Happy Birthday Fritz

The royal palace of Sans Souci, the residence of King Frederick II of Prussia.

King Frederick II of Prussia was born on January 24, 1712 so today we (me, at least) honor the orginal der Alte Fritz on his birthday by holding a regimental review of the Potsdam garrison. 

The King wakes up early at his royal residence in the palace of Sans Souci and hurries to the parade ground where he will inspect the troops.

The Potsdam garrison marches from its barracks and onto the parade ground.
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The regiments wheel right from column into line formation to present their colors to the King.

The King rides along the ranks to inspect the troops.

Once the colors of all of the garrison regiments have marched under the review of the King, the regiments will form into their brigades and have Frederick review the troops by brigade.

The first brigade goes through its paces:

Satisfied that everything meets His keen standards, the Garrison marches past the King in review by brigades.
The first brigade consists (from right to left) of the Alt Braunschweig, Prinz Moritz and von Diericke regiments.

The first brigade makes a smart wheel to the right and passes the review stand.

Now it is the turn of the second brigade to show off in front of the King:

The second brigade includes the cream of the crop of the Prussian army. Marching right to left are  the Guards, the Winterfeldt and the Itzenplitz regiments.

Exactly on que, the brigade wheels to the right in order to pass the review stand.

And now the entire garrison forms to march in column past the King.

The entire garrison forms up by companies and makes one more passing of the King  on the review stand.
The King is pleased with what he sees

It is a good day in Potsdam because the King is pleased with the performance of his troops upon the parade ground. The King will reward each inhaber with a small purse of gold ducats.

And now, the King will return to Sans Souci and take his Greyhounds for a walk or practice one of his own flute compositions.

The view of Sans Souci and its terraced garden.

SYW Prinz Moritz Brigade

The Prinz Moritz Brigade

Continuing with the grand review of my SYW Prussian army, I present to you the Prinz Moritz Brigade, comprised of Minden Miniatures Prussians. The brigade commander is Prinz Moritz of Anhalt Dessau, one of the Old Dessauer's sons.

My infantry brigades include two regiments, each having two battalions, two 3-pound battalion guns, and one battalion ammunition supply wagon. I am considering adding a regiment baggage wagon as well, but that is a project for the future.

Itzenplitz in front and Prinz Moritz regiment in the rear.

The two regiments in the Prinz Moritz Brigade are the Itzenplitz Regiment (IR13) and the Prinz Moritz Regiment (IR22).

The brigade is deployed in battle formation - each line consists of one of the regiments
 with both of its battalions deployed side by side.

The brigade in a column of battalions. The two battalions at the front of the column (right) are from the Itzenplitz Regiment and the two rear battalions are from the Prinz Moritz Regiment. Trailing the regiments are the two battalion guns (3-pdrs) and the regimental ammunition wagon.

Itzenplitz Regiment ("IR13")

The Itzenplitz regiment was one of the premier regiments in the army of Frederick the Great. It was also called the Donner und Blitzen regiment, so you know that they had a sense of humor way back then. Its inhaber was Major General August Friedrich von Itzenplitz, who took over the regiment in 1750, refined it and led it in the most important years of the SYW.  MG von Itzenplitz died of wounds from the battle of Kunersdorf in 1760, but the regiment retained his name.

The Itzenplitz Regiment of two battalions and one battalion gun. The colonel leads the regiment from the front, where he was expected to be.

The regiment distinguished itself at Lobositz and Prague, where it dislodged the Croats from the Lobosch and created the gap in the Austrian lines, respectively. The regiment also fought at Rossbach, Leuthen, Hochkirch, Kunersdorf, Liegnitz and Torgau. King Frederick always had a high opinion of the regiment due to its steadfastness and ranked it and the Winterfeldt regiment (IR1) in priority after the Guard regiments.

The regiment was stationed in Berlin.

Prinz Moritz Regiment ("IR22")

Prinz Moritz of Anhalt Dessau, one of the sons of Leopold of Anhalt Dessau (" the Old Dessaurer") became the inhaber of the regiment in 1741 at the outbreak of the War of the Austrian Succession, serving with distinction at Mollwitz, Hohenfriedberg and Kesselsdorf. Prinz Moritz was severely wounded at Hochkirch in 1758 and invalided out of the army, dying 18 months later.

The Prinz Moritz Regiment of two battalions.

During the SYW, the regiment was a regular part of the King's army from Lobositz to Kolin, where it suffered great losses in the latter battle.  From there, the regiment was in the Pommeranian based army that fought the Russians at Zorndorf and Paltzig. It rejoined the King's army in 1760 and fought well at Torgau and Burkersdorf.

The regiment was stationed at Stargard in Pommerania.

Next Up - the Guards and Grenadiers

My Minden SYW Prussian Army

Frederick's Grand Review begins with the colour guards of each regiment passing him in review: IR15, IR1, IR13, IR5, IR22, and IR49. Click on all pictures once or twice to enlarge the view.

Fresh off his victory over Marshal de Saxe at Fontenoy, king Frederick II ordered a grand review of his army to celebrate the victory and to award honours and Pour-le-Merite's to the heros of the battle.

Today I am posting pictures of the parade of the infantry regiments in my SYW Minden army. My organization is to have two battalions per regiment, with 30 figures per battalion at approximately a 1:20 figures to actual men ratio,

The colour bearers march onto the parade ground in column formation.

On command, each company performs a right face, in unison. The King looks on with approval. His staff is taking notes on the King's comments about each regiment. Careers can be made or lost on the parade ground review.

Frederick photo bombs the colour guards and looks straight at the artist who is sketching the proceedings. He will eventually paint the review in oils.

Now the colour bearers march pass the King by sections: here we see (R-L) IR15 - second and third battalions leading the way; followed by IR1 - Winterfeld; and finally, IR13 - Itzenplitz (also known as the Donner und Blitzen regiment).

The Guards, Winterfeld and Itzenplitz make another pass of the review area. Staff are writing down notes as quickly as possible. However, all of the comments are positive because these three regiments are the cream of the Prussian army.

Eyes Left! IR5 - Alt Braunschweig leads the way, followed by the Prinz Moritz regiment (IR22) and the Diericke Fusiliers (IR49) bringing up the rear.

As before, the Alt Braunschweig, Prinz Moritz and Diericke regiments take another pass in front of the King.

The above pictures represent the regiments of my Minden SYW Prussian army. I also have the Wedell Grenadier Battalion (1/23) and the Kremzow Grenadier Battalion (17/22). I did not include them in the parade because they do not carry flags. I also have a Jager regiment, but these are in a loose formation and would not look very smart on the parade ground.

It takes a long time to pose all of the figures in front of the camera, and then edit the pictures. I was tuckered out after shooting the infantry pictures. I also took pictures of each individual regiment with all 60 figures and the colonel in the view. Then I took other pictures of my regiments marching with their assigned brigades. Each brigade consists of two regiments of two battalions, one ammunition wagon, and two battalion guns. There are also the two regimental officers and the brigade commander.

The Winterfeld Brigade consists of IR1 - Winterfeld and IR5 - Alt Braunschweig.

The Prinz Moritz Brigade consists of IR22 - Prinz Moritz and IR13 - Itzenplitz.

The Guards Brigade, under the titular command of Marshal von Schwerin, includes the second and third battalions of IR15 plus the Wedell Grenadiers and the Kremzow Grenadiers.

The von Diricke Fusilier Regiment is temporarily unassigned because I need to paint another regiment to pair with the fusiliers. I might paint the Prinz Heinrich - IR35 - regiment so that I can have an all-fusilier brigade.

In the coming days, I will present each of the individual regiments plus brigade photos so that you can view my infantry organization. After that, the Cavalry Review under the watchful eye of von Seydlitz and the King.

The King is desirous of your comments, which you may leave by clicking on the comment button at the bottom of this page.