Brief Walking Post

The Margravina and I had our constitutional this morning, walking across Richmond Park to Petersham and the River Thames. We stopped off for hot drinks at the Hollyhocks cafe in Terrace Gardens. Surely one of, if not the, most beautiful spot to drink coffee in London.

We naturally had to pay our respects to the local deity.

The river is just beyond the grass

I love these roots. Looking like something out of Tolkien

This floral display, obviously dating from 5 months ago is still clear. Just beyond the hedge is the statue of Old Father Thames

The cafe

Fascinating explanation of the early industrial period of the site, before it was converted to a park. Maybe the clay quarrying explains the form of the landscape, which has some very steep banks in parts (see the picture of the roots above).

'Grotto' entrance to the park, from the riverside path. This runs under the main road in to Richmond from the Kingston direction.

The river rolling along down to the mighty sea.

Having crossed Petersham Meadows we looked in on the graveyard at St Peter's Church. The war memorial maintained by the CWGC

By my reckoning Captain Stuart was great nephew of Napoleon. It soon becomes clear that this is a graveyard for well-connected/influential people.

On a previous walking post, I mentioned the count, who was remembered on a bench by the riverside path.

More aristocracy, this time, German. 

Lots of members of the Tollemache family here, including many who served their country and in some cases made the ultimate sacrifice (see the third picture of the war memorial).

Hard to read the name, but I do remember this was for a colonel of the Oxon Regiment (Ox & Bucks?)

Clearly many Canadians visit. There were signs pointing towards this grave. I was surprised by the date. I would have assumed he was around in the early 19th century.

The food in the cafe looked tempting, but it was a little early for lunch, so we made our way back to the Schloß. Bar the stop to walk around the graveyard, we strode home at a goodly pace. Round trip of c 8km/5 miles.

The Dutch are coming!

....and Hessians, Brunswickers, Schaumburger-Lippers* and Reichsarmee. And a few more Piedmontese and Hanoverians. As I've more or less completed the Saxons, Piedmontese and Spanish for the WAS and SYW, I started looking around for other gaps. And there were a lot. I hadn't got all of Britain's allies from His Britannic Majesty's Army/The Army of Observation, so that meant the Hessians etc.had to be ordered. And then there was the other big participant in the Pragmatic Army, the Dutch. And I only have one 1/2 unit for the Reichsarmee (made up of odd grenadiers left over from previous recruiting drives.

* Can anyone tell me what the correct demonym is for folk from Schaumburg-Lippe is? They only made up 1 battalion of line infantry, plus a small squadron of light cavalry and small company of jägers. A fraction of game unit at my normal scale.

"More blue-coated 18th century infantry?! Why not use those Prussians over there. He's used them before in the Fontenoy games. Who can tell at this scale that they're not Dutch?" "Well Sire, he mumbled something about the flags looking different."

My first step was to trawl through, Kronoskaf for orders of battle for the various German contingents and work out how many I would need for the biggest battles. However, the Dutch only fought in the War of the Austrian Succession, which is not covered by Kronoskaf. So I looked through the 2 volume For Orange and the States. The numbers of Dutch engaged in open battle (even at the big set-pieces of Roccoux and Lauffeldt, seemed relatively small compared to their whole establishment**, so I double-checked with any orders of battle that I could find on line. These seemed to back up For Orange and the States, so I went with a relatively small contingent of 6 foot and 4 cavalry brigades. The orders of battle, and maps, can be found in this excellent resource owned by HM KCIII https://militarymaps.rct.uk/war-of-the-austrian-succession-1740-8/1747/first-section

** many troops were in the many fortresses of the Low Countries.

My astute reader would have noticed the omission of the Swedes from that list. The Swedish were part of the coalition against Old Fritz in the SYW, and also fought the Russians in the intriguingly named "Hats' War" in the 1740s. But when I looked into the battles they fought, they were mostly divisional or brigade sized actions, and therefore not the level I normally game at. So I decided not to order anything for them. Maybe another day.

After some humming and ahhing about an Ottomon army of the period, I placed an order for about 30 game units of westerners (call it an early birthday/Christmas present).

Postscript

No sooner have I ordered the Hessians etc, I painted the first unit. To be honest these were leftover from my last 'augmentation. Here they are with a base (half game unit/half brigade) of Piedmontese grenadiers. The Italian lads were also left overs. I have enough leftover infantry for 3 or 4 more bases, which might become the first contribution to the Dutch and Reichsarmee. 

The newly painted chaps haven't had their bases painted and flocked yet, just sprinkled with chinchilla dust. [No rodents were harmed in the creation of the dust.

Hessian cavalry - based on the Pruschenk regiment of horse, chosen because of the sky blue cuffs and saddlecloths. Poor attempt to paint the Hessian Lion on the squadron colour. The sqn colour was again chosen because of the sky blue, rather than the Leibstandard, which is mainly white. Slightly out of focus, are the Piedmontese grenadiers (using H&R Austrian grenadiers in fur hats).

AARs on a vlog!

Something or other made me search for Twilight of the Soldier Kings on YouTube. I was intending to look up the rule writer's videos, but found a new vlog that I hadn't come across before. Now this chap has done the Battle of Prague, 1757, and very good it looks too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5aXey2xA3w&t=29s

There are also Napoleonic and WSS games on there. All in glorious 6mm Sound n Vision.

Well that was quick

Finally, I got around to playing Camposanto. I played the game without any special scenario tweaks to Twilight of the Soldier Kings, other than to treat the armies as single 'wings' with army/wing morale being necessary at 50% of units lost. The game took about 45 minutes.

After 2 turns, the Austro-Piedmontese are advancing slowly to contact. The cavalry are keeping pace with the infantry to have the extra support when contact is made. An Austrian foot unit on their right is taking hits from Spanish gunfire. The second line of Spanish infantry are marching to their right flank to prevent them being outflanked.

A couple more turns in, the cavalry has clashed and after resisting manfully, the Spanish are routed, a brigade of Piedmontese infantry having swung into the combat to led more support. The main infantry lines are engaged in firefights. The allies artillery battery on that flank has been beaten by counter-battery fire, suffering a loss in two successive turns it has been removed from play. In the infantry battle on the allied right wing, the Austrian brigade has been destroyed. First blood to the Spanish!

Two brigades of Austrians bear down on the Spanish Guards. Off to the right (just out of shot) the Swiss (in Piedmontese) have routed the Spanish Castilian brigade.

After 9 turns the allied cavalry is in contact with the Spanish 2nd line infantry on the far right of the picture. The Austrian Pandours are engaging the left wing of the Spanish line to stop them from helping the right wing. An allied has turned to their right and is bearing down on the Walloon Guards. The Swiss and main Austrian infantry force are closing in on the Spanish in the centre.

Next turn both the Spanish and the Walloon Guards have been defeated, as have the infantry on the Spanish far right.

Another view of the same turn. It's all over for the Spanish. A comprehensive defeat.

Reflections:

10 turns is a brief game for me with TOTSK, but the size of forces was small. The sides were fairly balanced, with the Spanish having more infantry but fewer cavalry and artillery. I think the mistake I made with the Spanish was to move the second line to the right so there was effectively only one line of infantry in the middle. There was little support for the first line who were therefore more likely to lose morale tests. Of course there were two units on the Spanish left who were pinned by the Austrian light troops, and not able to help much. The allied units in the main area of action were all supported. A benefit of their 'oblique attack' (the Austrian FM Traun's plan).

I've packed the game away now as the Kriegskabine will be used by the offspring for a last gathering before one goes to study Colouring-In. Will I run it again? Hmmmm! Maybe, but I'm not feeling it at the moment.

Another ‘Churchill’s Spaniards’ Talk

The author, Séan Scullion, is doing another talk on his book. This time at the Royal Engineers Museum on Saturday 14th September.

If you’re within reach of Gillingham, I would recommend it:

https://www.re-museum.co.uk/

Camposanto set-up

I haven't had chance to get the game played yet. It's ready to go though:

View from behind the Spanish position. The town of Camposanto in the middle of the Spanish position. The main Austro-Piedmontese force on the opposite side, with their light troops on the left. The table is 100x60cm.

View from behind the Austro-Piedmontese centre. Flags are hand-painted, some of which I admit to being proud of, especially the double-headed eagle on the left.

Allied cavalry (left) wing

Allied right wing 

Centre of the Spanish line. Part of the Guardias Españolas brigade on the left, then Brigade Castille, and off to the right (their left) the Guardias Vallonas

Spanish right wing.

Churchill's Spaniards

On Friday I had the double pleasure of a talk at the National Army Museum and a meet up with the Ragged Coated Soldier (aka David in Suffolk) over lunchtime.

The talk was by the author of a new book published by Helion and written by Royal Engineers officer who grew up in Spain, Séan Scullion. The subject was fascinating, even moving in parts, and was delivered with humour and modesty by the author.  There were a number of family members of the Spanish veterans in attendance, who had been key to helping provide information in addition to official archives. The subject concerned about 1200 Spanish exiles who served in the British Army (i.e. excluding RN and RAF). They were mostly (all?) either ex-Republican fighters in the Spanish Civil War, or the older ones of the niños vascos (Basque Children - evacuated from Spain). 

Their routes into the British Army were many and varied, including many trials along the way. Just one example: a Spanish unit that had fought under the French in Norway in 1940, were due to be shipped back to France when France was virtually knocked out of the war. Hundreds of Spaniards refused to embark whereupon their French commanders threatened to decimate them, until the British stepped in and agreed to 'take them on'. The Spaniards wanted to stay with the British in order to continue the fight against fascism.

This is really just the small tip of the large iceberg of Spanish exiles after the SCW. Approximately 400,000 went to France alone (including some of those that ended up in British uniform). They were first regarded as a problem by the French in 1939, (themselves being badly politically split), then found useful when war approached, then back to being problematic when France collapsed in 1940. Many found their way to North Africa and French Middle East, as well as Mexico. 10,000 women and children were later rounded up by the Vichy French and sent to a concentration camp in Germany where most of them died.

Some of the Spanish ended up in 2SAS via Middle East Commando, and service in Crete in 1941. One bore the fabulous name of Francesco Geronimo, though he changed it to 'Frank Williams'. 'Williams!' doesn't have the same ring to it as 'Geronimo' when jumping out of a plane! A number of Spaniards who were captured, and were advised by their British Medical Officer to claim to be Gibraltarians to avoid being singled out for 'special treatment' by their captors.

David and I had a really good chat over lunch in the museum's cafeteria afterwards before I headed off back to work. By the way, if you're ever planning to spend time there, beware that mobile signals are very poor inside!

Here are some links and pictures from the display boards at the museum:

After the War, those who settled in Britain, formed their own ex-servicemen's association (see the pics in the Helion link below). This was active at least into the 1970s. One photo of a parade by the Spanish ex-Servicemen's Association, shown at the talk, included one Luis Gabriel Portillo....father of British ex-Conservative minister and railway enthusiast, Michael Portillo. (See top right of the top picture above)

https://www.helion.co.uk/military-history-books/churchills-spaniards-continuing-the-fight-in-the-british-army-1939-46.php

Introduction to the niños vascos

The Basque Children Association