"Dutch gun carriage colour" Topic

A quick query, can anyone tell me the colour of the carriages of Dutch guns, thanks

Tally Ho

Under French control, theny were French Green. Prior to that I am not sure about the batavian Republic era.

I rechecked my limited sources on Dutch-Belgian Artillery and the only color picture that I saw was a British shade of Gray or blue-gray.

Left out the last date of 1815. I rechecked my limited sources on Dutch-Belgian Artillery and the only color picture that I saw was a British shade of Gray or blue-gray

From an old Wargames Directory forum on the Dutch-Belgians, still cached on Google:

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My question [at last] - the uniforms etc. Anyone have specially insights, please? I have the 3 Ospreys, the Blandfords, Tradition mag issues x3, and some Knotel plates, but am still looking for more if its out there?? Thanks for any help you can give. Oh, yes, websites would be good too - I found a brilliant artillery one [which solved the problem of what style guns did they have and what colour were they painted!] but that's all.

Cheers

Mike
Posted by Mike Blake at 16:00, 15 July 2003 GMT

Go on then - what colour were the guns painted ?

Posted by gary at 16:48, 15 July 2003 GMT
Just about every! They had guns in the usual French, British and Austrian colours, plus a colour of their own called Dutch Red. I'm going to to do a mixed battery and call the CO whatever Rainbow is in Dutch!

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IIRC, on Dominic Goh's Delphi forum there was a mention that the D-B army didn't get British pattern guns until 1830 or so. So French-style guns in green would probably be a safe bet.

Ian

Orange!

Not really....

While I will defer to the nice sources that fighting15s listed. I am a little doubtful about the French Imperial Green Color for the carriages. One of the main reasons for color carriages is to enable commanders to identify the nationality of a particular battery (in the midst of battlefield smoke) and the use of French Green on the Allied-British side would not be have been effective for this purpose.

The Dutch had plenty of time (but maybe not money) to change the paint color between 1814 and 1815. The use of red was used by several British allies so it is possible. The Dutch (Gray?) gun in the illustration is a French dual carriage and not a single carriage British gun.

Similarly, I'd have thought they'd have had time to change from Austrian yellow - several years, in fact. :-)

With a single illustration source, you also have to be wary because the artist may indeed have been in the same predicament as us and painted the gun grey because that's what a known colour of guns was in the allied forces of the time.

Of course, it's just another missing fact that adds fuel to the "Ospreys are useless" argument. :-)

Ian

I should add there's a summary of Napoleonic artillery carriage colours at:

link

Though the sources are not acknowledged. :-(

Rudi, you are right when you suggest that the color of the gun carriage helps the commanders to identify the units in the field. However, the Netherlands were rather broke in 1815. Hardly any of the troops fought in regulation uniforms but in a rather interesting mix from various periods and sources. I might point to the cavalry regiment that was fired upon at Quatre Bras by British forces because they still wore their old French uniforms... While a rainbow battery might be an artist's conception, different colors for different bartteries does not seem unlikely.

Good point about modern artists painting period pieces with limited knowledge. I am running into that problem with some modern Korean artists painting about their own historical past (illustrations in books, museum scenes seem to be well researched).

Gungir, You are right about finances. I am not sure that Britain would have given them such a loan. I would have no problem seeing multi-colored batteries on the battlefield. The Belgians in particular may have left them Green based on the loyalty concerns of the time.The Dutch were more likely to have changed color.

I was reading about the Prussian repainting their barrels after a battle and the comment seemed to indicate that this was a common practice to protect them. I need to check out the Osprey New Vanguard series on Napoleonic artillery maybe that will help me understand daily procedures better.