Légion Britannique

Légion Britannique
The III.-V. Battalion of the Legion's foot troops
active	1760 to 1763
Country	Kurhannover, 1762 Prussia
Armed forces	Kurhannoversche Army
Branch of service	Infantry , cavalry
structure	5 bat. Infantry with 4 companies each , 5 Esk. Dragoons
Strength	approx. 3000 men, including approx. 500 dragoons
Origin of the soldiers	Mostly Germans, officers were considered electoral Hanoverian
owner	1760 August Christian von Bülow - 1760 Emmerich Otto August von Estorff - 1762 Karl Friedrich von Beckwith
Tribe list	List of the regiments of the Electorate of Brunswick and Lüneburg
Trunk number	none - Bleckwenn: FV (Prussia)
Colours	different colors per Bat./Esk.
Wars & Major Battles	Seven Years War : Warburg 1760, Rheden 1760, Vellinghausen 1761

The Légion Britannique was a military Kurhannoversches free corps founded in 1760 during the Seven Years' War .

history

Formation history and locations

The Allied German-British Army under Duke Ferdinand von Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel increasingly needed light troops during the Seven Years' War in order to spare regular regiments. As early as December 1759, General Friedrich von Spörcken in Paderborn brought about the first levies of "Frey" troops. Above all defectors from German and Swiss foreign regiments of the opposing French army and the Electoral Saxon corps formed the basis. The Legion thus consisted of deserters, foreigners and sometimes prisoners of war. 50 soldiers each from Kurhannover (for two battalions), Hessen-Kassel and Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel (for one battalion each) reinforced the troops. The actual formation of the battalions took place in Einbeck , Göttingen , Lemgo and Soest (two battalions). On April 9, 1760, Ferdinand named the group "Légion Britannique". The troops were paid entirely from British wages and also waved British flags. However, the officer's patents were issued by the Electoral Hanover German Chancellery on May 9, 1760 in London . The troop was therefore considered to be Hanoverian.

The nominal strength of the 5 battalions was 627 men. Each of the 4 companies consisted of 4 officers , 7 NCOs , 1 field shearer , 3 tambours and 12 musketeers . Each battalion led two Dreipfünder - guns with. In addition to the infantry, each battalion had a squadron dragoons : 4 officers, 8 NCOs, 1 field shearer, 2 trumpeters and 88 dragoons.

The commander was initially the Prussian adjutant general of the commander-in-chief Ferdinand Major August Christian von Bülow . On September 24, 1760, however, he fell in a battle near Rheden , so that the adjutant general Emmerich Otto August von Estorff from the city of Hanover had to take over the troops. In January 1760 the 5 dragoon squadrons under Major von Hattorf were drawn together to form a dragoon regiment.

November 15, 1762, the Légion was formally dismissed from Hanoverian service. On December 14, 1762, Karl Friedrich von Beckwith offered King Friedrich II to take over command and put the troops in Prussian service. On January 2, 1763, the Kruse and Udam battalions were taken over by Prussia. Of the nominal strength of around 3,000 men, only 1,500 were left at the time of takeover. After the end of the war, also for Prussia, the team was placed under the Westphalian German regiments. The dragoons with 156 horses were transferred to cavalry regiments in the Magdeburg area .

Mission history

The Legion has been used in the few years of its existence, especially in the small post war, mostly along other light troops, such as the Karabinierkorps . On June 15, 1760, von Bülow led the newly established battalions and squadrons with observation tasks to Dortmund . The Legion was under fire for the first time on July 25 at Volkmarsen . The Legion fought a major battle during the Battle of Warburg on July 31, 1760. First, they drove French units from Desenberg and thus distracted from the actual approach of the Allied line regiments. Then the Legion stormed the weakly fortified Warburg held by the Chasseurs de Fischer . As a result, the Legion sacked the city. In 1761, three battalions under Lieutenant Colonel von Stockhausen participated in the defense of Hamm with success. The Udam battalion surrendered to the French late in the defense of Meppen . In January 1763, the legion near Munster was dismissed because Great Britain / Kurhannover had made peace before Prussia. The fired Legion soldiers "roamed the area indulging in terrible debauchery". However, the English Colonel von Beckwith, who had meanwhile transferred to Prussian service, rounded up the troops again. Two battalions were supposed to transfer to Prussian service, but were disbanded in Magdeburg.

Assessments

The judgments about the Légion Britannique were all negative. The tasks of the light troops lay in the small "dirty" war. The "bad human material" consisted of poorly trained soldiers and deserters from the start. "The foot of the corps consists of poorly controlled people, whom even a man like Bülow cannot quite put in order and discipline." They were also ignored by the enemy. When the battalion de l'Ane was captured by the French on January 27, 1761 in the Paderborn town mountains , only 2 NCOs and 4 soldiers out of 200 prisoners were kept, although they often had French deserters in their ranks.

“During and after the completion of the battle, the city of Warburg was exposed to all misfortunes, so to speak, and in this way felt the bitterest consequences of a fatal war, because the German light troops, the Legion Brittanique, Hessian and Brunswick hussars and other useless people, stay in the city 2 Have looted for hours. "

- Council minutes book of the city of Warburg from 1760

Nonetheless, the Legion has been called useful for its background and within the scope of its capabilities. The army command obviously took into account excesses.

Appearance and equipment

The battalions were given different colors so that the original uniforms could also be used. The Dragoons squadrons also orientated themselves in uniform to one battalion each. The different colors are known from the magnificent Gmunden work. After the unification of the Dragoons, they were given uniform white uniforms with black facings.

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  Infantryman 1st Battalion 1761

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  Infantryman II Battalion 1761

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  Infantrymen III.-V. Battalions 1761

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  Dragoons 1st Squadron 1761

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  Dragoons 2nd Squadron 1761

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  Dragoons 3rd Squadron 1761

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  Dragoons 4th Squadron 1761

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  Dragoons 5th Squadron 1761

References

See also

• List of the regiments of the Electorate of Brunswick and Lüneburg

Web links

• Short story with evidence of officers
• Presentation on a private project page (English)

literature

• Hans Bleckwenn : The Frederician uniforms: 1753 - 1786 (=  The bibliophile paperbacks . No. 444 ). Hardenberg, Dortmund 1984, ISBN 3-88379-444-9 , pp. 169 f . (License from the Biblio-Verlag Osnabrück as: The Old Prussian Army; Part 3, Vol. 3, 4 and 5).
• Curt Jany : History of the Prussian Army from the 15th Century to 1914 . Volume 2: The Army of Frederick the Great . Ed .: Eberhard Jany. Biblio Verlag, Osnabrück 1967, p. 688 (extended edition of the original edition from 1928).
• Joachim Niemeyer, Georg Ortenburg (ed.): The Chur-Braunschweig-Lüneburg Army in the Seven Years War. The "Gmunden magnificent work" . Publishing house Bernh. Vogel, Beckum 1976, OCLC 4833236 , pp. 76 ff . (on behalf of the German Society for Heereskunde eV and the KLIO).
• Carl August Pentz von Schlichtegroll: The "legion britannique". Central Office for German Personal and Family History, Leipzig 1931, OCLC 08542774 .

Individual evidence

1. ^ GW von Düring: History of the Schaumburg-Lippe-Bückeburg Carabinier and Jäger Corps. Wittler, Berlin / Posen / Bromberg 1828, p. 177. (online at google books)
2. ↑ Hans Bleckwenn : The Frederician uniforms: 1753 - 1786 (=  The bibliophile paperbacks . No. 444 ). Hardenberg, Dortmund 1984, ISBN 3-88379-444-9 (license from Biblio-Verl. Osnabrück as: The Old Prussian Army; Part 3, Vol. 3, 4 and 5). Volume IV, p. 170.
3. ↑ von Sichardt Quoted from: Joachim Niemeyer, Georg Ortenburg (ed.): The Chur-Braunschweig-Lüneburg Army in the Seven Years' War. The "Gmunden magnificent work" . Publishing house Bernh. Vogel, Beckum 1976, p. 77 (on behalf of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Heereskunde eV and KLIO).
4. ↑ Hans von Geisau : Commemorative publication on the occasion of the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Warburg on July 31, 1760 . Sources and studies on the history of the Seven Years' War in Warburg and the surrounding area. Ed .: District of Warburg. Junfermann-Verlag, Paderborn 1961. pp. 85f.