Tuesday 1 February 2022

Willz Harley's Hanoverian Légion Britannique with some of my flags

The Légion Britannique was raised for service in the Hanoverian Army in 1760. It was paid for by the British government and apparently carried flags of British pattern, although its officers were Hanoverian. It consisted of 5 battalions, each of 4 infantry companies and a dragoon squadron; the strength of each battalion was intended to be 500 infantry and 101 dragoons.

As the Légion was raised from deserters, foreigners and sometimes prisoners of war, its quality can be imagined, and losses from desertion and capture were many. Despite its inauspicious make up, units of the Légion were capable of distinguished service, as with the 3rd battalion which fought well in the defence of Hamm in 1761 and the 2nd battalion which was overcome at the defence of Meppen only after a fierce resistance. French prisoners taken at Warburg in July 1760 were later enlisted in the Légion's light companies.

I created a sheet of infantry flags for the Légion based on the description in Niemeyer and Ortenburg's text on the Hanoverian Army, which states that the flags were those of British pattern, using the facings as depicted in the book as a guide to the regimental colours. Willz Harley has painted up units of the Légion and used my flags, and he gave me permission to show these pictures of his splendid troops with my flags.




 

15 comments:

  1. Nice! I thought perhaps you had been painting figures, David.

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  2. Beautiful units and flags!

    Kind Regards,

    Stokes

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  3. Thank you very much for posting these photo's of my troops and the praise. All very much appreciated but its your flags that make the units pop, keep them coming. I have the 5th and 28th Prussian infantry on the workbench and then some French.


    Willz.

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  4. They look splendid. Well done to both you and Willz
    CG

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  5. Willz figures do look nice and your flags really take the look of the unit to the next level:).

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  6. Great looking figures David and the flags look the biz flying high.

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  7. Thanks, Jon. :-) Sadly, my figure painting has always been rather dubious - I can never settle on a style I like and continue experimenting as I go - consequently every unit ends up painted in a number of different ways, which does not look good! It's clearly not my forte... You can see why I prefer creating flags!

    All the best,

    David.

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    1. Don’t stop your flag work! David, have you considered switching comments to “embedded” so that your replies are associated to the original comment? I find embedded allows easier following of discussion.

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    2. Thanks, Jon. I've now changed it to Embedded; had not really noticed that setting before. No, I'll be flogging on with the flags so no worry there! And I'll email you shortly to talk about your kind offer of a run through remote game; sorry I've been a bit slow. My health's been rather ropey lately and my sleep has consequently been very poor so I've not been able to tackle as much as I should...

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  8. Thank you, Stokes. :-) The figures and flags do work well together, don't they?

    All the best,

    David.

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  9. My pleasure, Willz. :-) I think the flags and troops complement each other very nicely - where would the flags be without splendid troops to carry them?

    All the best,

    David.

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  10. Thanks, Chris. :-) It's a good collaboration, isn't it?

    All the best,

    David.

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  11. Thanks, Steve. :-) I wish I had Willz's ability to turn out so many troops so quickly; it's an enviable trait.

    All the best,

    David.

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  12. Thanks, Ray. :-) It was good to have the information that the flsgs carried were of British design - hopefully they are not too far from the historical reality.

    All the best,

    David.

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  13. Willz said > I have the 5th and 28th Prussian infantry on the workbench > and then some French.

    Great; look forward to seeing these troops in action with the flags too! Thanks. :-)

    All the best,

    David.

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Saturday 6th June 2020 I've decided to allow comments from Anonymous Users but I'll still be moderating posts, as I'm sure the spam will probably flood in now! We'll see...