Battle of Kay

Battle of Kay
Part of the Seven Years' War
Date 23 July 1759 Location Kay, Margraviate of Brandenburg Result Russian victory
Belligerents
Prussia	Russia
Commanders and leaders
Carl Heinrich von Wedel Moritz Franz Kasimir von Wobersnow  † Heinrich von Manteuffel	Pyotr Saltykov
Strength
26,000 men	41,000 men
Casualties and losses
8,300 men	less than 5,000 men

Carl Heinrich von Wedel
Moritz Franz Kasimir von Wobersnow  †

The Battle of Kay (German: Schlacht bei Kay), also referred to as the Battle of Sulechów, Battle of Züllichau, or Battle of Paltzig, was an engagement fought on 23 July 1759 during the Seven Years' War. It occurred near Kay (Kije) in the Neumark, now part of Poland.

General Carl Heinrich von Wedel, the commander of the Prussian army of 26,000 men, unwisely attacked a larger Russian army of 41,000 men commanded by Count Pyotr Saltykov. The Prussians lost 8,300 men; the Russians lost less than 5,000 men. After the battle, King Frederick II of Prussia was determined to force the Russians into a decisive engagement in order to prevent them joining up with the main Austrian army. Three weeks later, the Prussians met the combined Russian-Austrian army at Kunersdorf.

By 1759, Prussia had reached a strategic defensive position in the war. Upon leaving winter quarters in April 1759, Frederick assembled his army in Lower Silesia; this forced the main Habsburg army to remain in its winter staging position in Bohemia. The Russians, however, shifted their forces into western Poland and marched westward toward the Oder river, a move that threatened the Prussian heartland, Brandenburg, and potentially Berlin itself. Frederick countered by sending an army corps commanded by Friedrich August von Finck to contain the Russians; he sent a second column commanded by Christoph II von Dohna to support Finck.

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