"Dettingen – French Defeat or British Victory?" Topic

"Whilst the final manuscript for CAM 307 ‘Fontenoy 1745 – Cumberland's bloody defeat' was in the process of being published, my thoughts naturally turned to possibilities for my next project for Osprey. Originally the idea had been to revisit Marlborough's campaigns and suggest a treatment of either Oudenarde or Malplaquet, but one aspect of Fontenoy which kept coming back to me was the incident where Lord Charles Hay of the British Foot Guards apparently chided the officers and men of the Gardes Francaises for their conduct at the Battle of Dettingen two years previously and, as 18th century battles go, it is quite well-known: King George II at the head of a British army marching towards the town of Hanau finds its path blocked by a French army near the village of Dettingen, and sweeps it aside in a hail of musketry before continuing on to its objective.

The thought continued to germinate, and in the summer of 2018 a friend of mine – Robert Hall – called me out of the blue to see if I would like to attend a talk on the Battle of Dettingen which was being given by Herr Helmut Winter, a local historian and authority on the battle. I didn't need to be asked twice and, getting an early train from Cologne, I eventually arrived at Hanau where Robert picked me up and we drove to the Geschichtsmuseum at Karlstein am Main where the talk was taking place…"

link

Main page

link

Amicalement
Armand

We wargamed it once and the poor decision making switched sides. At the end King George was a guest of the French.

(smile)

Amicalement
Armand