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- 15mm Metal Figwes - llEW ,IVEYY Roman& s Gauls Moghuls ThirtyYears War English C i v iW l ar Seven Years War French Wars & Indian Clive in lndia American War of Independence Napoleonics Seminole War U.S.A. dganE US-Mexican War uBlElnmns ln American CivilWar lor I ta8 (hcrnpoign PlainW s ars M a x i m i l l i aE n x p e d i t i o n [.61820 Italian Warsot Independence Austro-Prussian War Franco-Prussian War
Xnpp sleel breechloaders vs brass muzle-load$ Why did the French stick to quaint old muzzle loadeE, when the Prussians had soper modem breechloaden? Were they crazy?They were bound to loseI This is the drift of a good deal of comment about the anilery in thjs war. The facfihar the French did get the wo6t of it almost everyvhere is indisputable, but it wasnt the gunsthemselves whjch were at fault- If the French can be diticised for stickins to dowr-the^poutarrilleD.rhensocouldthe British.dnda Boodm;) other respected armisat the time. Muzzlloadrs were more ftgged than the breechloadeB, and rates of fire were crnparable. ln any c6e, 6 dy gunnerwould tell you, it wan't how quickly you fired that counted. In tbe daysbefore recoil mechanisms,it was skili in laing that made the difference. Cnticism ofihe French for giving the Mitrailleose to the anillery is ,lso, I feel, a linle unfair, I @ t think of any nation which had machine guns at this time which did not man then with gunnrs, I meu, a black banel on sheels just wouldn't look righr with infmtrymen around it would ir? To think of the Mitrailleuse in the sametems as say a Maxim Gun would also be a mislake. Onc! the weapon got inlo a firing cycle the target would be conpletely obscuredby lmoke. and th effect aimed at would b more rhat of long{ang mister than the sweepingtue of a WW1 machine-gun. The weapon did have quite a moraleffect, rhe cemar! hated it. I think thar we should look at the Orde^ of Battle of the rwo sides for our 6rst clue asto why th Frenchanillery failed- Overall numben of guns quoted for the armies do not suggesta grossimbalanc of numbers, bul a closer examination shows an interestins difrerence. wlile rhc ba'c \rrengrhs were sirnilar:rhe French of the divisions infanrry division commander had at his dnposal two light artillery balteties (6 suns) dd o.e battery of mitrailleuss, which, with a range of some 1500 metres, cannot be usd in an artillery duel. Against this. the German division @mmander hastwo light, and two 1,eai7batteries.giving hin a tremendouslocal supriority of tu. The French corp6migbt have three or even four divisions, and rhe corps anillery would normally be t o light, two healy and four or so horse bnttenes. The German corps were alwa's of rwo divisions, and the corpscommmder would nonnally havetwo heavy, two light and two hone batteries. Thus, regardlssof any technical superionty, th Gemans were able to deploy fd more artillery at a relatively low level on the chainof command.In our wdgames fought at corpslevel the Gends invanably drive ofi the French artillery very early onBul. if overall numbeA de the same,where are the French guns?In an army reseNe, thafs where. Following th Napoleonictradition, a large park of artillery wa: at the disposal of the army colmmdrWhen the battle is joined on a sevenmile ftont though, by the rine the commanderhaslocated the best place for his resw to be used, thal location willalready hnvbeendominatd by rhe Prussianguns. Apart fton a better thought-out dispositionin the commandchain. the Gemm gunner had the tremendos technical advantage of supenor mmuoilion. The Germans had perfected the percussiontuse. wbich meant that when a Prussianshell mived it went baf,s. scll. nine lmetr our or ren. The F ench ammuniuonconsi"led6l commonshellwith a tine fue which wasavailablein only t$o ranges, 1.i00 and 2,800metres.At any other mnge it was supposed to explodeon conlact- but didn'i. A few shrapnlshellswerecanied by IiEbt batleries. bur rhetr h@s were so notonously bad that the shells
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were liftle used. I need hardly say that the Prussian training was supenor. the ded old Prussians of the 1870s assureusthat it was,pith that appallingsmugness which characterises all their utterancesat that time.If I @ stmd it, in my nen anicle I'll tell you what no less a prson than Kraft, Pnf,c of Hohenlohelnge$ngen, commanderof the Prusian Guard anilery in 1870hasto sayabout gunsand gunnery in this prologu to World War One. The Frd@'German war produced ; massiveamount of print, some 8,0m volumes,it hasbeen said were Mitten during the nen 30 or so yeals- Litde enough is cuently in print, although wdgmes publishersare getting their act together, and at leastone major work, David Ascoli's A Day ofBattie (Harnp) hasbenpublishedin 1987. Miiitary dalysts haveswarmedover lh actionsof lhis shon war. and a wealth offiFt-rate material for our purposss is around sorreplrere, bur clos reading of booksellers' lists is necssaryto pick it up. As interest in the wd increa!s, so do bookselleN' pnces. My copy of Marnce's Ftub-GeM wt, publi'lhed by ArbD & Unwin 1899, which is a monumental Battls md leaders'history st me back a win@-mali.g I50. Mosr of the inforrnation he:e camefrom th Duke of Wurttemberg's pmpblei de&:ribedin th ten, and ftom Lt Col G - a study in pncti.al tactis F R Henderson s The Ba.rIe of SpichercD ard wa..ra,;r;g, publishedin 1909by Gale & Polden. Hendeson is a filst rate delvr into the military nitty-gitty which warganers 6nd so enlightening. His works should b snapped up, so remembr the Moltke and his staff were wel aware of lh benefits of wdgming asd inlt uctional tool, and thanks to Bill l-son,we are ableto play their gme. Bill publishes th contenporary rules of Von Tschischwitz for tbe Kriegsspi]. wilh fantastic maps of huge dimensions, dd even lead blocks to play with. Detaiis hom Biil at 5 St Agnell's Lane Cottages.Henel Hempstead,Herts, HP2 7HJ. Anyone interestedin this priod should tate this opportunity to examineand play the game the Prussia officeE themselvesusd.