Hat 8280 7YW PRUSSIAN MARCHING

When Frederick II the Great of the Hohenzollern family took the throne in 1740, he inherited from his father (Frederick William I, known as the King-Sergeant) well-trained and very high combat value infantry. It is worth adding that before 1740, Field Marshal Leopold von Anhalt-Dessau (called Old Dessaur) was responsible for a very high (even draconian) level of her discipline, and already then she used flintlock rifles with an iron stamp. On the battlefield, it used a linear tactic and a three-rank formation, in contrast to the Austrian army, which used a four-rank formation. It is also assumed that it was the fastest-firing infantry in Europe at that time, and some historical studies indicate that a single Prussian infantry soldier consumed from 300 to 350 rifle loads per year during exercises, which was an extremely high sum at that time. In number, it also constituted the basis of the Prussian army, constituting about 80-85% of its manpower. At the beginning of the Seven Years' War (1756-1763), the Prussian infantry regiments were based on three full-time standards: "old", "medium" and "new". There were 48 old infantry regiments - 33 of them were musketeers and 15 were fusiliers. Regiments were in turn divided into battalions and companies. In the case of old foot regiments, they were divided into two battalions (except for the Guard and the Anhalt-Dessau regiment), and each of them, after mobilization, consisted of 700 soldiers, with 122 soldiers in the company. Prussian infantry proved its great combat value during both Silesian Wars (1740-1742 and 1744-1745) and the Seven Years' War (1756-1763), and its greatest successes were at Strzegom-Dobromierz (1745), Lutynia (1757) or Rossbach ( 1757).