The Prussian infantry enjoyed a technical advantage in having the needle gun, a breech-loading rifle that could be fired and loaded from a prone position.

The King's Grenadiers were in the advance guard, and raced forward, first to occupy some woods outside the gully's opening, and then to take possession of the heights above Václavice (Wenzelsberg).

To counter the danger of the Prussians flanking his army, during the evening of 26 June, Benedek finally decided to send Ramming's VI Corps to Náchod to block the passes.

The Austrian Colonel Hertwegh was supposed to occupy the next village of Vysokov so as to block the road, but instead, when at 9:00 AM he got to Václavice he on his own initiative wheeled right to attack the Prussians on the ridge above; the King's Grenadiers simply mowed his men down.

As the famous Viennese Hoch-und-Deutschmeister Regiment, the last fighting vestige of the old Teutonic Order, burst into the town, Colonel Louis von Blumenthal arrived at the head of the 52nd Foot on their right flank.

At 1:00 PM Ramming decided to untangle by escaping forward and he committed his final brigade – Waldstätten's – to clear the woods around Kleny, pivot on Rosenzweig's left and take the town, and then turn Steinmetz's flank in order to push the Prussians back in to the pass.