Polish–Austrian War
| Polish-Austrian War | |||||||||
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| Part of the War of the Fifth Coalition | |||||||||
.png) Polish forces stops Austrian advance at Raszyn, only to retreat to the other side of the river soon afterwards. |
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| Belligerents | |||||||||
 Duchy of Warsaw Kingdom of Saxony Russian Empire
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 Austria
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| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
 Józef Antoni Poniatowski Dmitry Golitsyn
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Archduke Ferdinand Karl Joseph of Austria-Este
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| Strength | |||||||||
| 37,000 Polish soldiers | 85,000 soldiers | ||||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
| ~1,000 killed 2,000 captured |
~1,500 killed 7,000 captured |
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The Austro-Polish War or Polish-Austrian War was a part of the War of the Fifth Coalition in 1809 (a coalition of the Austrian Empire and the United Kingdom against Napoleon's French Empire and Bavaria). In this war, Polish forces of the Napoleon-allied Duchy of Warsaw and assisted by forces of the Kingdom of Saxony, fought against the Austrian Empire. By May, the Russian Empire joined against Austria. Polish troops withstood the Austrian attack on Warsaw defeating them at Raszyn, then abandoned Warsaw in order to reconquer parts of pre-partition Poland including Kraków and Lwów, forcing the Austrians to abandon Warsaw in futile pursuit.
The military of the Duchy was weakened as the French corps garrisoning it were sent to Spain in 1808, and only the Duchy's own Polish forces remained in it. With the start of the War of the Fifth Coalition, Austrian corps under Archduke Ferdinand Karl Joseph of Austria-Este invaded the territory of the Duchy of Warsaw (Polish state created by Napoleon) on 14 April 1809, engaging the Polish defenders soldiers under Prince Józef Antoni Poniatowski).
After the Battle of Raszyn on April 19, where Poniatowski's Polish troops brought an Austrian force twice their number to a standstill (but neither side defeated the other decisively), the Polish forces nonetheless retreated, allowing the Austrians to occupy the Duchy's capital, Warsaw, as Poniatowski decided that the city would be hard to defend, and instead decided to keep his army mobile in the field and engage the Austrians elsewhere, crossing to the eastern (right) bank of the Vistula. Indeed, the Duchy's capital was seized by the Austrian army with little opposition, but it was a Pyrrhic victory for them, since the Austrian commander diverted most of his forces there at the expense of other fronts. Prince Este garrisoned Warsaw with 10,000 soldiers, and split his remaining forces, sending 6,000 corps to the right bank of the Vistula, and the rest towards Toruń and other targets on the left bank.
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