Thursday 31 March 2022

Österbottens Infanteri Regemente

Formed in 1634 from the Finnish province of Ostrobothnia, Österbottens regiment came into the war with Russia in 1807 with a long and proud history. It fought at the Battle of Leipzig in the Thirty Years' War and the Battle of Lund in 1676 in Charles XI's Danish War. In 1699, the regiment was posted to Riga to form a garrison unit. In the Great Northern War the the first battalion was divided and merged with other units, fighting at Lensa and Poltava, before surrendering at Perevolotjna on July 1, 1709. The second battalion that remained in Riga and surrendered at he conclusion of the siege of the city, in July 1710. 

Reformed it was assigned to army in Finland and continued to fight in Estonia.  In 1718 the regiment participated in Charles XII's second Norwegian campaign. Later it was engaged in the Hattars' Russian War of 1741–1743. It was engaged again in the Pomeranian War in 1789 and in Gustav III's Russian War at the Battle of Parkumäki. 

In the Finnish War it fought, among other actions, at the Oravais and Kalix on March 23, 1809. It was disbanded at the conclusion of the war.

Unlike the other Finnish regiments Österbottens still wore the pre-1807 blue coat instead of the grey coat, although there are conflicting references around the actual colour worn, and those blue coats may have had coloured lapels. Since the figures don’t have  lapels I have chosen to do them with the single breasted cost  and white trousers after the figure in the right of the Knötel illustration below.


I like the result.  








10 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. Thanks Jonathan. The blue coats certainly bring them to life.

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  2. Another nice set of Scandanavians Mark. Reading the unit history, I am struck by the number of wars with Russia...strangely topical given a recent poll showed 60% of Finns support that country joining NATO, the first time ever that a majority have been in favour.....

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    1. Thanks Keith. Sadly there is a long history of conflict along that border.

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  3. The blue coat against the grey and yellow facings really sets these off. The more I look at your Swedes the more I'm tempted to get a small contingent to add to the lead pile, although I'm more drawn toward 1813 so I can use them alongside my Prussians, also languishing in the pile.

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    1. Thanks Lawrence. I thought of using them for 1813 too, but the uniform is quite different.

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  4. Another fine unit there and sadly I don't know of any 10mm manufacturers that make a range even vaguely close to these, otherwise I would be tempted to make a small force for some Baltic actions.

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    1. I think that these actions in the Baltic will be fun. None will be big actions.

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  5. Another very nice looking unit Mark…
    All the best. Ly

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    1. Thanks Aly. I’ll start the second battalion sometime next week

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