!battle of Gravelotte-St Privat

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Comment by Sebastien Bossard on October 17, 2011 at 19:48

First of all, sorry but my pdf files are too big and I forgot to let my disk at the world life club last time. Now for the armament. The German army relied heavily on artillery, they have 2 kinds of guns, the 4 pdr Krupp and the 6 pdr Krupp, both are excellent guns, well served by trained men. It is forged steel rifled breechloaders. It has an effective range around 3000 m. The German used it massively to 'soften' the ennemy before the attack. The French had 3 kinds of artillery: the 4pdr bronze muzzle-loading rifled gun, inferior to the krupp, the 12 pdr heavy bronze muzzle-loading rifled gun, equal in the rules to the krupp and the canon a balles, a kind of gattling, very efficient but with a short range and usually destroyed at long range by the German guns.

 

Comment by Sebastien Bossard on October 17, 2011 at 2:32

yes, of course!

Comment by Richard Roman on October 16, 2011 at 22:37

Sebastien - can we organise a meeting - say a week before where you can give us a briefing etc - so that we all have time to prepare?

Comment by Richard Roman on October 16, 2011 at 14:36

Sebastien - I guess you were writing to t'other Richard but have changed the dates for you. Keep posting up the info - highly instructional!

Comment by Sebastien Bossard on October 16, 2011 at 14:02

Richard, is it possible to change the dates of the event for the 25-27th of November, i tried without success?

Comment by Sebastien Bossard on October 16, 2011 at 9:59

So at the battle were around 180 000 German troops against 120 000 French. Next comment will be about rifles and guns used.

Comment by Sebastien Bossard on October 16, 2011 at 9:57

The German army was composed of contingents from Bavaria, Saxony, Wurttemberg, Baden and Hessen among others but the main force was the Prussian army organized by von Moltke. So, to speak about all these forces in general, I use 'German' even if the German Reich, the second one, was created at the end of this war. At Gravelotte, there was only Prussian, Hessian and Saxon troops. The German army was a very numerous conscription army. It was 500 000 men strong at the beginning of the war with about as much in reserve, the Landwehr. It was organized into three armies, the First and the Second participated to the battle. The armies were organized into corps, three for the first army, seven for the second and six for the third. There was two divisions of cavalry per army. the corps were composed of two divisions of infantry and a reserve of artillery. The division was composed of two brigades each of two regiments of three battalions. The German battalions were stronger than the french with 1000 men on the paper and about 800 men in reality but also represented by 16 miniatures. The divisions had 4 batteries of artillery and there was one battalion of Jagers (light infantry) per corps. Each infantry division had a cavalry regiment. The artillery reserve was 6 batteries strong. The Royal Guard corps and the Saxon corps (XIIth) also had a cavalry division attached. The Guard, IInd, VIIth, VIIIth, IXth, Xth and XIIth corps participated to the battle as well as 4 cavalry divisions and some artillery of the IIIrd corps.

Comment by Balthazar Balderdash on October 16, 2011 at 9:05

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Gravelotte

Comment by Sebastien Bossard on October 16, 2011 at 8:55

Yes Richard, so I will give you today informations about the two armies. The French army was at that time a very good professional army of 250 000 men, they were organised in battalions of 720 men on the paper but were mainly 500 men strong in reality. The army was composed of army corps, there was seven corps and the imperial guard. There was also 4 independent divisions of cavalry and the general reserve of artillery. Each corps had three or four divisions (three for generals and four for marshals) of infantry and one division of cavalry plus an artillery reserve. The imperial guard had only two elite infantry divisions and one cavalry division with a small reserve of artillery. In the game, the battalion is represented by a base with 16 miniatures, three battalions together form a regiment, two regiments form a brigade and two brigades with a battalion of chasseurs (light infantry), one battery of mitrailleuse and two batteries of artillery of 4 pdr form a division. The cavalry division is composed of two or three brigades of mostly two regiments, these regiments are represented by two bases with 6 miniatures. The artillery reserve is composed of 6 to 8 batteries of 6 guns represented by one base with four artillerymen and the artillery train four horses and limber. The Guard, IInd, IIIrd, IVth and VIth corps compose the french army at the battle. Next post will be about the german army.

Comment by Balthazar Balderdash on October 16, 2011 at 8:40

I don't care if I'm with zee Germans or zee French, I just hope everybody has a sense of humor and doesn't get carried away! A training day sounds quite good--it also doubles the fun! I could also use a .pdf to study up. I am on QQ and use the e-mail: 1930812419@qq.com

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