Grenadiers

[Josey Wales]

What I like about Sharpe (the TV series) is that armies would consist of about 20 guys on each side. A cannon shot would take out 10 of them but there would still be 20 left to make the assault. After more casualties and the assault failing, you'd see 20 guys falling back. Gotta love budgets!

 

[Sempai]

@Concord : At latest during WW II Jäger (Rangers) became the specialists for house to house fighting. Means urban warfare. That added to their already asymmetric warfare tactics they used in the forest areas and similars. So they underwent a change in equipment. Now they got a good deal of grenades more as common infantry. Same counted for automatic weapons since rifles proved a bit problematic during a close combat what was just to far away for knife and dagger fighting. What concerns Grenadiere (Grenadiers): To the time they were used with fuses and grenades there were still an difference between them and other siege units. So far as I rememer it there were Sappeurs, Mineurs and Grendiere. The first both were pionier units. Sappeurs were responsible for construct entrenchments - often even under enemy fire. Mineurs were reponsible for blow up battlements, strongholds and so on where Grenadiers´ grenades were to weak to be effective. Their (the Mineurs) great time started with the second siege of Vienna and reached their peak time during WW I as explosives became much more effective yet. Prussia was the first nation/army what established an standardised pioneer/engineer branch/force. Now this forces were responsible for all tasks what were formerly done by the different pioneer units.

@Bulletpoint : Concerning the uniforms: They weren´t impracticle for its time and use. Remember there were line infantry or infantry of the line and they hadn´t and shouldn´t crawl through the mud. They further showed often the national colours. And yes, depended on how wealthy the nation was. The german Lützower Jäger had to equip themselves and uniforms were difficult to get. So there were often civilian clothes used. To give them nevertheless uniform character they were coloured black.

Greetings

 

[Concord]

@Sempai thanks for the additional information.

As I read about the Lützower Jägers, I remembered a passage I read somewhere about the American civil war.
Apparently the north had good production power when it came to mass producing guns, uniforms...and footwear.
Some southern units didn't have boots and fought campaigns in bare feet! Not good during winter I'll bet.

 

[Badger73]

I still haven't seen that series (Sharpe)...going to look for it on my streaming service. I've heard it's pretty good.

I tried watching the television series recently but found it quite dated. Only the costuming holds up well. Small screen plotting and dialogue don't do the books justice.
If you've not seen it, Stanley Kubrick's "Barry Lindon" on the other hand is well worth watching.

 

[Sempai]

@Concord : I´m glad if I could be of any good for You! I think it is one of the requirements for a civil war that one side has to be poor in a way. And the Lützower Jäger or better Lützower Freikorps, because the entire unit consisted of more as only Jäger, is a real interesting topic. As is the topic "Freikorps" itself.

Greetings

P.S.: Here the Marching song "Lützows wilde verewegene Jagd" with a good english translation if yet with some minor failures. I think that expresses (music and lyrics) well what a situation/mood prevailed to this time.