Among the forces seldom brought onto the wargame table, yet those that patrolled the army's rear areas searching for deserters ies, and keeping order, were La Gendarmerie. Almost all nations of the Napoleonic period had them but only Les Gendarmes d'elite de la Garde Imperiale have caught the eye of the wargamer. To augment Mike Gilbert's short article in Issue 24, page 10, I present the following information. Organized in 1806 with the military forces of the newly createdKingdom of Westphalia were two squadrons of Gendarmes. Mounted on. the same size horses as the rest of the Kingdom's light cavalry, they tended to remain so mounted longer than their French counterparts. This however may have been due to their being rear area forces and as such avoided combat. At least that is the opinion of Fred Vietmeyer. Yet on May 4th, 1809 a portion of the Westphalian Gendarmes were present against Von Schill's Freikorps and had great trouble rounding up their scattered soldiers after the battle, many of whom took the opportunity to return to their homes." And in the 181Z Campaign against Russia., some of the Gendarmes were present, being list in the Order of Battle of the VIII Corps on pages 20 and 21 of "Napoleon's German Allies (1): Westphalia and Cleve-Berg" by Otto Von Fivka, Osprey-Men-At-Arms Series, 1975. Organization was in companies of fifty men, which should be represented on the wargame table a three man stand. According to Vietmeyer; The use of 2 man stands is not too hot in this case because the two ran stands could effectively drive the more awkward 3 man stands out of combat, but yet the Gendarmes ARE NOT REALLY COMBAT TROOPS. Mike Gilbert has some beautifully painted figures -- Miniature Figurines of Spanish Cavalry -- transformed as Westphalian Gendarmes. Members are encouraged to view them as you will probably then wish a squadron of them to protect your command figure. DOCUMENTATION Letter From Fred Vietmeyer dated January 18th 1975. Pivka, Otto von, "Napoleon's German Allies (1) page 18 Back to Empire, Eagles, & Lions Table of Contents Vol. 1 No. 26 Back to EEL List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1978 by Jean Lochet This article appears in MagWeb.com (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com