MAA No 413 AUSTRIAN FRONTIER TROOPS 1740-1798

Incredibly colourful and barbaric, these troops were the wild frontiersmen of the Austrian empire. The Austrian Grenzer troops fought in some of the most famous battles of the Seven Years' War, against Frederick the Great's Prussian army. During the War of the Austrian Succession and the Seven Years' War, the Austrian empire's Eastern Frontiers were guarded against the Turks by a savage and colourful militia. When posted west to join the Austrian field armies as light infantry in conventional campaigns, their exploits were legendary. Notoriously, they captured Frederick the Great's treasure chest at the Battle of Hohenfriedburg (1745). The corps included sharpshooters, cavalry scouts, gunners and crews of armed river boats, all of which are studied here, with attention to uniforms, weaponry and fighting styles. Their colourful costumes - from barbaric Balkan bandit gear to the more formal Austrian Line uniforms - are all described and with rare and dramatic period illustrations. Contents: The First Irregulars * Trenk's Freikorps ravages central Europe - native costumes * The first regulars - regularised Grenz units, 1743-1769 - evolution of uniforms by district and unit * The 1769 reforms - numbering of Grenz units in the Imperial Line - raising of artillery and sharpshooter units - development of uniforms * Grenzer cavalry - lance-armed hussar regiments, 1740-1780 - Wallachian Dragoons 1763-1771 - Szeckler (11th) Hussars 1762-1798 * Auxiliary formations - Tschaika river boats - Serezaner scouts * Grenzers at the start of the Napoleonic period * Colour plates by Darko Pavlovic.