The Kingdom of Westphalia was artificially created by Napoleon Bonaparte for his brother Jerome; by annexing land previously owned by Hanover, Prussia and Hesse-Kassel. Westphalia joined the Confederation of the Rhine in November 1807 and served the French cause until the Allies eventually overran it, in September 1813.
In 1808, the Westphalian Guard was comprised of a Grenadier infantry battalion, a Jäger infantry battalion, a Chevau-leger cavalry regiment and a 100 man Garde du Corps cavalry squadron.
The Garde De Corps at various times throughout their history wore a front cuirass plate but no back plate, but are also depicted without.
When the Kingdom of Westphalia came to an end in September 1813, the Garde du Corps squadron was disbanded.
As April, is for me the month of getting all the stuff that has been hanging around forever almost done, tomorrow I hope to finish some “Vikings” that I have set aside for a scenario I wanted to try.
I have approximatley eighty more cavalry to do but only enough bases for about another twenty four so I will need to organise to buy some more this week.
There is a lot of confusion about French lancers and French Chevau-leger Lanciers which were light cavalry converted to lancers by Napoleon following the success of the Polish lancers.
The uniforms, except for those of Polish heritage, that wear their traditional Capska are the same as the Chevao-legere.
These are the 9th Lancers which again I am having trouble finding a lot of information on.
There is not a lot of information beyond this units uniform out in Googleand, and I have very little information on the shelves about the Bavarian Army. Like many of the first regiments in the Bavarian army it is named Kronprinz and beyond the fact that it was part of the Bavarian Corps that invaded Austria with Napoleon in 1809 that’s all I’ve got.
If anyone out there has more information or can point me in the right direction that would be great.
The legia Nadwislanska (Legion of the Vistula) was a unit of Poles in the service of Napoleon, and was formed in February 1807 from a unit of infantrymen. On February 21, 1808 Napoleon directed that the Legion be transferred to French service, where it served in Spain, Russia, France 1814, and the Waterloo campaign (where it fought on foot outside of Paris as it only had thirteen horses).
In 1809 a second Vistula Legion was formed from Polish prisoners in Austrian service following the Battle of Wagram. The Legion was renamed the 7th lancers in 1811. Following Waterloo the 7th Lancers was one of the few Polish units that refused to serve under the Tsar of Russia and was disbanded in France.
As these units just needs some touch ups and the metal bits done from being stored in plastic containers for over ten years I should get them done quite quickly. Each unit only takes about an hour to touch up and base. The plan is to complete the majority by the end of April. This will only leave some Prussians and Bavarians to finish off my Napoleonics.
I do not count my Austrians in this total as there is always hundred of these to do.
On the 5th of February 1941 the Australin 6th Division and the British 7th Armoured Division ambushed the retreating Italians near Sidi Saleh, East of Benghazi.
Just thirty minutes after the ambush was set up the leading elements of the Italian 10th Army arrived. Next day the Italians attacked to break through and continued their attacks into 7 February. With British reinforcements arriving and the Australians pressing down the road from Benghazi, the 10th Army surrendered with 25,000 men, 107 tanks and 93 guns.
A few blog ago I regailed you with the sad tale of some resin Italian vehicles that were so badly molded that I decide to make some battlefield detritus out of them. This is the result:
I am happy with how something that was destined for the rubbish bin now has multiple uses as terrain, objective markers and replacements for destroyed vehicles.
I started putting together the T35 the other day and realised that after nineteen tanks during March I had enough of them. I really do have the attention span* of gnat (but the memory of an elephant!).
I have a whole lot of Napoleonic cavalry that has just been sitting there waiting for a good set of rules. With the advent of Lasalle 2 for larger games and Rebels and Patriots for skirmish games it was time that I started the final touch ups and basing.
Firstly the Berg Regiment of Light Horse:
The Berg Light Horse are one of the most well known of Napoleon’s “Duchy” troops, probably since the unit ultimately gained for itself the special distinction of being admitted to Napoleon’s Imperial Guard. In other respects, however, they are somewhat obscure, primarily because the regiment went through a surprisingly large number of reorganizations and transformations during its relatively short existence.
The designations of Chevau-Legers, Chasseurs à Cheval, Lanciers, and Chevau-Legers Lanciers are all referring to the same unit, albeit with different functions from Light Horse to Mounted light Infantry to Light Cavalry Lancers.
The unit grabbed Murat’s attention and was formed into one of his own bodyguard units. However with a lack of suitable cavalry mounts in Berg the units longevity looked limited. Murat gained Imperial permission to acquire horses outside the boundaries of the Duchy, and on May 21, 1807, the regiment was renamed the “Regiment of the Grand Duchess Caroline of Cleves”.
During the grand review of the army which took place at Madrid on December 11, the Berg Light Horse then found itself in the ranks of the Imperial Guard , taking its place to the left of the senior cavalry units of the Mounted Chasseurs, the Mounted Grenadiers, the Dragoons, the Mamelukes, the Polish Light Horse and the Mounted Gendarmes and showing a strength of four officers and 105 men. So these six figures represent the unit in a 1 to 20 scale.
I will work on these throughout the month of April with the odd other shiny “thingies” in between.
*A gnat has an attention span of zero and it has no memory. It responds to stimulus rather like a machine – a bit like me………oh another shiny toy – must paint!
I was rummaging through the Aladin’s cave again looking for an mdf kit that I had misplaced and found a plastic container full of some old discarded British tanks and Italian vehicles. A quick look reminded me of why I left them there. The Italian resin kits are so atrocious with flashing thicker than the vehicle parts and the resin so warped that I decided they were not worth putting together. This was a pity as two of the models are the “Sahariana” which is the Italian equivalent of the Long range Desert Patrol’s vehicle. A great model but the parts are so warped they are non retreivable. The others were the L3/35 Carro Velocce tankette which I have plenty of.
After a quick re-think I decided they would make excellent battlefield detritus.
I will finish these another day.
Which brings me to the British tanks. They look like the old Airfix A15 Cruiser and Valentine tanks but I stand to be corrected. I picked these up from “somewhere” aeons ago. They are put together badly, missing, a few wheels, and were painted a gloss bright green. I started out with eight tanks and was able to put together six from these that looked OK.
A quick rebase and paint job has retreived them sufficiently to join my 1941 shelves. I think spending time on the basing of average figures can bring huge dividends as it tends to distract the eye away from any faults.
My sweet valentines:
A15 Cruiser tanks are a great model with sleek lines and an angled turret that is almost a piece of art!
Better get back to the cave to find that mdf building………… I can be distracted so easily.
