The British (Legion) Are Coming

Things are now picking up speed with my new little project that is Orinoco Miniatures. The first box of multiple packs of the British Legion figures should now be with me by 27th May. These will be available for order straight away by e-mail request, as I can then send a PayPal money request for orders and then post them out.

There will be an e-Shop for Orinoco Miniatures set up over the next week or so to make the process much easier for all, once I have the hosting arrangements ironed out. Now all that is required are eager customers :-).

As you can see, there is also now an official logo for the range. Fear not mis valientes, there will be more interesting developments and new figures in the near future to follow up the British Legion, so keep your eyes peeled on the Orinoco blog.

 

 http://orinoco-miniatures.blogspot.cz/

South American Wars of Liberation reading and gaming guides

I was out yesterday in my local supermarket in Prague, looking for an easy white for dinner, when I found this lovely and had to laugh - vina MAIPO - we have the wine, we have the battle, now we just need the figures...

 

Anyway, as part of my new venture into the realms of all things South American (well in 28mm at least), I've posted up a review of books and campaigns guides over at my Orinoco Miniatures blog (http://orinoco-miniatures.blogspot.cz/)

All cut-and-thrust kinda stuff, so please do pop over and have a look. Cheers!

Orinoco / Perry Miniatures 28mm scale comparison

For those that are interested in a scale comparison of the new 28mm Liberation Wars figures, please see below 2 new generic flank company sculpts (WIP) compared to a Perry Miniatures Plastic French Miniature.

As you can see the scale really is compatible, especially for those who have built up forces already in this scale.  These also  match up very well against Victrix miniatures as well. Please bear in mind that the two greens are still a work in progress. I hope you like them.

Wellington’s veterans in the New World

 

       

As mentioned in my New Year’s resolutions, I have been planning a new project in 28mm. So here is the first step in a range of figures which I hope will be as appealing to others as the period and wars of South American Liberation are to me. In summary, perfect small scale and colourful battles from the end of the Napoleonic wars.

Straight off the boat from Britain and Ireland, this was the first of the British Legions to fight in the wars of Spain (pre-dating the British Legion of the Carlist Wars by nearly 20 years). 

These 5000 veterans of Wellington’s disbanding army were a mixture of mostly English, Scottish and Irish soldiers, who were to constitute the elite troops of Simon Bolivar’s Patriot army. They fought in all the decisive battles of the wars of Liberation in the North: starting in 1818 in Venezuela, and Colombia, and finally after 6 years of hard fighting to the decisive battles in Peru in 1824.

Simon Bolivar valued these troops highly for their grit and espirit de corps, and their graveyards and memorials are testament to their effort and sacrifice on the battlefields of South America. Needless to say they captured my imagination, and hence I set about getting them sculpted up in 28mm.

This first unit packs include a command pack, marching, advancing, and skirmishing/firing line figures, all with covered 1816 issue Prussian style British Shakos. This is more than enough to capture the variety of poses and configurations for representing this unit on the table top.

 

I have had some good input directly from Terry Hooker on the accuracy of the uniforms, plus reference to many period prints as well as the very useful book on the subject from Grenadier Productions. The figures themselves are compatible in scale to Perry Miniatures.

These figures will be quickly followed by Spanish and Gran Colombian/ Patriot infantry, then artillery and cavalry. The next two units of Spanish and Gran Colombian Infantry are already at an advanced stage. These will be available for sale in the very near future, and in the following days you can follow the progress of these over at the main site for Orinoco Miniatures (the name for the new range). http://orinoco-miniatures.blogspot.cz/

Certainly I am very interested to hear your feedback on these, and requests/suggestions for any particular units from the Liberation wars that you would like to see me do next. Please do pass on links to this and news of the range to your friends.

LIBERTAD O MUERTE!

The Battle of Prague 1757

The weekend before the club made the trip to the Salute show in London, I had to drive Mrs.Goose out to a retail outlet on the east of Prague. Now a lot of this area is grim, with one or two industrial estates and a very large incinerator (which for navigation purposes can more or less be easily seen from most points in the city).

There are though some untouched open areas on the site of the main Prussian attack during the battle of Prague, which are situated in the Sterboholy district (this would be Sterbohol in any of the old Austrian maps of the battle).

Battle of Prague, 6 May 1757 - Attempted envelopment. 

Source : The Department of History, United States Military Academy

Sterboholy is at the southern end of a low rise/hill that runs south for a couple of kilometres from Malesice (Maleschitz) . It was on the line of this that Browne relocated the right wing of his army to face the Prussian flanking manoeuvre by the General von Schwerin.

Here is a view from the Austrian positions on higher ground overlooking the plain on which the Prussians approached.

The old story goes that von Schwerin mistook the green landscape in this district for meadows, when in fact the area was a patchwork of drained fish ponds, water meadows and streams. As the Prussians ploughed through the fields they quickly became bogged down in the mud, whilst the Austrians surveying the scene from drier heights opened up a murderous artillery barrage upon them. 

Here are the water meadows passed over by the Prussians when attacking the Austrian position

 The Prussians would have attacked from right to left in these pictures

As you can see the fields are still drained by numerous stream beds, and often flood after heavy rain.

It was during this point that von Schwerin was hit by a cannonball and killed outright.

 

Memorial to General von Schwerin on the battlefield at Steboholy

If the Austrians had held their ground here they would have won the day. They held the commanding grounds, with well-placed artillery and secure flanks. Unfortunately for them, around the same time as von Schwerin’s death, General von Brown (this blogs patron) was mortally wounded and carried back into to Prague (to die from his wounds days later)

The memorial to von Browne on the battlefield

With effective command passed to junior officers, the Austrians decided to attack the weakened Prussians, but in doing so opened up both their flanks. The Prussian brigades under General Bevern saw the opportunity and poured infantry through the gap on their left flank to the north, while the Prussian cavalry under von Ziethen did the same to their south. Their flanks turned and with the Prussians pushing at them again form the centre, the Austrians crumbled and fell back within the walls of Prague.

 The Prussians attacked up the rising ground here towards the Austrians (roughly in the direction of the chimney in this photo)

Above you can see the ground the Prussians marched over coming from Dolni Pocernice (Unter Pocernitz)

Though the Prussians won the day (just), they did not have enough troops left to storm the city, and their now depleted numbers would be completely routed the following month at the Battle of Kolin by General Daun (a post I promise in the coming months once I get a chance to drive back out to Kolin to take some pictures). This more or less put paid to Frederick the Great's attempt to snatch Bohemia away from the Austrians, as he had done with Silesia. For the rest of the Seven Year's war the Prussians were on the defensive, and it was only the inability of the Austrians and Russians to effectively cooperate in the east which saved Prussia.

Today there is a small memorial to the fallen of the battle on the site of the main Prussian attack, the fields around full of horse paddocks.

You can get here easily by bus from the last metro station on the green line, though a car is obviously better.

And the band played "Waltzing Matilda"...

 

Royal Dublin Fusiliers at Gallipoli

A short post as way of remembrance on ANZAC Day for all the Aussies and Kiwis who fought and survived, or died in many wars. It is the memory of the Gallipoli campaign which automatically springs to mind, where the ANZACs pitted themselves against "Johnny Turk" in a misjudged campaign as bloody and pointless as it was iconic.

 

Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers landing on the beaches at Gallipoli, 25th. April 1915. 

It also has some resonance in Ireland, as along with the ANZACs fought the 10th (Irish) Division), including two battalions of the Royal Munster Fusilier's (mostly from my home town of Cork), and also included regiments from Ulster, Leinster and Connacht. They landed and fought at Suvla Bay, and the disarmingly named "Chocolate Hill".

The Munster Fusiliers received almost 70% casualties on 25th April 1915, as they were landed on Cape Helles under a hail of Turkish machine gun fire. Those that survived, or landed later, shared the Anzac's privations, clinging to the rocks at the end of the Dardenelles, and as an old Irish song (The Foggy Dew) laments "and their lonely graves are by Suvla's waves or the fringe of the great North Sea"

My family have a closer connection to the ANZACs as well, my Grandmother's cousin (so I suppose my cousin too), was the middle-aged parish priest of Osborne Park, Perth in 1941 when war with Japan started.

As most of the lads in his parish joined up, he thought he should go with his flock, so enlisted as well at the tender age of 46 as an Army Chaplain. He was first generation Irish born in Hobart, his father having served in the Australian artillery in WW1

Typical of the cliche about the crazy Irish combat chaplains, he survived the war, though I am sure many of his flock did not. One story about him recounted that the closest he got to his maker during the campaign was when he was running up some hill in Papua New Guinea, a nervous recruit behind him slipped and fell and his gun went off, the bullet grazing the top of his ear. It might even be true. Anyway, this fine chap, at the grand age of 67 jumped on a boat in Australia in 1961, and sailed for 6 weeks all the way to Cork just to marry my young parents, which gives a bit of light after all the loss of war.

Given the day I think it fitting to end with Ataturk's compassionate memorial quote for the war dead at Gallipoli:

 "Those heroes that shed their blood
And lost their lives.
You are now lying in the soil of a friendly country.
Therefore rest in peace.
There is no difference between the Johnnies
And the Mehmets to us where they lie side by side
Here in this country of ours.
You, the mothers,
Who sent their sons from far away countries
Wipe away your tears,
Your sons are now lying in our bosom
And are in peace
After having lost their lives on this land they have
Become our sons as well."