One good turn deserves another

Peter, Markus and Markus' new Bavarian book.

With all this disharmony over the Eurozone, I’m delighted to report that there’s at least one area in which Anglo-German relations remain on friendly terms: uniformology.

Over the last few months, I’ve been helping Peter Bunde with the English translations for his Brigade Uniform Plates. To be honest, Peter’s English is already very good indeed (far better than my German) but I think he finds it helpful to have a native English-speaker check things over to make the phrasing natural and use the correct English uniform terms. My recent credits include Plate 253: Westphalian Landwehr Cavalry and Plate 255: Elbe Landwehr Cavalry (among others) though all the credit really belongs to Peter for his extensive research.

In return for helping out, Peter has sent me a few plates as gifts but I was unprepared for the generous gift that arrived last week: a signed copy of Peter’s new book which he has co-written with Markus Gartner and Markus Stein. Die Bayerische Armee 1806-1813 is a follow-up to their earlier book about the Saxon Army that I wrote about back in 2010. This new volume is part of the same series and follows a very similar format. It’s packed with highly detailed and thoroughly researched information. Even if you can’t read the German text, there’s plenty to enjoy in the selection of illustrations. The vast majority are in full colour and include ones from noted historical uniformology sources, Peter’s own Brigade Uniform Plates and a couple of illustrations commissioned from Patrice Courcelle, including the front cover of the book itself.

This is probably the most useful 80 pages about the Napoleonic Bavarian army that you could ever hope to find and it compares very favourably against the similarly sized Osprey volume.

Our Belgian campaign: Plancenoit

Front view of St Catherine's church, Plancenoit.

Back in July, Peter F. and I travelled to Belgium to visit the sites in the company of several other like-minded Napoleonic enthusiasts. It’s a measure of just how busy 2011 has been that it’s only now that I find myself with the time to sort through the photo files and share the best ones with you.

First things first though: I’d like to publicly acknowledge the kindness of our host for the visit: renowned Belgian Napoleonic author, expert and collector Paul Meganck. Paul, if you’re reading this, I haven’t forgotten my promise to send you copies of all the photos. Secondly, I’d like to thank my fellow campaigners for making the trip so enjoyably: Peter F., Buddy Hoch (of Triangle Miniatures in the US), Pete Bunde (of Brigade Uniform Plates fame) and his good friend and co-author/researcher Markus.

We packed so much into just three days that I’m going to split the photos over several postings. Today’s offerings come from a whistle-stop early evening visit to Plancenoit at the Eastern edge of the Waterloo battlefield. As most of you know, this was the scene of the arrival of the Prussians towards the end of that fateful day and the fight for the village swung to and fro around the now famous church. The first photo (above) shows the front of Saint Catherine’s church which is no longer as it was in 1815, having been extensively rebuilt in 1856. If you look carefully, you can spot a lithe young Peter F. wielding his camera at the foot of the steps.

The second and third photos (below) are detail shots of the two memorial plaques either side of the door. One remembers Lieutenant Louis of the Young Guard and translates as “To Lieutenant M. Louis, 3rd Tirailleurs of the Guard, born at Jodoigne on 3/4/1767, fell at Plancenoit 18/6/1815”. The other is in honour of the commander of the Young Guard at Plancenoit and translates as “In this village of Plancenoit that became famous on 18 June 1815, the Young Guard of the Emperor Napoleon was commanded by General Count Duhesme who was mortally wounded here”.

Plaque in honour of Lieutentant M. Louis.

Plaque in honour of General Count Duhesme.

The fourth photo (below) shows the rear of the church which really highlights the extent of the rebuilding. The graveyard and the interior of the church have several more interesting monuments but our time was limited and we wanted to make sure we also saw the Prussian Monument.

Rear view of Saint Catherine's church, Plancenoit.

My final photo for the day shows the famous Prussian Monument on the outskirts of Plancenoit village. It is impressive but inconveniently surrounded by a cast iron railing which limited photographic opportunities. I think you can still get a good sense of it’s austere grandeur from the image below:

The Prussian Monument at Plancenoit.

Peter Bunde’s new website

I’ve mentioned Peter Bunde’s excellent uniform plates previously and some of you will know that there are various arcane places where you can purchase some of them online. Calpe Miniatures stocks some (mostly Prussian) and Perry Miniatures stocks some (mostly 1815-related). But the only place that carried the whole range was Histofig.

However, Histofig and Peter Bunde have parted ways, so Peter has now set up his own website to sell the plates. And what an improvement it is on the Histofig pages!

New Saxons book

New Saxon book by Bunde et al.

I’ve just picked up the news of the publication of a new book about the Saxon army, 1810-13, from a posting on TMP by BfK friend Stephen Summerfield. Despite the minor inconvenience of it in being written in German and published in Germany, I still feel very excited by it, especially since it is co-authored by another of our BfK friends, Peter Bunde.

Die Sächsische Armee 1810-1813 is written by Peter Bunde, Markus Gärtner and Markus Stein and published by Preußische Bücherkabinett in association with Andrea Press as part of their “Heere und Waffen” series. Which means I feel another connection to this book because I’ve visited the publisher’s shop in Berlin myself in the past and I thoroughly recommend it if find yourself in the city. The book runs to 64 pages in paperback with colour illustrations. According to Stephen these are large format reproductions of many contemporary illustrations including those of Baldauf, Sauerweid, Opitz, Schrader, Beyer and the Augsbilder plates as well as additional illustrations by Patrice Courcelle. If you click on the “Vorschau” link in the page, you can see previews of several pages of the book.

For those who struggle with German, here’s my slightly iffy translation of the blurb:

“No army of the German Confederation states was subject to such a fundamental change in organization and uniform as the Saxon forces of the Napoleonic era. Based on the experience of the campaigns of 1806/07 as an ally of Prussia and 1809 as an ally of France, a major reform of the Saxon army was carried out.

Issue 13 of the Heere un Waffen series portrays this new Saxon army in numerous contemporary accounts, in plates by Patrice Courcelle and Edmund Wagner as well as in computer drawings of all the regiments by Dr. Peter Bunde. A description of the war record completes the presentation of this issue and puts a good, comprehensive introduction to the organization, uniforms and history of the Saxon army 1810-1813 in the hands of the reader.”

All in all, at under 20 Euros, this looks like a must-have for me.