Waterloo in 20mm: June 2018

Monday 25 June 2018

Hanoverian Battalions at Waterloo

I'm presently working on the 51st King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry. I've pretty much finished the figures, but research indicates that they acted as flank guard and were not in square - given their much more dispersed positions, it's going to take me a while to create a terrain section to reflect their role.

So in the meantime, I've done some research on the Hanoverians. There is no subject more fiendishly complicated than that of the Hanoverian Field and Landwehr battalions at Waterloo. The battalions were in four brigades: those of Hugh Halkett, Kielmansegge, Vincke and Best.

Siborne's notes for his Waterloo Letters covers the subject in detail, but other sources contradict him to some extent. Colours of coats, leather equipment and headdress are subjects of controversy, all made harder by the fact that the Hanoverian Army was formed at short notice in 1813 and 1814, using surplus British stock and then morphed into new units with new equipment in 1815. Siborne describes the shakos as either:

'Portuguese', by which he meant Belgic, as follows:

or 'Tapered' (stovepipe), as worn prior to 1812 by British Line battalions and by Light Regiments until 1816:

Based on Siborne, the Hanoverians were dressed and organised as follows:

2nd Division, 3rd Brigade – Colonel Halkett. North of Hougoumont

Osnabrück Landwehr Battalion. Red jackets with dark blue facings and grey pantaloons. All of the leather equipment was white. The battalion wore shakos of a tapered design, for which no foul weather covers existed.
Quakenbrück Landwehr Battalion. Red jackets with dark blue facings and grey pantaloons. All of the leather equipment was black. The battalion wore shakos of a Portuguese design, which were normally supplied with the foul weather cover, worn as standard in all types of weather, to ensure that the headdress remained in good order.
Salzgitter Landwehr Battalion. Red jackets with dark blue facings and grey pantaloons. All of the leather equipment was white. The battalion wore tapered shakos.

Bremervörde Landwehr Battalion. Red jackets with dark blue facings and grey pantaloons. All of the leather equipment was white. The battalion wore tapered shakos.

There is a note in Siborne's Waterloo Letters stating that the Hanoverian battalions of this brigade had British Trotter packs that were painted yellow. Could this have been true of all Hanoverian battalions?

3rd Division, 1st Brigade – Major-General Count von Kielmansegge - to the north-west of La Haye Sainte.

Lüneburg Light Infantry Battalion. Green jackets with black facings and green pantaloons. All of the leather equipment was black. The battalion wore shakos of a Portuguese design. Other sources suggest blue trousers, not green for this battalion, while others suggest that only the officers wore the blue trousers.

Kielmansegge's Feldjäger Corps. Green jackets with light gree facings and grey pantaloons. All of the leather equipment was black. The Jägers wore tapered shakos.

The York and Grubenhagen battalions were in one double battalion square consisting of:

the Duke of York Light Infantry Battalion. Red jackets with dark blue facings and grey pantaloons. All of the leather equipment was white. The battalion wore shakos of a Portuguese design. This battalion was previously named the Benigsen Field Battalion and was originally equiped with British tropical issue shakos. Siborne states that all shakos were black in 1815, but it would be interesting if some of this battalion had retained its white tropical headgear.

and the Grubenhagen Light Infantry Battalion: Red jackets with dark green facings and grey pantaloons. All of the leather equipment was black. The battalion wore tapered shakos.

The Bremen and Verden battalions were in one double battalion square consisting of:

the Verden Light Infantry Battalion. Red jackets with light green facings and grey pantaloons. All of the leather equipment was white. The battalion wore shakos of a Portuguese design. There is one source that shows this battalion with a very strangely placed plume:

Knotel shows the uniform more conventionally:

and the Bremen Light Infantry Battalion. Red jackets with black facings and dark blue pantaloons. All of the leather equipment was black. The battalion wore shakos of a Portuguese design.

5th Division, 5th Brigade – Vincke.

Hameln Landwehr Battalion. Red jackets with dark blue facings and either grey or white pantaloons. All of the leather equipment was white. The battalion wore tapered shakos.
Giffhorn Landwehr Battalion. Red jackets with dark blue facings and grey pantaloons. All of the leather equipment was white. The battalion wore tapered shakos.

Hildesheim Landwehr Battalion. Red jackets with light yellow facings and grey pantaloons. All of the leather equipment was white. The battalion wore shakos of a Portuguese design.
Peine Landwehr Battalion. Red jackets with light yellow facings and grey pantaloons. All of the leather equipment was white. The battalion wore shakos of a Portuguese design.

4th Brigade – Colonel Best

Lüneburg Landwehr Battalion. Red jackets with dark blue facings and grey pantaloons. All of the leather equipment was white. The battalion wore tapered shakos.
Osterode Landwehr Battalion. As above.
Verden Landwehr Battalion. As above.
Münden Landwehr Battalion. As above.

Best and Vincke's brigades probably saw the least action of any formations at Waterloo, despite the intense fighting to their right in Picton's Division and to their left with the Nassauers around Papelotte. For much of the day they stood in one giant square (really a rectangle) which must have been quite a sight.

Some sources disagree with Siborne:

The Grubenhagen Field Battalion is sometimes shown in dark green rifle uniform with black facings.
The Osterode Landwehr - all other sources show with green facings.
Kielmansegge's Field Jager corps is usually shown with a Prussian style Landwehr cap (dark green with a light green band).

A common trait is now to show all Hanoverian militia in red Prussian style Landwehr caps (see below).

While it makes sense for the Feldjagers to be so attired, I'm less sure of the others: it's a trend that seems to have caught on without much substance behind it. I'm sure some soldiers in these battalions might have been issued with this headdress, but in the beat-up exercises that preceded the campaign, some fairly exacting inspections by formation commanders would have disallowed such liberties.

Siborne doesn't distinguish between officers' and other ranks' headdress. Other sources suggest Landwehr officers wore Belgic/Portuguese shakos, while their men wore tapered.

Siborne shows Field Battalion Luneburg with Portuguese/Belgic shakos, but Richard Knotel states that they wore Rifles shakos:

Having tried to explain the uniform and equipment of the Hanoverians, it is also interesting to explore their competence. There is a tendency to view the KGL as the elite German element of the Allied Army at Waterloo and to assume that their fellow Hanoverians were of lesser quality. A very different and in my view compelling perspective is provided by the GOC of Halkett's Brigade, General Clinton.

Clinton was a veteran of the Peninsula and had exacting standards which he expected the troops under his command to meet during the preparatory training. For someone who did not suffer fools gladly, Clinton became increasingly impressed by the Hanoverians in Halkett's Brigade.

"There is every disposition in the officers and men to discharge their duty as is apparent by the manner in which they do what they understand and know to be their duty viz, keeping in order all that is entrusted to their care. In no regiment of the British is the ammunition in the order in which it is in these newly raised & militia battalions. Their companies too are more complete, every man is distinctly and satisfactorily accounted for."

Sunday 3 June 2018

Production Line

After 50 years of collecting, I've quite a backlog. My system for bringing my units up to scratch is to assemble the figures from various boxes. Some are already painted, others in lesser states of preparedness. I then make up numbers with conversions, usually of kneeling figures of which there are rarely enough.

Here is the 51st King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry in the early stages. The figures are a mix of the two Hat sets, Emhar, Kennington, Newline, various DKs and Hinton Hunt.

The 51st had green facings so all of these figures will need to conform, and the yellow Regimental Colour will be changed.

I reckon this would usually take me about a month but I'm travelling quite a lot at the moment so it may take longer.

3rd Battalion King's German Legion

3 KGL was part of Du Plat's Brigade. Its light company was detached to form a composite battalion with the other light companies of the Brigade. I've previously posted on a different battalion of this brigade so won't repeat previous comments.

While the KGL are generally recognised as experienced troops, their GOC, General Clinton, was a hard task master and found fault in all four battalions of Du Plat's brigade during pre-campaign training as this letter from Clinton illustrates:

"I left Ath early this morning and superintended the exercise of Colonel du Plat's Brigade on that pasturage from ten till two, these battalions are very backward and very awkward in said exercise. Three of the commanding officers out of four are so near sighted as not to be able to determine whether their battalions are properly deployed, they are besides slow and incorrect in all their movements as well in circulating the word of command, In marching in column these officers rarely preserve their distance or march upon the true alignment. In marching in line, the first principle of touching to the centre and keeping the head straight are not understood, the commanding officers do not sufficiently attend to ascertaining the true perpendicular, or having ascertained it to ensure the advanced sergeants continuing to march upon it. The deployments are full of faults, in charging with bayonets they got into a run without any order and allowed themselves to be thrown into confusion."

Things got better a few days later, but the criticism is still intense:

"The deployment was rather better performed this day, the chief failing was in the incorrect dressing of the heads of the battalion columns in this line. The march in line was defective from the bad direction of the directing battalion, the correcting of the line by the Colour delayed from some of the commanding officers not knowing at which point to place themselves. The retreat to Soignies was not well performed from the distance from the named battalion for direction not being duly observed. The halted battalions omit to form themselves by throwing back the outward flanks of their flank division the 8th of the circle. When the four deep on the centre formed column, the commanding officer omitted to name to which flank the divisions were to dress, which exposed them to the inconvenience of dressing to two points and the subsequent opening of their files. In marching in column very little attention is paid to the preservation of distances."

There is a modern prejudice that Napoleonic tactical drills were somehow very simple - these complex observations by Clinton illustrate the standards required by battle hardened commanders of the Peninsula when preparing a much less experienced army in 1815. Clinton's exacting standards seem to have paid dividends at Waterloo.

3 KGL was commanded by Colonel Frederick von Wissell. Wissell took command of 3 KGL on 8 September 1814. He had previously served in the Baltic in 1807 and the Mediterranean between 1808 and 1812. He served in Spain in 1813 and the South of France in 1814. At Waterloo he took command of the brigade after Du Plat was severely wounded. He was placed on half pay from 21 February 1816. In 1820 he was brevet colonel in the Hanoverian 2nd Battalion of Guards. He died at Wiesbaden on 16 December 1820.

Du Plat's brigade suffered a disproportionately higher casualty rate at 27.6% of its total strength (about 30% of the losses in the Division). 3 KGL suffered the worst, at 29.7%.

The KGL uniform was very similar to the Foot Guards, but the Flank Company wings, while sometimes shown with a blue background, are generally thought to have been red.

In the rear three ranks, the figures are mostly Hinton Hunt, with Douglas, Rose, Alberken and a few DK thrown in. The front rank are mostly improvised plastics.