Shortly before Operation Market Garden, the Guards Armoured Division reorganised to form four Regimental Groups, each of an armoured battalion and an infantry battalion from the same Guards Regiment. They were flexible in how they operated, but normally 5 Guards Brigade commanded the Grenadier Guards Group (1 Motor Battalion Grenadier Guards and 2 Armoured Battalion Grenadier Guards) plus the Irish Guards Group (2 Armoured Battalion Irish Guards and 3 Infantry Battalion Irish Guards). 32 Guards Brigade similarly commanded the Coldstream and Welsh Guards Groups.
The XXX Corps advance was initially led by the Irish Guards Group, commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Joe Vandeleur, who was the Commanding Officer of 3 Irish Guards. I wanted to make a model of him in his scout car, looking a bit like Michael Caine who played him in “A Bridge too Far”.
In my last post I showed a picture of my first Paperboys tanks, modelled as No 1 Squadron 2 Irish Guards, who along with the Infantry of 3 Irish Guards were the leading element of XXX Corps during the initial Market Garden breakout. I have now completed the rest of 2 Irish Guards and here is No 2 Squadron.
I have modelled a pontoon train, suitable for my expansion into the War of Austrian Succession. The French built three pontoon bridges over the River Main just before the Battle of Dettingen in 1743 as part of their plan to trap the Pragmatic Army. I thought it was unlikely that two armies would be building pontoon bridges during the same wargame, so decided to just model one train, but with alternative walking drivers and pontoon companies, so it could be used with different Armies.
I already had some suitable pontoon bridges and carriages, which I had scratch built over 15 years ago, as a Napoleonic French Pontoon Train, but then Hät had produced their French Pontoon Bridge set, so I used that instead.
There were a number of additional units and commanders at the Second Siege of Carlisle, which I have now modelled.
The first of these is the Liverpool Blues. My main source regarding them is “The Town of Liverpool in the ‘45” by R C Jarvis, which I found online. They were a Volunteer Regiment raised by the town of Liverpool, were raised much more quickly and were much more effective than the Lancashire Militia. As the Jacobite Rebellion gained momentum the town petitioned the Government to be allowed to raise a volunteer force. The Secretary of State wrote to the Deputy Mayor on 23rd September 1745 authorising the town to form troops and companies of inhabitants who were willing to take arms and to grants commissions to suitable persons to command them.
The town raised £1,000 by subscription to pay for this force and the Liverpool Blues was originally proposed to be formed of 1,000 men, however this was later reduced to 800 men organised as 8 companies. A regular officer, Col Graham of 43rd Foot was appointed to command them, assisted by Lt Col Gordon and Maj Bendish. The town appointed “some persons to be Officers in the Companies who had already behaved well in his Majesty’s Service, the others will be chosen out of young Gentlemen of the Town who have sometime payd old Sergeants to instruct them in the Military Exercise”.
The Liverpool Blues received their uniforms and weapons by 15th November and then marched into Cheshire to help to defend or demolish bridges in that county. On that same day the Jacobites took Carlisle. Several Militia Regiments refused to serve outside their counties but the Liverpool Blues had no such inhibitions. They later joined Oglethorpe’s Brigade at Clifton and marched with them to Carlisle.
This print of their uniform is a composite one, created by putting together elements of three prints to show the key features of their uniform.
Orders for the uniform of the Liverpool Blues were placed by 5 October. “These goods will be wanted in a fortnight or a very few days”, the order read. There were “52 Doz. of full-sized Men’s felt Halts … 50 doz. of them bound with white Galloon (lace) and white mettle Buttons … the other two Dozen let be of a better kind and come without being bound” (the latter presumable for the officers who would have silver lace added later). Three thousand yards of kersey were ordered for the coats; thirteen shoemakers in the town were directed to set about making 626 pairs of shoes and “50 Doz of strong White Stockings” were ordered from Wales.
It is clear from this uniform purchase that the final proposed strength of the Liverpool Blues was 600 men (plus officers) rather than the higher figures of 1,000 or 800 proposed earlier.
There is no mention of waistcoats or breeches, so presumably the volunteers would have worn their own as shown here.
The Jacobite Rebellion created a need for a rapid expansion in the size of the British Army. This was facilitated by members of the aristocracy volunteering to raise regiments. A total of 13 Noblemen’s Regiments of infantry were raised, plus two Regiments of Light Horse.
Four of the infantry Regiments are recorded as being in red uniforms, with yellow, green and red facings (the fourth facing colour being unknown). Most, if not all, of the remaining Noblemen’s Regiments seem to have worn blue uniforms with red facings, as illustrated in this print of the Marquess of Granby’s 71st Foot.
Grenadier caps exist of two of the Noblemen’s Regiments (including Granby’s) and it seems reasonable to assume that they all had Grenadier Companies.
My next project is to model all of the troops which took part in the Second Siege of Carlisle, conducted by the Duke of Cumberland from 21st to 30th December 1745. I already had modelled all of the Jacobite defenders and now needed to complete Cumberland’s troops.
Having beaten Cope at Prestonpans and taken Edinburgh City, but not the Castle, Prince Charles recruited more Regiments into the Jacobite Army then decided to march south into England to claim the throne on behalf of his father. His Army commenced its march on 1st November 1745.
I haven’t posted much in the last year, since I have been preoccupied with my wife’s medical conditions. However, I have now given up some other activities and am making time to resume my hobbies.
Inspired by Jonathan Oates excellent book “The Sieges of the ’45”, I earlier created several posts on the defence of Edinburgh. I have now turned my attention to Carlisle. Here is a view of the City in the 18th Century, looking from the South West. The castle is on the left, the town in the centre (dominated by the cathedral) and the southern English Gate on the right..
I have been a bit busy on other things recently, but for the last few weeks I have been in Spain so have returned to expanding my Paperboys Jacobite ’45 set up.
I had previously made all of the British Infantry for Prestonpans, as shown here, here and here. The original Paperboys figures are 28mm high and a stand of 4 infantry is 40mm wide. I wanted my stands to be the same width as my plastic 1:72 figures (23mm high) which have a frontage of 15mm per figure. I therefore reduced the Paperboys scale to 70% which gave 4 figures (20mm high) on a 30mm wide base. My plastic figures are on a 1:30 ratio but by modelling the Paperboys on a 1:15 ratio they cover exactly the same frontage as my plastic units.
Rod's Wargaming 