9 replies to this topic

[roger]

My latest figure painting project is of a Trooper of Uhlan Regiment 13 ( 1st Hanoverian). The figure depicts a soldier of this regiment in 1914 on the Western Front. Can anyone give me a brief history of this unit at this time?
Thank you.

Roger.

[Jack Sheldon]

Roger

Uhlan Regiment 13 is one of the relatively few German cavalry regiments of direct interest to a British audience.  Together with Dragoon Regiment 19, it formed 18th Cavalry Brigade, which along with the 13th and 14th Cavalry Brigades was part of the 9th Cavalry Division, commanded by Generalmajor von Buelow until 6 Aug 14, then subsequently by Generalmajor Graf von Schmettow.  This division, along with the 2nd and 4th Cavalry Regiments made up HKK 2, commanded by Generalleutnant von der Marwitz, which was the cavalry force in support of 1st Army under Generaloberst von Kluck.

So you can see what this is leading up to.  In the short period it was in the west (finally departed for the Eastern Front on 5th November 1914, not to be heard of again in the West) it was in or around the following places:  23-24 Aug, Mons; 25 Aug, Bouchain;25-27 Aug Solesmes and Le Cateau; 26-27 Aug, Caudry-Clary-Maretz; 31 Aug Advance to Choisy-au-bac and Compiegne; 1,2 and 3-4 Sep, battles successively at Villers-Cotterets, Senlis and Crepy en Valois; 5-9 Sep Battles around Ourcq; 12-17 Sep Battle of the Aisne.  The division then gradually made its way north: 23-29 Sep First Battle of the Somme (against the French); 30 Sep-1 Oct Douai; 1-13 Oct Fighting around Arras; 13 Oct-4 Nov positional warfare in Flanders and Artois (part of division).  Others were at Battle for Lille 15-28 Oct, then 30 Oct-4 Nov First Battle of Ypres.

There is a history: Geschichte des Koenigs-Ulanen-Regt. Nr. 13 im Kriege 1914-1918, vonAlten (Teil I  Bremen 1927; Teil II 1938).  Although I have extracts of the histories of numerous regiments in HKK 2, I have never seen the above books, so I don't know if they are any good.  I expect you need to see Part 1. Sometimes these histories come up for sale.  www.zvab.de is a good start point for antiquarian books of this type.

Jack

[roger]

Jack,
Thank you very much, thats just what I was after. I like to have some idea of the history of the units my model figures depict.
Thanks again,

Roger.

[Jack Sheldon]

It's a pleasure.  Let me know if you want a complete list of all the cavalry regiments of HKK 2. You could end up with quite a collection!
Jack

[roger]

Jack, thanks, I've just found the 13th Uhlans in the  Order of Battle on the western front in the Osprey book The German Army in WW1(1). ( Don't know how I missed it )
It says there that the 13th Uhlans & 19th Dragoons were in 19 Cavalry Brigade and the 18th Cavalry Brigade (4 Cavalry Division) comprised 15th & 6th Hussars. Is this an error or did the 18th & 19th Cavalry Brigades change divisions at sometime?

Roger.

[Jack Sheldon]

Roger

Here is the outline order of battle for all three cav divisions of HKK 2 in 1914

2nd Cavalry Div
5th Cav Bde ( Drag Regt 2, Uhlan Regt 3)
8th Cav Bde (Cuir. Regt 7, Hussar Regt 12)
Leib Hussar Bde (Leib Hussar Regts 1 &2)

4th Cavalry Div
3rd Cav Bde (Cuir Regt 2, Uhlan Regt 9)
17th Cav Bde (Drag Regts 17 & 18)
18th Cav Bde (Hussar Regts 15 &16)

9th Cavalry Div
13th Cav Bde (Cuir Regt 4, Hussar Regt 8)
14th Cav Bde (Hussar Regt 11, Uhlan Regt 5)
19th Cav Bde ( Drag Regt 19, Uhlan Regt 13)

There were, in addition, assigned to HKK 2  Jaeger Bns 3, 4, 7 and 10 (each with 1x cycle coy and a Jaeger motorised column.  These Jaegers were heavily inolved in the fighting on the British left flank at Le Cateau. Div troops included 1x Horse arty bn, a machine gun detachment, engineers and a heavy and a light radio station and a motorised vehicle column.  I have checked the above information in two separate sources, so I suspect that it as correct for the early weeks of the war.

Jack

[roger]

Jack, thank you for going to the trouble of typing that up for me it is much appreciated.
Do you know of any specific actions where the 13th Uhlans met units of the BEF?

Thanks again,

Roger.

[roger]

Jack, I have just compared your OOB with the book I have and it looks like a printing error, there are 1's missing from two regiments in 17 Cav. brigade.

Roger.

[Jack Sheldon]

The most notable contact was probably during the Battle of Le Cateau where 9th Cav Div was involved heavily in the battle against 11th Infantry Brigade, commanded at that time by Brigadier Hunter-Weston during the fight for Beauvois, Fontaine au Pire  and the heights and gravel pits south of it in the direction of Ligny.  lacking the history of the regiment  I cannot give you chapter and verse of what it did that day, but it must have been as heavily involved as all the rest of the regiments.

During the remainder of the campaign, they would have been involved everywhere that the remainder of the dvision was but, as I say, lacking the history it is difficult to be precise.

Jack

[roger]

as I say, lacking the history it is difficult to be precise.

Jack

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Thats precise enough for my purposes Jack thank you.

Roger.