Old type Army formations

[John P Hannon]

The French attacked without their usual Artillery fire and no Infantry so the squares stood fast and the French got a hiding.The ground was wet also so advance was longer and not as well disciplined at the time.
Hanno

[Groundhog]

The French used artillery at Waterloo. Wellingtons brother in law, for one, lost a leg to a French cannonball. The French cavalry were undoubtedly useless against the Infantry squares but the threat from them did force the infantry to stand in square rather than lie down in line.

Light cavalry carried sabres and heavy cavalry carried straight swords. The Horse Guards were the only ones in the British Army to wear "tin bellies" by the 19th century as far as I know.

[Erwin]

Correct Groundhog - Horse Guards were the only ones with armour.The principle difference between Light & Heavy Cavalry was that Light was basically mounted Infantry/Riflemen & as such engaged the enemy at the dismount.Heavy on the other hand fought from the mount.Obviously there would have been differences in equipment/kit etc.Also tactical employment of cavalry differed between armies at this time as doctrine was still in its infancy.French cavalry was deemed superior by Wellington himself to British but by the time of Waterloo the British had got their act together.There were various subtle differences between the variuos formations too,British cavalry acted as an independent arm of the infantry whilst french was subordinate to the infantry & acted as a reserve.

[Johnny2Stripes]

Was watching a programme on waterloo last week and apparently the weather (terrential rain the night before) forced the French to wait for the ground to dry out a bit. Then when they used their artilary, the mud dissapated the force of the exploding shell as it landed and burried itself- it was very interesting the TV guys had a sheet set up with a charge covered in mud. When the charge went off the sheet was intact. Then they set off the charge with no mud covering (ie as would have been the case had the ground been hard)and the sheet was destroyed.
The lay of the land meant that the frence could not see all the Brit troops as there was an incline for the frence to ascend and a backdrop from which the brits were fighting
Their conclusion was that Wellington had a great eye for the land, and they were blessed with the weather!

[Erwin]

Also a good omen for Wellington was that practically all the major engagements in which he was victorious against the French were preceded by a bad storm,Waterloo being no exception!

[parkman]

Their conclusion was that Wellington had a great eye for the land, and they were blessed with the weather!

And blessed perhaps by the arrival of the Prussians.

[Erwin]

Hey i said that on another thread!Get your own material

[parkman]

Hey i said that on another thread!Get your own material

Is it the first arrival of the Prussians or the second arrival that you are claiming?

[sparks]

"Hussar: Light horseman originally raised in Hungary. From the Hungarian Huszar; freebooter"

Huszar is from Huszaro which is Ten in Hungarian as this was the number of households required toequip and support a single Huszar. ie if you had 200 households on your estate you could equip and support 20 huszar for the king. They wre normally bileted
on the people over the winter.

[parkman]

I think we had a unit called the Blue Huszars.Actually saw them escort Sean T

[sparks]

The Blue Hussars

Uniformed in the light blue-officially alizame sapphire-tunic and breeches, with gold frogging and lace of the near-standard international pattern and dark sealskin Busbies with orange-yellow plumes


The Blue Hussars was in fact "The Mounted Escort" which was not a unit as such but were called together for rehearsals and public duties as necessary. The Blue Hussars tended to come from that the Field Artillery Corps because that was the largest body of horse-soldiers in the Army of those days, the uniforms were stored in the depot in Kildare, not McKee from which they normally "rode out"



Two thousand, one hundred and sixty five pounds was the cost of the seventy odd uniforms eventually purchased.

[Goldie fish]

Its amazing what posting a link elsewhere on the board will do...

Has anyone any details that are not copy/paste from Military.ie?

[Heritage]

"Huszar is from Huszaro which is Ten in Hungarian as this was the number of households required to equip and support a single Huszar. ie if you had 200 households on your estate you could equip and support 20 huszar for the king. They wre normally bileted
on the people over the winter. "


Salutations Sparks! This further explanation surpases the Oxford Dictionary of Words and Phrases. I cannot wait for the next military table quiz:-)

[Groundhog]

I think the horsemen look a lot better than the bikers.

[Johnny2Stripes]

I agree - the horses look classier!