Combat of The Côa, 1810

My first build in two years!

 

For my hobby-time, I have been concentrating on my travel and landscape photography, but with Brickfair Virginia finally taking place after being cancelled last year, I got the Lego bug again. It took seven weeks to produce this 112 x 48 studs x 18 bricks high beast. It has 104 minifigs and is based on a real battle during the Peninsula War, in Portugal near the border with Spain. It did well at Brickfair Virginia, was nominated for Best Battle Scene (but lost to a massive World War II MOC), and I did a Beyond the Brick interview for it. This build is 100% Lego.

 

THE HISTORY: The Combat of The Côa was a wild running battle that took place on July 24th, 1810, not long after the French had invaded Portugal. The British Expeditionary Force's Light Division, under Major General “Black Bob” Crauford, was deployed separately from the main Allied army across the River Côa in order to support the fortress town of Alameida. The Light Division consisted of approximately 4000 elite soldiers from Britain and Portugal, including the famed 95th Rifles and their hard-fighting Portuguese counterparts, the 1st and 3rd Cazadores ("hunters").

 

Part I: "Math is Hard" (prior to the events in this build)

The French, under Marshal Michel Ney, were determined to take Alameida, and waited until there was a heavy morning fog to strike. 25,000 French troops came marching out of the fog and surprised the Light Division, but Black Bob ignored the Duke of Wellington’s orders to redeploy across the River Côa and instead tried to hold his position against the French.

The highly-trained Light Division held out until a flanking attack by French Hussars all-but wiped out an entire company of the 95th. Outnumbered 6 to 1, the math caught up with Black Bob and his left flank started to crumble under the pressure. Crauford then finally ordered a retreat across the Côa, and a race to the bridge was accomplished with several counter-charges taking place to slow down the advancing victorious French. Due to their modern tactics, the Light Division made it across the bridge with only 300 casualties, a relatively impressive accomplishment when so badly outnumbered.

 

Part II: "Quit While You're Ahead" (this build here)

The French had achieved their goal of sweeping the smaller British and Portuguese forces off the field, with few casualties compared to the allies’ 300. They should have quit while ahead, but then Marshal Michel Ney recklessly sent the 66th Régiment de Ligne and the Chasseurs de la Siège to take the bridge. They were attacking in compacted formations against the greatest sharpshooter units of the age, the 95th Rifles and Portuguese Caçadores, along with men from the 43rd and 52nd Regiments of the Light Division. After three courageous assaults and over 500 casualties, the French gave up, and the value of light infantry equipped with rifled muskets became clear to both sides.

 

Comment: The bagpiper should not be there in the MOC...he's a refugee from my Scots Guards unit :P

 

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Done