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This time the “Bad boys in blue”. First of all I bolstered my Fusilier Regiments by adding three of them. The choice was two regiment present at Strehla, namely the FR 44 Grant and the FR 48 Salmuth and the “Pink regiment”, the FR 40 Alt-Kreytzen, unique in its pink facings, smallclothes and trousers. Accordingly the ratio of fusilier regiments in my army is 6 against 20 infantry regiments (the others are FR 35, 41 and 49), whereas in the reality the ratio was 16 against 33.
I was in a “Yellow mood”
and accordingly I painted the KR7 Driesen (one of the unfortunate Maxen
regiments, distinguished at Kolin, Leuthen and Kunersdorf) and a battalion of
the HR7 von Malachowsky, half in mirliton and half in the busby used at the
beginning of SYW.
Still with the Saxony theatre in mind, wishing to emulate Finck,
Wunsch, Hulsen and Prince Henri, I decided my army needed some more freitruppen.
The first one is the Frei-Battalion 12 Heer, (Schweizer Voluntaires), raised in
1761 from Swiss deserter from the French Army. Its records are unenviable:
wiped out twice in 1761 and 1762 and soon reconstituited. However it was unique
with its grenadiers in austrian fur caps with coat in reversed colors (light
blue with blue facings).
The next step was to complete the Kleist Freikorps, namely with the
two battalions of Kroaten, with tricorne and mirliton caps mixed, the Freikorps
artillery and the Uhlans:
The Hussars and the Horse Grenadier were already painted and appeared
here. The following is a drawing I found somewhere of the Freikorp artillerymen uniform:
