Ad
I kept meaning to reply to your earlier posting, but work kept getting in the way!! There's some great potential for wargames lurking in the amphibious operations of the late seventeenth century as well as the WSS. Some of them are quite well documented, although some of the sources are a bit obscure. Others are a bit less familiar. I've listed them below in the thought that you may find them of interest. I've added the titles of the books I found helpful in case it's of use. I wish I could claim to have gamed them all, but I keep getting distracted!
1667 - not really an amphibious operation as such but the well known Dutch attack on the English port facilities along the Thames Estuary and River Medway. Dutch forces attacked Sheerness fort from the land and sea, and then pressed their attack onwards up the Medway. There's plenty of colour in this scrap, with the Dutch land forces being led by a shadowy English republican renegade called Thomas Dolman, increasingly desperate attempts by the English to defend their fleet riding at anchor, some superb seamanship by the Dutch in spiriting away one the of English "Great Ships" and quite a few amusing incidents. There are a number of general histories of the action, but I thought that "The Dutch in the Medway" by PG Rogers (1970) was terrific and I think it can sometimes be picked up on the rare books sites on the net for about £20.
1673 - in the Third Dutch War, the English planned a landing against the Zeeland coast, aiming to link up with predominantly French cavalry forces. The "invasion" was a disaster and got no further than great Yarmouth, with newly raised English regiments spending a summer "buried in sloth and a superfluity of food" (and no doubt drink). So why mention it? Well, the main "English" commanders were an aging Prince Rupert of Civil War fame and Graf von Schomberg, later to fall at the Boyne. Apparently, Rupert and Schomberg did little else than argue between them about the arrangements, despite them both being Pfalz Germans! I thought it would make a splendid game, with English colliers ferrying Sea-sick raw troops across the North Sea to be met by Dutch militia and regulars, with the English hoping the French cavalry will get there in time from Flanders and Antwerp. Details area bit obscure of this actions. I'd love to know more, but the details above are mostly from "The Anglo-Dutch Wars of the Seventeenth Century" by J R Jones.
1690 - the Earl of Marlborough's (as he then was) landing at Cork in the Nine Years War. A successful combined operation in which the Earl led an 82 ship expedition against the Jacobite forces in the town. Plenty of colour with English soldiers and marines coming ashore, and trying to meet up with Dutch, Danish and Huguenot troops on the landward side of Cork, Marlborough arguing with the Duke of Wurttemberg about command of the allied troops, close assaults by English converged grenadiers and fierce defending from the Jacobite troops – what more can one ask for? There's good descriptions in Churchill's "Life of Marlborough", "Jacobite Ireland" by JG Simms and some maps in the short little book "The Boyne and Aughrim" by J Kinross (1997).
1694 – English forces landing in Camaret Bay in Brittany in the teeth of enemy fire and participating in one of the great British amphibious disasters of all time! The English struggled to get off the beach and quite a proportion of the English boats did not even land. Despite the presence of Lord John Cutts, the "Salamander", the English casualties were heavy and their, Thomas Tollemache, was mortally wounded. None of which was that surprising considering that the longboats making the landing were of different drafts, the English did hardly any reconnaissance and the tides were against a landing in the first place. There's a great description of the chaos in John Childs' "British Army of William III" (1989). Oh, and add to that the fact that one of the English commanders was Goodwin Wharton. Who he? Goodwin Wharton appears to be the oddest Williamite general of them all – outwardly a respected politician and soldier, but, at the same time, a total nutcase who believed in alchemy, the existence of a fairy kingdom and who sought angelic guidance on various (government financed) treasure seeking expeditions in the Scottish islands.
If you don't believe me, try and get a copy of "Goodwin Wharton" by J.Kent Clark (1984), which is Goodwin's biography. And with all that going on, it would seem to be a wargame when the English can't possibly do any worse then they did in 1694!
Hope you found this of interest, Ad. Now, where are those longboats?
Adam
