Sunday, April 4, 2010

Fight for Gemioncourt

With the information from Mike Robinson's book in hand, plus

some detailed maps from some other websites, I am able to reconstruct some pretty accurate wargame situations. This is the opening stages of the battle as the French try to take the strongpoint of Gemioncourt, held by the first brigade of the 2nd Netherlands Division. (click the pictures to enlarge.)

The French attempted to bombard the allied position with two batteries, but at long range weren't able to do much damage. It was therefore decided to advance the guns. This proved costly as the Netherland artillery inflicted three casualties on the limbered guns. The advance can be seen in the photo below.

On the French right, things start off well as the swarm of skirmishers was able to drive back the 27th Jagers on the first turn. On turn two, however, a second attempt was met with a devestating volley, including a double six. This caused five casualties to the screen and drove

them back 20 centimeters! The risk to officer roll was a three, which meant the brigadier's horse bolted and ran into the enemy lines leading to his capture. This brought the brigade's advance to an abrupt halt until an aide de camp could be detached to straighten the situation out.

The shot below is of the farm of Gemioncourt which is held by a battalion of militia





This is a shot of the last line of defense, a battalion of the Orange Nassau Regiment, under the watchful eye of the Prince of Orange himself.