1866 AUSTRIAN TACTICS - ERRATA CORRIGE

 After a little of bit of misunderstanding and a lot of help from the good fellows of TMP I went back and I finally understood how an Austrian Battalion in 1866 was actually deployed for its Stosstaktik. 

I went back to a 3 divisions formations, each division on 2 companies (one after the other) and each division deployed on 3 ranks of about 55 men each.

So pratically an Austrian Battalion could act through its 3 divisions, that could split or adapt to the surrounding terrein.

What changed was the emphasis on the mass formations (often confusing called "columns" in English language sources) in the assault, and the near-extinction of the line except in purely defensive fights. Two company masses abreast, each of of four double ranks, formed the Division mass (about 25m wide by 22m deep), while three Divisions made a battalion mass--formed as six double ranks (about 50m wide by 40m deep). The division mass was the normal fighting formation.

DIVISION MASS

BATTALION MASS

1866 TATTICS & DEPLOYEMENT

 While it was easy to understand how a SYW battalion was attacking or a Napoleonic Regiment, I found quite challeging to understand how a battallion or a brigade actually was deployed in 1866.

For this purpose I tried to simulate some different arrays, hoping to be clear:

1866 FROM PRUSSIAN OFFICER TO ITALIAN OFFICER

 I was trying to imagine a new posture for an Italian officer during the campaign 1866. The final result is as follows:

but to understand how I did it I prepared a little template with the mutation from a Prussian Officer in 1870 to the Italian Second Lieutenant. The main change is the passage of the sword from one side to the other.

1866 - LINE INFANTRY ORGANIZATION

 It came also the time for some templates concerning the organization of the Line Infantry in 1866. I will start from the Pelotons up to the Brigade. This is the top unit formed just with the same kind of units (infantry) while from that level upwards (Division and Army Corps) the unit were formed by a mixture of all specialities (Infantry, Cavalry, Bersaglieri and Artillery).

Usually the Italian Army of the 1866 War followed the Piedmontese system. It means that the Brigades had a name (usually of a Region of the Kingdom) and formed with the 2 regiments. For istance the Brigade PARMA was formed by the 49th and 50th Infantry Regiments. They were distiguished just by the number (49 or 50) on the kepy, while badges were commong for ALL the infrantry regiments (later on every regiment even inside the Brigade will have its own badge: inside the brigade of the same colours but with little difference in patterns).

1866 - THIRD ITALIAN INDIPENDANCE WAR - BATTLE OF CUSTOZA - Reg. Nr. 49 "PARMA"

 I always studied at school about the 3rd Italian Indipendence War as a weird war for Italy (the first) where a disomogenous Army fought and lost against Austria at the Battle of Custoza. The idea you get when you don't go to deep in the info yhey "pass" to you is that the Italian Army did not fight with honour and value at that huge battle. Well, nothin more wrong than that: if you look at the episodes and at the decorations that the Italian units got, if you look at the Austrian report of the Battle, if you are able to go deeper in history and research the orginal sources  - as usual - you will get a total different vision of that war and above all of that Battle (Custoza) and of the Italian Army.

And in fact I chose the Infantry Regiment 49 "PARMA" to explain this, not by chance. This regiment, during the Battle, by the village of Villafranca, deployed itself in square, protecting the Hereditary Prince Umberto di Savoia (future King Umberto I) against a valliant attach of Austrian (Polish) Uhlans.

I do like the uniforms of the period, and the Italian fashion is already visible in uniforms (those of the years 1880's will be even better!).

So I took a template from the 1887 Uniform of the Battle of Dogali and I transformed it. For the Kepy pf infatry and the right colours I took the famous (in Italy) paintings of Fattori, celebrating that episode. But let me show you.

Here (picture nr.  1) bottom a private of the 49th Infantry Regiment "PARMA". I left - bottom right - the kepy taken from the painting of Fattori. I did change the face, according to my taste.

Picture Nr.1 - Regiment Nr. 49 "Parma"

Picture nr 2. Here the painting of Fattori celebrating the episode. I did due versions: the original and one with a circle indicating from where I took the kepy.

Picture nr 3 the transformation from the Colonial Uniform to the 1866 Infantry pattern

Picture nr. 3: how to transform a 1887 Colonial Uniform to a 1866 Infantry uniform

In picture nr. 4 (bottom) I show the Fattori's painting and the template I did starting from that 

and I would like to show also how many books you need (and not just Ospreys) to reach a level of details and information to share on this blog.

I was also asked on TMP how similar are the uniforms of the Italian Army in 1866 and the French Army in 1870. This gave me the idea to use a French soldier and to transform it into Italian one:

1866 - THIRD ITALIAN INDIPENDENCE WAR - Reg. Nr. 6 "LANCIERI DI AOSTA "

I moved from the Lancieri di Firenze to the Lancieri di Aosta because, by chance, I read that during the hard fought battle of Custoza (1866) this regiment charged 14 times (!) and succeded to stop the advance of the Austrian.  

I thought I could also make this episode:

Lancieri di Aosta - Lieutenant

1866 - THIRD ITALIAN INDIPENDANCE WAR - Regiment Nr. 9 LANCIERI DI FIRENZE

 I had always had the will to try myself with a template of Italian units of their first campaing, i.e. the 1866 War, that saw Italy and Prussia against Austria. I wanted to make some templates of Prussians but them I moved to this little project.

So I decided - eventually - to represent a little fighting of that Campaing, i.e. the Battle of Versa on 26th July 1866.

In this battle, from the Italian side, fought 5 squadrons (400 men) of the new Lancieri di Firenze, Regiment Nr. 9. I think that in English there is really no info. At the contrary, in Italian I found a lot of info that allowed me to make the template of this regiment at that Battle.

Copyright Michele L. SAVASTA FIORE

To  do that I used as a basis the template of the Cavalier or the Nizza Regiment (Nr. 1) during the First Italian Indipendence War and I tranformed it.

It was not very simple - as usual - to understand all the details, even though there are a lot of articles on it. First I had to decide whether to go for the campaign or service uniform. I opted for the first one, because I want to represent the Battle. The problem that immediatly arose was the kepy. In the service uniform it was of the colour of the Regiment (for Nr. 9 the orange) but in battle I had doubts: actually as in colours, I found only this painting. While the ribbons seems to be red, they were orange. The kepy - here - is yellowish and some other representations make of this regiment for all its troops in this way. 

Nontheless, I was able to find the Stato Maggiore dell'Esercito Italiano that pointed out that the troop covered the kepy in battle with a black cover, while officers only carried the yallowish cover of the kepy. I had so doubts about how to represent it.

In fact I found a quite simple copy of a postcard with this colours:

I was keen to follow in any case the info from the Italian General stab and hence to make the cover in black. To finally help me to solve it I was lucky (and able) to find original photos of Lancieri in campaing uniform ("Montura di via").

It seems evident (having a look at these pictures) that the cover was black for troops and NCO, and yellowish only for the officers.

But then I friend on TMP pointed out that in b/w photos yellow colour became like black.  So I got back to my doubts and I found this painting of lancieri:

I hence understood that I was wrong and the cover on the kepy was actually yellowish. (moreover I found another mistake: the stripes on trousers were blue for all regiments and in distinctive colour just for officers)

So I went on the superb non plus ultra unifor text/tables painted one century ago by Quinto Cenni and I found all... I should have done before...

Here bottom another 2 confirms that the campaign kepy was covered with a yellowish protection

It is possible to see (frontal top) the cover of the kepy in the correct colour. yellowish. So I decided to remake my template, as follows:

This (top) is the new version corrected

and the last one with correct monogramm (see top left) and apulettes in white, new white belt

Further with my researches, it went out that the Lancieri did not carry any rifle. So I remade it again. This time I use a template of the Regiment Lancieri di Aosta to give idea (bottom).