Grodno Hussars
Sharing concepts and ideas is always a good thing as far as I’m concerned. One of the nicest things is when something you’ve done inspires your fellow gamers. I was therefore interested, and inspired, to read Michael Leck’s blog on converting Warlord French Hussars to Russian Hussars, inspied by my previous blog. I think this is definitely a case of each of us providing ideas and stimulus to the other.
He chose to convert his to Grodno Hussars while mine were destined to be Pavlograd Hussars (after War and Peace). Using my ‘method’ of making suitable horse blankets for the Hussar’s horses, he’d simply added spare Perry heads from their plastic set to make up the numbers and then painted them in the right colours.
I did a little research on the Grodno Hussars… Boy, they saw some action…! Formed in June 1806, they fought at Mishinitzy where they defeated French horse chasseurs and broke an infantry square. At Kommersdorf, they destroyed the enemy’s camp and escaped encirclement. At Friedland they rescued a one battalion of the Pavlovsk grenadiers. In 1808-1809, they participated in the Finnish War against Sweden, taking part in march across the (frozen) Baltic Sea to capture the Aland islands.
At Filipova 1812, they helped defeat French and Polish cavalry squadrons. Near the town of Drouia, they broke the 11th French horse chasseurs. Later they captured French General Jean Saint Geniez. In October 1812 they fought with distinction at the Second Battle of Polotzk. In 1813 the Grodno Hussars fought at Luneburg, Lutzen, Bautzen and Dresden (where they broke a square formed by 5th Voltigeur Regiment of Young Guard). They fought gallantly at Leipzig, in one incident capturing enemy guns.
At Probstheida (Leipzig,1813) the Grodno and Soumy Hussars overthrew part of French infantry under Marshal Victor. During the Campaign of France in 1814, the Grodno Hussars fought at Brienne, Bar sur Aube, Arcis and Paris.
With such an impressive battle honours, maybe I should have been painting Grodno Hussars and not the Pavlograd ones!
