Steve's Random Musings on Wargaming and other stuff...

Sunday, July 6

"Firing into the Brown" #85 - Top 10's, Cambers and stuff..

"So Carnehan weeds out the pick of his men, and sets the two of the Army to show them drill and at the end of two weeks the men can manoeuvre about as well as Volunteers. So he marches with the Chief to a great big plain on the top of a mountain, and the Chiefs men rushes into a village and takes it; we three Martinis firing into the brown of the enemy".

Kipling "The Man Who Would Be King"

Time for another update.. apologies - may be a bit short this week - the weather is monumentally good in the UK at the moment so not attuned to long hours in loft or in front of keyboard... 😏

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While out on Gertrude the other week I happened to find myself on the opposite side of the Camber to where the Camber Bastion would have been, and noticed something interesting.. well I thought it was anyway.. 😁

First some map'ery to orientate ourselves.. the gates are ringed as is the Camber Bastion our focus for today..

X marks the spot..

Photo was taken at X and looking across the basin to where the Bastion would have been... note Bridge Tavern (pub) off left - named for the bridge between this side and the other side where the Gate was...

Close up of what got my attention... look at that brickwork... smacks of original to me... quite exciting.. I do wonder if that is the pointed front edge of the old bastion..??

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I was sitting there the other day having written the blog about Forsyth dying, and thinking I'd really like to put together that top 10 of all time novels I mentioned.. for no other reason than that I like a list, and if you put up a list someone is bound to tell you "your talking out of your ear", "know nothing", "what abut x, y and z", etc etc.. and I like the feedback and hearing what other peoples choices are..

So here is version 1.. a work in progress... no rankings yet, as I'd like to get a list first..

'Wuthering Heights' - that Bronte girl was a story-teller...
'Pied Piper' - so many Nevil Shute books could go in the list but if I had to chose one this would be it
'Winter in Madrid' - CJ Sansom - set in Madrid at the end of the Civil War and when we were all holding our breath to find out whether Franco would come in to the war..
'Day of the Jackal' - Forsyth - for all the reasons previously mentioned but mostly because this was a genre defining book
'Captain Correlli's Mandolin' - Louis de Bernières - an absolute tour de force that I kick myself repeatedly for not having read sooner, and will read again soon..
'Lord of the Rings' - Tolkien of course - not fair you shout, as there are three books, so if I had to choose one it would be for the first one 'The Fellowship of the Ring'
Jack Aubrey series by Patrick O'Brian.. 21 books in all but if I had to pick one it would be 'The Reverse Of The Medal'.. the "off hats!" passage causes the eyes to go blurry every bloody time... utter genius..
'Secret Water' - Arthur Ransome - part of his 'Swallows and Amazons' series of which I could have chose any other book from, but I think on balance this is the one I liked the most, and which for me (among may others) started a life long love of sailing..
'Wolf Hall' - Hilary Mantel - part of the trilogy on Thomas Cromwell - what a stunning imagination she had... a close run thing with 'The Mirror and the Light' which I may still nominate instead..

....that'll do for now - more will come to me... (Pullman 'Dark Materials'?? Simenon's Maigret? Certainly but which one - he wrote 75! Dibden I think as Zen is a fantastic creation, but which one... 😁)

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Laters, as the young people are want to say...

Saturday, June 28

"Firing into the Brown" #84 - 3D, Orleans and stuff..

Kipling "The Man Who Would Be King"

Time for another update..

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By way of a wrap up, and also because this is an amazing 3D mapping project by a very talented lady that (although a trifle "niche" 😁) needs to be seen by more people - the following puts the "Gates" mini project into an overall context..

Note the following we have visited on the blog (click for the post .. if you haven't had enough already 😏):

King James (or Point) Gate at 0.15 sec and 2.50 sec
Camber Bastion at 0.37 sec and 2.41 sec
Kings Bastion and the Spur Redoubt 0.54 sec
King William Gate 1.10 sec
Landport Gate 1.40 sec
Beestons Bastion 2.16 sec
King George (or Quay) Gate 2.37 sec

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Regimental Standard - Copyright: Kronoskaf

Another in the occasional "regiments of renown" series featuring the histories of various regiments painted in haste at the beginning of a project but which were not documented here for posterity.. so we come to French cavalry regiment "Orleans", part of my War of the Spanish Succession collection - this one was quite possibly the first French cavalry unit I painted for the project...

There is a very (very) good potted history of this regiment on the Kronoskaf WSS site (link below) so there's little point in me repeating the (huge amount of) good work completed there, but by way of a framework to hang some 'rabbit holes' on (and I do love a rabbit hole😏) the regiment was first raised in Piedmont (Italy) in 1630 by the Commander de Souvré. The regiment transferred into the French service in May 1635.

The regiment was serving in Flanders at the start of the War of the Spanish Succession (1701-13) and had three squadrons.

As is usually the case the regiment was named after their Colonel, the Duc d’Orléans , but in the field were commanded by these august gentlemen.. unusually (as I've found to now) there seems to be little or no information on these guys other than the tried and trusted information..

Duc de Orleans - Portrait by
Jean-Baptiste Santerre

from 1 May 1693: Jacques-Joseph Vipart, Marquis de Silly (a Knight of the Order of the Holy Spirit no less) -

Silly commanded a brigade of cavalry at Blenheim, comprising his own regiment, plus the Regiment de Montreval, the Regiment de St. Pouanges and the Regiment de Ligonday - about 500 men in all, in 9 squadrons..
from what little I have managed to find out about him "..he is said to have been of a haughty and arrogant disposition and after attaining the rank of Lieutenant Général des Armées du Roi he put an end to his life by throwing himself out of a window in a paroxysm of mortified ambition" (from the forward to the "Memoirs of Madame de Staal de Launay" a lady who had fancied him but not had her feelings returned, but despite that cast him in a more pleasant light than most seemed to.. 😏)
he was wounded, and taken prisoner at Blenheim and the regiment was then given to ..

from 25 December 1704 to 6 March 1719: Nicolas-Louis Grostête* de Jouy

apparently an outside choice for the command of the regiment, and someone who the Duc de Orleans had gone outside of the box to choose. From what I can tell the concerns were mainly due to Nicolas's lack of influence or seniority in terms of aristocracy..
he was clearly able as he commanded the brigade after Silly's absence and on at least two occasions was trusted to take them on missions away from the army

*Grostête doesn't that translate as fat-head?? 😐

War service by year:

1701 in Flanders
1702 combat of Nijmegen
1703 siege and capture of Alt-Breisach; Siege of Landau; Combat of Speyerbach
1704 Battle of Blenheim
1705 in Alsace being brought back up to strength
1706 operations on the Rhine.
1707 transferred to Flanders
1708 Battle of Oudenarde
1709 Battle of Malplaquet
1711 Combat of Arleux
1712 Battle of Denain; siege and recapture of Douai; Siege and recapture of Le Quesnoy; Siege and recapture of Bouchain.
1713 transferred to the Rhine; capture of Landau and Freiburg.

These are Dixon's and painted and based by me some time pre-2006, and as I say probably one of the first regiments I painted - I have a curious antipathy towards flags for my cavalry units - so there isn't one.. 😏

Saturday, June 21

"Firing into the Brown" #83 - last of the gates and stuff..

Kipling "The Man Who Would Be King"

Time for another update.. too damn hot in the loft so time to get out on Gertrude

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...and so we come to the very last of the four gates that allowed access to the old/original Portsmouth, and also, alas, to the end of this most enjoyable little mini local history project.. it's been great fun.. be quite sad to see the end of it, but I don't doubt the odd rabbit hole will present itself going forward.. 😏

So the last gate, the King William's Gate, is also the last in other ways actually - as it was the last of the four gates to be built, not being completed until 1834 - and having built it, it was demolished with the rest of the fortifications only 40 years later (1876'ish)

Starting with a map to orientate ourselves:

The gate is ringed - you'll note that it was protected by it's own ravelin (long long gone and no signs of it now) and was in the southern quarter of the old town - adjacent to Kings Bastion (which we have been to already [clicky]). Note also the Guard House just inside the gate..

Some period pictures and photo's.. no date on the following, but it shows the outer face of what was clearly quite a utilitarian gate, no monographs, balls, crowns, entablature (still like that word!) or globes, and not a bit of gilding to be seen. A veritable "Tesco Blue stripe" kind of a gate... 😏

..the one following shows the view into the town, I suspect not long after the gate was demolished - it's not clear but that looks like rubble on the slope just in front of the guard house (left centre - two chimney pots) previously mentioned, which is also now visible..

There's a tiny picture in the "further reading" link, but I thought this painting of the inner side of the gate was good.. I suspect it is of the time, but unfortunately there is no dating information.. again - note the guardhouse, but also note the railings.. 😁

...and here's the gatehouse (following) as of yesterday.. the actual gate and wall would be left of picture.. note also the fences which may be original - it's a school playing field now but it's also the grounds for the Royal Garrison Church..

...the line of the old fortifications.. this footpath runs directly to Kings Bastion and would have followed the line..

..following - the bit on the side is clearly newer.. I think the inside of the wall and gate would have butted up to the wall the alarm is on..

..following - the other end of the footpath, wonder whether some of those stones have been re-used from the demolition of the original walls? The plaque by the way, is a remembrance of a previous noteworthy's favourite horse...

...and last of all a view to what would have been the inside of the gate 150 odd years ago...

Last of all though I'll leaved you with this one, which is a cracker... click to embigen.. we've visited the volunteer reviews before [clicky]


	"The Volunteer Review at Portsmouth: The Defending Force Concentrating at King William's Gate UK 1869" - Illustrated London News

Sunday, June 15

"Firing into the Brown" #82 - Forsyth, the dark side of the shed(s) and stuff...

Kipling "The Man Who Would Be King"

Time for another update..

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It would ill behove me not to mention the recent passing (reported this week) of that monumental story teller Frederick Forsyth..

Steve the Wargamer has been reading Forsyth repeatedly (since all books should be considered as friends and revisited frequently, and preferably also taken to the pub 😏) since his early years and for the huge amount of enjoyment Mr Forsyth has given me I'd just like to say "thank you"..

The 'triumvirate' of Dogs of War, Odessa File but most of all Day of the Jackal are for me in the top 10 thrillers of all time, Jackal would be in my top 3, and his other later books were no slouches either (Fourth Protocol especially).. with those three books, written in the early 70's, he undoubtedly influenced generations of future authors to adopt that same procedural, detail driven genre of thriller..

I'll be raising a glass to him later.. thanks, sir.

Saturday, June 7

"Firing into the Brown" #81 - Camber Bastion, Orkney's and stuff...

Kipling "The Man Who Would Be King"

Time for another update..

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Whilst getting the pictures for the post on the King George (or Quay) Gate the other week I happened to notice this on the side of a very new shed like building on the estate between where the Quay and King James Gates would have been..

...and then I noticed this on the side ..

..by way of orientation - the bastion would have been here - the year dates it to the de Gomme fortifications.. the positions of the two gates are highlighted..

..this picture following is from that post on the King George/Quay Gate.. the bastion would have been just out of picture on the left..

The Inner Camber - the King James Gate location is off to the left behind the row of houses/flats in the distance - best guess the two pointy roofed one's.. the front face of the King George or Quay Gate would have been behind me..

...and then I found this in the British Museum Online Gallery

"A VIEW of the NEW MAGAZINE on ye CAMBER at PORTSMOUTH as taken from ye POINT GATE Ano 1716"

Two things about that picture... first, the "Point" gate they refer to in the inscription would have been the King James Gate, the engraving pre-dates the King George (or Quay) Gate by about 18 years, but the Elizabethan sally port/arch would have been up there near the fences top left (behind the boat), and second, the monogram that kicked off this little rabbit hole can be seen next to the square opening in the camber outer face.. 😊

So.. built in 1687, it was basically a triangular limestone gun platform which projected into the Camber - by the early 1700s the garrison magazine was built in to the landward end of the bastion (I think that's the large square building in the engraving) but that became redundant by the middle of the 1700s when it was relocated further out of the city (I suspect the citizens of Pompey would have been quite happy about that - it would have made a big bang if it had gone off! 😁).

By 1865 the bastion was in use as the garrisons out-pensioners* establishment (which would have saved it from the general demolishment of the walls going on at the time) but was then redeveloped as a military hospital which remained in use until the early 1900s. The bastion was eventually demolished in about 1935 which may explain why we still have those monograms..

History's all around us.. 😀

* now here's a thing I didn't know.. historically, all British Army pensions were administered by the Royal Hospital Chelsea, any veterans in receipt of this payment were known as Out-Pensioners but those accepted for admission to the actual Royal Hospital surrendered this payment and were known as In-Pensioners.

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George Hamilton, 1st Earl of Orkney - Colonel
of the regiment from 1692 to 1737!

Another in the occasional "regiments of renown" series featuring the histories of various regiments painted in haste at the beginning of a project but which were not documented here for posterity.. so we come to British infantry regiment "Lord Orkney’s Regiment of Foot", part of my War of the Spanish Succession collection

There is a very (very) good potted history of this regiment on the Kronoskaf WSS site (link below) so there's little point in me repeating the (huge amount of) good work completed there (and there really is, it's one of the most comprehensive regimental histories I've seen on this excellent site), but by way of a framework to hang some 'rabbit holes' on (and I do love a rabbit hole😏) the regiment was first raised for French service* by a Royal Warrant dated March 1633 awarded to Sir John Hepburn, who was their first colonel. They were known in French as “Regiment d’Hebron” and at one time numbered almost 8,000 men!

*(Charles had married Henrietta Maria, a princess of the French Royal family, in 1625, and the marriage treaty that was signed with it meant a fair few British military resources were then loaned to the French King to be used in his wars against the Spanish)

The formation date certainly makes this one of, if not the, oldest regiments of the line in the British Army. It then existed in its own right (as the 1st Foot after the organisation of 1751) right up until 2006, when it amalgamated with a number of other Scottish regiments to form the Royal Regiment of Scotland - which may explain why their nickname in the British Army is "Pontius Pilates Guard" 😁

Seniority is more complicated (as you'd expect it's a fairly touchy subject!) but I think they would be ranked as the most senior of the foot regiments of the British army, just behind the Guard regiments who differentiate, and are senior, by the fact they are.. errr.. Guards.. 😏

Cutting to the chase... during the War of the Spanish Succession it's fair to say they had a busy war, not the least, serving in all four of the major engagements..

Sir John Hepburn

1701, one of the first thirteen British battalions (or rather in there case two, as uniquely the regiment sent both battalions to the war - most regiments would have kept one back as a training cadre and source for reinforcements) William III sends to assist the Dutch Republic in support of the Treaty of The Hague
1702

siege of Kaiserwerth and then the regiment along with the Foot Guards and other British units formed the rear guard during a French relief attempt
siege of Venlo
one battalion of the regiment was detached for the siege of Stevensweert
siege of Liège

1703

first battalion of the regiment brigaded with the Foot Guards and the regiments of Stewart, Howe, Ingoldsby, and Marlborough, under Brigadier -General Withers
second battalion and the regiments of North and Grey, Derby, Row, and Ferguson, under Brigadier-General the Earl of Derby.

1704

part of Marlborough's march to the Danube,
Battle of the Schellenberg where they charged three times before storming the Bavarian entrenchments.
siege of Ingoldstadt
Battle of Blenheim
siege of Landau.

1705

recruits from Scotland
first battalion siege of Huy
part of the force to attack the fortified lines of the French

1706

Battle of Ramillies where it was initially deployed near the right of the first line, on the heights of Foulz
sieges and captures of Dendermonde, Ostend and Menin.
one battalion of the regiment was detached for the siege of Ath

1707

first battalion was brigaded with the Foot Guards, Godfrey's Foot and Sabine's Foot under Brigadier-General Meredith
second battalion was brigaded with Webb's Foot, Ingoldsby's Foot, Tatton's Foot and Temple's Foot under the command of Brigadier-General Sir Richard Temple.

1708

following the threat of a possible French invasion of Britain the regiment with several others was ordered to return to England. Following the failed invasion attempt the regiment was sent back to Flanders.
Battle of Oudenarde, where it formed part of the division commanded by the Duke of Argyle.
siege of Lille
part of the force which advanced to relieve the French siege of Bruxelles
siege of Ghent where a detachment of the regiment formed part of the forlorn-hope

1709

more recruits from Scotland
siege of Tournai
battle of Malplaquet, in the division commanded by General Count Lottum, engaged in the assault of the entrenchments in the wood of Taisnière.
siege and capture of Mons

1710,

siege Douai
siege of Béthune
siege of Aire

1711

siege of Bouchain

1712

siege of Quesnoy
preparatory to a general treaty of peace, the agreed to deliver the city of Dunkerque into the hands of the British as a pledge of his sincerity The regiment was part of the garrison and remained in the city nearly two years.

1713, a treaty of peace having been concluded at Utrecht, the British troops were ordered to return from Flanders.
1714 went into garrison at Portsmouth (I'm guessing Gosport? No evidence to suggest it was actually in Portsmouth itself) and Plymouth.

These are Dixon's and painted and based by me some time pre-2006, probably one of the first regiments I painted - the flag is new as of this post [clicky - thanks again for your work David!] as the old one was decidedly battle damaged.. 😏

I chose to depict them with blue facings (which I think they were got at the end of the 17th C) but most pictures/references for the period still show them in the older grey/white facings..

R.J. Marrion’s illustration of a man of Orkney’s Regiment of Foot (from the Charles Grant book cover).

Further Sources:

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"Laters", as the young people are want to say...