Gibraltar Brigade

Officer of the "Gibraltar Battalion" de la Motte with a flag, the Rock of Gibraltar with the motto: "With Eliott fame and victory", as well as "the 13th and 13th. September 14, 1782 ”shows.

The Gibraltar Brigade was a task force of the Electorate of Hanover under the British service .

Emergence

The Gibraltar Brigade was created at the same time as the somewhat smaller, and with the loss of the island of Menorca, which was also more unsuccessful for the British, Menorca Brigade by submitting a total of five battalions of the Electorate of Hanover Army to the British service on July 14, 1775. The purpose was to be able to withdraw British combat units in Europe for use in the American War of Independence and at the same time to maintain the defense readiness of the fortresses of Menorca and Gibraltar .

composition

The brigade consisted of

• Formed by the 1st Battalion of the Regiment von Reden under the regimental commander who gave it its name, Lieutenant General Johann Wilhelm von Reden . Commander of this battalion was Colonel Ernst Wilhelm von Friesenhausen , field commander Lieutenant Colonel Johann Gottfried von Walthausen († 1777), who was replaced by Lieutenant Colonel Johann Friedrich von Dachenhausen .

• the 1st Battalion of the Regiment de la Motte under the supreme command of the Colonel and since 1776 Major General August de la Motte , who also commanded his 1st Battalion and the Gibraltar Brigade as a whole and was supported by his Field Commander Major Bernhard Wilhelm von Schlepegrell .

• the 1st Battalion of the von Hardenberg Regiment , later von Sydow; whose regiment commander Lieutenant General Christian Ludwig von Hardenberg died in 1781, so that the regiment was named after his successor Heinrich Bernhard von Sydow . The commander and field commander of this third battalion in Gibratar was Lieutenant Colonel Georg Wilhelm von dem Bussche , who was ordered back to Hanover in 1776 and was replaced by Lieutenant Colonel Ernst August von Hugo .

• 

  Lieutenant General August de la Motte

• 

  Colonel Gustav Friedrich von Dachenhausen

• 

  Colonel von Hugo (front) and Lieutenant Colonel von Schleppegrell (back)

effect

The brigade, which probably existed until autumn 1784, played a significant role in the successful defense against the capture of Gibraltar by the allied Spanish and French troops. In view of the early defeat of the British by the surrender of February 5, 1782 and the accompanying loss of Menorca , the holding out of the siege of Gibraltar and the victory of the governor of Gibraltar George Augustus Eliott, 1st Baron Heathfield against the besiegers in London became journalistic and widely used artistically. History paintings including the preparatory sketches as well as corresponding copperplate engravings are part of the inventory of well-known museums, they show Eliott as the focal point and his commanders from the United Kingdom as well as the officers of the almost forgotten Gibraltar Brigade from the Electorate of Hanover. In 1783, King George III donated the Gibraltar arm band to the members of the brigade . This tradition was continued after the annexation of the Kingdom of Hanover by Prussia in 1866 through a renewed award by Kaiser Wilhelm II .

• 

  George Carter: The Siege of Gibraltar (1782)

• 

  John Trumbull: The Sortie Made by the Garrison of Gibraltar (1789)

literature

• Ernst Julius Georg von dem Knesebeck : History of the Churhannoverschen troops in Gibraltar, Minorca and the East Indies. Hanover 1845, digitized .
• Walter Dornfest: Hanoverian Troops in the British Service 1775–1792 in: Journal of the Society for Army Historical Research , Vol. 61, No. 245 (Spring 1983), pp. 58-61

Individual evidence

1. ↑ From 1783 the 3rd Infantry Regiment was introduced with the numbering of the Hanoverian regiments
2. ↑ Drowned on November 13, 1777
3. ↑ From 1783 5th Infantry Regiment
4. ↑ From 1783 6th Infantry Regiment