Eine große Parade

With the completion of the Austrian expansion it's time for a grand parade. 

The expansion consists of seven battalions:

The Grenadier battalion Welsperg

Regiment Erzherzog Karl Number 3 consisting off two line and one landwehr battalions 

Three line battalions of Regiment  Marquis Lusignan Number 16

Artillery, one position and two field batteries.

And then the whole force.

Second and Third Battalions, Regiment Number 16 Marquis Lusignan

This post introduces the last two battalions of Regiment Number 16 Marquis Lusignan.

The Second Batralion...

The Third Battalion...

This completes the Napoleonic Austrian Expansion!

Hopefully at the end of the week I can put on a bit of a parade of the new additions.

Grenadier Battalion Welsberg

Today sees the completion of the fourth battalion in my Austrian expansion - Battalion Welsberg. - made from Victrix miniatures

The battalion was made up of two companies each of Regiment Number 16 Erzherzog Rudolf (pale yellow facings), Regiment Number 26 Hohenlohe-Bartenstein (green facings) and Regiment Number 27 Chasteler (yellow facings).

It will be brigaded with my two other grenadier battalions.

Second Battalion, Erzherzog Karl Regiment No 3

I actually completed this 36 figure unit two weeks ago, but it has sat with its bases half completed ever since. Now with birthdays, anniversaries and other complications out of the way it is time to complete them.

This, with the first and Landwehr battalions, completes the regiment.

Next on the painting table is a grenadier battalion.

Austrian 12-Pound Gun

This is the final gun set in my Austrian expansion and gives me five guns in total for the Army.

I wanted this to be a 12-pound position gun. Strictly speaking it is not. I did not have a 12-pound model and the Perrys don't make one. I did, however, have a 12-pound barrel to spare, so with a bit of cutting and filing I got it to fit onto the trail. Possibly the trail should be larger, but I think it looks the part all the same.

Landwehr Battalion, Erzherzog Karl Regiment No 3

To avoid the tedium of painting two large Austrian infantry units in white  I switched to the landwehr battalion of the regiment.

This is an under strength unit at 24 figures that uses the Victrix command figures for some variety.

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Also slipping off the painting table is this chap...a Russian Mounted Jäger officer...who had been sitting around unfinished for several months. He should make a useful commander of a light cavalry brigade, or maybe an ADC.

Austrian Artillery

After finishing the first of the Austrian infantry, I have painted a couple of gun sets: a 6-pound set and a howitzer set.

A 12-pound set is waiting to be worked on.

First Battalion, Erzherzog Karl Regiment No 3

Having completing the Poles, now it is onto the Austrians. I have four battalions, the ones gifted to me, assembled and waiting. There are another three battalions still boxed and unassembled. I have decided to do the first of the line battalions as Infantry Regiment Number 3, Erzherzog Karl (Archduke Charles).

The regiment could trace its origins back to 1714 under the name Regiment Jung-Lothrungen zu Fuß. Its initial deployments were on the Austro-Ottoman border fighting against the Turks. It was brought into the Imperial Army as Regiment Number 3 in 1726.

It fought in the War of Polish Succession (1733-35), then, alongside the Russians, against the Turks again ten years later. It fought in the War of Austrian Succession, the Seven Years War, the War of Bavarian Succession and against the Turks again in the 1790.

In the Revolutionary Wars, the regiment served under Generalmajor Hegel in the actions that drove the French under Jourdan and Moreau back across the Rhine.

When Austrians joined the Fifth Coalition in 1809 it was generally considered one of the elite infantry regiments in the army.  In V Corps it fought at Landshut, Teugen-Hausen, Abensberg, Eggmühl, and Regensburg. At Aspern-Essling it was involved in the furious fighting in the streets around granary, suffering heavy casualties, but played a critical role in securing the tactical victory. A few weeks later at Wagram, in IV Corps, it endured the devastating artillery bombardment and defended against massed French infantry assaults. In 1813 it fought in the campaigns in Saxony and Bohemia, fighting at Dresden, Klum and Leipzig.

After the Napoleonic Wars the regiment fought in Italy in 1848 under Radetsky, fighting at Custoza and Novara. It went on to help suppress the revolts in Vienna and fought in the campaign in Hungary. In 1859 it fought in Italy again, at Solferino and in 1866 and was involved in the disastrous Bohemian Campaign, fighting in Gablenz's 10th Corps at Trautenau, Burkersdorf and Königgrätz.

In the Great War the regiment first served on the Eastern Front, in Galicia against the Russians, helping defeat them in at the Battle of Krasnik. Later after the offensive failed and the front stabilised, the regiment was transferred to the Italian Front where it remained until the end of the war. Disbanded in November 1918, elements of the regiment, largely Czechs, were absorbed into the newly formed Czechoslovakian army.