Wednesday, June 23, 2021

Grenzer Regiment #3, Ogulin



Part of the "300 Austrians", these are once again "old" Old Glory figures.

 

Grenzer Regiment # was recruited in the Northwestern part of the Karlstadt region of Croatia. It was first raised in 1746.


 "Grenzer" is of course already plural in German, meaning essentially, "Borderers", men living and fighting on the border of the Hapsburg and Ottoman lands .


2 Regular  (I, II)and 1 Reserve (III) battalions fought in 1809, the 2 regular battalions, which included 44 artillerists, and 240 Schutzen, totaled 2,966 men, at least on paper. The Reserve (III) battalion had a nominal strength of 1,171 men. A Landwehr (IV) battalion was also to be raised, with a paper strength of 1291 men (six 200 men companies plus staff). 


The Regiment has light orange facings and brass buttons. Grenz units evidently were issued one white Leibfahne and one yellow Ordinarfahne to the first battalion, and 2 Ordinafahnen to the second battalion, same as the line regiments, but after 1807 this was reduced to just 1 Ordinarfahne per battalion and no Leibfahne. The yellow Ordinarfahne seen here is once again by Adolfo Ramos. 


The Ogulin regiment fought at the Piave, St. Michele, Tarvis, and was present at Raab. The III battalion fought at Gospic.

28 comments:

  1. Nice addition. Grenze troops always appeal to me. the brown coat/bright facing color combination is classic. BTW, copper canteens on the backpack?

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    1. Thanks, Joe. I like the brown coats as well. The canteens are api9nted Delta CC Terra cotta, and orange-brown color, intended to be painted wood, or leather covered.

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  2. Nice work Peter, and the striped flagstaff looks very effective. I have forgotten what the '300 Austrians' are - is it the planned number of additions?

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    1. Thanks, Lawrence. I just paint rings on the flagstaff to suggest the spiral design.
      The "300 Austrians" refers to 10 packs of 30 quite old Old Glory infantry figures I purchased in the parking lot at Historicon in 2011, with minimal inspection, for $100. After all, couldn't beat the price, and I'd need them some day, right? When I finally inventoried them, there were very few command figures, so I had to add a few packs of them, so when they're done, it will be closer to 400 Austrians!

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  3. Beautifully done Peter, particularly those stripes and knots on the trousers.
    Regards, James

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    1. Thank you, James! I know that Mark hates painting the stripes and knots on Hungarian trousers, but I rather enjoy them.

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  4. Great grenzers, they have painted up really well.

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    1. Glad you like them, Stokes! I like the rather unique uniform of the Grenzer a lot!

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    1. Thanks; I enjoyed painting them. Once again, these figures are distinctly different from the current OG ones; the size and bulk is much closer to Front Rank.

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  6. More Grenzers! Great stuff, how many regiments of them do you have now?

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    1. With this unit I have 7 units of Grenzer. That's about 40% of the 17 units that existed in 1809 (4 were disbanded thereafter until 1813 due to loss of their territories). A quick census shows I am up to 39 Line regiments, over 60% of the existing 63, with quite a few more to go.

      I have the figures for one more Grenze unit, but those have been diverted to be used instead for a special unit...

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  7. You are a painting machine, a Peter! Sadly, my painting output seems to have slowed to a trickle.

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    1. Well, your painting production has dropped off for the best possible reason, Jon! You're playing a boatload of games! :-)

      I have a FTF game later today in a few hours for the first time in 8+ months!

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    2. True. We should schedule another remote game sometime if you are interested. With a Zoom account and a couple of webcams, I can now return the favor and host.

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    3. Absolutely; I'd be 100% on board with that, Jon!
      Fixed my Ipod issue since the Hold the Line game (well after I needed it, of course!)

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  8. Great looking Grenzers! I do want to add a unit of these to the Austrians - they look grand.

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    1. Yes, you definitely need a unit or two of them, Dean! :-)
      The Grenzer made up a substantial proportion of the Austrian manpower - with almost 3,000 men per regiment for just the 2 primary battalions, that's about 50,00 men. Add in the 3rd battalions and that's another 17,000 men, and the Landwehr (IV) battalions saw action in Croatia, etc, as well as being retained for home defense while the others were off fighting elsewhere and that's another 17,000 or so... almost 85,000 men to support the Austrian war effort.

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  9. Well done Peter, handsome Grenzers!

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  10. Smart looking soldiers. As others have said, the brown breaks up the massed white of the Kaiserlicks.

    We’re they used as light infantry in the Napoleonic Wars like their forebears in Frederician days, or were they used as ordinary line troops?

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    1. "Yes..." During the earlier phase of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars, there was definitely a push to use them more as auxiliary line troops. After the 1805 Campaign, it was observed that this practice may have lead to a decrease in panache and initiative compared to their excellent service of the 7 Years War, and an effort was made to reemphasize their light infantry role, which was partially effective. In 1809, there were usually one or two units of Grenzer in the Advanced Guard Division of each Austrian Korps.

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  11. The Grenzer uniform is eye catching and makes a nice contrast with the standard 'white' Line Austrians.

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    1. Yes, they provide a very nice counterpoint to the bulk of the "White Menace"!

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  12. Lovely looking Grenzer unit! That was a great deal for your 300/400 Austrians!
    Best Iain

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    1. Thanks, Ian! Yes, how could I pass up a deal like that? I could not! :-)
      I was very pleasantly surprised by the high quality of these vintage sculpts. I like the current Old Glory figures just fine, but really these are in many ways nicer than the currently available castings.

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  13. I'm pleasantly surprised to see that you have decided to add yet more Grenzer to your collection. I have some (unpainted) in 15mm but the Korps at Aspern-Essling that I decided to initially base my collection on had only Jäger and EHKL battalions in the Avante Garde so I don't currently have an excuse to bump them up the queue . . .

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    1. I do like the Grenzer uniforms, and the figures were part of the bulk purchase, so not a hard decision! :-)

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