frederick as a general. Not until the upheavals starting in France in 1789 and the subsequent "nation in arms" would an army as formidable as Frederick's take the field.
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