A Royal Marine
from Donald Featherstones Tel el Kebir, published by Osprey
I've been looking at the Egyptian Campaign of 1882 recently, mainly because I thought it would allow me to pit my Zulu War British against my Crimean War Turks. There were only a few engagements, but while I was noodling around on wikipedia, I came across the battle of Kafr el Dawwar. This an interesting engagement, not least because it was essentially written up as a win by both sides.
Kafr el Dawwar is not a name familiar to English speaking ears, more used to the bombardment of Alexandria, Kassassin and Tel el Kebir. It occurred at the beginning of the campaign and was essentially a British probe of the Egyptian works (which were considerable) outside Alexandria. Urabi Pasha described it was a victory where the British were driven off, while the General Alison described it as a reconnaissance in force. Both sides were of the opinion that they achieved what they came to do - it's an interesting illustration of a situation that would never arise in a wargame.
HAT Zulu War British infantry,
soon to be joining the ranks of the Royal Marines
I haven't been able to find a map for the battle, so I've been trying to piece things together from General Alison dispatch and some other sources. There aren't any Egyptian sources that I can find, but I've had a look at the battle site on googlemaps.
The engagement/battle involved some British mounted infantry, some line infantry, an armoured train and some Royal Marines. Normally, I wouldn't be that concerned about the RM as I have red coated British troops, but it appears (at least based on Featherstone) that they wore blue in Egypt. I didn't have any uniform reference as the Blandfords do not cover the RM. I was in this, as in most things in my life, blissful in my ignorance.
There's no rational explanation for why, now that I know that the uniforms were blue that I won't be quite happy until I've arranged some RM in blue. It's like an itch that I can't quite scratch.
Good thing I had some spare infantry lying around.
Never heard of this either, but the idea of mounted infantry, some line infantry, an armoured train and some Royal Marines sounds intriguing. Best of luck Sir.
ReplyDeleteThat's probably because it wasn't considered a battle by the British, Michael. We shall see how this proceeds. I suspect there will be a lot of estimation in this map.
DeleteGood source CK - downloaded!
DeleteDoes sound like an exotic engagement: perfect for a wargame!
ReplyDeleteI will have to put my mind to coming up with a map.
DeleteAlways a fun thing to unearth and paint unusual uniforms.
ReplyDeleteBest Regards,
Stokes
A damn nuisance in some respects, but there you go.
DeleteFor more on Sudan see
ReplyDeleteA Tidy Little War by William Wright
Battle of Tofrek by Maj-Gen John Carstairs M'neill
Victoria's Enemies by Don Featherstone
War on the nile by M Barthorp
Warfare in Egypt & Sudan, wargame scenarios by Stuart Asquith
cheers Old John
An evil influence...
DeleteThe Royal Marines sounds fun and it looks like a straight forward paint job on your zulu wars brits, is it me or is there something romantic about an armoured train? Maybe just the impact of doctor zhivago on a young mind! Looking forward to the results.
ReplyDeleteBest Iain
I must put up some pictures of my "armoured train".
DeleteHi Conrad,
ReplyDeleteI am sorry, but you use here a wrong source. The uniform the marine light infantry in Sudan wore was a light grey. In the past the Ospreys were not 100% perfect...
http://www.britishbattles.com/egypt-1882/tamai/tamai-l-5.jpg
cheers
Uwe
For the later campaign, yes, but at least one source (Wiki) says the following "The Royal Marines wore dark blue serge jackets in the Anglo-Egyptian Campaign of 1882 with embroidered badges on their collars - bugle horns for the RMLI and grenades for the RMA. During the subsequent Sudan Campaign a light grey field uniform was adopted." Makes sense to me, the British Army would never have wasted money putting its troops in a local uniform before they arrived... When it comes down to it though, does it matter.. your Marines, your army, your choice :o)
DeleteGentlemen, you both make good points. It looks like Uwe is right and the grey uniform was worn at Tamai in the Sudan, but that the blue was worn during the Egyptian campaign proper. Thank you both.
ReplyDelete