The Battle of Uccle 20th June 1815
At the
Battle of Hal yesterday all eyes were on Prince Frederick of the Netherlands as he prepared to fight a rearguard action against the French 2nd Corps under Reille. After a crushing defeat the French pulled back to re-organize for another assault on the Anglo-Allied position. Fearing an out-flanking move by the French, Frederick evacuated Hal and headed towards Brussels, where he would be closer to Wellington, which also brought Wellington some valuable time to reorganize his army.
The Game
Frederick has halted his tired army at Uccle a small village 2-3 miles south of Brussels, knowing the French are following, Frederick sent urgent messages to Wellington for help. Can the young Prince win another great victory and secure the future of the Netherlands?
Napoleon furious with Reille has reluctantly sent more troops to help him out and no doubt he has only one more chance left to succeed, before he will be replaced. Napoleon is unable to overview the situation in person as he is preoccupied with the Prussians, who have been giving Grouchy the runaround on the right flank. (Could this be another scenario?) The game begins with the young Prince Frederick awaiting the French onslought, can he hold on or are the French going to be victorious?????
The initial set up, the French on left the Allies on the right.
The French
Fran - Comte Foy, 9th Div, Smiffy - 6th Division - Prince Jerome Bonaparte,
BigLee- Kellerman 3rd Cavalry Corps, Ian-5th Division, Gen Baron Bachelu
The Allies
Surj - L/Col HH Mitchel - 4th Brigade,
Clint - Col Olfermann - Brunswick C/O,
Brian (Lead Legion) - L/Gen Colville 4th British Division
Me - Prince Frederick of the Netherlands C/O. I was in-between
Clint and Brian
Brian's command The British and Hanoverian's on the Allied left.
The village of Uccle, in the centre.
Contractual pic of Stalin himself!!!
The Allied right. On the extreme right are the two heroes of the Battle of Hal.
The Breman & Verdun Hussars and the Prince Regents Hussars.
The dirty French advance in the centre.
The Breman & Verdun and the Prince Regents Hussars
move out to try and slow down the French advance.
Clint's Brunswick 1st brigade including the Avant-Garde in front
arrive and start to move to the hill.
My view of the Battle, The Dutch and Belgian line and Militia units
this was our weakest point (thanks Postie!!) The white flagged units were line class, while the
orange, white and blue flagged units on the right were the Militia. Each time I went to move the units I had to throw a D6, on a throw of a 1 the unit would become disordered, hence the two goddam yellow markers!!
The first charge of the day, BigLee's 3rd Cuirassiers charged the Breman & Verdun Hussars. The Cuirassiers were in column and the Hussars took the charge at the halt.
Surj threw well and beat the French column.
Another charge this turn, the Prince Regent Hussars charge the guns, who both ran off before contact could be made. This left the Hussars in a bit of a precarious position. Standing in front of two regts of French Heavy horse and with a line unit in its flank. We all though Surj could kiss the unit goodbye. Ian fired into the flank of the Hussars, he threw 8 D6 needing a only a 4,5 or 6!!!
he only got 1 kill!
Thank you Dice Gods!
Lunchtime
Bloody pig!
Decision time for me??
I moved down off the hill with two Dutch units, the 1st and 5th Outer East Indian battalions just to try and slow down the French advance, hopefully giving time for our reinforcements to turn up. Probably a bad idea?
The wasn't much going on on our left flank, Brian was taking pot shots at Fran's infantry knocking a few hats off. BigLee's 11th cavalry division moved around to their flank. Our original plan was to move the two British line regts to village area. But we received a message saying the French had been sighted on our left flank.....so they stayed put.
A fluke artillery shot blew the head off of the French Divisional leader causing a brigade check, which Lee duly failed. That was good news for Surj, as it only left the1st Carbineers to challenge the Prince Regents Hussars. Surj threw well but lee threw better. Th Hussars were killed to the man!!!!
I'm not liking this at all, there's a lot of French coming this way!!
The Dutch 1/5th Outer East Indian battalion, were charged by two French columns under Ian's control ( they were actually Smiffy's troops, but Ian was taking charge!!) And what made it worse was that Smiffy was listening for a change!
Oh thank God!!!!! Allied re-inforcements!!!
The Union Brigade and the 2nd Brunswick line Brigade
But are they in time or not???
The 1/91st have their flank threatened, by Fran's Legere sneaking through the woods.
Oh crap!!!!
Smiffy fired his first shot into the village of Uccle with his newly arrived heavy artillery.
Major-Gen F d'Hauw the leader of the Dutch 1st Division was killed and buried
under the rubble of two houses.
This caused a brigade check.
And this was the result.
The whole 1st Dutch Division ran!!!!
Here's the whole they left?
As the commander i decided our position was untenable, we were cut in half.
So the trumpets were blown and the Allies left the field in good order, ready to fight another day!!
Smiffy received the MVP, for a very accurate artillery shot!
At the end of the game Postie presented Clint and Brian with a little memento of the day
Brian the Scot & Clint the Brit!