Peter Laing WW1 -A trip down memory lane - Part 2 French and Belgians

Part 2  French and Belgians

French Guards FPW

FPW Zouaves

FPW Marines

Cuirassiers

Dragoons (FPW?)

Dragoons

 

The Belgians

Belgian Carabineers

Belgian Jagers

 

Belgian Guides

Next the Germans

Austrians and French clash at Idonuwhere – The final day

After a week or so's break Bob and I returned to the clash.  Things were reasonably balanced at this point.

The French attack began with the breaking and pursing of the 12^th Austrian Uhlans and their final rout.

This left only the Hesse Kassel Hussars on my right facing a unit of ‘blown’ Dragoons, a unit of Carabineers and a fresh unit of Dragoons!!  Needless to say that Bob took full advantage launching his Carabineers.  The only saving grace was that they already had some damage which gave the Hussars a bit of a chance.  Miraculously they managed to only get pushed back and not broken!

To their right The French began their assault on the earthworks with the fresh centre brigade failing to get enough of a move to charge, but moving up to close range with the Baden infantry defenders!

Further to the right the Papal Zouaves joint the Guards in the assault on the Austrian earthworks.  This spelt disaster for the defenders who failed their break test and fled.

It wasn’t all going Bob’s way, some devastating artillery fire saw the French Zouaves break and leave the table.

I rapidly formed my remaining Austrian regiments into a firing line with the intention of blasting the Papal Zouaves and forcing them to withdraw from the earthworks so that I could retake them.  The road to heaven is paved with good intentions, needless to say the firing was hopeless!

I had more success on the extreme left with my Cuirassiers seeing of the last of the French Cuirassiers.

A second attack by the Carabineers saw the Hesse Kassel Hussars finally routed and forced to flee.

The French central brigade finally managed to charge the earthworks and the Baden infantry and Hesse Kessal Jagers offered pitiful closing fire!

On the Austrians left, the failure of my Austrian regiments to stop the French resulted in return fire which saw one of the Austrian regiments break leaving the wing in tatters.

Things were now looking particularly grim for the Austrians and their allies. The French Guards brigade had breached the earthworks on their left and there was the risk that they could attack the defenders from the flank and rear.

At this point it was time to start to save the army!  The town gates were flung open and the Austrian army, what remained of it,  managed to 3 moves for almost every unit that could move and melted away. The Sachsen Meiningen regiment also sought safety using the other gate

Only the Baden Infantry and Hesse Kessal Jagers remained engaged in their tussle with the French infantry, eventually managing to throw them back after dogged hand to hand fighting.

Meanwhile chaos ensued in the town with units becoming muddled.

While the French found themselves masters of the table!

All of the Austrians and their Allies were conversions; either individual or homemade moulds in the case of the Allies with some 188 infantry and 42 cavalry and 6 Artillerymen forming the army.  

The French were a mix of original S range Crimean War figures with additional recasts and the Franco Prussian War French were all recasts.  The Papal Zouaves were homemade conversions.  The French totalled some 200 Infantry, 54 cavalry, 3 Mitrailleuse and 4 batteries of artillery and 18 gunners.

Austrians and French clash at Idonuwhere – Part 3

Having failed in all my assaults, the inevitable counterattacks came from the French.  First some devastating Mitrailleuse fire and artillery combined with rubbish dice saw one of my already weakened Austrian regiments break and flee their earthworks.

Then Bob wheeled his fresh Infantry regiment into the melee

Whilst I managed to force one French regiment to break, my infantry collapsed with one regiment destroyed and the other flung back.

The Austrian commander whose horse had been taking a drink looked up to find all his troops gone!

Worse still my gunners suffered casualties and fled.  My left wing was in a real mess all of my own making!

On his right Bob charged my Cuirassier regiment with a large body of Spahis and drove them back.  Fortunately I had been able to raise their morale with Rally to Me orders so they at least survived but were weaken again!  They got caught again in the Spahis Sweeping Advance but managed to cling on but were thrown back again.

To make matters worse the Carabineers on Bob's left were refreshed and charged my Hussars.  This time things didn’t go so well and the Hussars broke and ran.

It was definitely looking up for the French.  The Zouaves came back into the game, the French centre brigade suddenly got a move on and crossed the river seriously reinforcing the Bob’s left flank and the Guard impressively started to make progress across the river.  Slowed only by some fire from the town battery.

My only option was to divert my allied reinforcement to the now empty Austrian trenches before Bob could get to them.  The Hesse Kassel Hussars threatened the French line forcing them into square but suffering casualties as a result.

With my earthworks now restocked I felt that at least I had managed to shore up the game.  I brought my last Austrian regiment out of the town.

I managed to attack the Spahis with another Cuirassier regiment and this time it was the Spahis turn to break and run.

Then something really interesting happened.  Much to my surprise Bob decided to charge my Jaegers with his Cuirassiers. The Jaegers failed to form square and were disorganised and despite some really pathetic closing fire they actually managed to hold and the Cuirassiers who in turn bounced off!!  The god of dice playing a really big part!

‘Day 3’ ended with an assault on the Austrian works by one of the Guard units and an infantry regiment, fortunately the push back of the Cuirassiers muddled the advance of the rest of the Guards brigade.  I managed to beat off the line regiment, but the Guard are still there!

On my left Bob managed to get his Dragoons into action at last with an engagement with my 12^th Uhlans resulting in an inconclusive outcome.

We decided to go for an unprecedented 4^th day which will make this a 12 hour game! 

My forces are now spread thinly as I have all the earthworks to defend.  The French are beginning to concentrate their forces and you can see how they could overwhelm individual elements of the Austrian and allied army.

 The bright spot for me is the loss of Bob’s Cuirassiers and Spahis on his left.  Whilst my 3 Cuirassiers regiments have been weakened they are still there and represent a menace to the Guards brigade.  Fortunately, all of Bob’s mitrailleuse have either been destroyed or have jammed and his artillery no longer has any targets except the town walls.  For my part I have one battery left in the field.  The Town battery has lost all its targets except the distant French artillery as we felt the French infantry were too close.