“A STORM OF LANCERS”

The Battle of Albuera, fought on 16 May 1811, was a fiercely contested engagement during the Peninsular War in which Allied forces of Britain, Portugal, and Spain repelled a French army under Marshal Soult. The battle occurred near the village of Albuera, about 20 kilometers south of Badajoz, Spain, during the Peninsular War. Earlier, Marshal Masséna’s French Army of Portugal had been stalled by Wellington’s entrenched forces behind the Lines of Torres Vedras. Acting on Napoleon’s orders, Marshal Soult led a French expedition from Andalusia into Extremadura to relieve pressure on Masséna and capture Badajoz, which he successfully garrisoned after taking the fortress from the Spanish In response, Wellington dispatched an Anglo-Portuguese corps under General Sir William Beresford to retake Badajoz, initiating the siege.

The Allied army consisted of approximately 32,000 troops, including 6,000 British soldiers, Portuguese units, and Spanish contingents under General Joaquín Blake, supported by 38 artillery pieces.

The French fielded around 23,000 men with 40 guns, including 4,000 cavalry. Beresford commanded the Anglo-Portuguese forces, while Blake led the Spanish troops, and Marshal Soult commanded the French Army of Andalusia.

The battle began at dawn on 16 May 1811, with French infantry and cavalry attacking the Allied positions. Godinot’s Brigade led the initial assault, supported by Werle’s Brigade and French dragoons. The French attack was initially beaten back. As the British regiments cheered and prepared to pursue  the enemy and hasten them on their way, dark clouds above opened up and a torrential storm of rain and hail came lashing down into the faces of the redcoat infantry, rendering their muskets useless and making it almost impossible to see anything more than a short distance away. Then out of the blinding sheets of rain, large dark shapes came looming straight for them, the ground shaking beneath their pounding weight. For infantrymen formed in line, this was the worst of all nightmares, cavalry.

The French cavalry commander with two regiments,  Polish 1st Lancers of the Vestibula Legion, and the French 2nd Hussars, had a total of around 800 cavalry. With Colborne’s British Brigade blinded and almost disarmed by the rain, the cavalry attack launched into their unprotected right flank and rear was one of the most devastating cavalry attacks of the Peninsular War.

Under normal circumstances, infantry under cavalry attack would form square, but in this circumstance the infantry were strung out in line and offered easy prey for cavalry. It is impossible to reload and fire a flintlock musket in heavy rain. The loading process involves pouring powder from a torn open paper cartridge into an open priming pan, where raindrops will turn it into a useless black slurry.

The front rank of the lancers were armed with nine foot lances, which also made it impossible for infantry even with fixed bayonets to fight back with any effect.

The first regiment to receive the Lancers charge was the 1/3rd The Buffs, and they virtually disappeared as the enemy cavalry rode them down. The charge was even the more horrific as the Polish lancers went about their business roughlessly and giving no quarter even to the wounded men.

The Buffs suffered appalling casualties of four officers and 212 men killed, 14 officers and 234 men wounded, and 2 officers and 177 men taken prisoner. A total of 643 casualties out of a strength of 27 officers and 728 men, or just over 85%.

The Buffs had been in the Peninsula since September 1808, they were the first across the river at Oporto in May 1809 where they held the vital Seminary, and had also taken 152 casualties at Talavera. The Buffs suffered the highest casualties of any battalion at Albuera, 643 out of 755 officers and men, but earned a second nickname, “The Resurrectionists”, for the speed with which they were brought back up to strength again.

Despite the carnage caused by the French and Polish cavalry, they themselves suffered just over 200 casualties, which represented almost a quarter of their strength. Roughly two thirds of these casualties were suffered by the Polish Lancers, who also lost one of their guidons. Taken by a Spanish Infantry Regiment, and which rests today in the Cathedral of Seville.

Scale: 1/30
Material: Pewter alloy and synthetic fibers
Released Date: October 2026