#8204 Napoleonic Austrian Grenzer
Dated: September 24, 2008
The Austrian Grenzers took their name from the German word Grenze, meaning frontier. They were recruited from the Military Frontier, a long belt of fortified territory extending along the Habsburg monarchy's southern border with the Ottoman Empire. Much of this region lay in present-day Croatia, Serbia and Romania, and its population included Croats, Serbs, Vlachs and other South Slav and Balkan peoples. In return for land and certain privileges, frontier families were required to provide soldiers for the defence of the border, creating communities in which military service formed part of everyday life.
Box art
By the Napoleonic period, the Grenzers had been organised into regular regiments, but they retained many of the skills developed through generations of frontier warfare. They were particularly suited to reconnaissance, outpost duty, screening and skirmishing in broken country. Austrian commanders nevertheless frequently employed them as conventional line infantry, a role for which their training and traditions were not always well suited. Their performance therefore varied, but Grenzer units earned a formidable reputation in several campaigns, and even their French opponents regarded them as determined and capable soldiers.
Line drawings
This set represents Grenzer infantry in the field uniform introduced from 1808. The men wear the distinctive peaked shako, short coat with rounded skirts and tight Hungarian-style trousers decorated with knots. They carry muskets, cartridge boxes, knapsacks, canteens and bayonets, showing them equipped for campaigning away from their home frontier. The set contains 48 figures in eight poses, including men marching, advancing, firing and loading, together with an officer. This variety reflects the Grenzers' dual role: they may be arranged as light troops operating in open order or as formed infantry fighting alongside the Austrian line.
Test sprue
Seventeen Military Frontier regiments were in Austrian service immediately before the campaign of 1809. The principal recruiting areas included the Croatian and Slavonian frontier, the Banal districts south of Zagreb, the Banat and the Transylvanian frontier. Regiments bore regional names such as Liccaner, Oguliner, Szluiner, Brooder, Gradiscaner, Peterwardiner and Banal. A Grenzer regiment normally supplied field battalions for service with the army while retaining troops for frontier defence, reserve and local duties. Unlike most Austrian infantry, Grenzer battalions also continued to operate a pair of light battalion guns after regimental artillery had otherwise been reorganised into brigade batteries.
Austrian Grenzer regiment, early nineteenth century organization:
Raised from a particular district of the Military Frontier
Two principal field battalions
One reserve or cadre battalion
Additional local or Landwehr formations in some districts
One or more battalions could campaign with the field army while other troops remained to guard the Ottoman frontier.
Painted figures by Thomas Willers
Painted figures by Ahmed Kucharski
Painted figures by Takacs Krisztian
