Monday 16 February 2015

Wurttemberg Artillery, late SYW






Wurttemberg entered the SYW without an artillery park worth mentioning. She had the usual light battalions guns but nothing heavier outside fortress use. So the guns painted here were assembled from donations from their Austrian allies - some captured Prussian guns (in blue) and some redundant Austrian guns (in ochre). It's possible that there was no time to repaint them so that they were pressed into service in their original colours.

In each colour there are 3 light battalion guns and 2 medium guns, probably 6pdrs. All guns and the crew are by Foundry.

As for the crews themselves, throughout most of the war they wore a very dour colour scheme of dark blue coats with black facings but at the end of the war (date unclear) they switched over to this more interesting light blue.

You have to feel rather sorry for this unfortunate army pressed into service on the wrong side. Most Wurttembergers were Protestants and their coats were clearly modelled on the Prussian army. Yet the state was ajacent to the French border and so it found itself in a sorry alliance with the French. Later on in the war the Wurttembergers served with the Austrians, a more realistic ally and their performance improved markedly.

3 comments:

  1. Wonderful work on these Foundry minis! Seems the Wurttembergers didn't have much of a choice at the time - where is Bismarck when you need him:0)

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  2. Nice batteries, and interesting to see the captured Prussians ones in blue.

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  3. Yes, lovely brushwork as always! I might just have to paint up some late Wurttemberg artillery crew myself. Light blue coats are always a far more fetching alternative to dark blue or white.

    Best Regards,

    Stokes

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