"Firing into the Brown" #53 - more Lines, Beinheim 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..

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In 1931 work on an airport for Portsmouth started (I'm old enough I can remember it being there, and small aircraft landing/taking off, in fact this was one of them [clicky]). In order to get the necessary space though, part of the eastern end of the Hilsea lines were demolished. 

Following shows men of the Royal Engineers using explosives and heavy plant to remove the fortification and a map showing the area demolished. The lines used to go all the way to where the current Eastern Road is and right to the foreshore.

...and a contemporary map showing the extent of the lines before the airport...

OS Six-inch England and Wales, 1842-1952

...and what it looks like now, following... 😏 

Yellow line marks the end of the current Lines - all the ramparts and bastions to the right/east of it were demolished..  first for the aforementioned airport, and when the airport went out of use, the current housing estate..  somewhat interestingly, that green corridor leading towards to the yellow line marks the line of the old moat - all the houses to the north/upper of it would have been on the old shooting range..

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Beinheim Regiment.. (or Bynheim, Beynheim, Behnnhemn or Beijnheim depending on your sources 😏)

Colonel's Colour from 1696 to 1701
- Copyright: Kronoskaf

Another in my occasional series on the "regiments of renown" - or rather those regiments that I pounded out in that first flurry of painting at the beginning of the War of the Spanish Succession project, but didn't then have time to do a potted history on..

More properly known as IR (Infantry Regiment) 674a - the number indicates that they were the first regiment (from the "A" at the end) founded in 1674 - the regiment was paid for by the Gelderland province.

As it turns out they were the only regiment raised that year, and originally they were known as Regiment van Wijnbergen (as is normal for the period they were named for the Colonel, in this case the splendidly named Ditmar van Wijnbergen Heer van Horssen en de Poll) 

So where does Beinheim come in you may ask, well Johan van Beynheym first makes an appearance in the rolls in 1680 as Major. In 1688 he was Lieutenant Colonel, Colonel Commander in 1694, full Colonel of the regiment in 1696 (when Winbergen died I think), by 1701 brigadier, and three months before the battle for the Schellenberg in 1704, he was promoted Major General - he was to enjoy the promotion for only three months as he was killed in action at the Schellenberg. 

Beinheim front..

Their new Colonel would be a man called Everhard van Deelen, who from what I can tell was a major in the regiment from 1694, I'm going to assume casualties at the Schellenberg were such that he was made de facto Colonel in time for Blenheim..

Beinheim on the right

At Blenheim the regiment served in the centre under Charles Churchill, they were probably on the right, in the front line division of  Lieutenant General Horn, and in the Brigade of Major General Johan van Pallandt. The other regiments in the brigade consisted of these:

• Schwerin Infantry Regiment, Colonel Kurt Christof, Graf von Schwerin (Mecklenburg - Prussian Meith Regiment) (547 men)
• de Varenne Infantry Regiment, Jacques l'Aumonier, Marquis de Varenne (Prussian) (461 men)
• Wulffen Infantry Regiment (Prussian) (591 men)
• Erbprinz von Hessen-Kassel Infantry Regiment, Erbprinz von Hessen-Kassel (Prussian) (540 men)

"Shortly after 3 p.m., the Prince of Holstein-Beck and Major-General Pallandt were directed to secure the village itself, but their Dutch troops were quickly thrown back by the émigré Irish regiments of Clare, Dorrington and Lee. The leading regiments of Goor and Beynheim were routed and dispersed, many being taken prisoner: ‘So warmly received that after a sharp dispute they were forced to retire,’ Francis Hare recalled. The Dutch infantry fought doggedly, but were driven away step by step in a bayonet-stabbing and musket-butt-wielding contest with the Irish" (from Prussian Army at Blenheim 1704 - Weapons and Warfare)

Uniform circa 1700 - Copyright: Richard Couture

Operational History:

• 1701 - In garrison at Maastricht; 
• 1702 - on the Rhine, no major actions; 
• 1703 - capture of Trabach, Bonn; 
• 1704 - Schellenberg where it formed part of Marlborough’s advanced guard in the Beynheym’s Brigade, Blenheim; 
• 1706 - Ramillies, siege of Ath; 
• 1719 - part of the army which covers the Siege of Douai

..nothing further mentioned after Douai - but van Deelen remained Colonel of the regiment until 1714, and in 1709 was promoted Brigadier.

Facing their nemesis once again as at Blenheim..

So..  these guys were painted sometime in 2015, can't be more precise than that..  figures are Minifigs

Sources:

• The Dutch Army of William III (Sapherson)
• DutchRegiments - RepInf - Infantry Regiment 674a (archive.org)
• Beynheym Infantry - Project WSS (kronoskaf.com)

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