Battle of Pfaffenhofen

Part of the War of the Austrian Succession

The retreat of the French troops

Date	15 April 1745
Location	Pfaffenhofen an der Ilm, present-day Upper Bavaria, Germany
Result	Decisive Austrian victory

Belligerents

Austria

France

Bavaria
and German allies

Commanders and leaders

Karl Josef Batthyány

General Ségur

Strength

10,000

7,000

Casualties and losses

800

2,400

The Battle of Pfaffenhofen was fought on 15 April 1745 between France and Austria. The Austrians under Karl Josef Batthyány defeated the outnumbered French under General Ségur, ending the war in Bavaria.

In October 1744, the Franco-Bavarian army had succeeded, in coordination with Prussia, to expel the Austrians from Bavaria, and to reinstate Charles VII, Prince-elector of Bavaria and Holy Roman Emperor, in his capital Munich. Here he died 3 months later.
His 18-year-old son and heir Maximilian III Joseph wavered between the Peace-party, led by his mother Maria Amalia of Austria and Army Commander Friedrich Heinrich von Seckendorff and the War-party, led by Foreign Minister General Ignaz von Törring and the French envoy Chavigny.

This hampered the ongoing peace negotiations, so Maria Theresia ordered the Austrian Army to start a new offensive to put pressure on the Bavarian negotiators. Amberg and Vilshofen were taken and the Bavarian army under Törring and its French, Hessian and Palatinate allies were pushed on the defensive.

Törring decided to pull back his Bavarian and Hessian troops behind the Lech River. The French Army commander Henri François de Ségur was not informed of this manoeuver and waited unaware and unprotected near Pfaffenhofen on Palatinate reinforcements under General Zastrow, which arrived on 14 April. The next day Segur decided to also pull back behind the Lech.
The Austrians, aware of the isolated French position, had by then reached Pfaffenhofen with a force larger than the French.

First the Austrians attacked the town of Pfaffenhofen and were met by French fire. But the Austrians took the town in house-to-house combat in which the fierce Croatian Pandurs inflicted heavy casualties on the French defenders.

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Wikipedia