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Thread: Danish-Norwegian Uniform Thread

  1. #1

    Default Danish-Norwegian Uniform Thread

    Hello

    I have prepared a number of colourplates showing the uniforms of the danish and norwegian armies as of 1810. Hopefully the modders out there in the various NTW forums can find them usefull in their work and finally give these armies their proper look in the game.

    Sources used for these plates have been many, on the net the Arkeliet forum and its many dedicated researching members have been very helpfull, while many books have been consulted, especially "Den Danske Hær i Napoleonstiden 1801-1814" and various issues of "Norsk Våpenhistorisk Årbok".

    The Kingdom of Denmark-Norway was ruled by the danish king and although Denmark was the dominant part in this both countries had their own seperate armies. They did however mosty follow the same regulations, although sometimes with local varieties, so both armies generally looked the same. Both armies underwent a number of reforms and reorganisation in the 1808-1811 period, the uniformwise result of this can be seen on the plates.

    A few key errors in the danish army as portrayed by NTW:
    1.In general neither the danish nor the norwegian army used the crossed belts/bandolers that was so common in most napoleonic armies. Only a single one that carried the ammopouch was used. The bayonet was carried slung from a waistbelt instead. There were a few exeptions, the royal foot guards were somewhat distinct with theirs. Also the horseguards sometimes carried their carbine sling and the ammopouch belt in a crossed fashion, the light dragoons also occasionaly did this, but during field conditions both belts were supposed to be carried over the same shoulder.

    2.Neither army used the coat/jacket with tails on the back that almost all other contemporary armies used. Instead a waistlength coatee was used and it was no longer than a modernday sweater. Again the royal footguards were the exeption, also officers followed contemporary foreign fashion and had theirs with tails aswell.

    The plates show the headgear somewhat out of size when compared to the uniforms, this has been done to better show details. Also note that the colours of lapels, cuffs and collars differ from each regiment to the next, the ones i have chosen are only meant as representative.

    Quick OB for each of the two armies per 1810 would be:

    Danish:
    One Royal Footguards Battalion
    14 Infantry Regiments
    4 Heavy Cavalry Regiments
    4 Light Dragoon Regiments
    1 Horseguards Squadron
    1 Hussar Regiment
    5 Light Infantry "Corps" (small battalions, Jaegers and Sharpshooters)
    14 Foot Artillery Batteries (various calibers)
    2 Mounted Artillery Batteries
    (+ militia and volunteer units)

    Norwegian:
    9 Infantry Regiments
    1 Sharpshooter Regiment
    1 Jaeger "Corps"
    2 Sharpshooter Battalions
    2 Ski battalions
    1 Dragoon Regiment
    1 Dragoon "Corps"
    1 Mounted Jaeger "Corps"
    8 Foot Artillery Batteries (various calibers)
    1 Mounted Artillery Battery
    (+ militia and volunteer units)

    On to the plates....on all privates are shown to the left, officers to the right...infantry first:

    The Royal Lifeguards
    The danish army had a single battalion of footguards, having distinctive uniforms and bearskins:



    Grenadiers
    Each danish infantry regiment had a grenadier company in the first of its two battalions, the second usually had a jaeger company. Each battalion had five companies in total. The norwegian regiments had a grenadier company in both of its battalions, but as a result of the army reforms all grenadiers were disbanded and replaced with the same number of jaeger companies. It is also doubtfull wether the norwegian grenadiers ever got their regulation bearskins, most likely they still had the earlier "Potemkin style" caps instead:




    Regimental Jaegers
    As mentioned above each danish regiment had one such company in its second battalion while the norwegian ones had one in each of their two battalions, after army reforms that disbanded the grenadiers. Main difference from the ordinary musketeers is their use of shorter rifles with sword bayonets, also all leather equipment is black while cords and plumes are green:



    Musketers

    Danish Army
    Lapelcolours: yellow, light blue, dark blue, black, green and white. In therms of a single colour light blue was most common:



    To bring a little variety, among the 14 regiments there were two Liferegiments with yellow lapels, the Danish and the Norwegian Liferegiments of Foot, to some extent these could be considered the premier foot regiments, ranking just behind the royal guard:



    Norwegian Army
    Lapelcolours: Dark blue, green, black and yellow.
    In theory they should be identical in look to the danish ones, almost half had dark blue as lapel colours (with variations on buttons and edging) which makes it a good representative colour for the regiments of this army:



    A note on infantry trousers, in both armies white trousers were supposed to be used in summer and dark blue trousers in winter. In 1810 the blue ones were dropped and replaced with grey instead as it was a cheaper colour, although this replacement would occure only after all blue trousers on hand had been worn out. In the norwegian army almost all trousers seem to have been white and grey were only to be introduced when these were worn out, however stocks of white trousers must have been big and as late as 1814 only one regiment seem to have received grey trousers.
    However in the field it was, as in most contemporary armies, common to use cheaper cloth overall trousers to lessen the wear and tear of the uniforms trousers. These were mostly various tones of white and would look like this:



    Now this should wrap up the infantry plates, i`ll be back a little later with the cavalry plates.
    Last edited by TonyE; August 06, 2010 at 01:11 PM.

  2. #2

    Default Re: Danish-Norwegian Uniform Thread

    Royal Horseguards



    Cavalry (Rytter)
    Lapelcolours: yellow, dark blue, light blue and light green.
    The danish army had four heavy cavalry regiments, the so called "Rytterregimenter":


    Light Dragoons
    Lapelcolours: black, dark green and light blue.



    Hussars
    Danish army had a single, but fairly large, hussar regiment dressed in the common hussar attire topped of with a conical shako-like hat. The silver band going from bottom to top was only found on one side:


    Norwegian Dragoons
    Lapelcolours: yellow and green.
    The norwegian army had a single dragoon regiment and a smaller "corps", these operated as classic dragoons although seem to have been armed with a heavy sword instead of the lighter sabre more common among this kind of troops. The headgear of the norwegian dragoons was long thought to be the same Tarleton type as used by the danish light dragoons, however newer evidence seem to point towards the shako:


    Next update will be light troops.

  3. #3

  4. #4

    Default Re: Danish-Norwegian Uniform Thread

    And we follow on with the daily ration of danish-norwegian armies.....now for the light troops:

    Jaegers and sharpshooters (Jægere og skarpskyttere)
    Both having a similar role of skirmishing and light infantry duties, but the jaegers were supposed to be armed with rifles while the sharpshooters would have muskets with proper sights allowing for more accurate aiming instead of blind volleyfiring. Because of the shortage of both rifles and sharpshooters muskets is is likely that ordinary muskets saw some use among the troops aswell.

    This plate shows jaegers and sharpshooters of the danish army, as always the lower rankers are on the left with officers to the right:


    The following shows norwegian jaegers and sharpshooters. With the introduction of dark grey uniforms for light troops in 1810 the norwegian army already had large stocks of middle grey coloured clothing and it was decided to use what was on hand instead of buying additional stocks of dark grey to get the uniforms the same as the danish ones:


    Mounted Jaegers (Ridende Jægere)
    The norwegian army had one "corps" of these (small battalion) and the danes several company sized "corps". Their intended duty would be that of recon and general light duties, being mounted they can be called a faster version of the ordinary skirmishers.

    This plate shows the danish, note that there were several types of uniforms used by the danish mounted jaegers, this is that of the Fynske Ridende Jægerkorps as i chose it as a representative one:


    Here are the norwegian mounted jaegers, they seem to have retained the heavy dragoon swords from their earlier time as a dragoon regiment instead of using light cavalry sabers, most likely due to economic restrictions and reusing anything at hand as long as it was useable:


    The Kings Lifejaegercorps
    A volunteer light infantry unit raised on Copenhagen, initially based on the whealthy citizenry. It gained fame for its exellent service during the Siege of Copenhagen in 1807. It had the size of a small battalion:


    Skitroops (Skieløbere)
    The norwegian army had two battalions of skitroops that would as their name suggest act as skitroops during winter and as light infantry for the rest of the year. They were also to be armed with rifles:

  5. #5

    Default Re: Danish-Norwegian Uniform Thread

    ...and while we are at it, here is the last section with artillery, generals and militia....

    Foot Artillery
    The plain foot artillery, armed with canons of various calibers: 1, 3, 6 and 12-pounder fieldguns, and 20-pounder howitzers (also some 36-pounders). The small 1-pounder guns were nicknamed "amusetter" ("amusements") due to their somewhat toylike size but their light weight and high rate of fire (for the time) made them very useable as infantry guns. 3-pounder guns were generally found too light (in therms of firepower effect) and were generally replaced by 6-pounders. Both 1 and 3-pounders were popular in Norway due to their small size and mobility in the somewhat restricted terrain:



    Mounted Artillery
    The high number of horses and thus price of mounted artillery units kept their numbers low in the danish-norwegian armies. They used 1 and 6-pounder guns. While they had the ordinary artillery uniform they also had several features of mounted troops, including yellow trousers and riding overalls (not shown):



    Landvern (Militia)
    Each infantry regiment had a number of landvern troops in its ranks, in theory several battalions although the use of these troops would be restricted by the low availability of uniforms and equipment. Their field prowess was limited but they could provide usefull service as garrisons on fortresses and rear area duties. Their teoretical uniform was a very simple version of the army tunic and the old round hat that went out of use in 1808:


    Generals and staff
    Plate to the left shows the uniforms of generals while the one on the right shows that of generalstaff officers:

  6. #6

    Default Re: Danish-Norwegian Uniform Thread

    The plates by Köller are good but mostly for late 1790s to early 1800s, the "Corps Auxiliaire Danois 1812-13" plate show an extreme mix, this is mostly early 1800s stuff and not correct for 1812-13. The Histofig is so-so, but not too bad, although they tend to mix pre-and after 1808-10 stuff alot.
    But then i guess when armies are little known this tends to happen...

  7. #7

    Default Re: Danish-Norwegian Uniform Thread

    Look´s Great Keep on the good work

    Cheers

  8. #8

    Default Re: Danish-Norwegian Uniform Thread

    + rep. thanks dude, I was looking for something like this.

  9. #9
    THEMIK DK's Avatar Senator
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    Default Re: Danish-Norwegian Uniform Thread

    rep+!

    A 1500-1680 Total War FTW!!!

  10. #10

    Default Re: Danish-Norwegian Uniform Thread

    Some corrections to the Norwegian Infantry.
    There should be only 8 infantry regiments, the 9th is the Sharpshooter Regiment.
    That gives two Enlisted Regiments, six National Regiments and one Sharpshooter Regiment:
    Nordenfjeldske Enlisted Regiment
    Søndenfjeldske Enlisted Regiment
    Bergenhusiske National Regiment
    Telemarkiske National Regiment
    Vesterlenske National Regiment
    1st Trondhjemske National Regiment
    2nd Trondhjemske National Regiment
    Opplandske National Regiment
    Akershusiske Sharpshooter Regiment
    LIGHT INFANTRY:
    Norwegian Jæger Corps
    Nordenfjeldske Ski Battalion
    Søndenfjeldske Ski Battalion
    Valderske Sharpshooter Battailon
    Bergenhusiske Sharpshooter Battailon
    The plate with the Norwegian musketer shows Nordenfjeldske Enlisted Regiment.
    The smaller plate at bottom shows light blue lapels, which did not exist at this period in the Norwegian Army.
    I presume the green color on the black felt chakos is just to make the leather stiffeners visible..?
    I have info of all the lapelcolors if anybody would like to know.

  11. #11

    Default Re: Danish-Norwegian Uniform Thread

    Some comments on the Norwegian light infantry.
    The plate with Norwegian Jægers and Sharpshooters shows Akershusiske Sharpshooter Regiment.
    Norwegian Jæger Corps had no white pipings.
    The Norwegian Skitroops depicted here shows Nordenfjeldske Ski Battailon with yellow buttons.
    The chakos was of black felt, not green...
    Have info on lapelcolors and buttons for anybody interested.
    Steinar Ådland

  12. #12

    Default Re: Danish-Norwegian Uniform Thread

    The small plate with lapel in light blue is just the one from the danish plate to show how the campaign trousers would look so is ment for both armies. In gameterms the colour of lapels and buttons would be somewhat irrelevant as the game only has one representative figure of infantry so i left out all the differences between individual units and only included the most common one. The felt in the shakos is black for the laquered parts and dark grey for the felt parts to give some difference within the limits of the drawing program. This is somewhat distorted by the image hosting program giving the dark grey coloured felt areas a slight greenish tint.

  13. #13

    Default Re: Danish-Norwegian Uniform Thread

    As the uniform drawings is intended for wargamers, I understand why the details such as pipings are not so important. Must admit I only noticed the Norwegian uniforms as I have some interrest and knowledge here, and I just forgot the obvious fact about the small size of war gaming models. My mistake. And very nice work. Thanks.

  14. #14

    Default Re: Danish-Norwegian Uniform Thread

    I cannot see the cavalry and infantry uniforms when the images were not found.

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