Battle of Vienna (1683). Battle of Vienna (1683) The significance of the Vienna victory in history

To the 330th anniversary Battle of Vienna

The Battle of Vienna took place on September 11, 1683, after the Ottoman Empire had besieged Vienna, the capital of Austria, for two months. The victory of the Christians in this battle forever put an end to the wars of conquest of the Ottoman Empire on European soil, and Austria became the most powerful power in Central Europe.

In a large-scale battle, the Polish-Austrian-German troops under the command of Jan III Sobieski, King of Poland, won. The troops of the Ottoman Empire were commanded by Kara Mustafa, Grand Vizier of Mehmed IV.

The siege of Vienna by the Turks began on July 14, 1683, the size of the Ottoman army was approximately 90 thousand people. The siege itself was carried out by 12,000 Janissaries, and another 70,000 Turkish soldiers watched the surroundings. The decisive battle took place on September 11, when the combined forces of the Holy League with a total number of 84,450 people approached Vienna.

Holy League Forces: King Jan III Sobieski of Poland was commander-in-chief of the following forces:

26,000 soldiers of his own army (including several thousand Zaporozhian Cossacks, 25 hussar companies, 77 armored companies, 31 light cavalry companies, infantry, dragoons, 28 cannons and 250 artillerymen);

18,400 Austrians (of which 8,100 cavalrymen), 70 guns - under the command of Charles V, Duke of Lorraine;

20,000 Bavarian, Franconian and Swabian soldiers with 38 guns. Commander - Prince Georg-Friedrich of Waldeck;

9,000 Saxons (of which 7,000 infantry) with 16 cannons, led by the Elector of Saxony, Johann George III.

TOTAL: 84,450 men (of which 3,000 guarded the drummers and did not participate in the battle) and 152 guns.

The Battle of Vienna was a turning point in the three-century war of the states of Central Europe against the Ottoman Empire. Over the next 16 years, the Austrian troops went on a large-scale offensive and recaptured significant territories from the Turks - southern Hungary and Transylvania.

Prerequisites for the battle.

The Ottoman Empire has always sought to capture Vienna. A strategically important major city, Vienna controlled the Danube, which connected the Black Sea with Western Europe, as well as the trade routes from the Eastern Mediterranean to Germany. Before starting the second siege of the Austrian capital (the first siege was in 1529), the Ottoman Empire carefully prepared for war for several years. The Turks repaired roads and bridges leading to Austria and to the supply bases of their troops, to which they brought weapons, military equipment and artillery from all over the country.

In addition, the Ottoman Empire provided military support to the Hungarians and non-Catholic religious minorities living in the part of Hungary occupied by the Austrians. In this country, for many years, dissatisfaction with the anti-Protestant policy of the Emperor of Austria Leopold I of Habsburg, an ardent supporter of the Catholic Counter-Reformation, grew. As a result, this discontent resulted in an open uprising against Austria, and in 1681 the Protestants and other opponents of the Habsburgs allied themselves with the Turks. The Turks, on the other hand, recognized the leader of the rebellious Hungarians, Imre Tekeli, as the king of Upper Hungary (present-day eastern Slovakia and northeastern Hungary), which he had previously conquered from the Habsburgs. They even promised the Hungarians to create a "Kingdom of Vienna" especially for them, if they would help them capture the city.

In 1681-1682, clashes between the forces of Imre Tekeli and the Austrian government troops sharply increased. The latter invaded the central part of Hungary, which served as a pretext for war. Grand Vizier Kara Mustafa Pasha managed to convince Sultan Mehmed IV to allow an attack on Austria. The Sultan ordered the vizier to enter the northeastern part of Hungary and besiege two castles - Gyor and Komárom. In January 1682, the mobilization of Turkish troops began, and on August 6 of the same year, the Ottoman Empire declared war on Austria.

In those days, supply capabilities made any large-scale offensive extremely risky. In this case, after only three months of hostilities, the Turkish army would have to winter far from their homeland, in enemy territory. Therefore, during the 15 months that passed from the beginning of the mobilization of the Turks to their offensive, the Austrians intensively prepared for war, entered into alliances with other states of Central Europe, which played a decisive role in the defeat of the Turks. It was during this winter that Leopold I concluded an alliance with Poland. He undertook to help the Poles if the Turks besieged Krakow, and the Poles, in turn, undertook to help Austria if the Turks besieged Vienna.

On March 31, 1683, a note declaring war arrived at the Habsburg Imperial Court. She was sent by Kara Mustafa on behalf of Mehmed IV. The next day, the Turkish army set off from the city of Edirne on an aggressive campaign. In early May, Turkish troops arrived in Belgrade, and then went to Vienna. On July 7, 40,000 Tatars camped 40 kilometers east of the Austrian capital. There were half as many Austrians in that area. After the first skirmishes, Leopold I retreated to Linz with 80,000 refugees.

As a sign of support, the King of Poland arrived in Vienna in the summer of 1683, thus demonstrating his readiness to fulfill his obligations. For this, he even left his country undefended. To protect Poland from foreign invasion during his absence, he threatened Imre Tekeli to ravage his lands to the ground if he encroached on Polish soil.

Siege of Vienna.

The main Turkish forces arrived near Vienna on July 14. On the same day, Kara Mustafa sent an ultimatum to the city to surrender the city.

Count Ernst Rüdiger von Staremberg, commander of the remaining 11,000 soldiers and 5,000 militias and 370 cannons, flatly refused to capitulate. A few days earlier, he had received terrible news of a massacre in the city of Perchtoldsdorf, located south of Vienna. The authorities of this city accepted the surrender agreement, but the Turks treacherously violated it and committed a massacre.

The inhabitants of Vienna demolished many houses outside the city walls to leave the besiegers without cover. This made it possible to conduct heavy fire on the Turks, if they immediately went on the attack. In response, Kara Mustafa ordered to dig long trenches in the direction of the city in order to protect his soldiers from fire.

Although the Turks had excellent artillery of 300 guns, the fortifications of Vienna were very strong, built according to the latest fortification science of the time. Therefore, the Turks had to resort to mining the massive city walls.

The Turkish command had two options for taking the city: either rush with all their might to attack (which could well lead to victory, since there were almost 20 times more of them than the defenders of the city), or besiege the city. The Turks chose the second option.

It would seem that the Turks acted illogically, but the assault on a well-fortified city always costs the besiegers huge sacrifices. The siege was an excellent way to take the city with a minimum of losses, and the Turks almost succeeded. The only thing they didn't take into account was time. Their slowness in the capture of Vienna, the unhurried advance of the army deep into Austria that preceded this, led to the fact that the main forces of the Christians arrived in time.

The Turks cut off all the ways of supplying the besieged city with food. The garrison and the inhabitants of Vienna were in a desperate situation. Exhaustion and extreme fatigue became such acute problems that Count von Staremberg ordered the execution of anyone who fell asleep at his post. By the end of August, the forces of the besieged were almost completely exhausted, but just at that time, Duke Charles V of Lorraine defeated Imre Tekeli at Bisamberg, 5 km northeast of Vienna.

On September 6, the Polish army crossed the Danube near the city of Tulln, 30 km northwest of Vienna, and joined with the rest of the troops of the Holy League, whose actions had already been blessed by Pope Innocent XI. And only Louis XIV, the enemy of the Habsburgs, not only refused to help the allies, but also took advantage of the situation to attack southern Germany.

In early September, 5,000 experienced Turkish sappers blew up one after another significant sections of the city walls, the Burg bastion, the Löbel bastion and the Burg ravelin. As a result, gaps 12 meters wide were formed. The Austrians, on the other hand, tried to dig their tunnels to interfere with the Turkish sappers. But on September 8, the Turks nevertheless occupied the Burg ravelin and the Lower Wall. And then the besieged prepared to fight in the city itself.

Just before the battle.

Allied Christian forces had to act quickly. It was necessary to save the city from the Turks, otherwise the allies themselves would have to besiege captured Vienna. Despite the multinationality and heterogeneity of the allied forces, the allies established a clear command of the troops in just six days. The core of the troops was the Polish heavy cavalry under the command of the King of Poland. The fighting spirit of the soldiers was strong, for they went into battle not in the name of the interests of their kings, but in the name of the Christian faith. In addition, unlike the Crusades, the war was fought in the very heart of Europe.

Kara Mustafa, having so much time at his disposal to organize a successful confrontation with the forces of the allies, to raise the morale of his soldiers, failed to properly use this opportunity. He entrusted the protection of the rear to the Crimean Khan and his cavalry of 30,000-40,000 horsemen.

Khan, on the other hand, felt humiliated by the insulting treatment from the Turkish commander in chief. Therefore, he refused to attack the Polish troops on their way through the mountains. And not only the Tatars ignored the orders of Kara Mustafa.

In addition to the Tatars, the Turks could not rely on the Moldavians and Vlachs, who had good reasons not to like the Ottoman Empire. The Turks not only imposed a heavy tribute on Moldavia and Wallachia, but also constantly interfered in their affairs, removing local rulers and putting their puppets in their place. When the princes of Moldavia and Wallachia found out about the conquest plans of the Turkish sultan, they tried to warn the Habsburgs about it. They also tried to avoid participating in the war, but the Turks forced them. There are many legends about how Moldavian and Wallachian gunners loaded their cannons with straw cannonballs and fired them at the besieged Vienna.

Because of all these disagreements, the allied army managed to approach Vienna. The Duke of Lorraine, Charles V, gathered an army in the German territories, which received reinforcement due to the timely arrival of Sobieski's army. The siege of Vienna was in its eighth week when the army arrived on the north bank of the Danube. The troops of the Holy League arrived at Kahlenberg (Bald Mountain), which dominated the city, and signaled their arrival to the besieged with flares. At the military council, the allies came to the decision to cross the Danube 30 km upstream and advance on the city through the Vienna forests. In the early morning of September 12, just before the battle, a mass was celebrated for the Polish king and his knights.

Battle.

The battle began before all the Christian forces were deployed. At 4 o'clock in the morning, the Turks attacked to prevent the Allies from properly building up their forces. Charles of Lorraine and the Austrian troops counterattacked from the left flag, while the Germans attacked the center of the Turks.

Then Kara Mustafa, in turn, counterattacked, and left some of the elite Janissary units to storm the city. He wanted to capture Vienna before Sobieski arrived, but it was too late. Turkish sappers dug a tunnel for a full-scale undermining of the walls, and while they feverishly filled it up to increase the power of the explosion, the Austrians managed to dig an oncoming tunnel and neutralize the mine in time.

While the Turkish and Austrian sappers competed in speed, a fierce battle was going on above. The Polish cavalry dealt a powerful blow to the right flank of the Turks. The latter made the main bet not on the defeat of the allied armies, but on the urgent capture of the city. This is what ruined them.

After 12 hours of battle, the Poles continued to hold firmly on the right flank of the Turks. The Christian cavalry stood all day on the hills and watched the battle, in which so far mainly foot soldiers participated. At about 5 p.m., the cavalry, divided into four parts, went on the attack. One of these units consisted of Austro-German horsemen, and the other three were made up of Poles. 20,000 cavalrymen (one of the largest cavalry attacks in history) under the personal command of Jan Sobieski descended from the hills and broke through the ranks of the Turks, already very tired after a day of fighting on two fronts. The Christian horsemen struck directly at the Turkish camp, while the Vienna garrison ran out of the city and joined in the massacre of the Turks.

The Ottoman troops were not only physically exhausted, but also discouraged after their failed attempt to undermine the walls and break into the city. And the cavalry attack forced them to retreat south and east. Less than three hours after the charge of their cavalry, the Christians won a complete victory and saved Vienna.

After the battle, Jan Sobieski paraphrased the famous saying of Julius Caesar, saying: "Venimus, Vidimus, Deus vicit" - "We came, we saw, God conquered."

The consequences of the battle.

The Turks lost at least 15,000 men killed and wounded. Over 5,000 Muslims were taken prisoner. The Allies captured all the Ottoman cannons. At the same time, the losses of the allies amounted to 4,500 people. Although the Turks retreated in a terrible hurry, they still managed to kill all the Austrian prisoners, with the exception of a few nobles left alive with the expectation of getting a ransom for them.
The booty that fell into the hands of the Christians was enormous. A few days later, in a letter to his wife, Jan Sobieski wrote:

“We captured unheard-of riches… tents, sheep, cattle and a considerable number of camels… This is a victory that has never been equaled, the enemy has been completely destroyed and everything has been lost. They can only run for their lives… Commander Shtaremberg hugged and kissed me and called me his savior.”

This stormy expression of gratitude did not prevent Staremberg from ordering the restoration of the badly damaged fortifications of Vienna to begin immediately in case of a Turkish counterattack. However, this turned out to be redundant. The victory at Vienna marked the beginning of the reconquest of Hungary and (temporarily) some of the Balkan countries. In 1697, Austria signed the Peace of Karlowitz with the Ottoman Empire.

Long before that, the Turks dealt with the crushing defeat of Kara Mustafa. On December 25, 1683, Kara Mustafa Pasha, on the orders of the commander of the Janissaries, was executed in Belgrade (strangled with a silk cord, for each end of which several people were pulled).

Historical meaning.

Although at that time no one knew this yet, the battle of Vienna predetermined the course of the entire war. The Turks fought unsuccessfully for the next 16 years, losing Hungary and Transylvania, until they finally admitted defeat. The war was brought to an end by the Peace of Karlowitz.

The policy of Louis XIV predetermined the course of history for centuries to come: the German-speaking countries were forced to wage wars simultaneously on both the Western and Eastern fronts. While the German troops fought as part of the Holy League, Louis took advantage of this by conquering Luxembourg, Alsace and Strasbourg, devastated vast territories in southern Germany. And Austria could not give the Germans any support in their war with France while the war with the Turks was going on.

In honor of Jan Sobieski, the Austrians built a church on the top of the Kahlenberg hill, north of Vienna. The Vienna-Warsaw railway line is also named after Sobieski. The constellation Shield of Sobieski was also named after him. Since Sobieski entrusted his kingdom to the intercession of the Virgin Mary of Czestochowa, Pope Innocent XI decided to celebrate the feast of the Holy Name of Mary not only in Spain and the Kingdom of Naples, but throughout the Church. This holiday is celebrated on September 12th.

The Polish-Austrian friendship did not last long after this victory, as Charles V of Lorraine began to belittle the role of Jan III Sobieski and the Polish army in the battle. Neither Sobieski himself, nor the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth gained anything significant from saving Austria. On the contrary, the Battle of Vienna marked the birth of the future Austrian Empire (1804-1867) and the fall of the Commonwealth. In 1772 and 1795, the Habsburgs took part in the first and third sections of the Commonwealth, as a result of which this state disappeared from the political map of Europe.

religious significance.

In memory of the victory over the Muslims in the liturgical calendar of the Roman Catholic Church, September 12 is the feast of the Holy Name of Mary. Before the battle, King Jan Sobieski entrusted Poland to the intercession of the Virgin Mary of Czestochowa. After the battle, Innocent XI declared this day a holiday for the entire Catholic Church.

From the metal of captured guns won in the battle, in 1711, the Pummerin bell was cast for St. Stephen's Cathedral.

So Europe once again avoided invasion from the east. Although ... will it be important for future generations?

http://alternathistory.org.ua/

Jozef Brandt "Return from Vienna"

Europe, despite the emphasized, but for the most part all the same feigned desire, could not rally its forces to counteract Ottoman aggression. Having emerged in the depths of Asia Minor, the new center of power soon began to grow, its power and, accordingly, its capabilities steadily increased. Soon, the young and, moreover, rapidly growing state became crowded in those parts where it originated - the Turks crossed the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles. Dilapidated and turned into a small enclave by the middle of the 15th century, the Byzantine Empire was mercilessly crushed by the Ottoman military machine. Before the newcomers from Asia, Europe was spread, traditionally torn apart by internal contradictions, to which religious ones would soon be added. Most of all, the new threat, which without much tension bit the metropolis of that period, Constantinople, worried, of course, its closest neighbors: Hungary and Venice and Genoa, which had considerable commercial interest wherever they could reach. And only later, when it became completely clear that the Turks would not be content with the Balkans alone, the need to make some decisions that went beyond the usual shaking of the air arose before other monarchs.

At the beginning of the 16th century, when the Turkish scimitar began to sink deeper and deeper into the body of Europe, the Habsburgs were already gaining power there. As a result of successfully concluded dynastic alliances, Charles V sat on the united throne of Austria and Spain. While the Turks were saving up forces for a new throw to the north, in Italy, the French king Francis I fought for control of this area with the Spaniards and Austrians - this rivalry ended in the Battle of Pavia and the capture of the French monarch. In its desire to resist the Habsburgs at all costs, France began to seek an alliance with the Ottoman Empire. And this agreement, signed by Suleiman the Magnificent and later ratified by Francis I, lasted, one way or another, until the Napoleonic invasion of Egypt.

The beginning of the reign of Suleiman the Magnificent was met with some enthusiasm - the Sultan was known as an educated ruler. The fact that his father, Selim the Terrible, became Caliph, the actual ruler of the entire Muslim world, escaped the close attention of observers of the then East, and, of course, this title passed to his son. Istanbul now had the resources of the entire Islamic world at its disposal: from the Moroccan deserts in the west to the Persian Gulf in the east. Despite all his education and sophistication, Suleiman loved and knew how to fight. In Europe, he dealt a crushing blow to Hungary, defeating the army of the Hungarian king Lajos II in 1526 at Mohacs.

The conflict with Persia distracted the Turkish ruler from expansion to the west, but not for long. The capture and plunder of Buda and Mohacs secured the Balkan possessions of the Turks from the Hungarian threat - now it was necessary to take the next step and go further: take Vienna in order to purposefully strengthen in Hungary. In the spring of 1529, Suleiman left Istanbul at the head of a huge army. The calculation was that, faithful to his allied duty, Francis, who had recently been released from captivity, would again invade Italy, holding down the forces of Charles V, while the Turkish army would victoriously capture Vienna, as it had taken Constantinople 76 years before.

The emperor's brother, Archduke Ferdinand of Austria, had to rely only on his own strength. The city was not ready for defense, and measures to strengthen it were carried out in incredible haste. Fortunately for the besieged, the defense of the city was led by the then 70-year-old German mercenary Count Nikolaus zu Salm-Reifferscheidt, a veteran of many wars, a participant in the Battle of Pavia, who personally wounded King Francis in the hand and himself was wounded by the French monarch. The experience and talent of the old warrior, combined with an unusually rainy summer in Europe, made significant adjustments to the military plans of Suleiman the Magnificent. Numerous Turkish siege weapons were left far behind due to the impenetrable mud - the Turks had to rely on the construction of tunnels. However, the successes in the mine war turned out to be noticeably less than expected - warned of enemy underground work by a defector, the Vienna garrison was on the alert. Several successful explosions were neutralized by the erection of palisades and blockages on the site of breaches.

Unsuccessful attacks, continued rains and the beginning of a shortage of provisions in the huge army of the Sultan caused grumbling in its ranks. Moreover, even the elite parts of the Janissaries expressed dissatisfaction. After the failure of the general assault on October 14, 1529, when the fighting enthusiasm of the Turks was stimulated not only by a very significant monetary reward, but also by whips, Suleiman the Magnificent turned off the siege and went to winter quarters. The expansion of the Turks in Europe had reached a point beyond which it could no longer cross. But in the abandoned huge Turkish camp, the winners found unusual brown beans. After some experiments, they managed to cook a stew acceptable for consumption. So one of the first acquaintances of Europeans with coffee took place.

Second try

Grand Vizier Kara Mustafa

The next time the army of the Ottoman Empire appeared under the walls of Vienna more than a century and a half later. Many events have taken place since that time both in the Brilliant Port itself and in Europe. no longer presented the Turks with such a great ruler as Suleiman the Magnificent was - the number and quality of accomplishments of his less talented descendants and successors steadily decreased, the country was shaken by rebellions of local rulers and undermined by the acquisitiveness and intrigues of the Sultan's entourage. By the second half of the 17th century, the Ottoman Empire was already at the end of its military power and the swiftness of its foreign policy, but it was still quite strong and extensive. During this period of history, the name Koprulu meant a lot to Turkey. When in 1656 Köprülü Mehmed Pasha was appointed to the post of Grand Vizier, this served as the beginning of the rise of an entire dynasty: until the beginning of the 18th century. the post of grand vizier was occupied either by members of the Köprülü family or by their protégés.

Kara-Mustafa, who held the position of Grand Vizier on the eve of the campaign against Vienna, was just such a nominee. Little is known about his childhood years. As a child, Kara-Mustafa was adopted by the Grand Vizier Köprülü Mehmed Pasha, who contributed to the career of his adopted son in various government positions. In the 70s. In the 17th century, he participated in several military campaigns, but was not noted as a skilled commander. His half-brother was Koprulu Fazyl Ahmed, who in 1661 appointed Kara-Mustafa as his deputy. In 1676, Kara-Mustafa himself became the grand vizier - he proved himself to be a successful administrator in the affairs of the empire, which allowed Sultan Mehmed IV to completely rely on him.

The scope of the grand vizier's power was impressive, and dependence on the sultan increasingly conditional. In order to finally strengthen his greatness and, perhaps, to demand some new privileges for himself, Kara-Mustafa now expected to achieve success in the military field as well. The most suitable combination, promising an incalculable number of political dividends, was the capture of Vienna - an achievement that was beyond Suleiman the Magnificent himself. The political situation, at first glance, seemed to be conducive to a military operation - the situation in imperial Hungary (part of this country at that time was under the rule of Turkey, and the other belonged to the Holy Roman Empire) was tense.

The reason for this was the religious animosity between Catholics and Protestants. The counter-reformation was especially severe during the reign of the then emperor Leopold I. The struggle of the Catholic Church against Hungarian Calvinism and the attitude towards Hungary itself as another conquered province caused an increase in discontent among the Hungarian nobility. The leader of the Protestant party, the nobleman, Calvinist Imre Thököly, entered into open confrontation with the Habsburgs. The Protestants were impressed by the religious tolerance of the Turks, and Thököly sent his envoys to Istanbul to agree on the coordination of actions against Leopold I in exchange for vassalage and recognition of him as the formal king of Hungary. The parties quickly came to a mutually beneficial agreement. In 1682, a fourteen-point agreement was signed with Thököly, in which he was already officially recognized as a vassal of the Ottoman Empire.

For the grand vizier, the opposing Hungarian leader was a tool for embodying his own plans, and therefore, when ambassadors arrived from the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire in order to extend the Vasvar peace treaty concluded in 1664, whose term expired in 1684, they got rid of them with a polite and ornate refusal . This initiative was also warmly approved by the French envoy to the Ottoman court, since Louis XIV had his own ideas about the Habsburgs. The Sultan, perhaps, did not want to “play for a raise” so swiftly and clearly, but the all-powerful Kara-Mustafa was able to convince him that the process was under complete control and the matter, in general, was already in the turban. The convincing arguments of the Grand Vizier were also given by the ardent confidence of the commander of the Janissary corps, Tekirdajli Bekri Mustafa Pasha, in vivid colors describing the readiness of his people to fight.

Mehmed IV still hesitated, because there was no formal reason for starting a war against the Habsburgs. But the Grand Vizier needed the war. To speed up the process, he spreads rumors about the growing tension on the Hungarian border, and, just in case, puts the Habsburg envoy, who is ready to agree to very many conditions for the sake of maintaining peace, under house arrest, just in case. The conflict is ripe. The large Ottoman army, which began to concentrate in the autumn of 1682 and wintered in Adrianople (Edirne), was already ready for the campaign in the spring. On March 30, 1683, the Turks marched north.

To the north

By May 3, 1683, the Turkish army, together with Sultan Mehmed IV, reached Belgrade. Her movement, like the army of Suleiman, was accompanied by rains, although not as intense. Nevertheless, technical and organizational difficulties arose - a lot of trouble was caused by the crossing of the beloved wife of the Sultan Rabiya Gulnush Emetullah, along with 80 wagons in which the harem traveled, across the bridge over the river near Plovdiv. In the meantime, Thököly's forces joined the Danube with the expeditionary army of another Turkish vassal, the Crimean Khan, and arrived at the headquarters of the Ottoman army. The Sultan, after a little reflection, did not want to go further and had already officially transferred command of all the combined forces to the Grand Vizier. At a military council that took place soon, it was announced that the initial task of the Sultan's troops was to capture the powerful enemy fortress of Gyor and after that - the siege and assault on Vienna.

The Habsburg Empire was by that time far from being in the best shape. Leopold I himself at first behaved completely indecisively, not fully believing in the possibility of a Turkish invasion - the first part of the winter of 1682-1683. was spent thinking about your own possibilities, calculating these possibilities and neutralizing a panic attack after reading the results. The Habsburg army was in a deplorable state: in the entire empire there were only 17 thousand cavalry and a little more than 40 thousand infantry, some of very mediocre quality. The most moderate and balanced conclusion of the imperial generals about the necessary size of the army was 80,000 infantry and more than 20,000 cavalry, which were still unattainable. An even sadder picture was captured by the state of the imperial treasury and the defense capability of the fortresses. The money content was not even enough to provide gunpowder in the right quantities.

And yet the remaining time was spent on various diplomatic agreements, primarily with the Polish king Jan III Sobieski, who had his own accounts for the Turks - in the recent war with the Ottoman Empire, the Poles were forced to cede Podolia to her. Traditional military support was also provided by large German state formations that were part of the Holy Roman Empire: Bavaria, Saxony, Swabia and others. With regard to the plan of action to repel the Turkish invasion, there was also no consensus. The more cautious party of Margrave Hermann of Baden-Baden proposed limiting ourselves to the stubborn defense of Gyor, covering the path to Vienna, and then - according to circumstances. Another imperial commander, Duke Charles of Lorraine, advocated the occupation of the Hungarian fortresses of Esztergom and Neuhäusel, which belonged to the Turks, before the arrival of the main forces of the Turkish army - these actions were, in the opinion of the duke, to strengthen the reputation of the imperial troops and force the Turks to retreat. In addition, such an action could encourage the Polish king Jan Sobieski to actively support the Habsburgs. At the military council on May 9, Leopold I approved the defensive plan of Hermann of Baden-Baden, but spoke favorably about the initiative of Charles of Lorraine. The duke was allowed to occupy the fortresses of Esztergom and Neuhäusel.

In early June 1683, the Turkish army reached Osijek, after which it continued to move north. The high pace of enemy movement forced Charles of Lorraine to change his plans: he decided not to attack with Eszterg, but to capture the less important and therefore weaker fortified Neuhusel fortress, which was closer. Initially, its siege was very successful for the imperials, but on June 8, Leopold I ordered the siege to be curtailed. Having learned from the scouts that Kara-Mustafa was approaching Gyor, Charles of Lorraine advanced with his compact army (12.5 thousand infantry and 9.5 thousand cavalry). According to the most conservative estimates, the Ottoman army numbered from 90 to 100 thousand people.

In an effort to prevent the Turks from breaking through deep into the empire, the duke took up positions at the fords across the Raba River, having Gyor on his left flank. On June 28, the smoke of numerous conflagrations showed that the enemy was already close - the Crimean Tatars were moving in the forefront of the Turkish army, so that traces of their activities could already be observed with the naked eye. The emperor bombarded the duke with various instructions, often contradicting each other. According to them, Charles of Lorraine had to cover the fords and help defend Gyor, and at the same time cover the road to Vienna.

However, now the correction of the campaign plan has already occurred among the Turks. In the camp near Gyor, Kara-Mustafa gathered a military council, at which he expressed the idea not to waste time and resources on the siege of the fortress, but to immediately go to Vienna. Such a proposal did not fit in with the clear instructions of the Sultan, who, despite the all-encompassing confidence in his Grand Vizier, nevertheless expressed a desire to seize Gyor. But Mehmed IV was at a great distance from the scene and could not influence the decision of the vizier in any way. Turning the siege, the Ottoman army went straight to Vienna - in the current situation, this seemed the right decision, given the confusion in the high command of the Holy Roman Empire, where intrigues, bureaucracy and schemes were comparable only to the atmosphere of the residence of the Pope. Seeing that the Turks had lost interest in Gyor, and in order not to be surrounded, Charles of Lorraine was forced to retreat. And in Vienna, where the news of the approach of the Turks was greeted with surprise, quickly replaced by shock, and, finally, horror, panic began quite predictably.

under the walls

Count Ernst von Staremberg, Commander of the Defense of Vienna

At first, the situation in Vienna was relatively calm. But in the spring, refugees began to flock there, telling about the frightening details of the inexorable advance of the Turkish army towards the capital. The usual tension in the front-line city began to increase and be fueled by rumors, speculation and the rich popular imagination. When it became known that the enemy was not stuck at Gyor, but was only a few passages away, signs of unrest began to appear. The exodus began from the imperial capital: on July 7, Leopold I left with his family and the treasury and state treasures prudently taken on the road. The head of the empire ordered the few troops remaining in Vienna to fight to the last opportunity - at that time there were no more than 2 thousand soldiers in the garrison. Following the head of state, between 60,000 and 80,000 residents left the city, heading towards Linz in an unstoppable stream. Tatar patrols were already operating with might and main along the roads.

However, not all citizens chose the path of escape. A part of the inhabitants and refugees remained in the city, who, after wandering, well understood the price of strong stone walls. Mayor of Vienna Johann von Liebenberg mobilized volunteers to build fortifications and bring the city to a defensive state. On July 8, the retreating army of Charles of Lorraine entered Vienna, which reinforced the garrison of the capital with 12 thousand soldiers under the command of the most experienced commander, Count Ernst von Staremberg. His call to provide all possible assistance to the defense of the city was heard by almost everyone - with rare unanimity. On July 12, Charles of Lorraine retreated from the city to the north across the Danube. He planned to link up with the troops advancing towards Vienna. On the same day, Staremberg, who is now commander of the defense, ordered the destruction of the outskirts of the city in order to deprive the Turks of hiding places. On July 13, the vanguard of the Turkish army was already 15 km away, in the village of Shwehat. Not doubting the success of the enterprise, Kara-Mustafa was right there. For the first time since 1529, the soldiers of the Ottoman Porte saw the walls of the capital of the Habsburg Empire.

Siege

The Turkish army quickly took up positions around Vienna and began siege work. Before the cannons were involved, the grand vizier sent truce envoys to offer surrender and security guarantees if agreed. The traditional demand was followed by an equally traditional refusal, and already on July 14 the Turks fired the first shelling of the city. Ottoman engineers and siege specialists, having examined the fortifications of Vienna, informed Kara Mustafa that the siege would not be easy - the enemy capital was well defended. The defensive structures occupied a space 100 meters from the walls of the city and included gun bastions, a deep ditch and other engineering obstacles. It was decided to direct the main efforts to deep digging and undermining the imperial fortifications, artillery was ordered to shell the city, around which Turkish irregulars and allied troops raged, plundering and ruining everything that came across their eyes.

Kara-Mustafa chose Neugeboide Castle, the country residence of Leopold I, as his headquarters. It was believed that in this place back in 1529 there was a tent of Suleiman the Magnificent himself. A huge Turkish army was located in a semicircle near the besieged city, resting the ends of a kind of crescent on the Danube. The construction of siege fortifications began, trenches were laid, which gradually led directly to the positions of the Austrians. The bombardment of the city gradually increased and on July 22, 1683 became the most intense, which could indicate an imminent assault attempt.

On July 23, the first two mines were blown up by the Turks, but the calculations turned out to be incorrect, and the damage caused was insignificant. On Sunday, July 25, an even more powerful charge was blown up, laid under the Löbel bastion, but the besiegers again faced failure - only a small section of the parapet collapsed. In the following days, the Turks continued their sapper activities, setting off more and more mines. On August 12, two very strong explosions were heard, paving the way for the enemy directly to the Palace Ravelin. The attack of the Turkish infantry was repelled with great effort, but the ravelin itself lost the ability to be used as a firing position.

After the enemy army actually reached the walls of the city, slowly but steadily grinding its fortifications, the garrison undertook several sorties. At first, Shtaremberg's subordinates were lucky, and they managed to pretty much beat up the Turkish carts, but the next sortie ended in falling into a carefully prepared ambush and turned into heavy losses. After this incident, it was decided to focus on the defense of the city. In early September, with massive attacks, the Turks finally managed to heavily destroy the Lobel bastion and the Palace Ravelin and wedge into the defenses of Vienna. Its garrison now numbered no more than 4-5 thousand soldiers and militias, already exhausted, but determined to fight. The fate of prisoners in the wars with the Ottoman Empire was well known. Count Staremberg, as an experienced military leader who at one time fought under the banner of Raimondo Montecuccoli, the author of the famous Notes, was aware that Vienna could not be held without outside help and its fall would become a fait accompli in the coming weeks. However, unlike the defenders of another capital, Constantinople, left to their fate, who relied only on a miracle and the Venetian fleet, which did not come, the Viennese had something to hope for.

Kings to the Rescue

Polish King Jan III Sobieski

While the subjects of the Turkish Sultan dug the pliable soil of Austria, Duke Charles of Lorraine with a small army was not far from Vienna, trying with varying degrees of success to influence enemy communications. In the end, the Turks managed to beat the duke's sabotage army and force it to retreat deep into the territory. Charles understood that with his small forces - just over 10 thousand people, mostly cavalry - he would not be able to provide significant assistance to the capital. Therefore, at the end of July, he began to intensively send messengers to Passau, to Bavaria, where Leopold I was now quartered, to the Polish king Jan Sobieski and to Johann George III, Elector of Saxony, with desperate requests to finally gather a deblocking army and come to the aid of besieged Vienna .

It was not easy in Europe to counter the threat from the east together. It was much more interesting and exciting to arrange armed trials due to dynastic, economic or political disagreements, when the blades of the disputers were bared, the ink was barely dry under the next contract that no one was going to fulfill, or a contested will. Fighting the Turks was troublesome, dangerous, and also expensive. The last time the Holy League was created (and that was back in 1571), only the energy, perseverance and diplomacy of the Pope prevented the Christian army from killing each other before contact with the enemy. Now, in 1683, the situation was no better: the Ottomans were almost in the center of Europe, but few were eager to defend it. In the current situation, the Habsburgs had to rely only on the help of the weakened Commonwealth, skillfully playing on the political ambitions of its king Jan Sobieski.

Having suffered (according to the results of peace treaties with the Turks in 1672 and 1676) territorial losses and seeking revenge, the Polish state united in an uneasy alliance with the Habsburgs in the spring of 1683. On August 15, Jan Sobieski set out from Krakow, and by the end of the month his army was already in the Holbrun area northeast of Vienna. Soon, the forces of Charles of Lorraine joined it, and a little later, military contingents from Saxony, Bavaria and Franconia.

The dense Vienna Woods, located in the rear of the Turkish positions, was considered an impassable obstacle by the Ottoman command, and few pickets were placed near it. Charles of Lorraine had a different opinion on this matter. On September 10, with the help of hunter-guides, the Christian army made a quick march through the forest, and on the morning of September 11, an advance detachment of 60 musketeers, having killed a Turkish picket, climbed the high Kalenberg ridge, from which the besieged capital was visible. Kara-Mustafa was convinced for a long time that there was nowhere to wait for help to the besieged. However, a prisoner captured on September 8 reported unpleasant news: an 80,000-strong army with about 150 guns was approaching the Turkish camp. The Grand Vizier did not want to hear about the lifting of the siege - his career, and indeed his life, was at stake. His first action against the threat that arose was the removal of 60 guns and 6 thousand infantry from positions and their placement against the expected enemy. Soon another 22-23 thousand cavalry were added to them. Since the area between the Kahlenberg Ridge and the Turkish camp was full of ravines, dense shrubs and other natural obstacles, Kara Mustafa decided that the measures he had taken were sufficient. Both armies settled down for the night in sight of each other.

Attack of the Polish cavalry

On the morning of September 12, 1683, the Christian troops began to move. They descended in columns from the hill to the Turkish positions. The general command was carried out by Jan III Sobieski. On the left flank were the imperial troops (18 thousand), in the center - the German contingents (32 thousand). The Poles (27,000), who deployed and put themselves in order longer than others, were located on the hills of the right flank. The battle immediately became fierce: the allies advanced in dense masses, widely using musket fire and bristling with pikes. Numerous field guns were rolled across the plain by hand, stopping them at the firing lines. The Turks constantly counterattacked, but these efforts, undertaken in a hurry and without any order, brought them only heavy losses.

A few Poles who had been delayed appeared on the battlefield around noon, when the situation was already favorable for the Allies, but was not yet certain. Then Jan Sobieski led the best part of his army into the attack - the elite heavy cavalry of the winged hussars. The Polish king personally led his soldiers. The Turks had their own excellent heavy cavalry - the sipahs, but they could not stop the onslaught of the hussars, who burst into the Turkish camp on the shoulders of the fleeing enemy infantry. Kara-Mustafa, seeing that the situation was rapidly getting out of control, tried to organize a desperate counterattack - all his bodyguards and squires were killed, and the Grand Vizier himself was hardly persuaded to leave the battlefield. The Ottoman army fled, leaving their numerous possessions behind. At about 6 pm, having taken the treasury and personal banner, the commander-in-chief, the Grand Vizier, left his tent and joined the retreating army. The battle was over - the siege of Vienna was lifted. The Turks lost about 15 thousand killed and wounded, all artillery and most of the convoy. 5 thousand were captured. The Christian army lost 4-4.5 thousand killed and wounded.

Disagreements between the allies broke out the very next day. The main winner - Jan III Sobieski - dared to enter the city before his rightful emperor, Leopold I, who watched the battle from afar. The Germans soon also quarreled, and some of them returned home. The Turkish army, pursued by Charles of Lorraine, retreated in disorder towards Belgrade. The Turkish commander executed several of his commanders, blaming them for the failure, but at the end of December 1683 he himself was strangled by order of Mehmed IV, apparently not only because of a crushing defeat, but also out of fear of new strategic projects of an ambitious nobleman. The war of the Ottoman Empire against the coalition of European powers continued until 1699 and ended with the signing of the Peace of Karlovci. On the threshold was the XVIII century, in which the weakening Brilliant Port was waiting for a strong and stubborn enemy, new troubles and defeats.

ctrl Enter

Noticed osh s bku Highlight text and click Ctrl+Enter

Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
Holy Roman Empire
Saxony
Franconia
Bavaria
Swabia
Zaporozhye Cossacks Ottoman Empire
Crimean Khanate
Transylvania
Moldavian Principality
Wallachia Commanders Side forces Losses

Vienna battle took place on September 11, 1683, after the Ottoman Empire had besieged Vienna, the capital of Austria, for two months. The victory of the Christians in this battle put an end to the Ottoman Empire's wars of conquest on European soil forever, and Austria became the most powerful power in Central Europe.

The large-scale battle was won by the Polish-Austrian-German forces under the command of Jan III Sobieski, King of Poland. The troops of the Ottoman Empire were commanded by Kara Mustafa, Grand Vizier of Mehmed IV.

Forces of the Holy League (King of Poland Jan III Sobieski was commander in chief):

18,400 Austrians (of which 8,100 cavalrymen), 70 cannons under the command of Charles V, Duke of Lorraine;

20,000 Bavarian, Franconian and Swabian soldiers with 38 guns. Commander - Prince Georg-Friedrich of Waldeck;

9,000 Saxons (of which 7,000 infantry) with 16 cannons, led by Johann George III, Elector of Saxony.

TOTAL: 84,450 men (of which 3,000 guarded the drummers and did not participate in the battle) and 152 guns.

The Battle of Vienna was a turning point in the three-century war of the states of Central Europe against the Ottoman Empire. Over the next 16 years, Austrian troops launched a large-scale offensive and recaptured significant territories from the Turks - southern Hungary and Transylvania.

Prerequisites for the battle

The Ottoman Empire has always sought to capture Vienna. A strategically important major city, Vienna controlled the Danube, which connected the Black Sea with Western Europe, as well as trade routes from the Eastern Mediterranean to Germany. Before starting the second siege of the Austrian capital (the first siege was in 1529), the Ottoman Empire carefully prepared for war for several years. The Turks repaired roads and bridges leading to Austria and to the supply bases of their troops, to which they brought weapons, military equipment and artillery from all over the country.

In addition, the Ottoman Empire provided military support to the Hungarians and non-Catholic religious minorities living in the part of Hungary occupied by the Austrians. Dissatisfaction with the anti-Protestant policies of Emperor Leopold I of Habsburg of Austria, an ardent supporter of the Catholic Counter-Reformation, grew over the years in this country. As a result, this discontent resulted in an open uprising against Austria, and in 1681 the Protestants and other opponents of the Habsburgs allied themselves with the Turks. The Turks, on the other hand, recognized the leader of the rebellious Hungarians, Imre Tekeli, as the king of Upper Hungary (present-day eastern Slovakia and northeastern Hungary), which he had previously conquered from the Habsburgs. They even promised the Hungarians to create a "Kingdom of Vienna" especially for them, if they would help them capture the city.

In those days, supply capabilities made any large-scale offensive extremely risky. In this case, after only three months of hostilities, the Turkish army would have to winter far from their homeland, in enemy territory. Therefore, during the 15 months that passed from the beginning of the mobilization of the Turks to their offensive, the Austrians intensively prepared for war, entered into alliances with other states of Central Europe, which played a decisive role in the defeat of the Turks. It was during this winter that Leopold I made an alliance with Poland. He pledged to help the Poles if the Turks laid siege to Krakow, and the Poles in turn pledged to help Austria if the Turks laid siege to Vienna.

Siege of Vienna

The main Turkish forces arrived near Vienna on July 14. On the same day, Kara Mustafa sent an ultimatum to the city to surrender the city.

Turkish sipahis from the Battle of Vienna

On September 6, the Polish army crossed the Danube near the city of Tulln, 30 km northwest of Vienna, and joined with the rest of the troops of the Holy League, whose actions had already been blessed by Pope Innocent XI by that time. And only Louis XIV, the enemy of the Habsburgs, not only refused to help the allies, but also took advantage of the situation to attack southern Germany.

In early September, 5,000 experienced Turkish sappers blew up one after another significant sections of the city walls: the Burg bastion, the Löbel bastion and the Burg ravelin. As a result, gaps 12 meters wide were formed. The Austrians, on the other hand, tried to dig their tunnels to interfere with the Turkish sappers. But on September 8, the Turks nevertheless occupied the Burg ravelin and the Lower Wall. And then the besieged prepared to fight in the city itself.

Just before the battle

In addition to the Tatars, the Turks could not rely on the Moldavians and Vlachs, who had good reasons not to like the Ottoman Empire. The Turks not only imposed a heavy tribute on Moldavia and Wallachia, but also constantly interfered in their affairs, removing local rulers and putting their puppets in their place. When the princes of Moldavia and Wallachia found out about the conquest plans of the Turkish Sultan, they tried to warn the Habsburgs about this. They also tried to avoid participating in the war, but the Turks forced them. There are many legends about how Moldavian and Wallachian gunners loaded their cannons with straw cannonballs and fired them at the besieged Vienna.

Because of all these disagreements, the allied army managed to approach Vienna. The Duke of Lorraine, Charles V, gathered an army in the German territories, which received reinforcement due to the timely arrival of Sobieski's army. The siege of Vienna was in its eighth week when the army arrived on the north bank of the Danube. The troops of the Holy League arrived at Kahlenberg (Bald Mountain), which dominated the city, and signaled their arrival to the besieged with flares. At the military council, the allies came to the decision to cross the Danube 30 km upstream and advance on the city through the Vienna forests. In the early morning of September 12, just before the battle, Mass was celebrated for the Polish king and his knights.

Battle

Then Kara Mustafa, in turn, counterattacked, and left some of the elite Janissary units to storm the city. He wanted to capture Vienna before Sobieski arrived, but it was too late. Turkish sappers dug a tunnel for a full-scale undermining of the walls, and while they were feverishly filling it up to increase the power of the explosion, the Austrians managed to dig an oncoming tunnel and neutralize the mine in time.

battle of vienna (by Josef Brandt)

After the battle, Jan Sobieski paraphrased Julius Caesar's famous dictum by saying "Venimus, Vidimus, Deus vicit" - "We came, we saw, God conquered".

Aftermath of the battle

Return from Vienna (by Josef Brandt). The Polish-Lithuanian army returns home with rich booty

The booty that fell into the hands of the Christians was enormous. A few days later, in a letter to his wife, Jan Sobieski wrote:

“We captured unheard-of riches… tents, sheep, cattle and a considerable number of camels… This is a victory that has never been equaled, the enemy has been completely destroyed and everything has been lost. They can only run for their lives… Commander Shtaremberg hugged and kissed me and called me his savior.”

This stormy expression of gratitude did not prevent Staremberg from ordering the restoration of the badly damaged fortifications of Vienna to begin immediately - in case of a Turkish counterattack. However, this turned out to be redundant. The victory at Vienna marked the beginning of the reconquest of Hungary and (temporarily) some of the Balkan countries. In 1697, Austria signed the Peace of Karlowitz with the Ottoman Empire.

Historical meaning

I was surprised to see that the Ottoman Empire used camels in unfavorable European terrain, where camels were completely unsuitable for operations.

The wiki article confirms the use of camels in the campaign:

Many large-caliber guns and artillery pieces were hopelessly mired or bogged down, leaving Suleiman no choice but to leave them, in while camels brought from the eastern provinces of the empire those not accustomed to difficult conditions were lost in large numbers. Sickness and ill health became common among the Janissaries, claiming many lives on the perilous journey.

Thus, not only does this prove that camels were indeed used in the campaign, but the results were disastrous.

So I thought maybe the Ottomans learned from this campaign. But I was surprised to see that camels were used again in the 1683 Siege of Vienna.

This is attested by the testimony of the Polish King John Sobieski after the battle:

Our treasures are unheard of. , tents, sheep, cattle and a lot of camels. , this is a victory that no one has ever known, the enemy is now completely destroyed, everything is lost for them. They must run for their pure life. , General Starhemberg hugged me, kissed me and called me his savior

This is also evidenced by archaeological finds of the remains of camels from the 17th century in Vienna.

Why did the Ottomans again use camels when they proved unsuitable for European theaters (in terms of both climate and terrain) in their first attempt to capture Vienna?

I can think of the following explanations:

I mistakenly evaluate the effectiveness of camels in one campaign. They could be effective in normal mode, which led the Ottoman Empire to lean on them.
The Ottomans did not have other or insufficient alternative draft animals to replace camels, or perhaps they preferred alternatives such as horses for use by their cavalry.
The Ottomans simply did not learn any of the lessons from the 1529 campaign.

Stephen Burnup

We tend to compress time by looking into the past. It is easy to imagine that medieval civilization did not remember the lessons of 150 years of the past. I suspect that the combination of your (1) and (2) is correct.

Alex

Indeed, you are using what you have. Hannibal attacked Rome with elephants, most of which died in the process of crossing the Alps.

Alex

It is not clear whether the Ottomans studied Livy or Polybius when planning their conquest of Vienna.

Answers

Lars Bostin

SHORT ANSWER

The Ottomans used camels because they have several advantages over horses. Among other things, they can carry more horses and adapt well to different climates (even cold ones) and terrain, and are thus ideal for carrying the large quantities of supplies needed by the Ottoman armies.

DETAILED ANSWER

Camels were used in large numbers by the Ottomans for a number of very good reasons. The failures of 1529 and 1683 in Vienna were due mainly to insufficient firepower to break through the walls of Vienna rather than using camels. In this respect the campaign of 1683 did repeat the error of 1529.

One hundred and fifty-four years have passed since the first siege of Vienna in 1529. The Turks then did not have heavy guns, and it is strange to note that they did not have them in 1683 either.

Source: Stephen Turnbull, The Ottoman Empire 1326-1699

The 1529 campaign was also hampered by unusually wet weather, which meant most of the heavy artillery was left behind. While camels would prefer a warmer and drier climate

they thrive in temperature ranges from 20 degrees F (minus 29 degrees C) to 120 degrees F (49 degrees C) .

Reports from the US Army experiment with camel corps before the Civil War further confirm the benefits of using camels in a variety of settings. U.S. Army Serviceman George H. Crosman noted that

Their feet are equally well suited for crossing grassy or sandy plains or rough rocky hills and paths, and they don't require a horseshoe...

Camels, as noted by Donald Quatar in "Ottoman Empire 1700 - 1922", used by the Ottomans mainly for transport.

Horses dominated the Balkan transport routes, while camels tended to dominate the Arab and Anatolian lands. There were exceptions to this general rule. The Ottoman armies used huge numbers of camels to transport goods across the Danube basin.

While horses run faster for short distances, camels are tougher, more durable and can carry much heavier loads. Quataert continues thus:

Outperforming all other draft animals, a camel could carry a quarter ton of cargo for at least 25 kilometers a day, 20 percent more weight than horses and mules, and three times as much as donkeys. Mules, donkeys and horses, however, were often preferred for shorter journeys....because of their greater speed.

There is some controversy about how much more weight a horse can carry than camels, like Khalil Inalchik, in "Economic and social history of the Ottoman Empire, volume 1", says they had double the capacity. Perhaps the difference is due to the size of the animal, but there is no doubt that camels can carry more, even when compared to mules, as the US Army Camel Corps discovered in 1856:

It took nearly five days to get back to camp in mule-carts, each carrying 1,800 pounds of oats. The six camels carried 3,648 pounds of oats and made the trip in two days, demonstrating both their carrying capacity and speed. Several other tests served to confirm the transport ability of camels and their superiority over horses and mules.

Returning to the Ottomans, Inalchik, referring to why camels were so valuable to the Ottoman army, states that:

The camel was used to transport all kinds of heavy equipment such as weapons, ammunition and food for the army... The Ottoman army was able to move from the Euphrates to the Danube in one season with all their heavy equipment and arms. Without the camel, transport costs would have been exorbitant to transport wheat, flour and barley to supply the army ...

Although the Ottomans primarily used camels for transportation, they could also be effective against mounted cavalry as they more intelligent than horses and less prone to panic in difficult situations. In addition, horses do not like the unfamiliar smell of camels and are easily frightened.

If a horse is not familiar with something, it is more likely to be frightened than a camel.

Peter Geerkens

I suppose this is much easier than put forward in the other answers - everyone uses the monsters they have.

Here is the Ottoman Empire a few decades before the siege of Vienna:
It obviously contains vast areas that prefer camels to horses (mainly Arabia, Egypt and Libya), as well as territories that prefer horses to camels (mostly everything north of Anatolia), and areas with a slight slope (Greater Syria and Mesopotamia) .).

When planning a campaign, once all the troops ideal for the conditions of the campaign have been determined, it is necessary to assess whether these forces are sufficient. If not, additional troops must be defined that are (as little as possible) less than ideal.

Please note that it is not a trivial problem to convert camel transport and mounted troops to use horses. The tack is very variable and the horses are usually 4 or 5 years old before they are fit for a hard campaign. But even before the campaign horses themselves are obtained, there are enough breeding mares. For an army the size of the Grand Sultan's tribal legacy, it might take three or four generations to raise the required number of horses.

This is not the work of a season, a year or even a couple of years. Planning to re-equip a huge number of horse-drawn and mounted units will take a decade or even two. And after the campaign, all these units must be transferred back to camel transport. An estimate of the value of the conversion needs to be made at some point - it might be better to accept the lesser effectiveness of the camel-drawn and mounted troops and just take a few more of them.

KorvinStarmast

Remembering your answer, I remembered something the general once said to me, namely, "professionals in military logistics by necessity." He was an armored officer.

Peter Geerkens

@KorvinStarmast: Yes! MacArthur was a (sometimes) brilliant amateur, Eisenhower and Bradley's consummate professional.

J Asia

I think, that assumption is wrong: no historical evidence to support participation cavalry Ottoman camels .

A camel may have been used as a mode of transport, but as a combat unit there is no historical source to suggest that the Ottoman camel cavalry wide used in general or, in particular, the battle of Vienna in 1683 .

No camel cavalry at the Battle of Vienna 1683

Battle of Vienna (1683) - Letter from John III Sobieski

This quote ( in question) is a reference to spoils of war non-combat units. If it included the loot of combat units, it would have to have horses because the Ottoman military had mounted cavalry, i.e. sipahis(cavalrymen) :

Our treasures are unheard of. , tents, sheep, cattle and quite a few camels. ,

Since there was no reference to horses, I believe this reference to camels is probably a reference to the capture of animals (including camels) used in transport/logistics (i.e. camel caravans ), and not on combat units.

Ottoman military system

The Wikipedia entry has nothing to do with camels at all. armies of the Ottoman Empire .

Best source - "The Cambridge History of Turkey", volume 2 - The Ottoman Empire as a world power, 1453–1603 (Cambridge University Press, 2013), at pp. 284-6, where she covered cavalry in the Ottoman army :

Ground Forces: Mercenary Riders ( alti-boluk sipahileri)
Ground forces: Timar-holding sipahis

In the entire section of the Ottoman cavalry no mention of camel cavalry, only horses.

Explaining how a fully preserved camel skeleton was discovered on the Danube River in Tulln, Austria, (in 2015) concluded that he was probably replaced or abandoned by the Turks in Vienna after the 1683 battle. The important point is that archaeologists have been surprised by the discovery of the remains of camels. Thus, we can assume that camels were not used in the battle, i.e. E. There was no known camel cavalry at the Battle of Vienna in 1683 .

The discovery of a completely intact camel skeleton in a basement in Tulln, Austria, in 2006 archaeologists scratch their heads on how the desert animal ended up on the banks of the Danube . Nearly a decade later, a team of Austrian researchers said they think they have now put the puzzle together, as they reported last week in a study. PLOS ONE .
The story goes back to the two months that led to the epic Battle of Vienna in 1683, a turning point in the 300-year-old conflict between the Muslim Ottoman and Catholic Austrian empires. (Researchers have dated the camel using other artifacts buried with it—particularly coins and a bottle of medicine.) Before hundreds of thousands of Turkish soldiers besieged the city, they probably interacted with the locals on more friendly terms. Or at least the Turks impressed the people of Tulln with their four-legged rides .

In conclusion, I think this is beyond reason considering the images and quotes provided ( in question), and then concludes that the Ottomans made extensive use of camels as a combat unit in general and in battle. Vienna in particular.

NOTE. I used Volume 2 of The Cambridge History of Turkey though volume 3 covers the period (1683) because there was no special discussion in this third volume Ottoman military cavalry .

NSNoob

You wrote a full answer based on the assumption that somewhere I stated that camels were used as a fighting unit? Can you point out exactly where I said that? Don't you think you've gone beyond the mind? Did you basically write what everyone knows to disprove a claim that never happened?

NSNoob

Sorry, but I got -1 because of this. If you simpl ctrl + f, the only examples of "camel cavalry" are in your answer. Who replies that there was no camel cavalry here. While the Question never mentions camel cavalry, it does speak in general terms about camels, with an emphasis on their logistical role.

J Asia

I really thought you meant that because of titles « The Ottoman army uses a camel ... (and in question) ... used in the campaign, but also that the results were disastrous". Let's leave the answer as it is, if anyone should encounter? Don't worry about downvoting (so like anyway it wasn't a question).

NSNoob

I didn't want it to be perceived as using combat roles. The reason for the notice is that if you really consider improving the answer (i.e. adding information about why Camels would make an attractive option for the Ottoman military to use in the campaign), I would be more than happy to remove the DV and UV instead. Of course, the choice is yours, this is just to explain why I did what I did.

J Asia

@NSNoob - Obviously I misunderstood your question. Do not worry about that. Everything is fine.

The impression was that the sun now did not set over the lands of the Habsburgs. And what about the Turks? In Vienna, they seemed to have been completely forgotten. And it was a serious mistake. As a result, on September 27, 1529, the hidden threat became a reality: the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire Suleiman the Magnificent (1494–1566) laid siege to Vienna

Prior to this, in 1526, Suleiman sent his 100,000th army on a campaign against Hungary. On August 29, at the Battle of Mohacs, the Turks utterly defeated and almost completely destroyed the army of Lajos II, and the king himself, who fled from the battlefield, drowned in a swamp. Hungary was devastated, and the Turks took tens of thousands of its inhabitants into slavery.

After that, the southern part of Hungary fell under the rule of the Turks. However, Ferdinand I of Austria (1503–1564), the brother of King Charles V of Spain (they were the sons of Philip I and Juanna of Aragon), put forward his claims to the Hungarian throne, since his wife Anna was the sister of the deceased childless Lajos II. However, Ferdinand managed to achieve recognition only in the western part of Hungary, and in the north-east of the country he had a competitor - the ruler of Transylvania, Janos Zapolya, whom Suleiman the Magnificent recognized as the king of Hungary and his vassal.

Ferdinand I was also proclaimed king of Hungary and captured the capital of Hungary, Buda.

In 1527-1528, the Turks successively conquered Bosnia, Herzegovina and Slavonia, and then, under the slogan of protecting the rights of Janos Zapolya, the Sultan took Buda on September 8, 1529, driving the Austrians out of there, and in September laid siege to Vienna.

The number of troops of Suleiman the Magnificent was at least 120,000 people. In addition to the elite Janissary regiments, the Ottoman army also included Moldovan and Serbian units. Against them, Vienna had very little to offer in its defense - a small defense army and a city rampart of the 13th century, which, in fact, has never been reconstructed since that time.

The Viennese knew that the Turks would not spare them (they were convinced of this after the Austrian garrison of Buda was completely cut out). Ferdinand I urgently left for Bohemia and asked for help from his brother Charles V, but he was embroiled in a difficult war with France and could not provide serious support to Ferdinand. Nevertheless, Ferdinand still received several Spanish cavalry regiments from his brother.

Marshal Wilhelm von Roggendorff took charge of the city's defenses. He ordered all the city gates to be walled up and the walls to be reinforced, the thickness of which in some places did not exceed two meters. He also ordered earthen bastions to be built, demolishing any houses that interfered with construction.

When the Turkish army approached the walls of Vienna, nature itself seemed to come to the defense of the Austrians. Many rivers overflowed their banks, and the roads were washed out. The heavy siege weapons of the Turks got stuck in the mud and sank in the swamps. In addition, hundreds of camels died, on which the Turks carried ammunition, weapons and ammunition. Diseases were rampant among the troops, and many soldiers were unable to fight.

Nevertheless, the Turks offered to surrender the city without a fight. There was no answer to this proposal, which in itself was already an answer - a negative answer.

The siege began, and the Turkish artillery was never able to do any significant damage to the Austrian earthworks. Attempts to dig underground passages into the city or mine trenches also ended in complete failure. The besieged constantly made sorties and frustrated all the plans of the besiegers.

On October 11, a terrible downpour began. The Turks ran out of fodder for their horses, and the number of deserters grew sick and died from wounds and deprivation. Even the elite Janissaries were in a difficult situation.

On October 12, a council of war was convened, at which it was proposed to make a last attempt at an assault. However, this assault was repulsed, and on the night of October 14, the besieged suddenly heard terrible screams coming from the enemy camp - it was the Turks who massacred everyone
captive Christians before starting the retreat.

Jean de Car writes:

“On October 15, Suleiman's troops lifted the siege. It lasted eighteen days, which is not much, but still never before have warriors dressed in strange armor and light helmets with sultans barely covering their heads, and armed with long curved sabers, come so close to St. Stephen's Cathedral. The Viennese talked about this for a very long time.”

The departure of the Turks was perceived by the besieged as a miracle, and Vienna subsequently received the definition of "the strongest fortress of Christianity" (it was rebuilt as such immediately after the siege by erecting a new, even more powerful belt of fortifications).

In 1532, Suleiman the Magnificent undertook a new campaign, but the conquest of western Hungary took too much time for the Turks. Winter was already close, and it was already useless to try to capture Vienna again. The fact is that Charles V finally came to the rescue of his brother, putting up an 80,000-strong army against the Turks. In addition, the heroic defense of the border fortress of Kösög frustrated the plans of those who intended to lay siege to Vienna again. As a result, the Turks again had to retreat, but at the same time they ravaged Styria.

Nevertheless, the retreat of the troops of Suleiman the Magnificent did not mean their complete defeat. The Ottoman Empire retained control over southern Hungary. In addition, the Turks deliberately devastated the Austrian part of Hungary and large areas of Austria itself in order to weaken the resources of these lands and to make it more difficult for Ferdinand I to repel new attacks. At the same time, the Turks managed to create a buffer puppet Hungarian state, which was headed by the vassal of Suleiman the Magnificent, Janos Zapolya.

Nevertheless, the siege of Vienna, failed by the Turks, marked the end of the rapid expansion of the Ottoman Empire into Central Europe, although after that fierce clashes continued for another century and a half, reaching their climax in 1683, when the famous Battle of Vienna took place.

http://ah.milua.org/wien-part4-turkish-threat

total:0
In contact with 0
Google Plus 0
OK 0
Facebook 0