Calpe Miniatures Prussian — различия между версиями

Версия 21:17, 12 декабря 2016

Artillery

Command

Organising Your Command Sets

The Prussian army of this period was organised into three corps. For the campaign in Germany in 1813 these were separated and placed in three of the four allied army groups. Blucher commanded the Army of Silesia but only one of his corps was Prussian (with York in command) the rest were Russian. The commanders of the two other Prussian corps were Bulow and Kliest. For the Waterloo campaign a fourth corps was added and the army operated as a joint entity. In this case the corps commanders were Zieten, Pirch, Thielmann and Bulow.

All corps were organised into four brigades. Each of these had three infantry regiments of three battalions. In 1813 these also had one or two regiments of cavalry attached and at least one 6pdr. battery so that each brigade was a self contained fighting force of all arms. In addition to these four brigades there was a separate cavalry reserve of at least one brigade (some had two cavalry brigades). Each of these reserve cavalry brigades was composed of (at least) three regiments of cavalry. There was also an artillery reserve with its own command element.

This first release of four command sets is designed to cover the four ‘infantry’ brigades that composed the real fighting element of each Prussian corps. Each set is made up of a General, his ADC, a General Staff officer and a Feldjaeger. Command groups for the cavalry and artillery reserves of the corps will follow.

Uniform Notes for the Generals and Their Staff

The preferred order of dress of the Prussian general officer in the field, as well as that of his staff, was the uberrock (frock coat) and the peaked cap. There is little doubt about this although uniform plates of officers wearing these items are rare. This ‘undress’ clothing was considered personal rather than regulation wear, so it was not a uniform item in reality. What this means is that the cut of the Ubberock was not prescribed, it was down to the officers’ (and their tailors’) fashion sense so making it difficult for an artist to represent a ‘standard’ uberrock (this information supplied by Peter Bunde). Infantry generals (and their staff) had grey uberrocks and caps, cavalry had blue ones. The lapels of the uberrock were lined in red and could be turned back to expose a flash of colour at the neck. The cuffs were plain. There is evidence in some of the better battle paintings that many officers’ uberrocks may have had the buttons and retaining straps sewn onto the garment at the shoulder to enable them to attach shoulder straps or epaulets. It is rare to see shoulder straps or epaulets on the uberrock so these attachments remained unused. I have sculpted the buttons and retaining straps on the figures for the sake of historical accuracy; the buttons should be in gold and the retaining straps in silver.

Generals sometimes wore their Kleine uniform in the field. The literal translation of this is the ‘Little uniform’ a better translation might be the ‘simple’ uniform. This was basically a blue kollet with red collar, cuffs and turnbacks. There was no lace on collar or cuffs. The cuffs were ‘Swedish’ cuffs with two gold buttons as the only decoration. The shoulder straps were plaited silver wire. The ADCs and other staff officers often wore the Liebrock on campaign. This was blue for both infantry and cavalry ADCs. The jacket was single breasted and had a large fold down collar. This collar was green for ADC’s (frequently, but not always, piped in red) and red for staff officers. The Swedish cuffs were similarly coloured. Turnbacks were red for infantry officers and white for cavalry. The field of the shoulder strap also differed for cavalry and infantry officers. It was white for the former and blue for the latter. The officer’s rank lace on these epaulets was silver for both. The lapels of the Liebrock were also lined in red and could be turned back to expose the coloured lining.

Officers were not supposed to wear the silver waist sash when wearing the uberrock or the Liebrock. This regulation was generally disregarded and most officers wore the sash in the field with both items of clothing (although it seems to have been less frequently used with the Liebrock).

All officers’ saddle cloths are described as being made of black bear fur. Generals and staff officers had ‘guard’ stars at the rear of the saddle cloth and on the pistol holster covers. ADC’s had no stars on their saddle cloths. The stars were silver with an orange centre.

Many officers wore medals and other decorations on their coats. These were principally iron crosses of various classes but generals also wore a silver star to the left of their chest. All coat buttons were in yellow metal. Sword straps were silver.

The General Staff Officers

Although I have described the uniform details above, I need to emphasise the importance of these officers in the context of these brigade command groups. Until I did the research I did not appreciate the special status of these officers in the reformed Prussian command setup. Each brigade and corps commander had a general Staff officer attached. These can best be described as a parallel commander. The General Staff officer’s job was to remind the brigade commander of the army’s plan of action and to ensure that the General’s actions complied with this plan. He was an advisor to the brigade commander but not a subordinate as such. He was answerable only to the head of the General Staff (Gneisenau, after Scharnhost was injured) who in turn reported directly to the king. It would be fair to say that the brigade was under dual command, the general gave the orders but only as long as these complied with the plans of the General Staff!

The Feldjaegers This corps was a legacy from Fredrick the Great. They were the staff couriers and guides. All the men in this formation were either NCOs or officers. Their special status was reflected in their uniforms, not only were these green in colour, but the NCOs uniforms were cut like the officers’ so that they had long tails and officer-type shoulder straps. Officers and NCOs uniforms differed only in that the officers wore the silver waist sash and had silver rank distinctions on their shoulder straps. The NCOs had gold piping on their shoulder straps and no waist sash.

All Feldjaegers wore green jackets with red collars cuffs and turnbacks and grey cavalry overalls. The field of the shoulder strap was green. On campaign the covered shako completed the uniform. They all carried sabres in white metal scabbards and a red leather satchel for carrying dispatches and orders. The saddlecloth was green with a broad yellow edging stripe. They also carried a brace of pistols in bearskin covered saddle holsters.

Assembly Notes

Most of these figures have been designed to fit specific horses. Some of these figures are the first to be sculpted to fit on Alan Marsh’s ‘Dynamic’ horses. These figures come in a plastic bag with the horses they are designed to fit. The exception to this is in Set Two. Since three of the figures are standing, their horses are designed to look as if they are tethered together. There is a sprue in the pack with lengths of metal rope which will need to be glued to the holes in the horse’s heads to make them look as if they are tied together (the central horse in the group is the one with three holes in it’s head). Some filling may be required. The long length of rope goes from the central horse’s head to the hand of the ADC. Set Three also has a standing feldjaeger figure holding the reins of his horse. Note the point on the left of the horse’s head where the feldjaeger’s fingers have made an impression in the reins to mark the point where the two figures join.

Dragoons

Hussars

Jaegers and Schutzen

Landwehr Cavalry

The figures in the lists below are designed to represent Landwehr cavalry in the «regulation» uniform. Those of you who know something of this arm of the Prussian cavalry will be aware that this uniform was not standard throughout the landwehr cavalry regiments. Two regiments, one Silesian, the other from Brandenberg, must have had a wealthy benefactor as they were provided with the full Polish lancer uniform. Several other regiments adopted versions of the regulation uniform but gave it regimental distinctions. One Brandenberg regiment used the Landwehr cap; two others from the same province were issued with the British stovepipe shako and were provided with a very distinctive saddlecloth (more later). Another common variation was to make the regulation uniform in a different coloured cloth. One regiment from East Prussia had light blue litewkas, a Pommeranian regiment made theirs out of dark grey cloth. Having said this, the regulation uniform was worn by most regiments. I have made a rough estimate of the ratio of regiments which wore the regulation uniform to those that did not. Across most provinces it is 3:1 in favour of the regulation uniform. This means that approximately 75 % of the landwehr cavalry regiments wore this uniform.

Most regiments had Prussian blue litewkas with grey cavalry overalls, usually without the red stripe down the outside seam. The litewkas had collars in the provincial colour but cuffs were mostly left in the coat colour. Shoulder straps seem to have denoted the seniority of the regiment within the province and were usually white or red. All leather equipment and belting was made of black leather. The saddle cloth was usually a sheepskin with a scalloped edging (not dog-toothed) in the provincial colour. These sheepskin saddle cloths were generally black but some provinces (e.g. Silesia) seem to have issued white sheepskins. The sword scabbard was white metal. The equipment attached to the saddle was coloured as follows: canteen and roll covered in grey cloth with black straps; forage bags canvas coloured; the pouch was black leather. After the 1813 campaign the white over black lance pennon became standard, before this many regiments had the white over black but others had provincial pennons (e.g. several Brandenberg regiments had red over white pennons). When on campaign, shakos were generally covered in the weather-proof cover common in the Prussian army. Some regiments painted the Landwehr cross on the shako covers.

Preparing the Figures

I do not provide lances with these figures. Almost 25 years of painting and gaming has taught me that white metal lances cannot take the strain of a good game. There is nothing more annoying than flaking paint on a bent lance! I recommend that you make the lances out of brass or steel wire. This is available in most good hobby stores. Cut the wire into 5.5cm lengths and grind the ends to a point, sharp at one end and rounded on the other. Electric bench grinders are cheap and readily available in most DIY stores. I recently bought myself a new bench grinder for less than Ј20. Lance pennons can be made out of pewter sheet (available from Sylmasta Ltd. PO Box 262, Haywards Heath, West Sussex, RH16 3FR, tel. +44 (0)1444 415027, or you can wait until Graham at GMB designs finishes his sheets of Prussian pennons.

Advancing (Lances Upright)

Prussian Landwehr Cavalry: Advancing (Lances Upright)

Charging

Prussian Landwehr Cavalry: Charging

Kurmark Landwehr

When I did the research for the Landwehr cavalry I conceded that I would have to give some representation to the non regulation uniforms that formed 25 % of this branch of the cavalry (see intro.). The question was which uniform to pick? The pressure from the client base was for the polish lancer uniform worn by two of these regiments, but other options also had their attractions; e.g. one, possibly two, regiments from Newmark (another province of Brandenberg) wore a version of the Prussian guard Cossack uniform, enticing! In the end I opted for the Kurmark regiments because I knew more about them, I could place them in the proceedings! I always feel happier sculpting someone I know. There is a fabulous action picture of the 1st regiment in action at Dennewitz, charging a square of Italian infantry (Knotel) which finally helped me reach my decision.

These figures wear a combination of regulation and non-regulation items. They wear the standard dark blue cavalry litewka and grey cavalry overalls. As usual the facing colour only appears on the collar, not the cuffs. Their equipment also follows the standard form with all leather items in black. The two items which make them look different are the shako and the shabraque. The shako was probably a customised British stovepipe shako. One reference says they may have been captured French hussar shakoes but more credible sources do credit the British with the original source. This shako was black but the top rim was laced in white. Where the plate would have been, there was now a large black and white Prussian cockade, centre in black and outer rim white. A second smaller Prussian cockade was placed at the top of the shako on the white rim, also with a black centre and white outer. The two cockades were joined by a line of ribbon with a black centre and white edging. The ribbon ended in a button which helped hold the large central cockade in place, most sources show this in white metal. The chin scales attached to the shako were yellow metal.

The shabraque was almost certainly a «hand-me-down» from a pre 1806 cavalry regiment. Unusually for a Prussian shabraque of this period it has pointed ends. It was light blue in colour, almost the colour of the dragoon’s coats. It was edged with two lines of red lace but also had a small heart shaped motif in red sewn into the bottom corners of the shabraque.

As was common in many Landwehr formations, both foot and horse, the officers chose to keep to regulations and did not wear the uniform issued to the men. In Knotel’s picture of the 1st regiment at Dennewitz, a squadron officer appears in the left foreground of the picture, he wears full regulation uniform down to the sheepskin shabraque with rounded corners.

For officers use use figures in regulation uniforms from the two sets above.

Prussian Landwehr Cavalry: Kurmark Landwehr

Landwehr Infantry

Fusiliers

Musketeers

Lutzow’s Freicorps

Reserve Infantry

Line Uhlans

Horses