The Dutch-Belgian contingent of the Anglo-Allied army at Waterloo has
been much maligned by English historians, but it appears clear that the
campaign could not have been won without the tremendous contributions the
Dutch-Belgian troops made in stalling the French advance at Quatre Bras
on June 16th. The HäT Dutch Infantry set provides figures for these
units. Their distinctive shoulder rolls of the flanquer companies
and simple jackets were very hard to convert, and this set will prove indispensable
to anyone wishing to wargame the Waterloo campaign.
Belgian troops wore the British army shako, but the uniform was otherwise
identical to that of the Dutch. Almost half of the Netherlands force
was made up of Dutch militia. Their uniform was similar to that of
the line and light regiments, but lacked the shoulder rolls and had a different
shako. Happily HäT has provided one head on each sprue wearing the
cylindrical shako of the militia and one head wearing the British "Belgic"
shako. More Belgic shako heads can be scrounged from the Esci and
Revell British Infantry sets.
I have used Philip Haythornethwaite's Uniforms of Waterloo as
my resource for these figures. It is, in my opinion, the most useful
of the many uniform guides, giving fairly exact descriptions of every unit
at Waterloo and 80 color plates.
These are Belgian infantry. The man on the left is from a center
company, and has no shoulder rolls. The man on the right is a from
a grenadier flanquer company. Their heads have come from the Revell
British Infantry set. Four of the Netherlands infantry regiments
at Waterloo (the 1st, 2nd, 4th, and 7th) were Belgian.
These are Dutch light infantry. The light infantry uniform was the
same as that of the line, but the jackets were green with yellow facings.
The figure on the far left is from the light company; the figure on the
far right is from the grenadier company. The other three are from
center companies, and have had their shoulder rolls removed. The
far left figure is a hornist, carrying the hunting horn that is one of
the accesories HaT provides in this set. There were three Dutch Jager
regiments at Waterloo (16th, 18th, and 27th Jagers) and two Belgian Jager
regiments (35th and 36th Jagers). The Belgians are uniformed exactly
the same, but they wear Belgic shakoes.
Here are three Dutch infantrymen. The leftmost figure is from
the light flanquer company (his white plume with green tip and his shoulder
rolls mark this) and the other two are from the center companies. Four
of the line regiments (3rd, 6th, 12th, and 13th) were Ducth.
This is a Dutch militiaman, provided with the spare head from the HäT set.
There were fifteen Dutch militia regiments present at Waterloo.
Text and figures contributed by Mr. Scott
MacPhee.
