Christopher Duffy, 1936-2022. RIP

I couldn't let today go by without noting the sad passing of the great man. This won't be a proper eulogy to Doctor Duffy. That might come later. Now I'll just put down some immediate thoughts and reflections. As a result this post might be rather rambling.

Doctor Duffy's work has been around for most of my wargaming life. In fact his first published book has been around for nearly my whole life. Not that I was aware of it for a long time. My first acquaintance with  the Doctor's prolific body of work was the Army of Frederick the Great, originally published in 1974. I first acquired the book around the age of 15, a much treasured birthday/Christmas present from my big sister and her husband. The level of scholarship was way above anything that I'd read up to that point, and it helped entrench my interest in the SYW. This was as much a product of the style and the wit displayed in the writing as it was of the learning transmitted.

Other books followed and joined my collection. All read several times. Siege Warfare (vols I&II), Fire and Stone, Borodino, The Military Experience in the Age of Reason, Russias Military Way to the West, etc. etc. etc. I even strayed outside my obsession with the Horse & Musket era when Duffy released Through German Eyes about the Somme: a fabulous work. He had that ability to focus on incredible minutiae or nuance, yet also he could pull back and draw some profound and broader conclusion about humanity.

It's fair to say that I have been royally educated and entertained by the works of this man. He has opened up my eyes to whole areas of military history I barely knew existed. Having read the work published earlier this year to accompany the Festschrift in Doctor Duffy's honour, it's clear to see that he has also had a huge influence on professional military historians.

I'll quote two extracts from two of Doctor Duffy's works that I encountered first. The first is the opening paragraph of the preface to Siege Warfare: The Fortress in the Early Modern World, 1494-1660. The second comes from the final paragraph of the first edition of The Army of Frederick the Great. The second addition has an additional section after that).

"Many solemn ventures of mankind are impelled by impulses which are more trivial than the voyagers would care to admit - the rationalisations are often left until later. It so happens that the present work, for all the pomposity of its title, was inspired by nothing more than the sight of a traffic-island of turf and stone in my native Blackheath."

"Perhaps it is more useful to dismiss the preoccupations of the day altogether, and look upon Frederick and his army as manifestations of their own time. That is something which the old devil surely has a right to demand of us."

What was I worried about Iain?

In the first instalment of my Good Weekend posts, I present the following. The commentator, John Moores, is worth hearing.

https://youtu.be/y_1a48thGsg

Oh I forgot to note that Grimsby started the game with no strikers on the pitch. 3 goals by defenders, 2 by a midfielder. Crikey.

Brentford and Turnham Green 1642, Battlefield walks

This post is later than planned. I fell asleep on the sofa on Sunday evening!

On Sunday I attended the Battlefields Trust walks at Brentford and Turnham Green (a couple of miles from each other in west London. Here's a map for context, Brentford in the far west, Turnham Green is at Chiswick just to the east of Brentford. The cities of Westminster and London are the potential prizes for the Royalists in the east.

The guided walks were excellently led by Charlie Cordell and Simon Marsh of the Battlefields Trust. Charlie led the Brentford walk in the morning and Simon, the Turnham Green walk in the afternoon. Each lasted 1.5-2 hours. We were given a very good political and strategic background to the events of 12-14 November 1642. What came across well was that political considerations trumped strategic and tactical ones. This helped to explain some of the decisions taken by the rival generals. We were also given an overview of what the town of Brentford was like in the early 17th century and why it was significant. This was equally valuable context.

The Brentford walk started with an explanation of events close to Syon Park (extreme SW of the above map) where the Royalist advance guard came into contact with a Parliamentarian picket (a company from Holles' foot regiment). We then proceeded up what was then the main road to London from the West Country, stopping at various junctures to have particular parts of the engagement explained, or key features to be pointed out. Obviously the area has changed enormously in the past 380 years, but the substrate is still noticeable rather like the outline of early medieval buildings in aerial photographs of fields. I won't give a blow-by-blow account of the action. You can find this elsewhere, for example here, on Charlie's website:

https://charlescordell.com/brentford-turnham-green-1642/

I've not seen this before, so it will go into my bookmarks folder. There's also this leaflet from the Battlefields trust, which includes a near contemporary map of Brentford, and a map from a survey in the 1740s showing the area of the Turnham Green confrontation.

https://www.battlefieldstrust.com/brentfordandturnhamgreen/images/visiting/Battlefield-Trail-Leaflet.pdf

Whilst it is impossible to see the lie of the land as it was in 1642, it is still possible to get some meaningful insight from these walks. Having walked the Brentford battlefield before, without guides, I have to say you get an awful lot more having the key points and the background explained on the spot as it were. I would highly recommend it.

I'll leave you with a link to the Battlefields trust Events page, and some snaps taken yesterday.

https://www.battlefieldstrust.com/battlefields-events/?fbclid=IwAR3jyKC16Bz3uDNFH3snziZkQnOOnNZOm5DbGJYRJVyYatwIis640nGdfSY

Note that the Trust runs some on-line events, which might be of interest to folk overseas.

View roughly NE from Brentford bridge. River Brent is the right hand fork. left fork is the Grand Union Canal.

Underneath the rail bridge by Turnham Green Tube station. The District Line off the 'Underground' is overground in this area. The maps show the development of Chiswick from the 1590s.

Whilst showing the new Chiswick House a century later (dark area in the centre),  this gives a good idea of the area of the Turnham Green battle. The Royalist right flank was at Chiswick House (then a Jacobean structure). Below that were the meadows - very wet ground, especially in Autumn 1642. The armies faced each other across the open ground to the north. Market gardens and orchards to the west.

View from the left (northern) flank of the Royalists positions towards where the Roundheads were. The legend that Prince Rupert tied his horse to this bench is clearly untrue. He was on the right wing! There is evidence of Parliamentarian cavalry at the other end and just off to the right.

From the same position but looking along the Royalist position.

A Roundhead brigade found itself somewhere in that direction, outflanking the Royalist position, but they were called back by a cautious Earl of Essex. To be fair to Old Robin the days were short and dark, and all he had to do was avoid defeat.

There I told you there was evidence of the Roundhead cavalry!

ECW Battlefield Walks this Sunday

Now then, thanks to Ralphus posting about this http://warsoflouisxiv.blogspot.com/2022/11/battles-of-brentford-and-turnham-green.html, my social life this coming Sunday has taken an interesting uptick.

The Battlefields Trust is running two walks*, one in the morning and one in the afternoon on Brentford and Turnham Green, 1642. I know there's not much to be seen as both areas have been built over, but there's always something to learn.

Link to the Battlefields Trust page here:

https://www.battlefieldstrust.com/battlefields-events/?fbclid=IwAR3jyKC16Bz3uDNFH3snziZkQnOOnNZOm5DbGJYRJVyYatwIis640nGdfSY

There are various other upcoming events around the country in the coming weeks.

Finished. Almost.

Off the production line comes eight and a half brigades of French infantry and half a brigade of cavalry. 18 bases in total. It was quick work, but very much a case of ‘never mind the quality feel the width’. And I didn’t enjoy doing them. It was more of a chore than before.

With the previous batches, this should give me enough French for Hastenbeck or Minden. I think I have enough Anglo-Hanoverians, with Prussians posing as Hessens and Brunswickers, for the same battles, or Austrians posing as Dutch (and themselves) for Fontenoy. 

I say ‘think’ and ‘should’ because I might have made an error or two in my calculations. From my recent order I have left a pack each of infantry and cavalry (enough in each for a brigade) plus odds and sods for another brigade of infantry and half-brigade of cavalry. I shall have to conduct a review against the orbats. 

Post Script: I took an inventory this evening. I do have enough French and Anglo-Hanovarians. The Anglo-Hanovarian foot are all flagged as British, however, but I have enough for the combined numbers. Though I'm tempted to paint up some more as the King's loyal German subjects.

The ‘almost’ in the post title is because I have to paint the flags on the Hanoverian cavalry and on ALL of the French. Hence all the white flags in the picture below.

This is before the glue dried on the grass.

For this last batch of French infantry I experimented with a light grey coat colour. Not having a light enough grey, I mixed the lightest shade (Vallejo Wolf Grey) with white. It still might be a touch too dark but it’ll do.

One side note. In a logistics cock-up worthy of the Russian army, I neglected to order any more 60x30mm MDF bases. This was despite already having had to glue together bases for the last batch as I’d run out of the right size. Doh-ski! I had nearly enough small bases that I could glue together for the above lot. However, I was still short and had to prise some wagons off the supply train that I prepared the other year.

Despite the misgivings above, I should give myself a pat on the back for largely knocking out two SYW armies in the last three and a half months.