Denmark-Norway faction thread
This thread is meant to be a help for modders who either as part of a larger project, or a single faction project like the praiseworthy "Sons of Dannebrog" for ETW would like to expand the Danish-Norwegian faction and roster.
Hopefully, some time in the future Denmark-Norway will also be unlocked for singleplay and not just customs battle.
Some quick information about me: I am a Norwegian, with a history background from the University of Oslo, who among other things have written several articles on the Norwegian army of the period. I do primary source research in the national archives and other places on the equipment and uniforms of the Norwegian army of the Napoleonic wars at least monthly, weekly when time allows for it.
Denmark-Norway in 1801 was a waning power, but still with certain "delusions of grandeur". The empire included Denmark, Schleswig-Holstein + other small parts of what is today northern Germany, Norway, Iceland, Greenland, the Faeroes, as well as minor colonies in India, Africa and the West-Indies.
The danish army transferred from a professional to a conscripted army in the period, while the norwegian was almost fully conscripted since the 1600s, based on a system not too dissimilar to the swedish indelningsverk, consisting of just under 40 000 soldiers out of just below 900 000 people in total. The danish army was somewhat bigger.
The navy was common for both kingdoms, and its size made it rank somewhere between the 5th and 10th biggest in Europe depending on year and parametres. However it was also manned with a conscription system which meant that few ships were available on short notice, its main benchmark had been to be bigger than Swedens, but not costing too much, a parametre that showed its outdatedness during the war.
A very short and simplified walkthrough of Denmark-Norways part in the wars:
1801: After having profited greatly from trading with both France and Britain as a neutral, the british attacked the fleet in Copenhagen, due to disagreements over this. Peace was reestablished, and the trade boom continued.
1807: Britain, having squashed Napoleons hope of using a combined Franco-Spanish fleet to invade, or challenge their domination of the world seas at Trafalgar in 1805, in a preemptive strike, the british fleet sails into Copenhagen harbour and demands that the danish fleet must be surrendered to them for the duration of the hostilities, to hinder France from acquiring it, a French invasion or alliance bid seeming very possible at this point, Napoleon dominating the continent.
The danish crown prince, later king Fredrik VI, ruling on behalf of his mad father Christian VII, declines, mainly out of principles of honour. A landing force, partly commanded by some unknown Sepoy general called Wellesley, defeats the danish Landwehr which was the only military force operating outside the garrison, the main army was stationed on the Holstein border to block a french invasion. Copenhagen is besieged and bombarded (among other things the first operational deployment of Congreves rockets), and the city and fleet soon surrenders (the fleet was mostly laid up due to economical reasons). The brits sail off with virtually the entire fleet, even going so far as to take the personal tools of the navy artisans and the church silver and doors from the main naval base at Holmen.
Denmark-Norway joins an alliance with the French for revenge.
1808: Denmark-Norway declares war on the british-allied Sweden in march, Finland is invaded by Russia at the same time. Swedish invasion attempts into Norway is beaten back during the spring and summer, while british ships blockade the extremely important searoutes between Denmark and Norway, Norway not being able to feed its own population without danish corn at the time, and also wreaking havoc on the mainly british-trading patriciate of Norway.
1809: Peace is signed with Sweden, where the army has commited a coup and deposed the king Gustav, another mad, or slightly regarded guy. Prince Christian August, a danish prince and C-in-C of the Norwegian army during the war is elected Swedish heir to the throne. Sweden loses Finland to Russia. Sweden very half-heartedly joins the continental system against Britain.
1809-13: several small naval engagements between the "guerrilla" navy of Danish-Norwegian privateers and gunboats and the Royal Navy, as well as small land engagements involving Danish forces (Stralsund, among others).
1813: Sweden joins the grand coalition against Napoleon, in the meantime the ex-french Marshal Jean Baptiste Bernadotte has been elected as the heir to the Swedish throne, Christian August having died soon after arriving in Sweden. War is once again declared between the Neighbours. The Danish-Norwegian state goes bankrupt due to the costs of the war and the british blockade. The Swedish army under Carl Johan, as Bernadotte now is known, after participating at Leipzig, takes a detour and invades southern Jutland, several battles between danish and allied forces.
1814: The Danish king Fredrik VI very hesitantly surrenders and pledges to join the coalition, ceding Norway to Sweden as compensation for Finland. The Norwegians, under the kings cousin, Christian Fredrik declare independence, and draft the most radical constitution of Europe at the time, inspired by the american and french revolution, with Christian Fredrik as king. Carl Johan invades at the end of summer, the outnumbered, broke and starved Norwegians surrender after two weeks, but are allowed to keep their constitution and status as a separate kingdom joined in union purely through sharing the king, and having common foreign and defence policy.
My take on the in-game representation:
For once, CA has mostly done its homework, I am quite surprised!!!The in-game troops, with small modifications, can give a good representation of all units in both armies.
There are some small uniform details that are misunderstood, hopefully they can be corrected without too much hassle.
However, to properly mirror the Danish-Norwegian state, the campaign map should have extended just a little bit further north, with Trondheim also given as a city with a harbour, along with Bergen and Christiania.
Trondheim was very attractive to Sweden as a trade port (and often an important objective during previous wars, the swedes being sick and tired of the danes dominating the Elsinore Sound between Denmark and Sweden.
Bergen was Norways biggest city, and also a booming trade port since the middle ages.
Christiania (current Oslo) was the administrative capital, and also an important port for shipping of, among other things, timber, who being much in demand by almost all warring powers for shipbuilding.
The northern trade (with Arkhangelsk in Russia) should be represented by a trade route icon just north of Trondheim. (IMHO the use of trade icons on the European campaign map in NTW is quite smart!)
Online resources:
A quick overview: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denmark%E2%80%93Norway
The king, formally, until 1808: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_VII
The king 1808-1814: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_VI_of_Denmark
The sea war against Britain: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gunboat_War
The danish army in 1801: http://www.chakoten.dk/plancher/koellerplancher.html
Troops from some regiments as seen in Hamburg around 1808-10: http://www.napoleon-online.de/suhr_sonstige.html (at the bottom)
New (but quite good plates) on the Danish army: http://www.brigade-uniform-tafeln.de...nemark&x=0&y=0
Norwegian reenactors of the battalion rifle company of a norwegian line infantry regiment 1812-14: http://www.onsoske-compagni.no/
The uniforms of the two armies were supposed to be identic, only with varying regimental distinctions, but as the war went on, some changes started appearing that separated the armies.
There are many small and big details that can begiven regarding the different units of the two armies, and not much found on the net is accurate. Please contact me and I will try to answer with either primary or secondary references, and hopefully also free from nationalistic hyperbole and inaccuracies.
For Kongen og Fædrelandet!
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Originally Posted by Kopijeger
