alternatehistory.com

2 March

The Ever Victorious Army is victorious (again), taking a critical role in the Third Battle of Nanking - one of the largest battles in human history to date, with close to a million involved in the fighting.
One of the interesting features of this battle is the crisis on this second day, where the Ever Victorious Army at the centre of the Qing lines proves critical in preventing the Taiping army from rolling up the Qing flank and recapturing the breach in the walls.
As a result of this massive engagement and the central role played by the Ever Victorious Army, the force is given primary responsibility for crushing the remainder of the rebellion and official instructions are given for their methods and organization to be "incorporated" into other formations. (A term with plenty of leeway.)


3 March

With the conditional peace offer expired sans response, German troops resume their advance. The intent is to reduce Dybbol, thus allowing for further offensive operations into Jutland.
The Prussian I Corps is ordered north to garrison the supply lines, allowing III Corps to eventually concentrate against Dybbol itself.


5 March

In a private letter to Queen Victoria (his mother in law), Frederick III muses that - while some Prussians have been encouraged by the German language in South Schleiswig, he himself is more put off by reports that they use this language to criticize the German armies.
He sums up by noting that "In Holstein we are fellow Germans and liberators; in Schleiswig we are German fellows and occupiers".


6 March
German troops start to take up positions across from the Dybbol trenches. They run into a problem early on, in that de Meza has concentrated his heavy artillery inland and has been using the guns of the Frederik VI to cover his seaward flank - as such they must set up some distance from Dybbol to avoid coming under fire from either the land batteries or the RDN.
Artillery positions are surveyed on the nearby rises of ground, and the Prussians set up a perimeter while making their own embrasures (mostly out of a few unlucky villages nearby; for this they get scolded in Danish, which is a change from being scolded in German).

Positions at Gammelmark are considered (they would be able to provide raking fire down the Dybbol line) but a major potential problem is the Rolf Krake which is armoured to a good standard (the backing is less than that of Warrior and so she is a little less resistant, but still able to endure most Krupp guns; around the gunports she is more resistant than Warrior) and would be able to bombard the positions in turn. Possible solutions are considered as a matter of urgency, with some recommending the expedient of Palliser shells and heavy overcharge for one of the largest Prussian guns.

9 March

The Polish sejm officially redesignates all army units, due to the formal raising of their first true cavalry regiments.
From this point on, newly raised light infantry will be strzelcy with legacy units being huszaria piechota. Newly raised artillery regiments will be artyleria with legacy units being uhlan artyleria, and all other infantry will be raised as either linia piechoty or grenadierzy.
Cavalry units will take the uhlan name for those whose primary weapon is the lance, huszaria for those who wear armour and use the sabre and carbine (entitled to parade in the wooden wings which signify the hussar) and towarzysz for other regiments of cavalry.
The huszaria are very heavily armed for cavalry, largely due to the successful preservation of the old Polish cavalry horse lineage which is capable of campaigning and fighting with such a heavy load. Amusingly, the regiments are restricted only to those of the nobility, but due to the odd Polish constitutional solution this means the majority of the male population.
The 1st and 2nd huszaria lead a military parade through Warsaw, wings clattering, and the sight is very impressive. Efforts are underway to purchase homogenous breechloading rifles for them, to allow them to be "a dangerous opponent at all ranges, whether alone or part of a larger army".

11 March

de Meza discovers to his discomfort that the Prussian heavy guns have an even longer range than he was expecting - they are firing at such a distance that they are unreachable by his own heavy artillery, and their shells are knocking his line about considerably and with a great deal of accuracy. It seems that only two or three guns are aimed at each bunker, and with so few they are able to spot the fall of shot (and adjust) easily while still doing attrition to the Danish infantry in their bunkers.

He orders that interim positions be built, including more communication trenches, and insists that at least some Danish reinforcements be kept no further from the bunker line than the distance from it that Prussians are currently positioned.