Long Garden
Carrying on with my Essling Grand Plan (see Post 145), I wanted to model Long Garden – one of the important features of the village of Essling (see Post 25). Although mostly built over now, some of the outline of Long Garden is still visible. A street within its boundaries is actually named Langer Garten (complete with modern building projects) but the prominent tree- lined avenue that ran down the garden is called Raphael-Donner-Allee. Photographs taken in 1957 display a roadway that is surely much more like the avenue of 1809 than the current modern road – click on the thumbnails (right) to have a look. Some of the original eastern perimeter of the old garden is still hedgerow today as it was when it was defended by Boudet’s division. In wargames terms, the garden itself would not count as an obstacle to movement or an aid to defence. It was the hedgerow perimeter of the garden acting as a defendable linear obstacle that would give the garden its significance. My plan was to model what would, in fact, be the end of Long Garden as some of its northern end would be gobbled up (like a portent of the future!) by my Essling village’s built up area. 3rd Legere was formed in line along the eastern edge of the garden together with an artillery battery. In all, the length of the garden had to accommodate at least six bases in line.
POST 169
169
