Marshals and Generals

NASSAU

August Von Kruse

Born: 1779 Wiesbaden, Nassau (Germany)

Died: 1848

RANK: Major General

August Von Kruse was born in Wiesbaden in 1779. His father was Karl Friedrich Von Kruse a state official in the service of Nassau-Usingen. His mother was Philippina Catherina Von Bitburg, he was their only son.
Against the wishes of his mother and father, Kruse, at the age of 17 joined the military army. For seven years he served with Prince of Brunswick-Luneburg.
On the 1st July 1803, he accepted a commission as a captain in the Nassau-Weilburg military. At that time the army consisted of two companies and with the merger of the territories of Nassau-Weilburg and Nassau, the army expanded considerably. Kruse was then given the rank of major.
As an Allie to France, Nassau supported Napoleon in the Prussian campaign of 1806 and by the end of the campaign Kruse was promoted to lieutenant colonel.
In the summer of 1808, Kruse commanded the 2nd Nassau Infantry Regiment No 88 and fought for the French in the Peninsular War. On 13th October1808, the regiment crossed the Spanish border. The Nassauers took part in 42 battles, including the Battle of Vitoria on 21st June 1813.
On 10th December 1813, as Napoleon’s empire started to fall apart in northern Europe, Kruse received secret orders from the Duke to join the British. Kruse carefully manoeuvred his men so they could march to the British lines, upon which he announced their change of allegiance.
In 1815 at Waterloo, Kruse commanded the 1st Nassau which was the 1st and 2nd Battalion’s of Line Infantry. They were positioned on the ridge in Wellington’s left center. Wellington was very familiar with Kruse’s actions in the Penisula War to comment to him prior to the battle, “I hope, General, that your actions today are as clever when you are fighting for me as they were in Spain when you were fighting against me”.
A small Dutch light infantry battalion was in the woods of Hougoumont throughout the daylong fight there. The 2nd Nassau Infantry, under Prince Bernard of Saxe Weimar, was on the Allied left at Waterloo.
Kruse was awarded the Grand Cross with Diamonds of the Imperial Russian Order of St, Anne, the Legion of Honour, Nassau’s silver Waterloo Medal and the insignia of a knight of the Royal Netherlands Military Willems-Order in his career.
As a reward for his services, in 1822 the Duke gave Kruse a farm by Eisenbach, in the Taunua. On his 143 acres of farmland, he experimented with new methods of construction and cattle breeding. Kruse did marry Baroness Henriette Von Dungern. She died in 1873. They were both buried on the farm.

BARGAIN!

I have just got back from a long extended weekend where I went and stayed at my caravan in Norfolk UK.
My partner loves going to TK MAXX which sells mostly fashion clothes and house hold goods. I always look in their toy department as they now and then, sell Revell’s and Aifix kits and hoped that one day I would see soldiers.
To my surprise this weekend they had a couple of boxes of Revell’s Prussian Infantry and the British Rifle sets selling at just £2.99 pence each.
This was such a bargain as they retail at £6.99 pence each. So I picked up another box of Prussian’s, another regiment has joined my Prussian army.
I go to a toy shop in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk and they usually sell them at £5.75 pence each, so this was a real bargain. Total spent on my hobby to date is just £45.55 pence.

Birthday Boy

Well another Birthday has come and gone and the realisation that another year has flown by. Still I did manage to get something for my wargame as a present and that was a farm house by BB Wargames. This is a nice model and already painted. The roof and first floor can be removed, so you could use it as a ruined farm house.

Now I have been on their website and by looks of things they are mainly WWII buildings but some, like the farm house, can be use for other periods.
There are some ruined buildings that I might collect when I see them next at Salute or SELWG next year.

On the painting front, it has all dried up as the journey to work and back with the late nights takes its toll. I am glad that there are no new sets for me to buy as the pile of unpainted figures is still very high.

SELWG 10 Report

I was looking forward to another day at the SELWG at Crystal Palace last Sunday the 17th October. Last year they returned the sports complex after a three year absence which seemed to be back in near full swing.
The sun was shinning and although I did not have much of a shopping list, I was hoping to pick up a bargin here and there and to see what, if any, new developments that might have been made since last year as I did not go to SALUTE this year.
Although the entry fee never seems to go up, you immediately saw that the numbers were well down. The trade stands were also not in great numbers as they had been last year and the gaming area seemed to be very airy. They did say in their programme that the extra halls that they had last year were unavailable for this year.
I must admit that it was nice to go round the stalls and tables without any pushing and shoving and their seemed to be plenty to see on the stalls but not anything that I wanted. Not many traders had Hat figures and the ones that did were in 28 mm form.
The only thing that I walked away from was two magazines of BATTLEGAMES.After a cup of coffee at the café I had a quick flick through the contents of these magazines and they seem to be a good buy.
There seemed to be a lot of books stalls this year and my partner picked up a book that is on my short list but I will have to wait till my Birthday to read it.
I could have brought plenty of terrain pieces but I would like to have a go at making these as the cost seems to me a bit steep on buying them.
On the gaming front there were just a couple of games that had fantastic layouts, which was a shame as I did not charge up my camera before leaving home so I could not take any pictures of them.
From Southend “keep your head down fritzie boy” was a WW1 game with plenty of figures and tanks. Too Fat Lardies “Terrible sharp sword ACW” was a small skirmish game.
The day seemed to go quickly as they always do at these show’s, but the recession has hit the hobby hard and I hope that next years show will be as it was last year.

SOLD- Waterloo Medal's

On Saturday the 26th September 2010 at the McTear's Auctioneers of Glasgow, two Waterloo Medals went to Auction.
The first medal was from Sergeant James Draffen of the 2nd Battalion of the Grenadier Guards and was sold for £2,500, while a second medal was sold for £2,050.
This medal belonged to James Smith of the 1st Battalion of the 71st Regiment of Foot with the original ribbon still attached to the medal. Although I do not know the condition of the two, what a bargin for a bit of history.