Napoleonic Wargame Club (NWC)

According to Nofi's work, "The Waterloo Campaign" (pg. 249) on the battle, during the attack of the French Guard, at one point Wellington rode up to the 95th Rifles and ordered them to make a bayonet charge.

Questions:

1. Did the 95th Rifles have bayonets?
2. If not was Wellington just caught up in the battle and didnt realize that they were without bayonets?

Kind of curious on this. My thinking was that the 95th didnt have bayonets.

According to the book they do advance. Doesnt say if they actually had bayonets.

Colonel Bill Peters
Armee du Rhin - V Corps, Cavalerie du V Corps, 20ème légère Brigade de Cavalerie, 13ème Hussar Regiment
HPS Napoleonic Scenario Designer (Eckmuhl, Wagram, Jena-Auerstaedt and ... more to come)

British riflemen carried a short sword which could be used on its own or could be attached to the end of the rifle, like a bayonet.


Lt.Col. Rich White
4th Cavalry Brigade
Cavalry Corps
Anglo-Allied Army

Bill,
The rifles had sword bayonets. These, being swords (with a proper sword hilt), were longer than regular bayonets. This was important as the Baker rifle was shorter than a musket and so the longer sword bayonet compensated for this. I guess having swords gave the riflemen extra options in combat too, although I imagine they got in the way when in the scabbard when the riflemen was firing from a kneeling position.

I found this on YouTube: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=TczI5j72u6c

<center>[url="http://homepage.ntlworld.com/a.r.barlow/nwc/nwc_personal_record.htm"]Brigadier General Antony Barlow[/url]
~ [url="http://www.geocities.com/anglo_allied_army_stats/Anglo_Allied_Army_Cavalry_Corps.htm"]2nd British (Union) Brigade, Anglo-Allied Cavalry Corps[/url] ~
~ [url="http://www.geocities.com/militaireacademie/dragoons.html"]4th (Royal Irish) Dragoon Guards[/url] ~
</center>

According to the scholar Edmund Blackadder the British rifles had sharp pieces of watermelon as bayonets when they fought the pygmies in the battle of the colonies. [:)]


General de Brigade Knox
Baron de l'Empire
2e Regiment Gardes d'Honneur (the regaled pheasants)
La Jeune Garde
CO. 1er Brigade, III Division Cavalerie Legere, III Corps Armee du Nord
http://www.aspire.co.nz/colinknoxnwc.htm

Gents,

In fact a fire hardened pointy watermelon was a devilish thing in the wopwops[}:)]...those little fellows got a real pip on when used against them in this totally "uncivilized" and barbaric type of warfare[xx(].
In New Zealand I believe they have the right to claim compensation for stress and mental anguish if they can prove their tribe faced such an act[:o)].
But then again be warned!! New Zealand is full of dangerous fruits!!
Large and bright but hard on the outside, soft in the middle types. Initially they are very sweet but too much of them gives you the runs (No2s!)[:I]
Where will it all end we ask [B)]

Regards to all the vertically challenged, shaded complection, indigenous persons of non specific sexual persuasion/orientation.
Oh and SAVE THE WHALES![:D]


Col Mike Ellwood
Konig Regt
1 Bde, 22 Div
VII Saxon Corps, ADR

Helga more beer hre for the kiwi's we need it it's election time.
Can we have some watermelon too. [:D]


General de Brigade Knox
Baron de l'Empire
2e Regiment Gardes d'Honneur (the regaled pheasants)
La Jeune Garde
CO. 1er Brigade, III Division Cavalerie Legere, III Corps Armee du Nord
http://www.aspire.co.nz/colinknoxnwc.htm

Hmmmm,

More beer and watermalon...thats fermenting unrest if ever I've plotted it [:p].

My troops are enjoying target practice at all the airbrushed billboards....the gunners are even doing grape at the densely packed ones [:D].

Col Mike Ellwood
Konig Regt
1 Bde, 22 Div
VII Saxon Corps, ADR

Messrs et Gentlemen,

Careful combining that beer with your watermelon. A prestigious medical journal in the former British North American colonies has recently reported that just 6 slices of the juicy red fruit will have the same effect on your metabolism as a little blue pill.[:)]



Sous Leutenant Pieter Geerkens
VII Saxon Corps
22ème Division,
2ème Brigade,
Anger Grenadier Battalion

"Even in the attack, [I found] the spade is the equal of the rifle." - Erwin Rommel

Thanks guys! Watermelon tasted great ... er, without the pointy things in it!

This is good to know. How many other rifle units in the Nap Wars used a short sword? Tyrolean Jagers? Others?

Colonel Bill Peters
Armee du Rhin - V Corps, Cavalerie du V Corps, 20ème légère Brigade de Cavalerie, 13ème Hussar Regiment
HPS Napoleonic Scenario Designer (Eckmuhl, Wagram, Jena-Auerstaedt and ... more to come)

Reminds me of the Monty Python skit where the unarmed combat instructor insisted on the importance of being able to defend oneself against a man armed with a piece of fruit.

Lt Colonel Neville Worland
Chef d'Etat-Major
Ier Corps de Réserve de Cavalerie
Army du Nord