Here's an interesting one. Ditfurth (Vienna 1911) says the Saxon Reiter were equipped with a breech loading rifled carbine. I don't want to kick the Edelsheim wasps nest again, I think Andrew has proved quite conclusively that they did not have a breech loader whether it was paid for by the bold Baron Edelsheim or not (Ditfurth concurs saying all of 1st Div had the Extracorps Gewehr but only 66 men per squadron were similarly equipped in 2nd Div). Ditfurth was an officer in the 10th Cuirassiers at Koniggratz and is generally very accurate where the cavalry are involved, so, what says the group ?
Quote from: cameronian on 10 April 2017, 11:09:03 AM
Here's an interesting one. Ditfurth (Vienna 1911) says the Saxon Reiter were equipped with a breech loading rifled carbine. I don't want to kick the Edelsheim wasps nest again, I think Andrew has proved quite conclusively that they did not have a breech loader whether it was paid for by the bold Baron Edelsheim or not (Ditfurth concurs saying all of 1st Div had the Extracorps Gewehr but only 66 men per squadron were similarly equipped in 2nd Div). Ditfurth was an officer in the 10th Cuirassiers at Koniggratz and is generally very accurate where the cavalry are involved, so, what says the group ?
Happy (for once?) to be able to offer categoric support for your assertion. Stuart Sutherland's trnslation of the Official Saxon History ot the campaign "The Contribution of the Royal Saxon Army Corps to the Campaign of 1866 in Austria." states on page 5 , para 3 lines 2-3, and I quote "The cavalry were the equivalent in their arms, a sabre and breech-loading carbine, and their horses, to the dragoons of other armies."
End of debate?
Mollinary
You have Stuart Sutherland's translation, lucky boy, I'm still looking for a copy.
Bought it in when I was in Vienna in 2001-2005, along with his translation of the Bavarian History and the Austrian and Saxon accounts of Koniggratz. Their arrival in Vienna caused the Austrian bureaucracy to move into overdrive, and I had to visit three separate offices, each staffed with serried ranks of civil servants, before I had all the necessary stamps, and had paid the necessary excess. That said, they have been invaluable ever since.
Mollinary