Editing Frederick the Great (section)

== Military theory ==
[[File:Frederick the Great and his staff at the Battle of Leuthen by Hugo Ungewitter.jpg|thumb|alt=Painting of Frederick and Prussian officers on horseback before a battle|''Frederick the Great Surveying the Field of Battle'' by {{ill|Hugo Ungewitter|de}} (1906)]]
Contrary to his father's fears, Frederick became a capable military commander. With the exception of his first battlefield experience at the Battle of Mollwitz, Frederick proved himself courageous in battle.{{sfn|Duffy|1985|p=[https://archive.org/details/frederickgreatmi00duff/page/323 323]}} He frequently led his military forces personally and had multiple horses shot from under him during battle.{{sfn|Showalter|1986|pp=[https://archive.org/details/frederickgreatma00aspr/page/n21 xviii–xix]}} During his reign he commanded the Prussian Army at sixteen major battles and various sieges, skirmishes and other actions, ultimately obtaining almost all his political objectives. He is often admired for his [[Military tactics|tactical]] skills, especially his use of the [[oblique order]] of battle,{{sfn|Snyder|1971|p=[https://archive.org/details/frederickgreat0000snyd/page/4 4]}} an attack focused on one flank of the opposing line, allowing a local advantage even if his forces were outnumbered overall.{{sfn|Duffy|1985|p=[https://archive.org/details/frederickgreatmi00duff/page/309 309]}} Even more important were his operational successes, especially the use of [[interior lines]] to prevent the unification of numerically superior opposing armies and defend the Prussian core territory.{{sfn|Duffy|1985|p=[https://archive.org/details/frederickgreatmi00duff/page/303 303]}}

[[Napoleon Bonaparte]] saw the Prussian king as a military commander of the first rank;{{sfn|Koch|1978|p=[https://archive.org/details/historyofprussia0000koch/page/126 126]}} after Napoleon's victory over the [[Fourth Coalition]] in 1807, he visited Frederick's tomb in Potsdam and remarked to his officers, "Gentlemen, if this man were still alive I would not be here".{{sfn|Koch|1978|p=[https://archive.org/details/historyofprussia0000koch/page/160 160]}} Napoleon frequently "pored through Frederick's campaign narratives and had a statuette of him placed in his personal cabinet".{{sfn|Clark|2006|p=[https://archive.org/details/ironkingdomrised00chri/page/307 307]}}

Frederick's most notable military victories on the battlefield were the [[Battle of Hohenfriedberg]], a tactical victory, fought during the [[War of Austrian Succession]] in June 1745;{{sfn|Asprey|1986|p=[https://archive.org/details/frederickgreatma00aspr/page/n354 325]}} the [[Battle of Rossbach]], where Frederick defeated a combined Franco-Austrian army of 41,000 with only 21,000 soldiers (10,000 dead for the Franco-Austrian side with only 550 casualties for Prussia);{{sfn|Duffy|1985|p=[https://archive.org/details/frederickgreatmi00duff/page/144 144]}} and the [[Battle of Leuthen]],{{sfn|Duffy|1985|p=[https://archive.org/details/frederickgreatmi00duff/page/148 148]}} in which Frederick's 39,000 troops inflicted 22,000 casualties, including 12,000 prisoners, on Charles of Lorraine's Austrian force of 65,000.{{sfn|Duffy|1985|p=[https://archive.org/details/frederickgreatmi00duff/page/153 153]}}

Frederick believed that creating alliances was necessary, as Prussia did not have the resources of nations like France or Austria. Though his reign was regularly involved in war, he did not advocate for protracted warfare. He stated that for Prussia, wars should be short and quick: long wars would destroy the army's discipline, depopulate the country, and exhaust its resources.{{sfn|Connelly|2002|p=[https://archive.org/details/onwarleadershipw00conn/page/10 10]}}

Frederick was an influential military theorist whose analysis emerged from his extensive personal battlefield experience and covered issues of strategy, tactics, mobility and logistics.{{sfn|Luvaas|1966|pp=[https://archive.org/details/frederickgreaton00fred/page/18 18–22]}} Emperor Joseph II wrote, "When the King of Prussia speaks on problems connected with the art of war, which he has studied intensively and on which he has read every conceivable book, then everything is taut, solid and uncommonly instructive. There are no circumlocutions, he gives factual and historical proof of the assertions he makes, for he is well versed in history."{{sfn|Reiners|1960|pp=[https://archive.org/details/frederickgreatbi0000rein/page/247 247–248]}}

[[Robert M. Citino|Robert Citino]] describes Frederick's strategic approach:

<blockquote>In war ... he usually saw one path to victory, and that was fixing the enemy army in place, maneuvering near or even around it to give himself a favorable position for the attack, and then smashing it with an overwhelming blow from an unexpected direction. He was the most aggressive field commander of the century, perhaps of all time, and one who constantly pushed the limits of the possible.{{sfn|Citino|2005|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=PQNoAAAAMAAJ&q=smashing%20it 36]}}</blockquote>

The historian Dennis Showalter argues: "The King was also more consistently willing than any of his contemporaries to seek decision through offensive operations."{{sfn|Showalter|1996|p=[{{Google books|id=|pg=PT96|plainurl=yes}} 67]}} These offensive operations were not acts of blind aggression; Frederick considered foresight to be among the most important attributes when fighting.{{sfn|Connelly|2002|p=[https://archive.org/details/onwarleadershipw00conn/page/42 42]}}

Much of the structure of the modern [[German General Staff]] owed its existence and design to Frederick, along with the accompanying autonomy given to commanders in the field.{{sfn|Goerlitz|1957|pp=[https://archive.org/details/historyofgermang00gr/page/5 5–7]}} According to Citino, "When later generations of Prussian-German staff officers looked back to the age of Frederick, they saw a commander who repeatedly, even joyfully, risked everything on a single day's battle – his army, his kingdom, often his very life.".{{sfn|Citino|2005|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=PQNoAAAAMAAJ&q=smashing%20it 36]}} As far as Frederick was concerned, there were two major battlefield considerations—speed of march and speed of fire.{{sfn|Goerlitz|1957|p=[https://archive.org/details/historyofgermang00gr/page/7 7]}} Confident in the performance of men he selected for command when compared to those of his enemy, Frederick once quipped that a general considered audacious in another country would be ordinary in Prussia because Prussian generals will dare anything that is possible for men to execute.{{sfn|Connelly|2002|p=[https://archive.org/details/onwarleadershipw00conn/page/13 13]}}

After the Seven Years' War, the Prussian military acquired a formidable reputation across Europe.{{sfn|Goerlitz|1957|p=[https://archive.org/details/historyofgermang00gr/page/4 5]}} Esteemed for efficiency and success in battle, it became a model emulated by other European powers, particularly Russia and France.{{sfn|Stone|2006|p=[https://archive.org/details/fightingforfathe0000ston_x1g9/page/86 86]}} Frederick continues to be held in high regard as a military theorist and has been described as representing the embodiment of the art of war.{{sfn|Strachan|2000|p=[{{Google book|id=rhrXAJye1cEC|page=83|plainurl=yes}} 83]}}