Hastenbeck 1757: The French Army and the Opening Campaign of the Seven Years War

From Reason to Revolution: Warfare 1721-1815

by Olivier Lapray, Will Raffle (Translator)

The outbreak of the Seven Years War saw the formation of new alliances and led to the conduct of military operations in several theaters simultaneously. The campaign of 1757 saw large-scale maneuvers, with their necessary operational corollaries of supply and logistics, as France put an army of 100,000 men into the field. The conduct of the campaign also testifies to the difficulty of exercising command in the face of a court and a government for which short-term results took precedence over means. Notwithstanding such difficulties, the campaign of the French armies in Westphalia saw its climax play out around the village of Hastenbeck on 26 July 1757, where the forces of Maréchal d'Estrées gained a victory that came close to knocking Hanover out of the war.

The story of the campaign can be told from the human perspective thanks to the large body of memoirs and letters from officers, both general and subordinate, of cavalry and infantry regiments. Having left their garrisons four months earlier, they had come to battle at the gates of Hanover after having traveled more than 600 kilometers through the Low Countries and into Germany.

168 pages, Paperback

First published October 15, 2021

Reviews

[Brian Vizek · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nice book to have covering the opening of the Seven Years War on the western front.

Most of this book covers the maneuvers leading up to the battle of Hastenbeck. This is mostly regarding the French advance and has a lot of lot of detail on troop movement. You also get a good appreciation for the issues facing the French supply issues as they advance.

There is about 20 pages on the actual battle itself. A nice Order of Battle for Hastenbeck is also included.