Board Thread:Timeline Discussions/@comment-4656717-20130106102552/@comment-4656717-20130107092859

Okay, I can see your point with a few things. Yes, Prussia had much better organization and organisation. And they did have the dreyse needlegun, and better leadership.

But I think it is completely unfair to suggest that Austria (not Austria-Hungary until 1867) had "no chance whatsoever". According to Geoffrey Reagan in Battles that Changed History the Austrians had far superior artillery(Austria could field 736 rifled cannon and 58 smoothbore compared to Prussia's 492 and 306) and, contrary to your claim, were most certainly not outnumbered by the Prussians. According to the book, "the whole Prussian force [on the Bohemian front] amounted to 256,000 men, covering 260 miles." The Austrians, however, fielded 250,000 men and 25,000 Saxons in Bohemia. Of Austria's 10 Army Corps, only three had to be diverted to, as you put it, "keep things, 'quiet' " on the Italian front. And as history showed, those three Corps were more than sufficient to cope with anything the Piedmontese could throw at them.

According to this, (I don't know if you can read German, but the troop numbers are in the usual spot,) If the VIII Confederation Corps (Wurrtemberg, Baden, Hessen) had linked up with the VII (Bavarian) Corps, they would have had almost double the men that Prussia fielded against them.

Also, I do not quite understand the statement; "Subtract a few decades. Makes them far worse". Using this logic, if one goes back to the end of the Napoleonic Wars, Russia's army would have been in such a shmozzle that there is no way it could have defeated Napoleon in Russia, Germand and France and marched into Paris. But it did. And one has to take into account Russia's situation in 1866. Alexander II "The Liberator" was Tsar, and although he was eventually assasinated, he was the most liberal of all the Tsars, and must have had quite good popularity. In WWI, Russia was still reeling from the shock defeat of the Russo-Japanese War, and Nicholas II, his wife, and Rasputin were deeply hated by the populace. Therefore, Russia was in better shape all-round in 1866 than in 1914.

But yes, it does seem Otto was a moron!