Talk:Battle of Gravelotte

Prussian strategic victory, French tactical victory.

Can anyone explain the difference between a strategic and a tactical victory? Is one superior over the other?

Thanks.

The French tactical victory has to be considered as such, as they were able to inflict much more severe losses on the Prussians by being better prepared from the very beginning, while the Prussians were attempting what must have been a near-impossible task of attacking the well-entrenched French who had far superior infantry weapons . Had the French only pressed the advantage during the night and the next morning, they would have almost certainly achieved a total victory against the depleated Prussians. However, for some reason they chose to withdraw to Metz, thus leaving themselves open to later Prussian advances, advances which had to be considered in an overall strategy context, thus making it ultimately a strategic victory for the Prussians. Dieter Simon 23:57, 1 July 2007 (UTC)

Aha. Thanks again. Very informative. :-)

this article needs serious revision

there are several grammatical errors and contradictions - the summary of the battle quotes ~20k and 28k casualties for the Prussians and French, but later these numbers are jumbled and referred to as killed in battle. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2601:181:4700:2DE3:5D9E:43C7:2526:E548 (talk) 00:04, 31 May 2018 (UTC)