Tuesday 2 June 2015

The Battle of Heligoland 1864



I've been thinking about the other naval aspect of the Second Schleswig War, which involves the Austrian and Prussian fleets in the North Sea against the Danish, an aspect of the conflict which I had otherwise ignored. On closer inspection, this looks like a straightforward extension to my existing Baltic project, as it involves only a handful of additional ships, some of which I already have in the Baltic contingent.
The key clash in the North Sea was the battle of Heligoland on 9th May 1864, which was a tactical Danish victory against the Austrians and Prussians. The forces involved were:
Denmark
Niels Juel 42-gun screw frigate
Jylland 44-gun screw frigate
Hejmdal 16-gun screw corvette

Austria
Schwarzenberg 51-gun screw frigate
Radetzky 37-gun screw frigate

Prussia
Preussischer Adler 4-gun paddle steamer
Blitz 3-gun 350-ton gunboat
Basilisk 3-gun 350-ton gunboat

Great Britain
Aurora 51-gun screw frigate

The Jylland and Niels Juel were sister ships of the Sjaelland, for which I have used the Tumbling Dice ASV5 frigate model, so I can easily order a couple more. I also already have the Hejmdal based up and undercoated. Incidentally, the Jylland has been restored and preserved in it's original 1864 condition. The British Aurora only played an incidental part in the battle so isn't absolutely essential but would be a nice scenario extra.

The Schwarzenberg and Radetzky can also be located in the Tumbling Dice catalogue, although I'll need to do some research to find matching models from the French and British ranges. Finally, for the Prussian paddle steamer I can use the model of the Lorelei that I already have, alongside two of the first class gunboats from the Baltic flotilla to act as the Blitz and Basilisk, although I quite fancy getting new models for these as well.

1 comment:

  1. Do you have a listing of the specific codes you will be using from Tumbling Dice? I have the ships in 1/2400 from Magister Militum (the old Figurehead range) but wouldn't mind using a different mix of ships.

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