Hanoverian Hussar Regiment, No. 15

I have completed the first of the cavalry regiments for the Franco-Prussian War. In Prussian service most of the light cavalry, the hussar and dragoon regiments, were assigned to infantry divisions as escort cavalry while the heavy regiments, the cuirassiers and uhlans, formed the core of the cavalry divisions. 

This regiment, the Hanoverian Hussar Regiment, No. 15, was the divisional cavalry attached to 14th Infantry Division.

The regiment had a solid history dating back to 1803 and the founding of the King’s German Legion. At the end of the Napoleonic Wars the veterans of the KGL were repatriated and the three hussar regiments were formed into the King’s Hussars and Guard Hussars in the Royal Hanoverian Army.

In 1866 the two regiments fought at Langensalza where the Royal Hanoverians inflicted the only tactical victory over the Prussians in the war. When Hanover was annexed by Prussia the two regiments were merged and became the 15th Hussars in Prussian service.

In 1870-71 the regiment was present at Spicheren, Colombey,  Bois de Vaux, Gravelotte, Metz, Diedenhofen, Montmédy, Longwy, Noidant le Rocheux vor Langres, Dannemarie and Sombacourt. While the list of actions is significant the record of casualties for the entire war (5 killed, 7 wounded, 1 missing and 15 died of disease) indicates that the regiment saw little serious action.

In the Imperial Army the regiment was renamed Hussar Regiment "Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands" No. 15 in 1898. Twelve men from the regiment went in China 1900 where they fought in the Boxer Uprising. In the Great War it fought in the Marne campaign before transferring the eastern front where they fought around the Masurian Lakes in 1915. It was disbanded in 1919.

The regimental standard for this regiment has still not arrived and will be ‘presented’ in the fullness of time.