Sunday, April 21, 2013

Napoleonic Polish Vistula Legion - New Release from Warlord Games

You can now pre-order Warlord Games new Polish Vistula Legion. Another of Warlords ever expanding and finely crafted plastic box sets.

Warlord Games Napoleonic Polish Vistula Legion
The box contains 36 plastic and metal Polish line infantry figures. The exact release date is unknown but can be expected some time mid May. Any pre-orders will be shipped out at the end of April to coincide with Salute!

Warlord Games Napoleonic Polish Vistula Legion
The Vistula Legion was perhaps the most famous of the many foreign units in French service under Napoleon. Formed in Silesia in February 1807 from an infantry regiment and cavalry regiment in the service of the Kingdom of Naples, it was initially named the Legion Polacco-Italienne (Polish-Italian Legion) as it had been organized around the Poles in Italian service.

Napoleonic Vistula Lancers
Renamed the Légion de la Vistula (Vistula Legion) in March 1908, it became three infantry regiments, each of two battalions, each battalion having six companies of 140 men (one grenadier company, one voltigeur, and four fusilier) plus a Lancer regiment of 1,000 men in four squadrons.

Vistula Legion at Battle of Albuera
The Vistula Legion was sent to Spain in June 1808 where it fought in numerous actions, their most celebrated of which was at Albuhera in 1810 when the lancer regiment rode down a British infantry brigade, destroying three out of the four British battalions in only four minutes of slaughter.

Vistula Legion Musketeers
By 1812, the Vistula Legion was greatly rewarded and honored by being accepted into the Imperial Guard. They formed a brigade within the Young Guard Division for the impending invasion of Russia. 

In September 1813 they fought the Russians in a bloody engagement at Neustadt (near Dresden). Participating in several small engagements and skirmishes, they were virtually destroyed at Leipzig that October.  The Legion was reformed in early 1814 and at Soissons, on 2 March, it fought valiantly against the blockading Russian forces earning 23 Legions d 'honneur.

Vistula Legion Lancers on Patrol in Spain
Unusually, none of the Legion’s infantry regiments carried banners until late in 1813, when the remnants of the withdrawal from Moscow were re-organised into the Vistula Regiment.

Have a Great Battle,
The Old Crow

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