Hat 8007 Napoleonic Prussian Artillery

At the time of the outbreak of wars with revolutionary France (1792-1799), the Prussian army was still radiant with the fame of great successes during the Seven Years' War (1756-1763), and the memory of such victories as the Battle of Rossbach (1757) or Lutynia (1757) was still alive. It was also widely regarded as probably the best in Europe. However, already in the 1770s, it began to undergo a kind of erosion and ossification. Its combat value was becoming more and more debatable. The Prussian army was still able to wage a campaign against France with some success in 1792-1795, but already in the course of the 1806 campaign it suffered a devastating defeat. It is not surprising that the battles of Jena and Auerstädt became synonymous with defeat in the Prussian army, and at the same time launched a process of far-reaching changes. These reforms also affected - not surprisingly - the Prussian artillery. In 1805, the Prussian army had 4 regiments of foot artillery, 1 regiment of horse artillery and light guns assigned to infantry battalions. On the other hand, in 1808, the Prussian artillery (except battalion guns) consisted of 3 artillery brigades, which from 1809 had jobs, among others: 3 horse artillery batteries, 12 infantry artillery batteries and a single transport company. At the end of the summer of 1813, the Prussians managed to deploy around 400 field guns composed of 50 batteries (38 foot artillery batteries and 12 horse artillery batteries). In 1815, a single battery had 6 cannons and 2 howitzers, and its staff consisted of about 140 people. In the case of horse artillery, the number of employees increased by 15-20 people. After 1806, the foot artillery included 6- and 12-pounder cannons as well as 7- and 10-pounder howitzers. The horse artillery contained 6-pounder cannons and 7-pound howitzers. After 1806, the Prussian field artillery was to support its own troops in attack or defense and conduct counter-batter fire (using the present term). Attempts were also made to group it into large batteries and concentrate its fire on a selected point of the enemy formation.