Wednesday 25 January 2012

The Polish Brigade

So there are my 1812 poles, Poniatowsky and the great duchy of Warshaw provided 75.000 of the 400.000 soldiers that formed the invasion force, the polish regiements were in fact an army into the army, that had showed their colness and independence during the 1809 war against Austria, hoding firm against superior numbers of kaiserlichs. They were very capable troops and their incredible victory at Fuengirola (when 300 poles routed a much larger force of british and guerrilla) will remains as an eternal remainder of this. They also constitued a cavalry model for the french, who coppied the wargear of the lancer.
the current polish anthem composed by those who fought alongside Bonaparte and Dabrowski in Italy avenging the austrian invason of Poland  in 1795 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2nmFHUbVQtA

 I wanted some international troops for the french; according tho the fact that the poles had been only ones who conquered Moscow previously (in the XVII century) and also fought with Napoleon since his Italian campaign, what option could be better? I bought a box of waterloo 1815 polish infantry, some artillery and to paint!. Here is the result.
 
Behind the smoking battery, Prince Poniatowski awaits for the appropiate moment to launch the assault.

6th regiment of infantry (note the dying russian on the window)

The 12 regiment closes in with the enemy
What is an army without his massed drum band?

battery ready!


Chef de Batterie





And here Prince Poniatowski himslef, descendant from one of Catherine's russian generals (what an irony)   was the victor of Razyn and the one who lead the poles into the Kremlin for second time. Made with a zvezda's lancer and italeri's french etàt major.

The brigade in it's full splendor.

feu d'enfer 
hammering the foe

 
l'aigle de la Vistula


1 comment:

  1. A nice force of Poles! I've been painting quite a few GDW troops myself the past year in preparation for Borodino - Hussars, Chasseurs a Cheval, and last month the Vistula Legion (the later technically Poles in French employ). That last post lead to a discussion of Dabrowski and thus the anthem, which I heartily recommend listening to; it is quite stirring!

    Peter

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