Battle of Minden

Date	1 August 1759
Location	Minden, Minden-Ravensberg, Prussia (now North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany)
Result	Anglo-German victory

Belligerents

Commanders and leaders

Strength

37,000 and 181 guns

44,000 and 162 guns

Casualties and losses

2,762 killed, wounded or missing

7,000 killed, wounded or missing

The Battle of Minden—or Tho(r)nhausen—was a decisive engagement during the Seven Years' War, fought on 1 August 1759. An Anglo-German army under the overall command of Field Marshal Ferdinand of Brunswick defeated a French army commanded by Marshal of France, Marquis de Contades. Two years prior, the French had launched a successful invasion of Hanover and attempted to impose an unpopular treaty of peace upon the allied nations of Britain, Hanover and Prussia. After a Prussian victory at Rossbach, and under pressure from Frederick the Great and William Pitt, King George II disavowed the treaty. In 1758, the Allies launched a counter-offensive against the French forces and drove them back across the Rhine.