Prussian Freikorps

Interestingly, Frederick seemed to use the Freikorps battalions in a traditional light infantry role of screening the movement of the main army, as at Leuthen; or guarding the flanks of the army, as at Hochkirch. On the other hand, a large number of Freikorps battalions fought in Prince Henry's army in Saxony, and these units appear to have performed in the role of regular troops, perhaps because Prince Henry was not allocated a sufficient number of front line infantry battalions by his brother Frederick. I guess that this suggests that Prussian Freikorps may be used as either light infantry or formed regular infantry. We will have to wait for Christopher Duffy's revised Army of Frederick the Great to sort this issue out. During our tour of Frederician battlefields in 1994, Duffy advised us that his research indicated that the Prussian Freikorps battalions were of better quality than he had originally believed.

There were twelve designated Free Battalions or Frei Korps under Prussian arms at various times during the SYW, composed of mercenaries, thieves and other soldiers of fortune raised and equipped by private individuals. Most of these units wore light blue breeches and waistcoats along with Prussian Blue coats, hence their nickname of Zweimalblauen or "Double Blues". Unit sizes ranged from 500 to 700 men. The first four regiments raised were those of Le Noble, Mayr, Kalben and Angelelli in 1756. These were followed by the units of Chossignon and Rapin in 1757, and Wunsch, Du Verger, Hardt, Volontaires du Prusse and Frei-hausaren Lubomirsky in 1758.

Perhaps the best and most famous of the Frei Korps was that of Von Kliest, raised in 1759 and consisting of a legion of husars, dragoons, Croats and Jagers. These men were oufitted in green with red facings and the dragoons wore a horse grenadier style fur cap.

1760 saw the raising of Freikorps Schony and Glasenapp and the freibattalions Jeny and Schack. Freibattalions Heer, Bequignolles, La Badie and Gshray were formed in 1761 A Tartarische Ulanencorps Krczowsky and the Black Brigade Favrat were two unusual units that were raised in 1761, too. In all, there were 22 known freibattalions or freikorps under Prussian arms during the SYW.

Feldjager Corps Zu Fuss The Prussian foot jagers were formed in 1740 as a company of 60 men, recruited from foresters and gamekeepers. They were armed with a heavy-calibre rifled carbine and wore green coats with red facings, cuffs and turnbacks, and buff breeches and cavalry-style boots. The jagers were increased to two companies of 100 men in 1744 and increased in size to a full battalion of 800 during the SYW. In 1760, they were caught out in the open by cossacks, near Spandau, and virtually anihilated, according to Duffy.

Light Infantry Forces Austrian - Prussian SYW Theatre

Introduction
Austrian Light Forces
Prussian Light Forces
Austrian Grenzers Illustration (slow: 86K)
Prussian Frei Korps Illustration (slow: 96K)

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