Saturday, January 26, 2019

Grand duchy of Frankfurt Hussars

During the mid nineties my good friend Dean organised a Napoleonic campaign in Sydney. I had quite a large French minifig and old glory army at the time and I had just started to collect Confederation of the Rhine coalition troops. Eventually the campaign got underway and I found that I required Gendarmes to protect my rear and supply lines, so I built a number of Confederation cavalry units to meet the threat. I eventually built five hussar and light dragoon units to fulfil the role, Anhalt chasseurs, Frankfurt Hussars, Saxe-Ducal Hussars, Baden Hussars and Duchy de Berg chasseurs. This year I will be refurbishing my older miniatures bringing them up to current painting style and basing, so all of these units will be on the table at some stage.

In 1806 Frankfurt lost its status as a free imperial city with the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire. Napoleon granted Karl Theodore Anton Maria von Dalberg, Prince Primate and Chairman of the Confederation Council, the former archbishop of Mainz;  received the titles of Prince Primate of Frankfurt, Aschaffenburg,  Regensburg, the possessions of the princes and counts of Lowenstein-Wertheim, Earl of Reineck and Count of Wetzlar. He also remained the Bishop of Worms, Konstanz and Regensburg.

  In 1810 Dalberg relinquished the Principality of Regensburg to the Kingdom of Bavaria, but gained the territories of Hanau and Fulda, raising the principality to the Grand Duchy of Frankfurt. In 1813 the grand duchy temporal offices were passed onto Eugene de Beauharnais, Dalberg passed away in 1817 in Regensburg.

Grand Duchy of Frankfurt Hussars 1809
The actual unit never reached more than 60 strong and we're used as Gendarmes and messengers primarily between the cities of the Duchy. There is only one print of them in existence published in the Herzberg in Augsburg (K.K priv. Kunsthandlung) and is not noted in the Weiland Collection!

 The Frankfurt Hussars had a blue hussar styled Dolman trimmed with yellow braid and buttons. The Pelisse was blue with black lambswool and yellow lace and buttons. the Breeches were also blue, black hussar style boots laced in red. The barrel sash was red and yellow cord, white belts and black cartridge pouch. The horse harness was black with white sheepskin with yellow wolf-teeth edging. The Trumpeter is entirely fictional, but possibly should of been in red as the Ducal colours were red and white.

Duchy of Frankfurt Hussars

Grand Duchy of Frankfurt Hussars




References 
Uniform of the Duchy of Frankfurt

HERZBERG. -- True portraits of all the military costumes of the monarchs of Europe. -- Herzberg, K. K. Akademische Kunsthandlung. Augsburg, 1800-1814. -- Collection of 97 plates in-4, colored with the greatest care, and appearing in parts of 5 sheets. The single plate concerning the troops of Frankfurt is part of the 18th part (Allied troops of France). It gives the following types: Infantry Officer. -- Grenadier. -- Fusilier. -- Hussar.

Carnet de la Sabretache (novembre 1889). -- Reproduction of the plates from Herzberg, discussed above

Tuesday, January 15, 2019

Sarthe, août 1944 Histoire d’un Libération


Sarthe, août 1944, Histoire d’un Libération, Fabrice Avoie


 email the author to order favoieauteur@hotmail.fr

Sarthe, Août 1944, Histoire d'un Libération, Fabrice Avoie 2009




Recently researching fighting around my house and the closure of the Falaise pocket from the south in August 1944 , and reference to this book kept coming up. This book fully covers the breakout from Normandy, through Brittany and Pays de Loire and the push east through, Mayenne and Sarthe to Chartres, then north to close the Falaise pocket. The author spent 15 years attending unit reunions in Germany, France and America, to discover first hand accounts and rare never seen before photographs.

Day to day strength reports for german units in the fighting retreat and trying to hold the Mayenne then Sarthe river lines,.

German units include 
  • 7th Army HQ units
  • 17th SS Division
  • 9th Panzer Division
  • Panzer Lehr division
  • 352nd infantry division
  •  708th infantry division
  •  91st infantry division
  •  77th Infantry division
  • 5th fallschirmjager division
  •  Sicherungs regiment 1, 194, 195 and 196
  • flak elements defending the radar stations at Domfront, Madre, oisseau, 
  • Luftwaffe and Flak elements at Laval and Chartres air bases, 
  • plus scratch kamfgruppes from retreating SS, Wehrmacht, Fallschirmjager and Luftwaffe units

Allied units include

  • US 2nd Armoured Division
  •  5th armoured Division
  • 79th Infantry division
  • 90th infantry division
  • 80th infantry division
  • 106th cavalry division
  •  la 2nd division Blindés Francaise. 
  • Plus air support and ground support units and air communication units.
The hardback book has 440 pages and is well worth the €38 price tag.
Recommend for those interested in the southern flank of the Falaise pocket actions, lots of photos, small unit actions and after battle reports to wade through. Probably the best I have seen in English or French on the southern flank of the German army.

Cheers
Matt

Wednesday, January 9, 2019

Bonne Année & plans for 2019

A Merry Christmas and a Happy new years to all!

I hope you all had a great Christmas and a happy new year to all my followers. We had
our first Christmas and New years celebration at L'hotel de Hercé in France after moving to Mayenne last March. It was fantastic to spend it with family and friends staying with us for two weeks from Australia. A lot good wine, champagne and food for the holidays was consumed. I received a number of great gifts from the kids and from Nessa, mostly books and a few miniatures.

Plans for 2019

Big plans and lots of work for 2019, our first customers arrive in March for walking guided battlefield tours and then return to wargame the battle on the table at L'Hotel de Hercé

My Priority is concentrating on completing armies that relate to battles around our house (within 1 hour drive) so we could visit the battlefield in the morning and return and fight it in the afternoon.

  1. Actually need to complete my terrain tiles, I have completed the teddy bear fur mats, I just need to attach to the tiles and complete the river sections and roads, my main Project for the year, 20ft of table!
  2. More hedges and trees,; you can never have enough hedges, need to add some decent bocage and I really want to make larger trees that are closer to real heights for 28mm.
  3. More terrain bits for 20mm ww2, power poles, war memorials, road side crosses, civilians and livestock.
  4. Complete more 20mm ww2 buildings, mostly Normandy stuff that I have already purchased needs to be painted.
  5. Complete my American 20mm battle group, three more battalions to build and paint plus more vehicles and a few support elements including aircraft.
  6. Complete my British 20mm 1944 battle group, finish painting the three tank batns that I have started, plus paint the funnies, update my Paras with more support, add armoured infantry and complete the gliders and aircraft for Arnhem.
  7. Start my Polish ww2 1944 battle group, armour and infantry.
  8. Complete my French 1944 battle group, need to paint the armour and infantry.
  9. Add more elements to my 1944 Canadian battle group.
  10. Add some more 20mm 1944 Germans particularly Fallschirmjager, and add some SS elements.
  11. Add more figures to my Celtic army, I need to add about 60 figures ideally.
  12. Add more figures to my late medieval army, buildings more Bretons for the Mad War, plus German mercenaries for the same period.
  13. Start my 100 years war French, for the late period Perry miniatures.
  14. Start my 100 years war English, for the late period Perry miniatures.
  15. Add more figs to my early 100 years war French
  16. Add more figures to my early 100 years war Scots (almost complete!)
  17. Start my early 100 years war British army.
  18. Add more figs to my dark age Franks.
  19. Add more figures to my Vikings
  20. Add more figs to my Dark age Normans, Bretons and Anjou-Maine army.
  21. Update my medieval buildings, touch ups mostly.
  22. Build a dark age castle representing St Suzanne
  23. Complete my northern Vendee/Chouan army, lots to do waiting for some more figures
  24. Complete my Baden 1809-12 Napoleonic army, currently on the bench!
  25. Add to my French Napoleonic Army, particulary units useful for my Vendee project, some units on the bench at the moment.
  26. Add to my Austrian 1805-09 Napoleonic Army.
  27. Add to my Russian 1809-12 Napoleonic Army.
  28. complete my Saxon 1809-12 Napoleonic army
  29. Add to my French 1/1200th naval 
  30. Add to my British 1/1200th naval
  31. Gaslands, latest fad at the club, need to add at least five matchbox cars!
So quite a bit of work to do, having clean out of some old projects and non starters too in the coming weeks, all the best with your projects this year.

2018 painted totals

Sort of happy with my totals, a lot of interruption due to the move to France and the 

28mm Miniatures

136 ancient Greeks
30 Celts
15 Imperial Romans
24 Vikings
85 Byzantine infantry
60 Byzantine Cavalry
12 Feudal English
2 siege engines
28mm scatter terrain
3 wagons
16 Renaissance French infantry
24 FIW Indians
18 FIW French
24 French Napoleonic Cuirassiers
4 French Napoleonic cannon
Napoleonic Saxon Ducal Hussars
Napoleonic Frankfurt Hussars
3 Napoleonic French Generals
Baden artillery Battery
24 Modern Russian Infantry

20mm Miniatures

24 British Para
6 dutch vehicles
3 Belgian vehicles
1 civilian bus
1 wagon
1 aircraft
45 Bundeswehr Infantry
2 Bundeswehr APCs
1 soviet arty battery
1 soviet missile battery
8 Gaslands cars
3 bunkers
1 modern building
1 ww2 building
Gaslands terrain

cheers
Matt