The new publication THE AUSTRO-PRUSSIAN WAR OF 1866: ARMS AND EQUIPMENT presents in great detail the appearance, functioning and equipment of the Austrian, Saxon and Prussian armies that clashed on the battlefields of Bohemia in 1866. Across 600 pages and roughly the same number of professional photographs, cold weapons, handheld firearms, cannons, saddles, uniforms and detailed parts of the equipment of the armies of the conflict that changed Europe are for the first time presented gradually and in such quality.
The publication also pays attention to the historical context of the events and acquaints readers with the origin and development of the collection of items from the War of 1866 in the Hradec museum. The new book, authored by Bohumír Tuhý, Jiří Šramar, Josef Šrámek and a collective, is a revised and expanded edition of the former 1990 publication dealing with similar issues.
'The basis for this book was the 1990 publication by the first two named authors; we revised some chapters and added some completely new ones. The original authors prepared the book before 1989 and, although they were experts in their field, they did not have the same access to foreign sources as we do today. We significantly updated especially the passages on the Prussian army,' said Josef Šrámek, historian of the Museum of Eastern Bohemia in Hradec Králové, who compiled the publication.
The authors of the new book, in addition to modernizing the texts, also focused on the quality of the photographs taken. The book contains original photographs of about three hundred items from the collections of the Hradec museum. The images show uniforms, weapons and various parts of military equipment and armament. 'We worked intensively on the book for the whole year and placed great emphasis on the selection of collection objects. The museum had been acquiring them from the very beginning of its existence, especially by purchases from eyewitnesses and collectors, and for example very few uniforms from this war have survived. The photographs in this book are not mere illustrations, but an integral part of the publication,' said Josef Šrámek.
The main difference in the armament of the Austrian and Prussian armies lay in handheld firearms. Austrian infantry used the Model 1854 Lorenz rifles, which were loaded from the front. When firing, they were slower than the Prussian breech-loaders, but they had better accuracy and greater range. The Prussians were equipped with so-called needle guns using the Nikolaus Dreyse system, which already used cartridges and were loaded from the rear.