"Brunswickers in Lowy Cole' IVthe Division?" Topic

There was a company of the Braunschweig Oels Freikorps attached to the Fusilier brigade of the IVth Division in Spain.

I am doing a battalion of the 1st Royal Scots (not really in the IVth), 7th Royal Fusiliers, and 23rd Royal Welch Fusiliers in this brigage – 32 to 40 figures, and want to do 3 men of the brunswicks as a company of around 50 men.

I do not recall what type of company it was, for there was one rifle company with Corsican hats, and others with shakos in the corps.

Knoetel shows this when they fought in the 1809 campaign in Austria, and I understand they had uniform changes before going into Spain. They no longer had the "litevka", long coat.

By Waterloo, the rifles uniform was changed from green to gray. There was also a Leib Battalion, allegedly of veterans from Spain, with the "floppy" plume much as shown for 1809.

Did Cole have the rifles in green, or a company in black with shako and the floppy plume?

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I have enough figures to do the second brigade – 3/27th Inniskillings; 40th Foot; and 48th Foot, and have 3 old Stadden 30mm treasures as the company of the 60th Rifles.

GdeP

There were only 3 coys of Sharpshooters (Baker rifle armed) who served with the 1st(?), 4th, and 5th divisions. the 9 centre companies served mainly in the 7th Division.

Shako was centre company Prussian type with falling horse-hair plume, single breasted dark green coatee piped light blue, light blue collar, pointed cuffs, turnbacks and grey piped light blue trousers. (see plate 19 'B' Uniforms of the Peninsula War. turnbacks in that illustration are shown as green piped light blue)

Paul :)

Thanks, Paul. So the Corsican hat of 1809 did not reach Spain, but was back by the Waterloo campaign.

GdeP

GdeP,

The three detached companies of Brunswick Oel Jägers were attached to the following:
1 Company to what was commonly referred to as the Fusilier Brigade in the 4th Division.
1 Company to each of the 'British' brigades in the 5th Division (Hence, 2 companies in total in this division).

Check out Capitan Games figures (28mm), very nice & sculpted by Michael Broadbent I believe:

link

I have some of these and will happily post some pics when I return home to the UK (within the next week).

Kind Regards

Mike

Hello, GeorgieMike:

I look forward to seeing your Brunswickers in a week or two!

How do these figures look with Victrix British in plastic? Oddly, my Victrix are just as tall a my Stadden 30mm British from the 1970's but more bulky. I used both in their own units, 32 to 40 each.

These Brunswickers, painted in dark green coats, should be great if they are big enough. I hope to game again someday, and want my rifle units mounted on an "ovoid" base with one firing, two others in different positions. I intend to allow line infantry to fire each sequence, but only one rifle. They took much longer to reload.

GdeP

GDP
I have painted up the Capitan Oels and they are slightly larger than my Perry British – and similar to my Front Rank British in size.

Can post pics if required.

GdeP,

I can't comment on the size of the Capitan figures next to Victrix plastics, indeed, I don't own any plastics at all, my collection is all metal I'm afraid.

As Gustav points out, size wise (from memory also) I believe they are similar to Perry (metals) & Front Rank. So I would think they'd blend in OK with your collection, especially since you probably wouldn't mix any other manufacturer on the same bases. Perhaps Gustav, you could post some size comparison shots for GdeP?

Kind Regards

Mike

I started doing French, British, Portuguese and Spanish back in the 1960's for the Peninsular War, and have very few top-flight sculpts to work with. Our group used Stadden 30mm for the French, and some British. "Willy" – Charles Suren – did figures that I regarded "useful," and converted many Prussian, Bavarian, Austrian, and Russian to Spanish "irregulars" or regulars with catch-all equipment.

I fell behind on the allies, and have been catching up using Victrix Plastic 28mm. I find the Stadden 30mm to be smaller that the French Staddens, but the same height at Victrix – but thinner, less "chunky."

I will probably use Front Rank metal for the 2nd Nassau in the IV the Corp German Division, and Front Rank Young Guard to do the Frankfurt Battalion. I have no Front Rank figures, but suspect they would go well with Victrix in size and bulk.

Who can go wrong using 3 figures by Capitan, detached to skirmish?

GdeP

GdeP, sounds like a good plan to me!

I'm sure the Capitan Brunswick Oel Jägers will work fine, nice sculpts and not too small as far as 28mm goes.

Front Rank figures are very nice and simply getting better, especially with the new reinforcement packs. I'm a big fan of almost anything the Perry's have produced as well.

I like the sound of your project and particularly the less common units such as the Frankfurt Battalion. I look forward to hearing / seeing more.

My own personal project involves recreating Wellington's entire Peninsula army in 28mm (metal); infantry battalions 24-32 figures each and cavalry regiments 12 figures each (artillery as well of course, most batteries 2 guns with 8-9 figures). I'm slowly getting there with approximately 64 battalions done so far & about 10 cavalry regiments. What's making the progress slower is that I'm trying to get more French & their allies (mainly Italians) painted up of late so I have enough to have a game utilising just my collection (if need be).

I have had to go down the route of getting most of them professionally painted these past couple of years as well, since I work away a lot and time is limited when I'm at home (young family and all).

Kind Regards

Mike

That is amazing! 64 battalions done so far – over 1,000 figures. How many battalions with the entire army be?

I always has a hard time deciding which units to do. Some units, like the 14th Foot, were only in the Peninsula under Moore, and until Corunna. So I did not consider them.

I once planned to do 48 "French" battalions of about 36, but have cut back to 36 – not likely to reach before death! One battalion from each of the Ist Corps 1st Division, plus a battalion of sailors (siege of Cadiz) seem to be in reach. I had 9th leger; 24th de ligne; 96th de ligne, all Staddens. 1

Got cut off earlier, but just wanted to say 15 British battalions will be enough for me!

I admire your enthusiasm – and youth!

GdeP

Cheers GdeP,

My club members have labelled me a bit of a megalomaniac!

Luckily (in a way) my only interest with regards to owning figures and building up a collection is Napoleonic's (although I like gaming / reading about other periods).

I'm about half way there with Wellington's army. I've got a definite 133 Anglo-Portuguese battalions planned in total, not including extras such as the detached Brunswick Oel Jägers. That total also includes those 100 days units that weren't actually in the Peninsula such as 3/14th, 33rd, 2/69th & 2/73rd. The only ones I probably won't bother with are the battalions such as the likes of Aylmer's brigade of 'chocolate soldiers' which came out at the end of 1813 / start of 1814, like the 2/62nd & 2/84th – they hardly featured at all.

That's the current plan anyway!

Kind Regards

Mike

GdeP and others,

As with the 91st Foot (on its relevant thread), sorry for the delay but here are some pics of my Brunswick Oel Jägers detached companies for the 4th & 5th Divisions.

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Kind Regards

Mike

And, as you are probably aware, these Brunswick Jaeger rifle companies combined with the light companies of the battalions in their brigades to form temporary small "light battalions" whenever the brigade marched or faced the enemy.

Wellington's General Order to this effect is below:

Extract from General Order issued at Coimbra on 4 May 1809

3. The light infantry companies belonging to, and the riflemen attached to each brigade of infantry, are to be formed together, on the left of the brigade, under the command of a Field Officer or Captain of light infantry of the brigade, to be fixed upon by the Officer who commands it. Upon all occasions, in which the brigade may be formed in line, or in column, when the brigade shall be formed for the purpose of opposing an enemy, the light infantry companies and riflemen will be of course in the front, flanks, or rear, according to the circumstances of the ground, and the nature of the operation to be performed. On all other occasions, the light infantry companies are to be considered as attached to their battalions, with which they are to be quartered or encamped, and solely under the command of the Commanding Officer of the battalion to which they belong.

Rod