Oh I shall have to add this to the library too...
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| A Quick Survey of the Prussian Army for the Fall of 1813 https://www.wargame.ch/board/nwc/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=11909 |
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| Author: | Bill Peters [ Thu Dec 29, 2011 7:02 pm ] |
| Post subject: | A Quick Survey of the Prussian Army for the Fall of 1813 |
Most of the early organizing of the infantry had been laid by the late winter of 1812-13 and the line units remained in a state of flux until the Spring campaign started. Garrison & Reserve battalions would remain behind to help get the recruits squared away and new battalions would be formed by various means. The cavalry, likewise, would take months to organize and by the Fall the army would take on a very interesting appearance, much different than the one that took the field against Napoleon in 1806. Here is a breakdown of all of the types that took to the field in the Fall: Infantry: Two Garde zu Fuss regiments. These were formed from the original Garde zu Fuss IR#8 (Leib #9 taking its number as it left the regular regiments and the rest all dropping a number with one new regiment, IR12 Brandenberg #2 taking up the last position of the 12 regiments. One Guard Jager bn. Usually this fought in halves in one brigade. You will often see both companies of each half listed in a brigade. Grenadier battalions (6): 1 & 2 East Prussian Leib Pommeranian Silesian West Prussian By 1815 these would join the Garde as the Kaiser Alexander and Kaiser Franz Grenadier Regiments. Jagers: Garde Jager & E.Prussian Jager Bns: formed from the remnants of the Feldjager zu Fuss. Schutzen: Formed from light infantry raised in Silesia in 1807. By 1815 two more battalions would be formed as well. These light troops mentioned above usually fought in half battalions. The two companies usually in the same brigade together with line troops to provide more skirmishing capability. Line Infantry: The IR1 - IR12 constituted the original nucleus around which the army was built for the Spring campaign with small amounts of Freicorps, the Jagers and Schutzen also supporting them and of course the Guard. The Reserve IRs and Landwehr would come later. After the Spring there was a tremendous reshuffling of the battalions of the IRs along with redistribution of the Reserve battalions of these regiments as well. It is beyond the scope of this simple thread to detail these movements but I plan on putting together a spreadsheet that will graphically show how it occurred. Warren Bajan already has a nice chart and I am sure for a few marks he will part with it ... These first twelve regiments in many ways were just as "green" as the Reserve Infantry Regiments (RIRs) that followed. The tactics were new to many of the men. The Krumper system to many meant that there was a good corps of veterans available but in fact what often happened was that the veterans retired thus with all of the reforms of the 1808-1813 time frame the line regiments were having to get inducted into warfare of this new sort for the first time. Lutzen, Bautzen and the other minor battles of the Spring camaign helped get the "kinks" out of the system but there were still issues to be worked on. The Prussian General Staff system helped to a great deal get the men into line, kept them in part fed, clothed and in SOME part sheltered. Perhaps the last would wear down the most on the army as much of the Autumn campaign was damp, wet, and frankly freezing at times. For instance, after Katzbach the Army of Silesia actually lost more men to the weather than they did in the battle. Men literally died of the elements because of the freezing rain and lack of shelter. Moving on ... enter in the Reserve Infantry Regiments. These were formed from all sorts of battalions from the existing army. Here is a breakdown of one of the regiments: The 5th RIR: formed of the III/IR3, 1 & 2 Reserve Battalions/IR5, and 3 Lithuanian Fusilier Reserve Battalion. Yes, was I in for a ride when I put these order of battle files together! The myriad of uniforms is detailed in the Pr-Inf-Fall.pdf file that is in the Design folder. Check it out to see how the units all are organized. Thus this regiment actually started out with FOUR battalions but on 12 Dec 1813 the 4th Battalion was broken up and the men were distributed among the other battalions. Still wearing the same uniform too! And what were the uniforms? Well here we go: 1st Bn. Blue Prussian line uniform. (but it gets fun after this ...) 2nd Bn. Blue English line uniform originally had the white lace in front but this was removed by September. 3rd Bn. Green English line uniform. Again had the lace in July when they were given their uniforms but it was removed by August. 4th Bn. Grey garrison uniform. Must have made for an interesting regimental parade! No wonder by 1814 the Allies had started wearing a white armband on their left arm! These twelve regiments would end up being renamed as line regiment. Easy way to remember their numbers in the line: take their RIR number and add 12. Thus RIR #1 became IR #13. Landwehr: Silesian Kurmark E.Prussian Pommeranian Neumark W.Prussia Of these it is said that the Silesian fought the best. I will leave to anyone here to debate this and at Hagelberg for instance an almost all Landwehr force beat a French line division. The Landwehr of Tauentzien's 4th Corps did well against Bertrand's French Allied division (12th Div not being committed they faced the N.Italians of the 15th Div). And to spice things up: Freiwillige Jager - these green-coated volunteer formations were the odd ball of the army. By August approx. 6000 were serving in the army. Some had transferred to the regular forces. The companies were allowed to choose the regiment of their choice thus the Garde had many companies while some of the line regiments had much fewer and some had only a handful of men. The Landwehr also had Freiwillige Jagers as well. They were of dubious help on the battlefield yet some of their ranks went on to be NCOs in the line regiments. Finally, the more "romantic" units: the Freicorps formations: v.Helwig's Hussar and Infantry companies. They fought at Grossbeeren (see 6th Brigade) and other minor actions. v.Lutzow's Freicorps. Probably one of the MOST romantic units of the period, its members were poets, writers and of many city type trades as well. Well talked of but their battlefield performance may be a bit less than desired. These are the two most well known but other volunteer units such as the Berg battalions also joined the army. The Anhalt-Dessau battalion joined the Allies after being organized by the French but surprised during a raid. They tossed off Napoleon to fight for Prussia and German liberation. Cavalry: Garde cavalry: Two regiments were in the Garde: Garde du Corps Garde Light Cavalry - this regiment had five squadrons and there were three types of troopers: Ulans (2), Hussars (2) and Cossacks (1) Line cavalry: Dragoons Ulans Hussars Cuirassiers Of these the Dragoons and Hussars probably were the best troops. The Dragoons and Ulans were likewise good troops as well but perhaps not as lethal on the battlefield. The lance was not a new weapon to the Prussians but it required more training than was allowed given the short period of time the army was given to prepare for war. The army built at such a fast pace that specialized training suffered. The experience on the battlefield could either make or break a unit. For most, fortunately, it made them into good fighters. Landwehr cavalry: Silesia E.Prussian Kurmark Neumark Pommeranian W.Prussian Of dubious quality on the battlefield yet considered of better quality than the Landwehr infantry they were fine when operating behind enemy lines. Armed with a lance (this also varies with some of the regiments all being armed with lance while others having only the front rank armed with lance) they were at an advantage on the attack which was the dynamic of the Prussian army. "Vorwarts!" A lance armed cavalryman looks the same, whether Landwehr or Line, to a supply column or column of troops in "marche" organization. On the defense, well that was another story. But with the lack of French cavalry the Allied cavalry most often "lived to fight another day." Finally, attached to all of the regiments above were the ever-present Freiwillige cavalry squadrons. As per their infantry brethren they provided their own horse, uniform and weapons (though often with help!) and could choose which regiment to serve with. They wore a green version of the troop type they would be paired with thus the Freiwillige Hussar detachments were similar to the hussars (often lacking a pelisse but very much otherwise looking alike). Dragoon detachments were fashioned after their "big brothers" in the dragoon regiments. While their combat abilities may remain dubious nonetheless they provided NCOs and officers to the line units. Treat them as a reserve officer corps in fact. The men had above average intelligence coming from the higher classes of society. Now add in the Mecklenberg-Strelitz Hussars, cavalry of the Freicorps, and other units that would be formed but never fight and you have the Prussian cavalry. Artillery: The Prussian artillery would be serviceable but never what you might term deadly. Their job was to support the line troops. While each corps had a Reserve Brigade of artillery (usually anywhere from 2-6 batteries) they often would be assigned to support the brigades rather than formed into a grand battery, only on rare occasions would more than say 36-40 guns but formed. A "Battery" meaning around 24-36 guns being more common. Russian batteries were part of the 3rd Corps under GLt Bulow to add in some firepower but maybe also as a cadre type formation for the rest of the Prussian artillery to note. The Russians handling their pieces well for the most part. Supply: The army lacked supplies of all kinds. The folks in the country being tired of having to provide shelter and so on during the various campaigns were not filled with as much patriotic fervor as those in the cities. For instance during the building of the defense line south of Berlin the fields were flooded to deny the French access to the north. This caused economic hardships to the farmers there and it took several years to recoup their losses. Some went broke. Uniforms as noted above came from a variety of sources but funny enough you can note Russian militia wearing the Landwehr cap quite often in contemporary pictures. So at times they also issued help to their ally. Ammunition - the Prussians used a combination of captured French pieces, English artillery and muskets from all over Europe. You can imagine the issues trying to keep the army supplied with ammunition. It was one of my thoughts to actually remove wagons from the game to model this problem. The French also having all sorts of problems in this area too ... Food - well to supply an army of over 250,000 men takes a heroic effort. Not only that but the cossacks were noted for marauding not only the French but also the Allies! However, it must be said in their defense that when it came to Paris the cossacks were actually better behaved. Maybe it was the generous Frenchmen that knew of the stories about the Steppes cavalry that caused them to offer them bread, wine, cheese! From the Paris occupation we get the word "bistro." Prussian forces would fight on to Paris and then do it all over again in 1815. Participate in large battles, sieges, raids and yes, occupation duty in France. All formed remnants of 1806 battalions, undergoing reform, many new faces, a myriad of uniforms and gun calibers. And yes, a firey old commander that was as homespun as Kutusov in his demeanor. Add in a professional staff just getting going and a group of older generals who like Kleist kept his eye on these new geniuses as he termed them. Quite an army. A formidable opponent in Napoleon. In the end a lesser number of Prussians would beat the French and their allies at two battles for Berlin. Get lucky at Katzbach and finally at Leipzig and Waterloo show that they could fight alongside their fellow allies and win the battles of the century! |
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| Author: | SLudwig [ Fri Dec 30, 2011 12:01 am ] |
| Post subject: | Re: A Quick Survey of the Prussian Army for the Fall of 1813 |
Very cool info! It was quite a defining system for a defining year & set of battles. NOONE can douubt Prussia's accomplishments! Vorwärts Meine Kinder, Vorwärts!! |
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| Author: | SLudwig [ Fri Dec 30, 2011 12:02 am ] |
| Post subject: | Re: A Quick Survey of the Prussian Army for the Fall of 1813 |
Oh I shall have to add this to the library too...
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| Author: | Paladin851 [ Fri Dec 30, 2011 11:32 am ] |
| Post subject: | Re: A Quick Survey of the Prussian Army for the Fall of 1813 |
Just to add a little insight to the logistics nightmare faced by the Prussians one has to remember that in this era most of the major countries involved used different weights and measures. The French pound for instance wasn't the same weight as the English pound which wasn't the same as the Austrian pound etc.etc. Looking at artillery ammunition in this case round-shot and starting with the 12 pounder guns fielded bye most countries we see this difference in weights and measures . Prussian 12 pounder: Shot diameter of 113.9mm with a weight of 5.9kg French 12 pounder: Shot diameter of 118.7mm (M1803) or 120mm (M1808) with a shot weight of 6.1kg Austrian 12 pounder:Shot diameter of 113.2 with a weight of 5.0kg Russian 12 pounder: Shot diameter of 115.4 (M1805) with a weight of 5.7kg When Prussia mobilizes in 1813 of the Six 12 pounder batteries put into the field half use French 12 pounders. When looking at the 6 pounder guns used bye the Prussian artillery in 1813 we find a more complicated problem with the Prussians using French,British and there own guns. French 6 pounder: Shot diameter of 94mm with a shot weight of 3.0kg British 6 pounder: Shot diameter of 88.8mm with a shot weight of 2.7kg Prussian 6 pounder: Shot diameter of 90.4 with a shot weight of 3.0kg In the above we do see some potential for interchangeability but it comes at a cost in terms of gun range and accuracy. Adding to the problem faced by the Prussians is the mix of carriages with both Prussian and French bracket trail and British block trail carriages with there inherent differences in wheel diameter as well as the older wooden axle Prussian carriages. Regards Walt |
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| Author: | Bill Peters [ Fri Dec 30, 2011 12:47 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: A Quick Survey of the Prussian Army for the Fall of 1813 |
It truly was a nightmare for logistics. Can you imagine me asking John Tiller for four different supply wagon types?  Oh yes and then there is the small arms ammunition too! The Freiwillige were supposed to supply their own ammunition but theory and practice never meet on the same lines of longitude. |
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| Author: | Paladin851 [ Fri Dec 30, 2011 3:39 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: A Quick Survey of the Prussian Army for the Fall of 1813 |
Heck even the things that we tend to take for granted like Gun powder was a problem in terms of quality. None of the major powers of the era formulated there gun powder following the same recipe. The Prussians take the field with there own and Russian,British and captured French. How big a problem that tended to be I can't say for sure but I suspect it had to have some affect on weapon accuracy. When one considers the logistics problems faced by the Coalition armies as a whole you have to wonder how they managed it at all. In reality I don't think the French were any better off then the Coalition in that regard....possibly worse in some ways. Regards Walt |
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