Book and Troop Review: Les Fantassins de la Grande Guerre and First World War German Infantry

I was looking for a single volume that would cover the uniforms of the First World War, following my decision to have a go at wargaming the period. Unlike my beloved Napoleonic period, I did not feel the need nor desire to purchase several books on the topic. Nevertheless, I wanted more than one can get from internet sources. I looked at some of the books readily available in English, but could not find anything beyond those from Osprey. I have never been particularly enamoured with Osprey’s offerings and did not want to purchase three or four books and then only have information about the Germans and French, so I looked further.

Along came Éditions Heimdal to the rescue. I found Guillemet’s book on their website in March and it looked to be exactly what I was after, so I ordered it immediately. I was not disappointed in the least.

Published in 2018, its 256, A4 pages are packed with full colour photographs of uniforms, uniform items, equipment and weapons. These are enhanced by contemporary photographs of troops in the field and the studio. Together they provide a photographic description of the uniforms from 1914–1918, presenting all of the items that I could want and highlighting changes over the course of those four tumultuous years of war. The text and captions, describe details of what is shown in the photographs.

The items presented in the book come principally from the Musée royal de l’armée et de l’histoire militaire de Bruxelles. They have been photographed with excellent lighting and compositions so that details, colours and event texture can be clearly discerned.

Example of pages featuring items of equipment and a contemporary photograph (studio in this case).

Example of a double-page spread showing a mannequin in uniform and different styles of greatcoat.

Table of contents: all nations are included.

In line with my desire, infantry uniforms for all of the belligerents are presented; France, Germany, Serbia, Russia, Belgium, Britain (and Dominion), Austria-Hungary, Japan, Italy, Portugal, Bulgaria, Rumania, Czechoslovakia, Poland, United States and Turkey. More pages are devoted to the key, European powers than to the ‘lesser’ ones. However, there is great efficiency in the images and text so that the main details and changes in uniform of troops of a nation like Portugal are covered adequately (for me) in two pages. The colonial forces of the main powers are also included.

A nation like Portugal is covered in sufficient detail

in just two pages

As you will have gathered from the title, the text is in French. It is clear and straightforward enough that I am able to comprehend it easily with my intermediate knowledge of the language. However, if you do not read French, the images are sufficiently self-explanatory, and numerous, as to be comprehensible in their own right.

This is a fabulous book for anyone interested in uniforms and equipment of the First World War. If, like me, you are looking for the one book, this is it.

Ten Napoleons

Troops: First World War German infantry

German Army basically ready to go

My approach of having large numbers of figures, across a few periods, on the go at once means that I may swap and change what I am painting on any one night. It also means that my focus is quite, ‘fluid’. The past couple of weeks have been a case in point. I had intended to focus principally on the first couple of units for my 17th–19th century Ottomans but, while I have made some progress with them, I have ended up making most progress with First World War Germans!

The Deli cavalry, showing brown applied which lead to a painting First World War infantry!

I began painting the Deli cavalry for the Ottoman army, as planned, starting with browns for the animal skins that they wore. Then, since I was painting brown, I looked for other troops to use up the paint that I had ‘decanted’. First World War Germans with all that brown kit were an obvious choice!

The Germans I am painting are aimed for mid-late war and are a mix of Caesar WWI German Army, Emhar German WWI Infantry with Tank Crew and German WWI Artillery and Strelets German Stormtroops and German Infantry in Gasmasks. The Caesar and Emhar figures are sculpted somewhat ‘finer’ than the Strelets. I’m happy with all of these figures, but particularly like the ‘chunky’ style of these earlier Strelets’ offerings.

From left: Strelets, Emhar, Caesar and Strelets figures. These mix well, I reckon.

A Strelets flame thrower between two Emhar figures.

Strelets produced British, French, Russian, Austro-Hungarian and German Infantry in gas masks as part of their range of figures for the First World War. The Germans are now out of production, so I did not think that I’d be able to get any. Fortunately, a tip on the Strelets forum lead me to Fausto Mancin at the Lucky Toy Soldier and I was able to obtain a set from him. I like them so much that I may even get another box.

Strelets German Infantry in gas masks, almost completed,

 

Hart wie Kruppstahl

 

The Emhar WWI German Artillery includes two 77 mm Krupps field guns and four MG 08 machine guns. Interestingly, there is a surviving Krupps field gun beside the cenotaph in town that was captured near Villers-Bretonneaux in August 1918. It's nice to be able to compare the model with the real thing. The machine guns in the kit come with only a single crew man, so I did some simple conversion work with some of the artillery loaders to turn them to feeding machine gun ammunition.

77 mm Krupps field gun beside cenotaph in York, WA

The adjacent cenotaph and detail (below).

Second model 77 mm Krupp field gun, staff and one of the MG 08 machine guns with added crew. The kneeling officer in the machine gun crew is a conversion with legs remove and replaced with those from a kneeling Airfix French cuirassier.

With these Germans nearly completed, and just a few more French that I want to also finish off, I am now really close to having a go at a first game of World War I wargaming. I may get to start this weekend and/or week nights next week.


References and links

Guillemet, C (2018) Les Fantassins de la Grande Guerre. Éditions Heimdal, St Martin-des-Entrées, Bayeux, France. 256 pp.

Caesar Miniatures website

Emhar range on Plastic Soldier Review

Strelets’ World War I sets

Book Review: The Armies of the Ottoman Empire 1645–1718 by Bruno Mugnai

With its 369-page paperback format weighing in at 800 g (~1.8 lb) (thanks to the use of heavy, quality stock), Bruno Mugnai’s book is a dense and mighty tome, physically and this translates directly to the subject matter. The quality and detail begins with the preface pages—which feature a detailed, six-page chronology, introduction from Barry Hilton along with the author’s prefaces to the original and revised editions and a note on the Ottoman currency—and continues through the book’s six chapters (incorporating 16 pages of beautiful, full-colour plates), to the 30 pages of tabular data and orders of battle and, finally, to the notes on the colour plates, glossary and bibliography. All told, this book is a treasure-trove of detailed content delivered in a clear and beautiful presentation.

I’m not the first to wax lyrical about this book. Having purchased it, I read the rave reviews of Colin Ashton, ‘BalkanDave’ and Barry Hilton. It is always pleasing to be encouraged about the quality having made a purchase! Now, having read it, I agree wholeheartedly with them all and echo Barry Hilton, who wrote the foreword and concludes; “Enjoy this masterful work. It sets the benchmark for others to follow.”

The first four chapters (The Sublime Porte, The ‘Ottoman Commonwealth’ and the Sultan’s Allies, Ottoman Armies, Allies and Tributaries) comprising half of the book, serve as a detailed introduction to the Ottoman Empire, its armies and allies. ‘The Sublime Porte’ describes the Ottoman Empire in the 17th century, the structure of the state, government and military, land tenure and administrative areas. The second chapter follows with an introduction to each of the peoples or states that were satellites or allies of the Ottoman Empire (Tartars, Transylvania, Wallachia, Moldavia, North African Regencies, Georgia, Cossacks, Persians and Swedes), with a brief history of each, their association with the Ottomans and conflicts, both with and on behalf of the Porte. The chapter on the ‘Ottoman Armies’ covers the size and structure of the army and, for each troop type, details its formation, structure, size and involvement in peace and war. This is followed by ‘Allies and Tributaries’, which covers similar content for the Tartars, Transylvanians, Wallachians and Moldavians.

The final two chapters (‘The Ottoman Art of War’ and ‘Dress, Equipment and Ensigns’) comprise the second half of the book’s text. Here Bruno Mugnai draws upon the great detail of the preceding chapters, including units, command structure and army make-up to discuss in detail how the army gathered and fought and, finally, how the various troop types were dressed and equipped.

Mugnai begins his discussion of the Ottoman Art of War, appropriately, with logistics, demonstrating how the Ottoman Empire was well set-up to provide all the necessarily matériel for war (reminding me of a key strategy in Civilization!). He then describes how the army gathered for war, its command structure, overall strategy and some detailed examples of campaigns and battles—using the Austro-Ottoman war of 1663–64, a detailed account of the campaign and siege of Vienna in 1683 (and it’s consequences), plus the Russo-Ottoman War of 1710–11 and Austro-Turkish War of 1716–1718. The chapter on uniforms and equipment provides details for each troop type in both the imperial (kapikulu) and provincial (serhaddkulu) forces including, most usefully, a detailed section on flags and pennants.

Every page of this book is dense with content. For example, the section of the first chapter dealing with command of the army is interspersed with mini-biographies of several of the Grand Viziers during the period covered by the book. Not only are these informative and interesting in their own right, but they serve to illustrate and expand on the general information about the process of appointing commanders in the army, its pros, cons and impacts. While packed full of detail no prior knowledge is assumed; introductory information is provided, terms and titles are defined. By not assuming knowledge, readers are not ‘lost’, but the level of detail and specific information, from the very beginning, adds insights and particulars which make the book extremely edifying.

The text of each chapter is well-supported by maps, diagrams, drawings and reproductions of prints. In addition to the 16 pages of superb colour plates (an example of which is on the cover),124 pages of the book contain some kind of black & white illustration (map, diagram, drawing or reproduced print), many of them as full pages. A bit of a bonus is that one of Bruno Mugnai’s drawings that appears in black & white on p 261 is reproduced in colour on back cover of the book.

The book contains several clear maps

Black and white photographs of uniform items from various museums and collections are accompanied by detailed descriptions, including colours.

'A Janissary Assault', an example of the author's drawings (including troops, uniforms and representations such as this).

Several prints of period paintings also adorn the book.

The book’s appendices are an absolute treasure trove. Here you’ll find a list of Grand Viziers 1645–1718, tables of army expenditure, numbers of troops by type and region, orders of battle for Ottoman troops in the campaigns between 1663 and 1718, specifications of cannon, howitzers and mortars captured after Peterwardein in 1716, a description of the procession of the Ottoman army in Constantinople in 1682 and tables of the major sieges and field engagements involving the Ottoman army (listing place, date, name of the war/conflict, Ottoman strength, enemy strength, casualties for each side and result). Finally we have the notes on the colour plates the glossary and bibliography. The only thing missing is an index (which is a shame).

This English edition is an “expanded and revised” version of the original work, which was published in 1998 in Italian. I have read a review of Mugnai’s book about the Cretan War bemoaning the number of poor translations that greatly affected the comprehension of that book. This is not a problem here. The text is written in clear, quite formal, English. There are occasional incidences of expressions that are not common English, for example “The most large contingents came from the…” instead of ‘largest’, but these are very few in number and none of them affect comprehension of the text.

There are, however, a few errors, such as missing words smattered through the book. These number in but a handful and are chiefly things such as conjunctions and articles, so do not impact on the reader’s understanding, but they are annoying and a little disappointing. The worst error in my version of the book is that most of a sentence is missing at the beginning of the last paragraph on p. 271. It thus begins. “ancient origin.” then proceeds to the next, complete sentence. Fortunately, there is enough of the paragraph to make it intelligible. Without these few mistakes I would have given this book a perfect score of ten Napoleons!

Many books about armies and uniforms leave you asking, what about x troop type, or what was the organisation of y unit? Not so with this tome. You’ll not find here the phrase “there is insufficient space to cover this”, as appears too often and annoyingly in other books about armies and uniforms. The majority and certainly the key information about organisation, structure, strength, operations, tactics, campaigns and uniforms are all covered.

Reference and Information

Mugnai, B (2020) Wars And Soldiers In The Early Reign Of Louis XIV. Volume 3 The Armies of the Ottoman Empire 1645-1718. Century of the Soldier 1618-1721 No. 55. Helion & Company, Solihull, England. 369 pp.

Chipping away

'Things Ottoman' are leading my hobby interests in periods 'other than Napoleonic'.

Following on from reading Alan Palmer's book on the decline and fall of the Ottoman Empire, I recently obtained a copy of Bruno Mugnai's marvellous The Armies of the Ottoman Empire 1645–1718. I'll review this book in full in a future post, but for now, suffice to say that it is  excellent and if you have any interest in this period, buy it!

First figures for my Ottoman army in the pipeline: Deli cavalry from Orion

More in the pipeline: sipahi ulùfely (Orion) in foreground with Beck infantry regiment (Mars) and Sobieski's Poles (also Mars) behind them.

This book is perfect for my expanding interest in the Ottoman Empire, which has gone backwards from initially considering a Napoleonic Ottoman army, to including their part in the Great Northern War (Russo-Ottoman War of 1710–11), then back further to the Great Turkish War (1683–1699). This has expanded further to include the Austro-Turkish War (1663–1664), Polish-Tartar War (1666–1671), Polish-Ottoman War (1672–1676), Austro-Turkish War (1716–1718) and out to the Russo-Turkish War (1787–1792) & Austro-Turkish War (1788–1791)—which meld well with early Napoleonic. An Ottoman army of the 17th and early 18th centuries is a 'good value' proposition, requiring but a few different units for the Napoleonic Mamluk/Ottoman version!

I am also getting close to having a go at 'something First World War', after taking the initial plunge into the period late last year.

Some of the First World War figures that are nearly completed.