Austrian General Staff Work, Vol 7: 2nd Silesian War

Austrian General Staff Work, Volume 7: The Second Silesian War


Austrian General Staff Work Volume 7 (google books)



TIP: Translate tool is at the top of the blog. Use the blue 'translate homepage' link for larger chunks of text. Many languages are available to select.


Featuring             Bohemia Campaign 1744
p. 451     The Battle of Hohenfriedberg 1745
p. 577      The Battle of Soor 1745
p. 709     The Battle of Kesselsdorf 1745

Austrian General Staff Work, Vol 8 The War in Italy 1741-1744

Austrian General Staff Work, Volume 8 The War in Italy against Spain, Naples and France 1741-1744

Out of order but by popular demand here is Volume 8 in the continuing series of Austrian histories of the War of the Austrian Succession.

Noteworthy spots include army descriptions for Spain, the Two Sicilies, Sardinia, Modena and Genoa around pages 28-42.

The  Battle of Camposanto, 1743  -- starting page 114

 TIP:
A translate tool is at the top of the blog if needed. The blue link on the device 'translate homepage' allows copy-paste or typed text to be inserted and many languages are available.





      Austrian GSW Volume 8-The War in Italy (google books)






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Swiss on Both Sides: The Battle of Malplaquet 1709

 September 11, 1709: the Battle of Malplaquet

The Swiss have a long tradition of peace through strength and no one should doubt their martial abilities.

While I have been working up a different article I saw a thread on the TMP Forum (The Miniatures Page) in which the OP was wondering about a situation in which Swiss troops, in regiments hired out to many different armies, might run into each other on a battlefield somewhere, and whether that would be  rather awkward.

Here's the TMP thread:

TMP Link on the Swiss

Many armies did have Swiss regiments and they were among the most formidable, professional and reliable troops in each of those armies.That's why they were worth the money the Kings and other leaders paid for them.

In the 18th Century they were in the French, Spanish, Dutch and several Italian countries' armies and often at the same time. Sometimes they are called by the name mercenaries. They were hired under contracts and many Swiss men joined up, and this went on for a long time.


In the TMP thread the question came up whether they would tend to avoid shooting at one another. Yes, that was in the contract, that a condition of their use was that they should not be employed against other Swiss. There were some occasions when it did happen. So although this is a bad example of them not shooting at each other, it is the exception that made the rule very necessary.


Malplaquet was The Big One

In all the 18th Century there was no bigger European battle than the Battle of Malplaquet on September 11, 1709, in terms of heavy casualties. This was the bloodiest battle all the way up to Borodino in 1812 when Napoleon invaded Russia and got too close to Moscow for there not to be a big fight.

 A correct and accepted Order of Battle, and a well-accepted casualty list for Malplaquet can not be found because they do not exist in a satisfactory form. In the 18th Century and before things are not so well documented as we would like, and the data we would like to see is much more scarce and contradictory than the later Napoleonic or American Civil War time and forward. Not that they are exact either.

Some months ago I used figures something like 25,000 Allied casualties and maybe 11,000 French, although the sources differ wildly about narrowing down the numbers accurately. Here is an Austrian/German source that puts the numbers much closer together, but still very large numbers. It is in German and would need to be translated in the translate machine above, but the numbers would be the same and are found toward the bottom of the page.

Harald Skala, Die Schlacht bei Malplaquet am 11. September 1709

The Numbers are Not Certain, But They Are Big Numbers
Looking across a range of wikipedia articles in English, German, French, Dutch, etc, one finds different numbers used everywhere, and no one really knows. It is just a matter of educated guesswork, although Inherent Military Probability does help with that. We do know there were an awful lot of casualties and even in an era of bloody battles this one made a deep impression in most places.

Not as well-known to English-speaking readers is the deep impression it made in Switzerland.

 Now in these next links note that the normal ratio of killed men to wounded is often given as a rule of thumb as around three to one, more wounded than killed in any given battle, normally. It could as well be four or five to one, but medical services were rudimentary. Then further note that the authors are going by a figure of not less than 8,000 Swiss dead at Malplaquet. That is way above their fair share, among nationalities present.

The first link is to the German version of wikipedia where a section is appended some ways down the page under the subtitle Schweizer Truppen auf Beiden Seiten, Politische Folgen, or Swiss Troops on Both Sides, Political Consequences or aftereffects. The first article puts it in the context of the battle.

 German wiki on Malplaquet

This brings out the basic story, that when the Dutch attacked on the Allied left wing, part of the attacking force were the Swiss in Dutch service. The troops they attacked were part French, but also part Swiss in French service, and neither group was easy to drive back. One result of neither side giving ground easily is heavier casualties, as they continue to obstinately stand and throw more punishment at each other.

The numbers they give by the days' end are 8,000 dead Swiss, which alone would be an extraordinarily large number killed at any one battle, but even worse when one considers the Swiss were not the only ones getting killed. Still, it's a huge number, and there was controversy afterward among the Swiss about brothers fighting brothers, in a fight whose merits are not actually that important either way, to them.


Then this link goes into more detail about the Swiss episode, including data towards a good Order of Battle by naming the regiments and giving some numbers. This is from the Swiss Historical Lexicon, and can be read in either French, German or Italian. As usual, it can be rendered into passable English by using the translation machine above at the header of the blog, probably best used by clicking the blue 'translate homepage' link to copy and paste chunks of text in a new window. The article is only one page and would translate quickly.

Herve de Weck article in Swiss Historical Dictionary

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NFC Championship Green Bay Packers at Chicago Bears Right Now

I beg the indulgence of the international audience for the following post about the NFC National Football Conference Championship game being held right now in Chicago. The arch-enemy Green Bay Packers are here to play against the Chicago Bears to see who will be the NFC Champions, and then the winner goes on to the Superbowl XLI in a couple more weeks after recovering from their injuries.

I know there are barely half a dozen readers in the Midwest who even understand what we are going through, and most readers do not know about American football, but this is a big game here. The rivalry between these two teams is such that the Superbowl itself would be rendered anti-climactic after this game.

I do still follow VfB Stuttgart in the Bundesliga, without completely understanding the subtleties,  from when I was in the army there a long time ago. I cannot play soccer properly without penalties for violently grabbing the opposing player, out of frustration with their fancy footwork,due to my background with American sports.


The Monsters of the Midway
The Chicago Bears, commonly called the "Monsters of the Midway," were in the Superbowl four years ago, and lost. I had to work; even though it was my day off I was called in using the excuses of emergencies and disasters, and then the Bears lost anyway.

Because the two teams are in the same division, normally only one or the other ever go into postseason playoff play as the division champion against the other division champions, but now for the first time in seventy years,  because the Bears are the division champs but the Packers were able to get in as the wild card, here they are.

Seventy years ago, a few weeks after the 7 December 1941 attack by the Japanese on Pearl Harbor, that was the last time these two teams have ever played in the post-season phase, under their legendary and arch-rival leaders George Halas of the Chicago  Bears and Vince Lombardi of the Green Bay Packers.





"Winning isn't Everything; It's The Only Thing"
Lombardi is the infamous poster child for poor sportsmanship and winning at every price of decency and honor, as is well known by almost everyone.His most famous quote was "Winning isn't everything, it's the only thing." Obviously this philosophy is the opposite of good sportsmanship, chivalry and honor of every kind, and the spirit of it is all too pervasive in the world today, partly because the Packer fans still take a perverse pride in this anti-chivalric behaviour, while all right-thinking people of the world shudder in revulsion.

Much to his chagrin, he and the Pack lost the game back in the early days of the Second World War.

On that occasion, the Bears Fight Song was written, and here are links to hear it. It's a catchy and sprightly tune, 'Bear Down, Chicago Bears.'

Chicago People Sing Bear Down Chicago Bears 1:37

quick wiki explanation of song, lyrics, links

Bryan Griffin Lyric Opera version a capella 0:42 (better singer)

Packer quarter back Aaron Rodgers just got sacked (flattened) by Middle Linebacker Brian Urlacher, whose name means 'Original Source, Laugher.' So far in the first quarter, the Packers scored first, but we shall see what we shall see.

Smash-Mouth Football
We need the Bears to do some Smash Mouth Football!

Cheese-Heads
I usually like cheese, but...
The Packer fans are known as "Cheese-Heads" or also "Cheddar-Heads," and their border is known as the Cheddar Curtain.They took to wearing hats shaped like a yellow wedge of cheese, with large holes in it, which are sold at most stores in Wisconsin. Everyone knows that cheddar is an orange cheese, and it is Swiss cheese that has holes in it, but that does not deter them from persisting with these hats and other tricks, equally misguided.

Dang, they just scored again. It isn't over yet, however. Just two touchdowns in the first quarter.Maybe if we do the song again, that might help. I really like the big band or jazzy instrumental versions best, espacially with the organ.


This has the Band but with SingersBand version with Singers, Good Poster Pic of Bear

Recorded By A Fan At A Game 0:42 With Beer

This one is the first time in all the years XLI of the Superbowl that the opening kickoff was returned for a touchdown by Bears #23 Devin Hester, known as Ridiculous Devin Hester. My girlffriend in Wausau, Wisconsin the heart of Green Bay territory has a Devin Hester jersey, but she said she doesn't dare wear it today. Hester now holds the all-time record for this move, known as a kickoff return touchdown.

#23 Ridiculous Devin Hester Kickoff Return TD at 2006 Superbowl

The Blissters sounds a little like the Beatles

Buildings, Monuments, and Chicago Symphony Orchestra

1985 Superbowl Shuffle with Sweetness #34 Walter Payton

That last one features solo part by the late, great #34 Walter Payton, the legendary running back of the Superbowl-winning 1985 Bears.

My neighbors just started shouting during a 3rd Quarter interception--that means the Green Bay quarterback just threw a pass for his side, but our man #54 Brian Urlacher, who once dated Paris Hilton before a game, just made up for that by intercepting the pass, meaning now the Bears get control of the ball.

Highlights of '85 Superbowl
Refrigerator William Perry scores at 3:03 among many unforgettable moments.

They're the Pride and Joy of Illinois

With 12:02 to play 3rd string QB Caleb Haney completes a td Pass TOUCHDOWN
Touchdown BEARS Regular QB Jay Cutler is sitting out with an injury. Now it is 14-7 Pack and it is time to Smack the Pack.
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Oh No Now a fat guy from the Packers intercepted and scored it's 21-7 Green Bay with 5:59 to go. ( B.J. Raji with a dance afterwards--find it yourself on you tube if you want to see it)


HANEY TO BENNETT TOUCHDOWN TOUCHDOWN BEARS!!!!!! Don't go anywhere, the extra point is good, 21-14 PLAY THE SONG AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!  4:43 left on the clock

The Bears in those minutes did some good offense with several first downs but with 37 seconds left the Packers' Sam Shields intercepted Caleb Hanie's 4th and 4 pass, and what this means is now they have the ball and can simply waste the remaining seconds of the game by taking a knee, so...good game and congratulations to the GBP. It's time to turn off the TV before throwing a brick through it.

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 Hope you enjoyed that!
Plenty more Packer gear where that came from:
No image yet for superbowl tees but on the way best of luck to you


Green Bay Packers Super Bowl Champions Long Sleeve T-shirt S 

Wilhelm Raabe, Hastenbeck (1898), a Novel

Wilhelm Raabe was a popular German novelist, who lived from 1831-1910. He was from Brunswick, but lived in Stuttgart for a while when he first married and his writing career began to take off.

I've been reading his novel Hastenbeck lately and since  the 18th Century Sojourn blog published a battle report yesterday about a Hastenbeck game, I was inspired to put it up on the blog, since their game makes the topic start to heat up, and maybe this will make it even hotter.

There is a bio on Wilhelm Raabe from the English Wikipedia here

And then the German Wikipedia, worth a look because it has a photo with him, from 1890, and another picture not seen in the English one here

Another little piece is about a tower that was constructed on a hill near where he came from, where a tourist could have something to eat and climb up for a view up to 75 km away, with a short piece and photo with the text in English and that is here


Hastenbeck, the Novel
Unfortunately it doesn't look like this was ever put in English before, but it's a novel that follows a young man who is recruited into the Hannoverian army in time for the disaster of Hastenbeck and the Convention of Kloster-Zeven, in which George II's son, the Duke of Cumberland was compelled to, to put it delicately, sign a convention with the French marshal to prevent the further effusion of blood, under the particular situation of the army at that time. Ahem.

The young man deserts, from the Hannoverian army, and goes into hiding in a village, where he meets a young lady, and they fall in love, and then also meets an older lady who was an experienced camp follower, called the Wackerhahnsche. Now if this novel were a movie, which it one day might be, this second lady will turn out to be the character who steals the show,with her interesting personality, helping the couple out. There is also some help from a Swiss captain from the French service who was billeted in the town while on convalescence, as there is danger from the French and his own sides' authorities.

How it all plays out I won't say; this is enough to flesh out the story. For the 18th century enthusiast the small details and atmosphere will as always bring the scenes to life in the imagination during the reading, and maybe better than the movie anyway as old timers remember from the times before films were so ubiquitous.

Literary critics nowadays love to see a man who is less than a hero to put it mildly and have to some extent glommed on to this young man Pold, short for Leopold. They'll use words like anti-hero, etc. Looking over what they have to say they also like a strong female character in the Wackerhahnsche, which name means something like 'funny chicken-ish.'

 There are several ways to get the book in different forms and prices. All the ones I've found are in German, with the older ones from 1898-1910 or so in Fraktur and running around 240 pages, and the more modern editions around 168 pages, with more words on a single page. That means that outside of the language problem, it's actually a relatively quick read.

But there is a language problem for many because these are all in German. I am reading the free online version and feeding parts through the translate machine the hard and slow way, but that is still rewarding, just harder than most books. The text itself is smooth enough that it should otherwise be an easy read.

NOTE: These next five links are to purchase (Sorry, it's US) with various options, then further down is a free online version only available for the US--which is also in German and Fraktur:

There is a hardcover of the old Fraktur edition Hastenbeck: Eine Erzahlung (German Edition)

This one is also hardcover Hastenbeck - Eine Erzahlung

There is a collected works edition which has other Raabe stories incorporated in it Hastenbeck - Altershausen - Gedichte (RAABE,SAMTLICHE WERKE) (German Edition)

And editions suitable for reading with a reader device such as the Kindle Hastenbeck (E-Book-Sammlung Zeno.org) (German Edition)

or this oneHastenbeck (Gold Collection) (German Edition)

It is also possible to find e-editions for those who have a different device from a different manufacturer.
If you are in or near Germany there should be reasonable editions in the market stalls, and if you are in the US, you are lucky enough to have an online scan of the 100-year-old Fraktur edition this is marked for USA Only Access

It is also marked as an unstable, uncurated link so you (US) may need to try here and click through where it says full text. Turn the page a few times since they are showing you the hard cover at first, which looks dark for a couple pages so that is here

Personally my favorite method is to have a lucky find at a used bookpile somewhere or those tiny paperbacks popular in Germany would be next best for ease of transport and low price. Whatever method works for you, I think this would be a good piece of fiction for the 18th Century enthusiast and packed with details with which our authors today may well have lost touch.
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Eyewitness Reports From Brisbane, 12 Dead Confirmed

Latest reports from Australia have 12 confirmed dead and grave fears for 18 of the 70-odd missing. Whole families are missing in isolated areas where rescuers cannot reach them. Half of the dead are children. One was a four-year-old boy; rescuers had a hold of him but lost their grip under the pressure of the rushing waters. He was swept away and drowned.

The story from yesterday was mostly about the flash flood in Toowoombie about 100 km from the coast. The flash flood has been described as an inland tsunami. That town is on a plateau which is 700m above sea level.
The cars swept away from the car park were found wrecked 8 km away from where they were taken up.

An entire restaurant floated downstream only to be dashed to pieces when it struck a bridge.

There were boats still tied to their wharves floating down the stream dragging wharves and all along with them.

A family of three swept away with their car while awaiting a difficult helicopter rescue--the wife and child were recovered later but husband missing and presumed swept away.

One publican, with water at the very front steps to his pub, put up a sign reading 'Cold Beer. River Views."
Another was quoted, "I am not worried. You only worry when you can do something about it."

Australia has suffered from seven years of drought and now Queensland state is 75 percent flood-threatened.
This water is carrying snakes and crocodiles beyond their normal areas.

After a tremendous flood in 1974 a new dam was built which normally bears a load at 20 percent of capacity. Right now it is holding back 190 percent capacity, even though pressure is being released as much as they can, and the peak water was expected at 0400 hrs today Australian time, which is probably something like right now--just checked, it will be two hours from now.
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Brisbane Flood Sweeps Away Eighty People in Australia

Flash Floods Added to Water Buildup

The water upstream has been building up for the past few weeks, and now a fresh storm has dumped another six inches of rain causing flash floods just as the whole deluge was coming down the river into Brisbane on the east coast of Australia, north of Sydney. The last report I read said 10 dead and 72 missing, after it was 78 missing in the report before that. That might mean a few were found, and let's hope found alive and rescued.

This water has wrenched up whole houses, swung them around, and swept them away with people screaming inside. If you weren't on the high ground, there wasn't anywhere to go to take shelter, and it came down fast. Let's hope the dam doesn't break under all the pressure.

If anyone is in a position to do anything about it, please do step in and help. I'm going to spread the word around the world a little bit, as there are many other distractions competing for our attention, I would ask that we take some notice of this going on over there.

This blog has got a relatively small number of readers but they are some of the highest quality people on the planet, every one of them in the top one percent, and there are some on all the continents north of Antarctica. There is a contingent in Australia and of them there is someone in Brisbane who is presently going through this flood situation. That is one of our fellow readers.

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Over here where I am, it's snowing and freezing cold. It looks like a few inches, and more coming. At least it is not flooding.
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Koeniglicher Prinz Reiter Regiment
Have a look at the 40mm figures in a fresh post on the Scheck Zinnsoldaten blog on the lower right in the blogroll, they have a fresh post about the Koeniglicher Prinz Reiter Regiment of the Saxons. That is one of the regiments who were involved at Kesselsdorf. They already had some Prinz August semi-flat castings and just added a couple figures from another line to complete the unit. Of course don't forget to come back here, whenever you do something like that. Koeniglicher Prinz means Royal Prince. Reiter designates heavy cavalry such as cuirassiers, or it could describe carabiniers or the like.
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Austrian General Staff Work Volume 3

Volume 3, The First Silesian War


This volume covers events from the Landtag at Pressburg speech of the Queen of Hungary Maria Theresa, in which she inspired Hungarians to come out in force in her favor, up to beyond the Battle of Chotusitz, which is in the area of page 600. The whole volume runs to maybe 997 pages, including appendices of almost 200 pages.

After that come the peace talks and treaty from June and July 1742, which ended the First Silesian War to allow Maria Theresa to focus on the remaining wars in the west and in Italy. The price to thus free up her hands was to hand Silesia over to Frederick, and then he pulled out of the war and left his allies to shift for themselves.

This volume is available in both the Google Books format and the archive.org format. They may or may not both work for you, depending on where you are in the world.

We have reports from the UK and the Netherlands that the archive.org version works better there for these books. In Australia something works, anyway, not sure which. I am in the US, and both work, although not all volumes seem to be available.

Another option is openlibrary, and it may also be possible to find the actual books in certain libraries or to purchase. Keep an eye out at market stalls, one may get lucky sometimes.

The actual books include full-sized maps, diagrams and tables of important data such as orders of battle, casualties, etc. Online versions may have a little of this towards the end, but typically they scanned without unfolding the sheets. Someone owning the books may be inspired to share that data with the public one day.
I own Volume 11 of the Prussian Work on the 1759 campaign and I lost the entire packet of maps!

Some links follow. There will be more later. All volumes do not seem to be available in any format, but I will post those that I can.

Austrian General Staff Work, Vol 3, Harvard version (Google Books)

Austrian General Staff Work, Vol 3, Stanford version (Google Books)

Austrian General Staff Work, Vol 3 (archive.org)


I noticed that in the archive.org version you can click for different formats. The 'read online' option appears like a book with tools to zoom, turn pages slowly, etc. In other versions it may be harder to follow where you are, but easier to get to page 600. Some readers may only have patience to get to the good part at once. Sorry about the folded-up centerfolds. There is still a lot here.

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Austrian General Staff Work, Volumes 1 and 2 of 9, 1740-1748.

The Austrian General Staff, like the Prussian one, made a multi-volume reference work late in the 19th century and into the 20th. This one consists of nine volumes covering the War of the Austrian Succession 1740-1748.

It is called Geschichte der Kaempfe Oesterreichs. Kriege Unter der Regierung der Kaiserin-Koenigin Maria Theresia:  Oesterreichischen Erbfolge Kriege 1740-1748, 9 volumes, Vienna, 1896-1914.

Austrian General Staff Work, Volume 1 (Google Books)

For today Volume 1 only, in this link and Volume 2 in the second link given below. Volume 1 has over 600 pages of introductory material. The armies around Europe are described towards the end, including smaller states such as Hessen, the Two Sicilies, and others. Lists of regiments, squadrons and artillery, engineers, etc, with numbers of men, and some commentary, state by state.

I meant to put up the volume with material on Kesselsdorf, to fit the recent trend in articles, but I'm not sure Volume 9 made it into the program available online through Google books this way. I have found Volumes 1-8 but maybe not volumes 2 or 9. Anyway, the first volume is probably a good place to start appreciating this massive work from the Austrians, and the information is a regular goldmine.

There is also an archive.org version, in a simpler font, where I was reading about the invasion of Silesia 1740-1741 up to Mollwitz. This one has Volume 2 of the same series. It uses a different font because archive's policy is to be readable even by older machines. Despite the difficulty of it, I now know which regiments and companies did what, how many rounds of artillery ammo were brought into Silesia, for what sizes and number of guns, and plenty more details like that.

Austrian General Staff Work, Volume 2 ( archive.org)

And here is a list of the Austrian guns at Mollwitz. Previously in English I've only seen that there were 19 pieces, that they may have all been long 4-pounders, and pretty much lost to the Prussians. Here is a better list than that:

         8x 3p Regiments-pieces
                            4x 3p Feld-Schlangen "field-snakes" the long barrelled ones
                            4x 6p Falkaunen   "falcons"
                            2x 12p Haubitzen howitzers
                           1x kleinen Petarde                 A small stone-thrower, like a mortar

And there are the 19 pieces. Before seeing this list and using English sources I could easily have thought it was all 4-pounders, or 3-pounders. Also, besides the 16 battalions, we find out here there were also 14 Grenadier companies with the Austrians. That little tidbit alone throws off all my previous strength calculations.

In short, these books are full of better information, which has only been unavailable because of issues about language and marketing ideas of publishers. If we could get hold of it and if we could read German, this list has been around a while now.

There are also French and Russian books roughly comparable to these German-language ones, and I'd also like to see more of them.

My apologies in advance if certain versions do not work in your country due to technical factors we can not control. There may be other ways around the problems. For those who speak English, these books are not in Fraktur and should feed through the Translate tool a bit at a time. Maybe a few paragraphs at a time. Click on the tiny blue link, 'Translate Homepage'  to open the tool in a new window, then copy-paste passages desired.

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EDIT: 8 Jan 11. Here is the link Rampjaar gave to view the first volume in archive.org format.
Try this if you are not able to use the first link from Google Books.

Austrian General Staff Work, Vol 1 (archive.org)

Thanks again to Rampjaar. Many readers are in Europe and this is a very good book, too good to miss.

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Dr. Christopher Duffy at 2011 SYW Convention in March

I've just received an e-mail announcing that Dr. Christopher Duffy will be attending the 2011 Seven Years War Association Convention in South Bend, Indiana, USA, on the weekend of March 25-26, 2011. They will be at the Ramada Inn, and details are here : http://www.sywconvention.com/

He's written 20 or so books and at least 19 of them are apropos for the 18th Century wargamer and enthusiast, and the other one is good too. One of them, Fire and Stone,  shows the wargames played at the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst when Professor Duffy was there. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Duffy                 That's his bio on the Wikipedia.

It is a siege game showing Airfix troops for the 18th Century, and has a neat set of rules in the back. These rules are notable for having  used the concept of the telescoping of time, some years before another set of wargame rules copyrighted it. They are both good rules, but that always did rankle me.

I had mentioned a few weeks ago that I missed all the trips they had taken to the Eastern European battlefields and also missed the one they took a few months ago to the scenes of the Forty-Five in Scotland. To me everything is too expensive and I do not get much time off work at all, but I regret all the events I've had to miss out on.

College football fans will recognize South Bend as the location of Notre  Dame University.

There's not a chance my car could be trusted to go that far, and I would need to rent one. Every year my plans fall through and the Boss schedules me to work anyway. There won't be many more opportunities, however. Just got the car out of the shop after the flat tire I got for Christmas, and now this morning the electricity went out for a couple hours, too. Had to break out the oil lamp. God provides sunlight for those without electricity, but the natural temperature outside being 13 degrees Fahrenheit, or 19 below freezing, meant that it got colder and colder by four degrees per hour.

In other years the featured guest at the SYWA Convention has been Professor Dennis Showalter, whose book 'The Wars of Frederick the Great' is also available on the links provided here on the blog.

On the link to the SYW Convention site, be sure to have a look at the Gallery, where there are hundreds of  pictures posted from past conventions, all 18th Century and featuring many familiar faces from the wargaming boards such as TMP, as well as the hundreds of blogs. Maybe this year, me too.