Westphalia, Hesse and Lower Saxony Electoral Saxony Brandenburg Silesia East Prussia Pomerania Iberian Peninsula Naval Operations The Battle of Breslau (also known as the Battle on the Lohe) was fought on 22 November 1757 in Breslau (now Wrocław, Poland) during the Third Silesian War (part of the Seven Years' War).

Empress Maria Theresa of Austria had signed the treaty to gain time to rebuild her military forces and forge new alliances; she intended to regain ascendancy in the Holy Roman Empire.

[2] In 1754, escalating tensions between Britain and France in North America offered the Empress the opportunity to regain her lost territories and to limit Prussia's ever growing power.

This soon turned out to be a difficult task as he had to face the superior Austrian forces, whose main army of 54,000 troops was led by Prince Charles Alexander of Lorraine and Count Leopold Joseph von Daun.

Prince Charles Alexander of Lorraine attacked the Prussian forces on 22 November outside the gates of Breslau, between the villages of Kosel und Gräbschen, launching the battle with a cannonade.

After the Austrians were able to conquer the first few villages, they manned them with howitzers and intensified their cannonade, after which the duke of Brunswick-Bevern gathered ten regiments together and began a counter-attack.

A tough, bloody struggle for the villages began, in which the Prussians were able to score several decisive successes against the superior Austrian forces.

Following the withdrawal of the Prussian army, 10 battalions under General Johann Georg von Lestwitz remained behind in the fortress of Breslau.

Prussian morale was extremely low due to their defeat on the battlefield and the high proportion of conscripts serving in the army.

Following his decisive win at Leuthen, most of the Austrians defending the city decamped, although they left behind a garrison of 17,000 plus stores and ammunition, commanded by Soloman Sprecher von Bernegg.