Reproduction:
Wonderful Repro of a Hussars badge/ pendant. Ca. 43 x 43 mm
Examples:
Hussars, lancers, and dragoons became established types of military units, with their typical uniform patterns (and weapons and tactics) maintained in many armies.In Chile, during the independence battles, a paramilitary guerrilla group against the royal Spanish army composed mainly by bandits and civilians, called Los húsares de la muerte (The Death Hussars) wore a Skull with two crossed femurs on the neck of their jackets. Also the German Hussars used this sign.
The 11th Hussars (Prince Albert's Own) was a cavalry regiment of the British Army established in 1715. It saw service for three centuries including the First World War and Second World War but then amalgamated with the 10th Royal Hussars (Prince of Wales' Own) to form the Royal Hussars in 1969.
The colourful military uniforms of hussars from 1700 onwards were inspired by the prevailing Hungarian fashions of the day. Usually, this uniform consisted of a short jacket known as a dolman, or later a medium-length atilla jacket, both with heavy, horizontal gold braid (sujtás) on the breast and yellow braided or gold Austrian knots (vitézkötés) on the sleeves, a matching pelisse (a short-waisted over-jacket often worn slung over one shoulder), coloured trousers, sometimes with yellow braided or gold Austrian knots at the front, a busby (kucsma) (a high, fur hat with a cloth bag hanging from one side, although some regiments wore the shako (csákó) of various styles), and high riding boots (often Hessian boots). A sabretache, an ornate pouch hung from the belt, often completed the accoutrements.[50]
European hussars traditionally wore long moustaches (but no beards) and long hair, with two plaits hanging in front of the ears as well as a larger queue at the back, a style known as the cadenette. They often retained the queue, which used to be common to all soldiers, after other regiments had dispensed with it and adopted short hair.
Hussars had a reputation for being the dashing, if unruly, adventurers of the army. The traditional image of the hussar is of a reckless, hard-drinking, womanising, moustachioed swashbuckler. General Lasalle, an archetypal hussar officer, epitomized this attitude by his remarks, among which the most famous is: "Any hussar who is not dead by the age of thirty is a blackguard."[51] He died at the Battle of Wagram at the age of 34.
Arthur Conan Doyle's character Brigadier Etienne Gerard of the French Hussards de Conflans has come to epitomise the hussar of popular fiction – brave, conceited, amorous, a skilled horseman and (according to Napoleon) not very intelligent. Brigadier Gerard's boast that the Hussards de Conflans (an actual regiment) could set a whole population running, the men away from them and the women towards them, may be taken as a fair representation of the esprit de corps of this class of cavalry.
Less romantically, 18th-century hussars were also known (and feared) for their poor treatment of local civilians. In addition to commandeering local food-stocks for the army, hussars were known to also use the opportunity for personal looting and pillaging.[52]
The 1930 operetta Viktoria und ihr Husar (Victoria and her Hussar) has been filmed several times.
United Kingdom
Queen's Royal Hussars
King's Royal Hussars
C (Royal Gloucestershire Hussars) Squadron, the Royal Wessex Yeomanry
710 (Royal Buckinghamshire Hussars) Squadron RLC
Presently, the first two regiments and C Sqn RWxY operate in the armoured role, primarily operating the Challenger 2 main battle tank. The Hussar regiments are grouped together with the Dragoon and Lancer regiments in the order of precedence, all of which are below the Dragoon Guards. A Dragoon regiment, the Light Dragoons, was formed by the amalgamation of two Hussar regiments, the 13th/18th Royal Hussars and the 15th/19th The King's Royal Hussars, in 1992, reversing the mid-19th-century trend of all existing light-dragoon regiments being converted to hussars. 710 (Royal Buckinghamshire Hussars) Laundry Squadron, RLC is an Reserve Operational Hygiene Squadron within 165 Port and Maritime Regiment RLC and was formed in April 2014 from 60 Signal Squadron, Royal Corps of Signals.
The Light Cavalry HAC also wear hussar uniform.
Der Totenkopf wurde bereits im 16. Jahrhundert von ungarischen, dann polnischen und später preußischen Reitertruppen auf ihren Pelzmützen getragen. „Totenkopfhusaren“ war die populäre Bezeichnung für das Braunschweigische Husaren-Regiment Nr. 17 und für das 1. und 2. Leib-Husaren-Regiment in Danzig (Langfuhr) wegen des an den Pelz- und Tuchmützen getragenen Totenkopfes, der ein altes Wahrzeichen dafür sein soll, dass sie weder Pardon nehmen noch geben. Sie sind nicht zu verwechseln mit den „Der ganze Tod“ genannten Belling’schen Husaren, die ein vollständiges Skelett mit der Umschrift „vincere, aut mori“ („siegen oder sterben“) an der Mütze trugen. Ebenfalls einen Totenkopf trug das Braunschweigische Husaren-Regiment Nr. 17
Zur Uniform des Regiments sei das Tuch benutzt worden, womit der Saal ausgeschlagen war, in welchem die 1740 Leiche des Königs Friedrich Wilhelm I auf dem Paradebette gelegen habe. Dieser Saal sei mit weiß gestickten Totenköpfen dekoriert gewesen, daher stamme der Totenkopf. In dessen Angedenken übernahm das am 9. August 1741 ins Leben gerufene 5. Husaren-Regiment (am 5. September 1741 im Lager von Göttun bei Brandenburg an der Havel unter Major von Mackenrodt zusammengestellt) eine schwarze Uniform mit Totenkopf an der Kopfbedeckung.
Andere Deutung: Die Mönche des Klosters Leubus hatten 1740 mit den Österreichern paktiert und sollten bestraft werden, indem sie die Kosten zur Errichtung des Regiments als Strafgelder und deren Ausstattung mit Waren des Klosters übernehmen mussten. Im Kloster wurden vorwiegend schwarze Stoffe mit weißen Totenköpfen zur Verwendung als Bahrtücher hergestellt. Da Preußen als nicht sehr reiches Land galt und bei der Erstellung neuer Truppenteile erwiesenermaßen oftmals improvisiert hat und schwarze Stoffe recht einfach zu färben (und daher billiger) waren, sind beide Variationen nicht gänzlich unmöglich, letztere scheint jedoch der Wahrscheinlichkeit näher zu kommen.
Das Leibhusaren-Regiment Nr. 1 und das Leibhusaren-Regiment Nr. 2 lagen in Danzig-Langefuhr in Garnison und hatten schwarze Bekleidung. Ihr markantes Merkmal war der Totenkopf an der Pelzmütze.