Contades, in an exception to the norm…
August 1759 CE
The battle begins on the French right flank, where Marshal de Broglie, who commands the reserve, begins an artillery duel against the allied left.
The decisive action of the battle takes place in the center, famously due to a misunderstanding of orders.
Friedrich von Spörcken's division, composed of the infantry of the British contingent of the allied army (two brigades under Earl Waldegrave and William Kingsley) and supported by the Hanoverian Guards, actually advance to attack the French cavalry.
It is reported that they had been ordered "to advance [up-]on the beating of drums" (i.e., advance when the signal drums begin to beat,) misunderstanding this as "to advance to the beating of drums" (i.e., advance immediately while beating drums.)
Since the French cavalry is still in its ranks and the famous 'hollow square' has not yet been developed, it is assumed by all that the six leading British regiments are doomed.
Despite being under constant artillery fire, the six regiments (soon supported by two Hanoverian battalions), by maintaining fierce discipline and closed ranks, drive off repeated cavalry charges with musket fire and inflict serious casualties on the French.
Contades reportedly said bitterly, "I have seen what I never thought to be possible—a single line of infantry break through three lines of cavalry, ranked in order of battle, and tumble them to ruin!"(Stenzel, Gustav Adolf Harald (1854). Geschichte des Preussischen Staats. Fünfter Band 1756–1763 (in German). Hamburg. Trans. Carlyle (1869): 44.)
Supported by the well-served British and Hanoverian artillery, the entire allied line eventually advances against the French army and sends it fleeing from the field.
The only French troops capable of mounting any significant resistance are those of de Broglie, who forms a fighting rear guard.
Prince Ferdinand's army suffers nearly twenty-eight hundred men killed and wounded; the French lose about seven thousand men.
In the wake of the battle the French retreat southwards to Kassel.
The defeat ends the French threat to Hanover for the remainder of that year.
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