The decisive Battle of Kunersdorf occurs on August 12, 1759 near Kunersdorf (Kunowice), immediately east of Frankfurt an der Oder (the second largest city in Prussia).

Part of the Seven Years' War, the combatants include over one hundred thousand men.

An Allied army commanded by Pyotr Saltykov and Ernst Gideon von Laudon that includes forty-one thousand Russians and eighteen thousand five hundred Austrians defeats Frederick the Great's army of fifty thousand nine hundred Prussians.

The terrain complicates battle tactics for both sides, but the Russians and the Austrians, having arrived in the area first, are able to overcome many of its difficulties by strengthening a causeway between two small ponds.

They have also devised a solution to Frederick's deadly modus operandi, the oblique order.

Although Frederick's troops initially gaine the upper hand in the battle, the sheer number of Allied troopss give the Russians and Austrians an advantage.

By afternoon, when the combatants are exhausted, fresh Austrian troops thrown into the fray make the difference.

This is the only time in the Seven Years' War that the Prussian Army, under Frederick's direct command, disintegrates into an undisciplined mass.

With this loss, Berlin, only eighty kilometers (fifty miles) away, lies open to assault by the Russians and Austrians.

Surprisingly, Saltykov and Laudon do not follow up on the victory.

Only three thousand soldiers from Frederick's original fifty thousand remaine with him after the battle, although many more had simply scattered and rejoin the army within a few days.

This representd the penultimate success of the Russian Empire under Elizabeth of Russia and is arguably Frederick's worst defeat.