In the summer of 1760, the war was going badly for 48 year old King Frederick who had suffered a series of reverses over the past year. In early august, he was racing through Silesia with 30,000 men to hook up with his brother's army when he was trapped by a combined Austrian-Russian force of 90,000 near Liegnitz.
The Austrian generals, Daun and Loudon planned a double envelopment, as had been done at Hochkirch two years before, to crush the King's force.
Sensing what the Austrians were up to, the King moved his force during the night of the 14th-15th to a more defensible position a few kilometers to the east. Moving early to get into position, Loudon's wing ran into the new Prussian position around 3 a.m. Without hesitation, Loudon threw his entire 24,000 man force at the Prussians, but he was repulsed with heavy losses in 2 hours of fighting. By 5 am, the battle was decided. Daun had not even begun to move his force. The Russians had heard the battle, but made no attempt to intervene.
The coalition had blown another chance to end the war.
To paraphrase one of the villains in 24: "That guy has more lives than a cat!"
