I know the Murcia region in Southern Spain very well, situated on the Costa Calida or 'Warm Coast', famous as a fruit growing area and with the cities of Murcia and Cartagena, the latter founded by the Carthaginians and a major Spanish naval base.
It would seem the Murcians were enthusiastic opponents of Napoleon, raising at least five battalions of volunteer infantry, one light infantry unit and the the three regular battalions. Several of the volunteer battalions took part in the determined siege of Saragossa.
The Murcia Regiment were first raised in 1694 and were the nineteenth regiment of line infantry, having two battalions present at Talavera.
Bassecourt's Regiments
In May 1808 at the commencement of the war the Murcia Regiment was listed with three battalions but with just over the list strength for one battalion, having 833* officers and men.
*Source - Seccion de Historia Militar, Estados de la Organizacion y Fuerza de los Ejércitos Españoles Beligerantes en la Peninsula, durante la Guerre de España contra Bonaparte, 1822, Barcelona.
However a second source shows a different picture with two full strength battalions in Portugal and the third battalion mustering in the Gibraltar Camp.
Spnaish Army of Andalusia - 20th May l808
Gibraltar Camp:
3/Guardias Wallonas (30/800)
Valencia Infantry Regiment (1/2)(7/318)
Corona Infantry Regiment (39/675)
1/3/Africa Infantry Regiment (36/455)
Barbastro Light Infantry Regiment (1/2)(6/246)
Campo Mayor Infantry Regiment 33/1034
3/Murcia Infantry Regiment (10/121)
In Portugal:
1/Murcia Infantry Regiment (23/781)
2/Murcia Infantry Regiment (22/700)
Officers/Men
Source - Clerc, Capitulation de Baylen, Causes et Consequences, Paris, 1903
The picture of the regiment in the early part of the war is then further confused with Oman showing the regiment with a strength of just 833 men for June 1808 seemingly quoting the previous source for a later date, so the precise strength of this unit between May and June 1808 is anyone's guess.
Sencilla for the Murcia Regiment
The third battalion appears on the order of battle of Spanish forces at Bailen in the July of 1808, as part of General La Pena's Reserve Division.
Spanish Forces at Baylen - 17th July l808
Commanding General: Lieutenant General Francixco Xavier Castaños
Chief of Staff: Major-General T. Moreno
Artillery Commander: Mariscal de campo Marques de Medina
Engineer Commander: Colonel Bernardino de Loza
Following the victory at Bailen, elements of the regiment returned to Murcia to act as garrison troops in the province.
The regiment is then shown forming two battalions in La Pena's 4th Division, part of General Castanos' Spanish Army of the Centre that moved up to the River Ebro in the October and November.
Army of the Center, Commanding General: General Castanos 4th Division: General La Pena (7,500)
Africa Infantry Regiment (2)
Burgos Infantry Regiment (2)
Saragosa Infantry Regiment (1) Murica Infantry Regiment (2)
Provincial Grenadiers of Andalusia (2) (militia)
Signenza Militia Infantry Regiment (1)
Navas de Tolosa Infantry Regiment (1)(new levee)
Baylen Infantry Regiment (1)(new levee)
5th de Sevilla (1) (new levee)
Source Oman (battalions)
With Spanish forces beaten and pursued by the French Grande Armee under Emperor Napoleon, the Army of the Centre found itself regrouped around Cuenca under a new commander by January 1809, and the regiment was in a much reduced strength of under one full battalion now in the Vanguard Division.
It would have the misfortune to be part of General Venegas' army that was given a hard lesson in manoeuvre by Marshal Victor at Ucles that same month.
Source - Gomez de Arteche Y Moro, La Guerra de la Independencia, Madrid, 1883
On the 4th April the regiment along with the other units that would make up Bassecourt's 5th Division at Talavera were transferred from the Army of the Centre to the Army of Estremadura and with a much increased strength of over 1,200 men between its two battalions.
Forces Passed to the Army of Estramadura from the Army of the
Center by order of the Supreme Central Junta.
Division: Mariscal de campo de Echevarri
l/Reyna Infantry Regiment (1)(795)
l/Africa Infantry Regiment (1)(838)
lst Real Marina Infantry Regiment (2)(615) 1/2/Murcia Infantry Regiment (2)(1,229)
2/Cazadores de Barbastro (1)(851)
Cazadores Voluntarios de Valencia y Albuquerque (l)(831)
Provincial de Siguenza (1)(1,081)
Battalions/Men
My 2/Murcia are composed of figures from the AB range supplied by Fighting 15's and the Sencilla is my conversion using flags created by MS Foy over at the Prometheus in Aspic blog and which I have posted here for others to use. Simply download the image and size accordingly.
So with five battalions down and two to go, the completion of Bassecourt's division gets closer as does the date of the first game in June of the Talavera 208 Project. I don't know about you but I'm getting quite excited by the prospect, and from the comments received I know some of you are also looking forward to seeing the first game up and running.
If you care to click the link on the banner at the top of the post for the Talavera 208 project you will see that the 'Just Giving' page is showing a good total for Combat Stress and the great work they do. Thank you to everyone who has made a contribution so far and the kind comments received. If you are enjoying the outputs from this project so far then please show your support by making a contribution.
Yesterday I got in my third game of Augustus to Aurelian and this time we were trying out a Dacian force against the Romans in a recreation of the Ambush at Tarpae in 87 AD that saw a Roman army badly beaten and its commander Cornelius Fuscus killed.
The game gave an opportunity to test the proof of concept of my new game chits designed to replace the use of a card deck for determining initiative, together with the stat-cards I created to replace lists of units and game markers to indicate orders, disorder, shaken and use of pila. In addition Mr Steve provided some individual warband figures to record the use of the 'Brave Warrior' rule, something I intend to use with my 28mm warbands.
I have planned out the base sizes I now intend to use with A to A
Once the bases sizes were decided I then planned out how my units will look
I re-designed my previous stat-cards used in yesterdays game which worked well but need to be a bit larger because we have a lot of old men in the DWG with failing eyesight!
I was really pleased with how the game played and despite being a bit rusty with the rules, we were soon rattling through the moves and I feel confident that regular play will only improve our knowledge and understanding of them.
Games like this are also really helpful for imagining the look of my 28mm planned armies and the look of the games I want to produce.
The arrival of a pack of Victrix plastic EIR Legionaries this week has confirmed I need to replace the Warlord options with these lovely sculpts, and I am looking forward to the release of the 'attacking' options due to be released at Salute this year.
About a week ago I met up with an old childhood friend that I had thought long lost but surprisingly found was still intact.
The old friend was a WWII home defence bunker atop the sandstone cliffs in my home town of Exmouth. This bunker was a schoolboy's den and ready-made fortress back in 1968, the last time I had visited it and I had failed to find it in the time since moving back to the town in 1985, thinking that with the erosion that occurs with these cliffs it had long fallen into the sea.
My memories of this piece of military architecture was from a boy's memory of a much larger structure, but on seeing it again for the first time in nearly fifty years it is easy to see that this is a machine-gun bunker designed to enfilade the length of the sandy beach of Exmouth seafront which in 1940 would have had a liberal sprinkling of barbed wire and other seafront defence structures along it
The bunker is in a sad state of disrepair and there is talk of it being cleaned up as part of preserving a piece of the history of the town in WWII.
The brick and concrete construction makes an interesting comparison to the sturdy German reinforced concrete structures seen in the Channel Islands and on the Continent and although it may have given a good account of itself if it had been tested, thankfully it never was.
Around the back of the beach facing embrasures were two similar weapon ports ready to deal with infantry or Falschirmjager infiltration from the back of the cliffs.
The position is very heavily overgrown, which explains why I had failed to find it over the years and so the view onto the beach is very restricted especially as the trees and bushes start to green up with spring foliage.
The view back to the position from the beach gives a good idea on what an imposing position it commanded, had the Germans decided to land in this part of the South West of England.
Along the cliff path can be seen an old iron Home Guard sentry box and further along the seafront an Alan Williams steel machine-gun turret.
Another aspect of the spring time is the increasing wild-life activity and that had caused us to notice the rapid drumming of a woodpecker in the trees at the back of the house.
Carolyn took a few minutes the other evening scanning the trees and finally managed to catch some great shots of this Great Spotted Woodpecker - such a treat.
This weekend, I am off to the monthly meeting at the Devon Wargames Group to do another play-test of Augustus to Aurelian with Mr Steve's collection of figures and my newly minted game tokens and terrain - AAR to follow.
Also the Victrix Romans arrived in the post and I am really looking forward to putting those chaps together and the 2nd Murcia are due to get finished this weekend - ah so much to do so little time!
In my series of posts last month covering our weekend trip to Oxford and the local sites I mentioned that as part of my look at Edgehill and Cropredy Bridge, having certain books in hand to reference the history about those battles.
One such book is one I have had on my bookshelf for a good few years now, but one I had always dipped into but never read cover to cover. However with our trip planned I felt compelled to do so and thought I would share my thoughts about it.
My copy of 'The English Civil War' is a first edition from 1983 and I see from looking at the references to it on the net that it has been reprinted several times which I think illustrates its value as over the years since it was first published.
If I were to characterise the contents, it reads rather like a substantial Osprey title with a text that takes the reader through the politics and history of events that cover the first, second and third civil war with an analysis of the politics that lead up to the outbreak of hostilities, the organisation and tactics of the armies together with, the highlight of the book, the colour illustrations based on artwork and descriptions from contemporary work.
Two of the eighty illustrations that fill this book and make it such a great reference for the wargamer
The colour plates of which there are eighty illustrations of troop types from the period together with thirteen examples of colours carried by infantry and cavalry are great inspiration and reference for the wargamer/painter and the text is lavishly illustrated with black and white illustrations, photographs of surviving arms and armour and contemporary maps of the various key battles.
This book is intended, and I think fulfils the role, as a solid base reference for the war, which from comments on other sites seems to have stood the test of time. As with an Osprey title you will need to read further books with greater substance to gain a deeper understanding of the events described.
If I were to fault the book it would centre around a lack of good battle maps and in the first edition copy I have, Edgehill doesn't have a title to it, although as my post on the battlefield illustrated our understanding of the layout for that battle has changed with the information gleaned from modern archaeological techniques.
So in summary, despite the age of this tome, it is still a very handy reference to have and one that would appear to be still obtainable second hand for about a tenner.
It was back in April last year that I posted about our trip to Portmouth Historic Dockyard and the fantastic range of displays that covers the long and fascinating history of the Royal Navy.
At the time we were hard pushed to get round everything and indeed one of the major attractions, namely the Mary Rose display, was not yet open due to the new building built to display the now dry remains of the wreck not being ready for public access. Portsmouth Historic Dockyard 2016
Thus we made plans to make a return visit within the twelve months our family ticket lasted to give us access to those displays not seen on our first visit.
So last month we headed back to Portsmouth and headed straight for the Mary Rose, a ship that we had not visited for many years, the late nineties in fact when both the boys were little; and eager to see the results of the conservation project that had the timbers sprayed for many years in preservatives to eventually allow them to be seen today dry but in a carefully controlled atmosphere within the multi million pound purpose built display hall pictured in the post from last year.
The loss of the Mary Rose 1545, seen by Henry VIII on horseback in front of Southsea Castle, Cowdray engraving, courtesy of Kester Keighley
I think the story of the Mary Rose is certainly well known to most British people who have become familiar with the project to preserve the remains of the warship since its raising from the bottom of the River Solent back on October 11th 1982.
The Mary Rose, named after Henry VIII favourite sister Mary Tudor and later Queen of France, was built in Portsmouth between 1509-10 and in 1514 was described as carrying seven heavy bronze and thirty four heavy iron guns designed to take advantage of the new idea of cutting holes in the hull with lids for them to fire out of and allowing multiple guns to be lined up along the deck.
In 1512 during the First French War 1512-1514, she took part in the Battle of Saint-Mathieu with a French and Breton fleet near Brest, thought to be the first naval battle when ships fired at each other through cannon ports.
The destruction of the French Cordeliere and English Regent at the Battle of Saint Mathieu 1512 - Pierre Julien Gilbert
Admiral Sir Edward Howard who had the Mary Rose as his flagship during the battle wrote a letter to the King describing the qualities of the great ship
"your good ship, the flower I trow of all ships that ever sailed"
By 1545 and the Mary Rose's second and final engagement she had been developed into a very powerful Man of War if the Anthony Inventory of 1546 is a guide, with some of the earliest modern cast bronze guns made in London for the King being recovered from the wreck.
Three principle types of gun carried on the Mary Rose
The Anthony Inventory of 1546 of guns and ammunition carried on the Mary Rose
And so it was that in 1545 and the Third French War 1542-1546 which saw England at odds with the rest of Europe (sounds vaguely familiar!) following Henry's dissolution of the Catholic church and its infrastructure, that a large French invasion fleet arrived off the mouth of the River Solent on the 16th July 1545 with 128 ships in preparation for a landing of 50,000 French and allied troops.
The English fleet of 80 ships including the Mary Rose remained in harbour having very few galleys under command; vessels that were much better suited to operating within confined and sheltered waters such as the Solent.
On the 19th of July with the great English sailing ships becalmed in harbour, the French galleys made an attack designed to take out the few English galleys that might have intercepted their landing operation, only to find the wind suddenly start to rise just at the same time allowing the English fleet lead by the Mary Rose and the Henry Grace a Dieu to sail out to give battle.
Mary Rose Sinking, the last terrifying minutes of the great ship - Geoff Hunt PPRSMA
One of the thirty five or so survivors recorded what happened, several years later, as the two lead English ships attacked the leading enemy galleys, describing how the Mary Rose had fired the guns from one side of the ship and turned to fire again, but dipped her open gun ports below the water and sank immediately.
The King witnessed the sinking together with his troops gathered close to Southsea Castle and captured in the Cowdray engraving above and one can only imagine the shock as the ship heeled over taking 400 of her crew down with her inside the hull or trapped on deck behind the rigged anti boarding nets.
Despite the loss, the English fleet managed to disrupt the enemy landing and desultory fighting went on around the Solent and the nearby shore until the French withdrew on the 22nd July unable to supply their fleet and with sickness among their crews and damaged ships in need of repair.
In spite of Tudor and later 19th century efforts at salvaging the wreck, the Mary Rose lay on her side in forty feet of water for 437 years until her raising in October 1982. The part of the hull embedded in the muddy bottom of the Solent survived the centuries of tide and current, gradually entombing the remains of crew and contents until their re-discovery, and this time capsule is the Mary Rose exhibtion today at the historic dockyard close to where the ship was laid down back in 1509.
The amazingly well preserved hull section forms the centrepiece of the display
The side of the hull that survived the centuries is now in a preserved dry state seen above in an environmentally controlled display hall with air lock doors and a lighting display that allows for clips of re-enactors in period dress to be projected into the crew areas illustrating what they might have been doing on the day of battle.
On the other side of the walkway gallery, the opposite side of the hull, seen in the pictures below, is recreated with cannon salvaged from the wreck, arrayed through recreated gun ports to complete the illusion of the complete ship.
One of the great bronze cannon points menacingly out from its recreated gun port
An iron breech loading gun mounted on a wheeled carriage salvaged from the wreck
The great bronze cannon on their wooden carriages appear strikingly modern and not unlike those aboard the Victory, close by, and yet these were the first of their kind in naval gunnery and an illustration of the effort and treasure Henry lavished on his Royal Navy; and would go on to serve his daughter, Queen Elizabeth, well when England was threatened with a much larger invasion threat from the Spanish Armada in 1588, something we all know well in Devon.
The recreated gun deck with the tools and ammunition seen about the guns
The Mary Rose was, like all fighting ships, not just a weapon of war but also a home to the crew that served aboard her and lived within the confines of the ship between times of battle.
When the wreck was salvaged the possessions of the crew together with their remains provided an amazing insight to the Tudor Royal Navy and the period as a whole and it is perhaps this aspect that makes this exhibition so special.
From the remains of the ships dog, nicknamed 'Hatch' after being found close to the sliding door of a cabin, to the personal items of clothing and jewellery, the remains of crew members identified through the items found with them or in the part of the ship they were found, and with their character brought to life with the facial reconstructions of their skulls; the last moments of the Mary Rose are brought to life in a vivid way that informs but also serves as a great memorial to the 400 crewmen who lost their lives on the 19th July 1545.
The remains of 'Hatch' an eighteen month old long legged terrier with DNA
closely related to a 'Jack Russell'
As a gamer, I can appreciate any game to help pass the time with friends.
This, oakwood inlaid with spruce, backgammon set was found folded within a cabin
together with eight poplar counters and a dice shaker.
These beautifully carved wooden linstocks all produced in a time when
standardised military kit was still a novelty
The Tudor world was one of predominantly wood and leather objects, items that rarely survive on land archaeological sites,
but such items that makes the Mary Rose such a treasure trove.
As mentioned the display sets out to show how the ship was worked and the people who did that work and where on the ship they might have been stationed as she went into action.
The complete skeleton of an archer has revealed the unique aspects of these fighting men and the effects of their skill at arms had on their bodies.
This is a big man and his bones reveal large depressions on them that suggest his muscles and especially his arm muscles were well developed and powerful.
In addition his shoulder blades revealed a condition known as 'acromiale' where the acromion or the prominent bone at the top of the shoulder blade has not fused, a process that normally occurs between the age of 18-25, but can be prevented by regular strain.
A lot of the skeletons aboard the Mary Rose revealed this condition particularly on the left side where an archer would exert the most force when drawing the longbow with his right arm.
The reconstruction of the archer reveals what an imposing warrior he and his comrades were and as well as delivering the most formidable shooting capability before the development of hand guns would have been very capable of giving a good account of themselves in hand to hand combat.
The weapon that dominated the European battlefields through the mid and late middle-ages was the English longbow a force multiplier par excellence as Crecy, Agincourt and Towton can clearly demonstrate, and was still a formidable ship borne armament as well as arming the troops carried on Henry's ships for land operations.
As well as arrows and bows galore, the standard side arm or 'bollock' knife was also ubiquitous and can be seen in the picture below alongside the personal items decorated in that quaint military fashion that still pertains today of putting your name on anything that belongs to you and you would like to keep.
The reconstructions of the crew members really keep the human loss of life front and centre of this exhibition and rightly so.
As wargamers we, through our combat charts and game mechanisms together with the wider reading most of us do, get a better understanding than most of the capabilities of the weaponry that characterised a particular era in history and the casualties that could be inflicted. However we play games where no one gets killed and family and friends don't suffer the grief of the loss of their loved ones and these personalised displays serve as a vivid reminder of the lives lost when people go to war.
The weaponry recovered from the wreck is perhaps one of the most informing parts of the exhibition as these boarding pikes, swords, knives and bows, not to mention the cannon and swivel guns show the state of the profession of arms in 1545 as this ship went into action.
A multitude of boarding pikes and halberds, very useful when the fighting gets 'close and personal'
This is no reconstruction, but an actual leather scabbard, belt and hangers for an officers sword
The only officers basket hilted sword to survive the wreck was found buried beneath the ship and is of English origin
The Mary Rose revealed the secrets of English longbow construction and use, with the design of the bow relying on the strength and spring of English yew wood. The slightly curved example shows a bow that had an owner, whereas the new cut and turned examples still in the store boxes are straight and unused.
Made from a single stave of yew wood, an skilled archer could shoot between twelve and twenty arrows a minute and the Mary Rose was provisioned with 250 longbows within five chests.
The opportunity for any red-blooded Englishman to make up for not having stood with Henry V on St Crispin's Day is presented by being able to test the long forgotten but remembered skill with the longbow that comes with playing cricket and understanding the difference between lager and real ale.
Modesty and a certain rustiness with the old longbow forbids a picture of your humble author drawing a steady bead on the approaching foe, so Will provides a much better example of a 21st century English long-bowman.
And finally I thought I would finish this post about a ship that says as much about the King that had her constructed as it does about the naval and military architecture of the day
King Henry VIII 1491 - 1547
King Henry VIII had a dramatic effect on the country he ruled and his legacy, certainly in England and Wales lasts to this day.
The recent events of the UK and the announcement of our leaving the European Union has lead to the government turning to a legal instrument designed by and called the 'Henry VIII clauses' to bring forward the 'Great Repeal Bill' designed to repatriate European law to UK law, last used by the King to facilitate his changes to the church and state in 1539 giving him the power to legislate by proclamation, an idea contentious even today.
King Henry would have faced opposition at home to his plans just as the current debates today illustrate although with slightly less head chopping, but the need to assert the right to rule and to make it known was as important then as it is today.
In addition England was starting to look to assert its position in Europe as a military power more than capable of developing the latest weaponry that would defend the King's assertion of power. A clear illustration of these two driving forces in Tudor England can be seen on the barrel of the gun pictured below.
The gun was a forward firing demi-culverin positioned on the front of the sterncastle and was so positioned to fire over the front forecastle. It can be seen on a replica acrylic carriage designed to show the position of iron parts discovered with the barrel on the wreck.
The forward firing demi-culverin on the top deck of the sterncastle
positioned to fire forward over the forecastle.
This gun known as a 'bastard -gun' because the length and bore are not standard for this type of gun shows by the Latin and English inscriptions an insight into the King's assertion to rule without interference from the Catholic church and the extent of that rule together with a growing confidence in the assertion of the power of English arms.
The Power and the Glory
The Latin script plate seen positioned below the Tudor Rose on the top of the barrel is a statement of Henry's ownership of the gun and his new position as head of state and the church.
"Henry the Eighth, by the Grace of God, King of England and France, Defender of the Faith, Lord of Ireland and on earth the Supreme Head of the English Church"
So now you know who is in charge.
Made in England
Earlier guns were cast for Henry VIII by foreign gunfounders, but the inscription proudly stresses that this gun was made by Englishmen, Robert and John Owen from London.
"Robert and John Owen brethryn borne in the cyte of London the sonnes of an Inglissh made thys bastard anno dni 1537"
Now that's what you call a trade mark!
On stepping out from the Mary Rose I grabbed a shot of one of her modern day replacements, although part of a much reduced fleet, the traditions of courage and service continue.
Our trip to Portsmouth will continue with a look at the Royal Navy Submarine Museum across the water in Gosport, an old lady from WWI and the Gallipoli Campaign HMS M33 and the Roman Fortress later Castle at Portchester, part of the Saxon Shore defences interspersed with the next Spanish infantry unit the Second Battalion, Murcia Regiment for Talavera.
