Hat 8323 Seven Years War Austrians Action

When Maria Theresa of the Habsburgs took the throne in 1740, she inherited from her father (Emperor Charles VI) an army of not the best quality. The infantry of that army was poorly trained, was characterized by numerous shortages, and in terms of discipline or equipment - more or less - it was inferior to its Prussian counterpart. Against this background, during the two Silesian wars (1740-1742 and 1744-1745), Austrian grenadiers stood out, and they equaled the combat value of the Prussian infantry. After the aforementioned wars (from 1749 to be exact), the grenadier subunits were replaced with a four-rank formation in favor of a three-rank formation - the same as that used in the Prussian army. From 1754, while their armament began to introduce the so-called. Commisflinte wz.1754, which turned out to be the basic weapon of the Austrian infantryman until the beginning of the 19th century. It is also worth adding that during the Seven Years' War (1756-1763), the grenadiers were the actual elite of the Austrian infantry, as they constituted only about 8-10% of the total Habsburg infantry, while in the Prussian army this ratio was about 16%, and in the Russian army - it was close to 25%. At the war rank, the company of Austrian grenadiers consisted of 100 people. From these companies - from 4 to 8 - grenadier battalions were formed in the Habsburg army. It is worth adding, however, that these were always "improvised" units, not permanent ones.