"Info on Battle of Hasselt 1831? (Belgian revolution)" Topic

Inspired by a trip to Brussels, one of the gang was wondering whether there were any big battles worth gaming from the Belgian Revolution of 1830-1831. I had a quick look and it seems as though the Battle of Hasselt, 8 August 1831, could have some mileage: 3 Dutch divisions vs maybe half their number of Belgians.
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I also found this, which gives some useful detail:
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But can any of you knowledgeable TMPers point me to other good sources?

Chris

Bloody Big BATTLES!
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bloodybigbattles.blogspot.co.uk

Most of the available "sources" or general books on the 1831 campaign are in Dutch. i am not aware of readily available material in English. However the 1831 campaign (10 days campaign) is quite interesting from a wargamers perspective as it offers several fairly small battles/actions of about divional size within a limited period of time and a fairly small area. Ideal for a short everning game or for a manageable campaign (as we did some years ago) Before Hasselt there was the smaller combat of Houthalen/Zonhoven whereby a small Dutch division (reserve division of only "schutterlij" volunteers hold firm against a much larger Belgian force of the army of the Meuse. The main battle at hasselt is a very clear Dutch victory The Belgian army is then i full retreat, there are some prelimary fights around Leuven on the last day of the campaign where the Belgian are again in dire straight and then the campaign comes to an abrupt end with the French intervention saving the Belgian state and army. A good set up for the min campaign can be this time factor where the Dutch have to move fast before international interference will stop their advance and where theBelgians must slow the Dutch down while awaiting international aid.
Both armies fought in an essentially Napoleonic style and the general appearance of the troops was not so different from that of the Dutch army at Waterloo. So we used our 1815 Dutch and some late period French (mainly in greatcoats for the Belgians. Both armies were fairly new with few seasoned veterans. The Belgian army included a big proportions of foreign mercenaries, was well equipped but poorly organised and poorly led. The Dutch were better organised but still had many raw voluteer units but was highly motivated to extract revenge on the Belgians.After the 10 days campaign the general sentiment in the North was that "honour was saved" and that the army had performed well but that it was pointless to go up against the major powers. So the fighting ended (exception Antwerp defended by Napoleonic veteran Chassé) but it would last untill 1839 untill the final peace treaties were signed and the armies could be demobilised. Again sorry that I cannot direct you to good books in English about the topic as I have most of my books about it in Dutch.

Thanks, Marcel, that's really interesting. Great to hear you had a successful mini-campaign out of this.

My favoured mode is not 'free' campaigns in which players can make top-level strategic choices. I prefer 'episodic' campaigns in which players essentially fight the historical battles, with just some minor 5% advantage if they won the previous battle.

That being so, I'd really be interested please in any sources you recommend that give actual OOBs, detailed terrain maps, and detailed accounts of the actual battles. Don't worry, language not a major obstacle, recommendations of books in Dutch welcome. Are there one or two in particular that you'd encourage me to look at?

Chris

A good introduction to the campaign though an older book is "De Tiendaagse Veldtocht. De Belgische Opstand 1830/1831" by Johan P. Nater oubkished in 1980 (ISBN 90 22283868 4) by Unieboek Bussum. A more recent book is "Het verloren Vaderland. Het Verenigd Koninkrijk der Nederlanden1815-1830." by Karim Van Overmeire, published by uitgeverij Egmont in 2005. I have some other books here as well but cannot find them at the moment. I can also suggest you get in touch with the above mentionned author Karim Van Overmeire (you can google him or find him on FB) He is the one who ran the campaign back then an has a huge archive of OOB's, battlemaps used for wargames etc. Hope this helps you in the way a bit

Fantastic – thanks, Marcel!

Good show. Was thinking of that war as well as a future BBB project.