By Force of Arms

To avenge defeats in a former war, Austria assembled a massive superiority in forces thanks to powerful alliances, and an army reformed and far more effective than ever before. But Prussia hung on, to force a long war and a bloody draw. The brilliance of Frederick the Great and the Prussian army have been given credit for this outcome, but Austria had more than its fair share of good soldiers and skilled generals. Wars never turn out as expected when there are formidable foes, and this book tells what went wrong. This is more than an account of battles and marches. The story of the Seven Years War in Central Europe has been long neglected, and yet it was there that the Austrians (followed closely by the Prussians) broke with the former rigidity of the armies of monarchical Europe, and not just foreshadowed but put into actual effect initiatives that are normally associated with the campaigns of the Revolution and Napoleon. The myth of a limited war leading to indecisive battles is no longer tenable. Not that it lacks a good story of excellent soldiers, some of them left in the limelight when Frederick the Great’s legend was created, and of battles long forgotten. A wealth of maps and as many eyewitness accounts as possible have been used to explain what actually happened. This is a superb account of the war in central Europe, with its emphasis and focus on the operations of the Austrian army, based firmly on primary sources, the majority never before fully explored.

"....Dr Duffy does not disguise his pro-Austrian sentiments: ‘the great and gracious Habsburg Empress Maria Theresa…had a clear sense of what kind of public enemy was ascending in northern Europe…’. Nor does he neglect ‘the oldest of all duties of an historian, which is to tell a tale’, and entertains his readers by enlivening his lucid prose with flashes of wit and amusing anecdotes, guaranteeing that they will find this book, although it weighs over a kilogramme, anything but ‘heavy going’! It is a most fitting memorial to the great eighteenth century military historian and deserves to be in the library of anyone who wargames the Seven Years War." Arthur Harman, Miniature Wargames Issue 484, Aug 2023

"...This is a fine work that has been needed for quite a while. For those of us who are interested in the Austrian side of things in the war, it is a veritable gold mine. This book should be on the shelf of any person who is interested in military history and specifically the Seven Years War." A Wargamers Needful Things Blog