We've explored WW2 and Swedish history. Now, it's time to head to Poland! Donations not needed but will ensure your requests are fulfilled promptly paypal.me/HistoryBuff1978
.öhm first partition of Poland was 91 years later. And it was a thing between Prussia an Russia. Austrian Queen Maria Theresia originaly didn't what to take part. But Prussia an Russia decided without her. So it wa sonly the question if Austria gets some territories or all goes to the other two.
this is not the first such situation in the history of Poland... people wonder why Poles don't like strangers but stick together, because this is the only reason why this country still exists
Actually the king of Austria pretty much ignored the king of Poland and all thanks went to the Germans why the Winged Hussars did the heavy lifting. Allegedly king of Poland Jan III Sobieski have said in a conversation with his soldiers when they were returning: "Why did we even help them in the first place?"
It's easy to see how Tolkien probably knew the history of this battle very well, because it's a pretty similar take with the Battle of Helm's Deep (Bombs being used against the walls), as well as the battle outside Minas Tirith. Both have some serious Winged Hussars vibes. If the charge at Minas Tirith was 6000 as it was implied, you'd have to tripple the size of the cavalry charge there to get an idea of the size of The Battle of Vienna.
If you're interested in songs related to Poland (performed live) I highly recommend Sabaton's gig at Polish Woodstock Festival 2012 (now it's called Pol'and'rock) with around 700 000 people in the audience. The entire show is amazing, but 40:1 and Uprising really stand out! The atmosphere is absolutely remarkable!
The biggest weapon of the Winged Hussars were their horses. They were specially bred to carry heavy weight for long distances without tiring, and they could go from a normal travel pace to full gallop very quickly.
There was actually 150000 Ottomans at the battle, 170000 when the siege started. And there weren't 18000 winged Hussars, there was 15000 calvary from the Holy Roman Empire led by a vanguard of 3000 heavy calvary Winged Hussars. It was the biggest calvary charge in history. And one of the most significant battles in history, Vienna was the gateway to Europe from the Balkans, if the Ottomans took it they would have an opening to invade all of Europe. The Ottoman Empire slowly declined after this battle.
@@comradekadher2621 Well, when Mongols came to Europe there were no Hussars yet :) . Mongols invaded Poland in XIII century and Hussars were formed in XVI century - around 300 years of difference. Additionally in the end Poland did stop Mongols.
what i love about the seige of vienna is that king sobieski personally led the charge, riding into enemy forces like a battering ram, spears breaking, bodies crushed under hooves, theres something so empowering about the charge, and im not even polish
The Polish relief army was able to scale a mountain and place their artillery. They then charged down the mountain completely surprising the Ottoman army and routing it.
@@HistoryBuff They should add Kislev-Empire mixed faction, who is known from elite winged Cavalry. To Warhammer fantasy. As a Pole I puke seeing references to Poland on side lead by Catherine 🤮 And yes. Poland was way more closer to Western style of organization then hordes of East.
It wasnt just the winged hussars in the charge but all the mounted knights of the coalition. However the hussar formed the tip of the wedge the most dangerous part and the first to plunge into the enemys ranks
Actually "Army of Kings" is kinda accurate term. To be a Hussar You should be a damn rich in those times (Like to be a knight). Horses and the gear where not sponsored. You needed to be rich enough to be a Hussar. Ofcourse You could get that kind of riches by wars (If You've survived) but Hussars were creme de la creme.
When I first learned about this Calvary charge I did some kinda lazy math with how many horses and the space for them and it came out to something like 14football fields (2rows of 7). That would be one ungodly wall of horses to see running at you.
If I recall, the defenders on Vienna called out for both Holy Romian Empire and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth to help defend. And because it was such a short time, the king of Poland (Mind you the only elected king) chooses to get his forces ahead to help. That meant that when Holy Romian Empire did came, then the Winged Hussars petty much wrapped up the enemy forces. Holy League was something that first formed later between the European countries during the Great Turkish War. Petty much from 1684 Also, you should try to read on the tactics that Winged Hussars used during their time. One that I like the most is that they starting to charge at the enemy if petty much disorderly stage and slowly formed up to a thnner column just before they began to smash through the enemy lines. Also, the "wings" that they had was used I think to make some kind of sound which could make fear and disorder the enemy. Like the Jericho trumpets on the Stukas could do while they were diving
I‘m not quite sure what you’re trying to say. The armies of the various countries that provided troops for the relief army combined their troops a couple of days before the Battle of Vienna (circa 74.000 troops, of which roughly 24.000 were Polish). They then moved together the remaining distance to the battlefield. The terrain was rather hilly and forested, thus in the end the left wing and the center arrived on the battlefield prior to the right wing which consisted primarily out of the Polish infantry and cavalry. The Ottomans started to attack the relief army in the early morning, thus the left wing of the relief army clashed with the Ottoman right wing and also the center got involved. The Polish troops started to arrive in the afternoon, the Polish infantry joined the fight prior to the Polish cavalry. At the time of the famous cavalry charge the Ottoman right wing had been defeated and the central Ottoman position was under infantry attack from several sides. The cavalry charge (18.000 cavalry: circa 3.000 Winged Hussars, 9.000 other Polish and 6.000 HRE cavalry) was launched in the late afternoon to exploit the dire situation of the Ottomans.
The scenes are from the movie, "Battle of Vienna". The typical weapon loadout for a winged hussar would be his lance, sword, secondary weapon of sword or hammer and two pistols. You can see them firing their pistols at the end of the video.
At around 9:00 we see John III Sobieski, King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania, the leader who spearheaded the expedition others thought foolish, who stationed his artillery atop the "unclimbable" Tannenberg, then led the cavalry charge down a slope too steep for horses. Behind him we see a youthful figure, Prince James (Jakub), King John's eldest son, age 15. King John was "all in".
I remember reading somewhere that the feathers attached to the wings made a loud screaming sound when they were in full gallop. Kind of like those Japanese arrows.
I'd imagine if they did indeed use those feathered wings in battle they'd not only have a demoralising effect on the enemy, but also a huge morale boost for any allies that see them, considering the Hussar's reputation.
The video you saw was from a movie called: The Day of the Siege: September Eleven 1683. Its a pretty accurate representation of what happened during the siege of Vienna. Some stuff had to be made up and or guessed as there just simply wasnt enough facts regarding the battle. So much of the battles history and facts were lost, its impossible to truly know what happened.
The battle in the video is a Polish movie about the siege of Vienna, where the City was being attacked by an Ottoman army of 185,000 which was eventually defeated by the Viennese garrison and the 20,000 Winged Hussars with there cannons. If you are a military history fanatic like me its a great movie even though it's in Polish. I absolutely love Sabaton and the Sabaton History channel. 💂♂️💂♂️💂♂️💂♂️🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧
It is very highly possible they never lost a battle. It was really God`s cavalry :) About the canons, it was very expensive to produce canons back then a lot of resources and time to make them.
The technology of guns was still in its infancy, while the flintlock was commonplace, they still used smooth bore muskets. Rifling while understood, in a muzzle loading firearm of the day loading a rifled barrel took a very long time, and they fouled easily. So while simple to use, you needed a lot of fire to hit a target past 50 meters reliably, and past 100 that shot is going in a random direction. For long ranges the bow and arrow still saw extensive use, there's a museum display of Ottoman artifacts captured at the siege and swords, maces, bows ect are still the majority weapon. Grenades, demolition charges, and cannons were a more common uses of gunpowder. Also by this time 'bulletproof' plate armor had come in. At the Royal Armory in Leeds, UK, you can see this armor, each suit of which has a dent where a gun was fired into it by the maker to prove it would deflect the round. This is also what fueled the evolution of knights into Dragoon Cavalry with only helmets and breastplates, as the plate had to get thicker to stop better and better firearms it became prohibitively heavy to armor the entire body.
There were 150 000 Ottomans, some estimates go as high as 300 000. And the Hussars were 4000 - 6000 others were the Tatars and other Europeans numbering 20 000 men. Fun fact, this was mentioned in LOTR, in the battle of Helms Deep when Gandalf shows up with the Rohan cavalry. Also a fun fact, there are several hills surrounding Vieena. Biggest one is Kahlenberg. But one is named Roan. So this might be where Rohan men got their name.
Love the reaction and even more so love the honesty about what songs you listened to and won't be reacting to, way too many people "react for the first time" to stuff they have clearly heard before so I really like the honesty from you. Overall a good video!
The hussar wings were all about the sound they made. As the horses ran at a gallop, the wings made a terrible noise that hardly anyone could stand. This sound was like a thunderstorm with a very strong wind
@@patrykgodowski1514 No joke. I've been near a dozen horses galloping, and you can feel that with your whole body. I can only imagine what thousands of them would be like. The absolute terror of facing that must have been mind shattering.
Remember that firearms in those days did not have the penetration of todays firearms. Those hussars had steel plate mail and/or plate armour. The bomb they planted was in a sewage tunnel or structure that was the weakest part of the wall. Ultimately the explosion of that wall was the downfall of the city. The hussars were heavy cavalry and they would have had huge and heavy war horses with mail armour and lances or spears. Imagine 10,000-20,000 heavy armoured cavalry thundering into your infantry positions. It was extremely effective, also the cannons are heavy and slow to move and aiming them was also tedious.
Polish people are proud of their history, 1,050 years of history as a country to be exact. If you want live, check SABATON Woodstock, Poland 2012. There was about 700,000 people there.
Awesome reacton!! Wanna see some live performances? Live, Woodstock ”white death”, ”uprising”, ”ghost division”, ”40:1” and the price om a mile. A great show 😁
If you watch the epic Ride of the Rohirim from the Return of the King, that’s an on-screen portrayal of 6,000 cavalry charging. The real-life charge of the Winged Hussars was THREE TIMES that big! Incredible.
Siege of Vienna i July 1683 th ottoman empire forces begun the Siege of Vienna on 12 sept 1683 King Jan Sobieski of the Polish Lithuaniang Commonwelth launched the worlds biggest cavaly attack 18000 horsemen , he lead the Winged hussars abt 6000 of them in the frontline The Ottoman started to Flee and this deadly blow made the Ottoman army to collapse and after a couple of hours the combined Polish-Lithuanian Commonwelth, Habsburg, Holy roman empire could liberate vienna
That was fun. I never listened to metal until I stumbled onto Sabaton's Night Witches. Now I'm a Sabaton fan. If you are into medieval history I think you would like "Alan Stivell An alarc'h / Le cygne de Montfort - brezhoneg / français / english" Stivel is a Breton harpist & this song has to do with the Breton War of Succession. The Montfort name is no doubt familiar to you. He might even be your ancestor. I was married to a history professor for 34 years, and one thing I learned was to never ask a question unless I was prepared to sit and listen to a 55-minute lecture.
Yeah, the wings were to protect from whip or lasso (not sure how to call it) that mongols were using. Then you just loose wings and not to be knocked from the horse. Sry for eng.
this song feels different while playing Mount&Blade WFaS. I think the turkish troops are the strongest overall in that game, but nothing compares to riding into battle with full contingent of winged hussars and just smashing through the enemy line. also, playing Empire Total War as the swedish with carolus rex in the background is an experience every strategy game fan should try at least once.
I read somewhere that when the hussars came charging down the mountain the horses came so fast down they didnt have time.to slow them down and ran over the ottomans, if thats true thats even scarier than thousands come down the mountain, then get ran over by horses
And after 89 years (The Battle of Vienna - 12 September 1683) Polish was the First Partition of Poland took place in 1772 as the first of three partitions that eventually ended the existence of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth by 1795 by Habsburg monachy, Kingdom of Prussia and Russian Empire. In other hand, according to the 19th century tradition, with the demonstrative question "Has the envoy from Lechistan arrived yet?" official audiences were to begin with the Turkish Sultan, expecting an envoy from Poland, which no longer existed on the map of Europe at that time.
Winged Hussars never lost a battle in 150 years. They won many against the odds like the battle of Kircholm on 27.09.1605 where 3600 Poles charged 10.868 Swedish army. Stats 100 Poles killed, 200 wounded. Swedish army 7600-8000 killed captured and dispersed!
they were using longs pikes, sabers, weapon called "koncerz" which was something between saber and metal spear, pistols, and some of them even bows and axes
They also had rock pistols and also called the hussar saber - it was longer and heavier than a regular saber. It was known as the black saber, curved saber or sloped saber. After charging and losing pikes, the hussars would retrieve these sabers and continue fighting.
@@HistoryBuff And since Tolkkien fought in WWI, Rohirrim (Rohan cavalery) might be based on the Winged Hussars. Alot of Tolkkiens stuff is based on WWI and war/history 😊
Fun fact: Peter Jackson actually traveled back in time to Vienna. On the 12:th of September 1683 he hid in a bush on a ridge nearby where the Hussars charged the Ottomans.
About the period of time. Hussars were like a tanks. They have pikes sometimes even 7m long and light because empty inside. Sabre and pistols also. In that period guns were not so efficient so while charging loses from shooting were really small. Hussars had also very special attack system. They were charging in very loose array and suddenly before contact they gathered in the arrow
not something i know much about, but I thought the winged hussars were like he mention knight cavalry, heavy armor, lance and swords, BUT who also were armed with pistols or/and carbines, SEVERAL of them so they did not have to reload which made them like the modern version of the Mongols, horses made them very mobile and could use attack and evade tactic and vs those with no ranged weapons they could just pick of from distance because they were on horses the enemy could not reach them
The hussars were a very technically advanced formation - apart from their appearance, they had little in common with medieval knights - extreme training for fighting in formation, extremely long, hollow lances, armor - relatively light, but extremely effective, because of varying degrees of thickness and made of the best materials, and finally - a specially breed of horse. All this made it the best MEDIUM cavalry in the world
Some say there were 120000 Ottomans some say 170000. there was 18000 cavalry, however, not all of them were wing hussars. like one from lord of the rings in real life :) does not change the fact that was the biggest cavalry charge in the human history
beside the big numbers, small historical input. vienna was besieged twice by the ottoman empire, after the first attempt, vienna was fortified in the most modern way, possible for this time. very strong walls, a modern fortress. the ottoman canons could no penetrate the walls, so the ottomans changed tactics, they dig tunnes and placed charges under the wall, to bring it down. so an underground war startet as well. the defenders themselves dug tunnels and fought the ottomans there. at some point a charge was detonated and hole was blasted in the defences. when the ottomans charged into the gap, the defenders fought back as hard as they could and pushed the ottomans back. closed the gap and the game reset. the defenders starved, running low on manpower. called for help. the holy league was devided at this time, who should provide aid, relief etc. thanks to the polish relief force, the winged hussars, who charged down mount kahlenberg, cought the ottomans of guard. when the defenders saw the polish army charging down, the charged out of the city and in this "pincer attack" the ottomans were defeated. fighting on 2 fronts, over a wide area, on the one side the city of vienna on the other side the polish winged hussars. the ottoman empire was never able to take the city. if the had, europe would be different today. some history illustrations can be found here : ua-cam.com/video/ukyquQkQAYo/v-deo.html&ab_channel=SandRhomanHistory
3000 Winged Hussars led 18000 other cavalry for the largest cavalry charge in human history vs 300,000 Turks (though only 150-200 thousand were soldiers.
About a canons... Before hussars attack canons attacked first. The battle lasted about 12 hours. About 11 hours was a cannon fire. About guns. The best shooters could make 3 shots par minute. To make shot you need to reload your rifle it took about one minute. The bullets were round, so their range and accuracy were very poor. During the cavalry attack, the defenders were able to fire one volley. Anyone who has been to horse races knows how the ground shakes when several horses run. Imagine a thousand horses charging at you. You can't see it in the video, but at the moment of impact, the hussars were very close to each other. Two defending pikemen were usually attacked by three hussars. This required a great deal of training from both horses and riders. But the effect was that for many decades the hussars spread fear among all European armies.
If you ever read the Baroque Cycle by Neal Stephenson in the first book (Quicksilver) two of the protagonists are introduced to each other at the Siege of Vienna in the aftermath of the Charge of the Winged Hussars.
FYI those wings make hell of a sound when they are charging. You can hear it on some history festivals, where 5-10 horesmans will fit them and use in mock battle. Having like 100, 1000 of them? Freaking jet engine sound... And yeah, leave alone horses, pretty sure not even medieval humans could not be scared...
We attacked the Ottomans from the hill. Although everyone said we couldn't do it, we dragged the cannons up that hill, actually on our own backs. We did the same thing later capturing Montecassino. It's just the way we are. For us nothing is impossible if we know what we are fighting for.
I see quite few mistakes about who were winged hussars. First- lances. They were light but not that easy to break- in the battle of Plonka in 1660, one hussar impaled 6 Russian soldiers on his lance. Hussars were also replacing their lances once broken, so saying "one day" fighting day is complete misunderstanding. Don't want to mention about other weapons- sabers, pistols or very successful strategy, much different from other units. Many battels they won even if they ran out of lances- please see the battle of Kluszino or Trzciana (even being heavily outnumbered). During the battle of Vienna, there were only 3000 of winged hussars, they swept thru Ottoman's lines in very spectacular way opening the camp for remaining cavalry. Possibly, they were the most advanced form of heavy cavalry in the history, unstoppable in open field, unless opponent managed to fortify own position before the battle (as we know, Ottomans failed to fortify the camp from the Kellenberg side, as they believed that no army can get thru the forest/mountain).
Enjoyed the video. Sabaton is one of my top five favorite bands of all time, honestly. Sooo....I have watched every react video for the song "1916" that I could find, and was wondering if you had done it...and if not, are you going to do it at some point?
The interesting thing is that the relief army was a combined army of the Holy Roman Empire of Emperor Leopold who needed to save his capital Vienna and the kingdom of Poland, with command given to the Polish king Jan Sobieski, all financed by the Pope.
Some sources say there was about 200 000 Ottomans against A few dozen thousands of Polish, German a few Czech etc. soldiers. These were the times when the europeans were not always united, but moraly strong and healthy...
Turkish muskets had weaker penetration than Western versions, and the hussars' armor was about 9 mm thick, so it was enough. The Swedes, for example, had three lines of shooters shooting at once from a distance of 25 meters and stopped the charges that way.
Hi 7:43 min. To this program...hmmm...the wings were making sound that the enemy would hear like a wind coming towards them and will panic... but in this movie they didn't show the proper formation of the Husar cavalry...
For a history buff you kind of messed up with the numbers there mate. There was 18,000 cavalry men on the side of the Relief army (some sources argue of more than 20k but it's disputed), but Hussars themselves arround 3,000, they did lead the charge though. And on the Ottoman side depending on the sources 138k-300k of people (not all of which were soldiers), during battle itself (since their forces were split into those who remained siedge and those facing the Relief army) - 67,000 troops.
Cuting edge technology is not allways the best strategy. The early muskets had bayonetts for very good reasons, because at the range they were effective were not far from the range you can run over and charge with pikes and wipe out a musket regiment. I think that is tru for most new technology, it has to mature a bit to become superior to the technology that came before.
Fun fact: After the battle for Vienna, Germans didnt wanted to pay up for Polish Hussar's help and expected Sobieski to pay his soldiers for helping other country. Can you imagine? Also not long after that Germans, Austrians, and Russians partitioned Poland :)
In the early muskets age it was possible to line your armor with ball resistant shit and be bullet proof. And the winged hussars as the ultimate elite polish cavalry largely were.
The Polish army did have cannons they hauled them up the mountainside and they were firing cannons down at the Ottoman empire they don't show it in this scene but they did have cannons and they did have guns you have to watch the movie that this clip is showing this is a showing from the movie you need to watch the movie
5:25 18,000? There were 1,800 to 2,500 hussars near Vienna, depending on the source, the whole formation never exceeded 10,000 members, as far as I know
The sad part is, not so long ago after this battle Austria returned the favor by participating in the partition of Poland.
no good deed goes unpunished.
.öhm first partition of Poland was 91 years later. And it was a thing between Prussia an Russia. Austrian Queen Maria Theresia originaly didn't what to take part. But Prussia an Russia decided without her. So it wa sonly the question if Austria gets some territories or all goes to the other two.
this is not the first such situation in the history of Poland... people wonder why Poles don't like strangers but stick together, because this is the only reason why this country still exists
@@alexanderschulz7924Correct. Frederick the Great commented cynically “She cried, but she took.”
Actually the king of Austria pretty much ignored the king of Poland and all thanks went to the Germans why the Winged Hussars did the heavy lifting.
Allegedly king of Poland Jan III Sobieski have said in a conversation with his soldiers when they were returning: "Why did we even help them in the first place?"
I was waiting patiently for a new reaction... and at the last moment... just in the nick of time... the Winged Hussars arrived! 🤘🏻🎸🙂
😂🤣😂🤣I totally should have thought to say that!!
Day made 🤣
I believe the Polish army of the time had a motto along the lines of first we defeat the enemy then we count them.
Don't count my enemy, point me in their direction 😎😏
Worth watching 40:1 at Woodstock
That is next! I'm really hoping to get my merch first!! If not, it will be the next few days
The saying came from the Battle of Kircholm and it was, "kill first, count later".
"Amor patriae nostra lex" this is real motto of Hussars Cav.
Amor partia nostra lex amen
Polish-lithuanian Commonwealth winged hussar where wealthy Nobles which can be compared to Japanese Samurai class.
Beder
Europe needs these guys more than ever
I agree
It's easy to see how Tolkien probably knew the history of this battle very well, because it's a pretty similar take with the Battle of Helm's Deep (Bombs being used against the walls), as well as the battle outside Minas Tirith. Both have some serious Winged Hussars vibes. If the charge at Minas Tirith was 6000 as it was implied, you'd have to tripple the size of the cavalry charge there to get an idea of the size of The Battle of Vienna.
If you're interested in songs related to Poland (performed live) I highly recommend Sabaton's gig at Polish Woodstock Festival 2012 (now it's called Pol'and'rock) with around 700 000 people in the audience. The entire show is amazing, but 40:1 and Uprising really stand out! The atmosphere is absolutely remarkable!
The biggest weapon of the Winged Hussars were their horses. They were specially bred to carry heavy weight for long distances without tiring, and they could go from a normal travel pace to full gallop very quickly.
There was actually 150000 Ottomans at the battle, 170000 when the siege started. And there weren't 18000 winged Hussars, there was 15000 calvary from the Holy Roman Empire led by a vanguard of 3000 heavy calvary Winged Hussars. It was the biggest calvary charge in history.
And one of the most significant battles in history, Vienna was the gateway to Europe from the Balkans, if the Ottomans took it they would have an opening to invade all of Europe. The Ottoman Empire slowly declined after this battle.
As a Hungarian great great great grand son son of one of the hussars at Vienna I can't help but have tears of pride when I watch this
Yeah They are great , Not Enough to Stop the Great Mongols.
Yea, the mongols were pretty badass!
@@comradekadher2621 Well, when Mongols came to Europe there were no Hussars yet :) . Mongols invaded Poland in XIII century and Hussars were formed in XVI century - around 300 years of difference. Additionally in the end Poland did stop Mongols.
@@lf9177 the Mongols went home cos the grate Khan had died. the Poles, as brave as they where stopped nothing more than a reconnaissance in force .
And the Winged Hussards Arrived!!!! 👍👏👏🤘🤘🤘
COMING DOWN THE MOUNTAINSIDE
Coming down they turned the tide
@@marethyu7593 THEN THE WISSAR HUSSAR ARRIVE
what i love about the seige of vienna is that king sobieski personally led the charge, riding into enemy forces like a battering ram, spears breaking, bodies crushed under hooves, theres something so empowering about the charge, and im not even polish
The Polish relief army was able to scale a mountain and place their artillery. They then charged down the mountain completely surprising the Ottoman army and routing it.
CZEŚĆ I CHWAŁA RZECZPOSPOLITEJ POLSKIEJ
TAK!!
Pisze się RzeczYpospolitej.
@@krzysztofj.7884 sam jesteś lub byłeś rzeczY
@@HistoryBuff They should add Kislev-Empire mixed faction, who is known from elite winged Cavalry. To Warhammer fantasy. As a Pole I puke seeing references to Poland on side lead by Catherine 🤮
And yes. Poland was way more closer to Western style of organization then hordes of East.
It wasnt just the winged hussars in the charge but all the mounted knights of the coalition. However the hussar formed the tip of the wedge the most dangerous part and the first to plunge into the enemys ranks
It wasn’t the entire cavalry, just what was available.
The relief army included about 34.400 cavalry (of course also a lot of them fought dismounted).
Actually "Army of Kings" is kinda accurate term. To be a Hussar You should be a damn rich in those times (Like to be a knight). Horses and the gear where not sponsored. You needed to be rich enough to be a Hussar. Ofcourse You could get that kind of riches by wars (If You've survived) but Hussars were creme de la creme.
Kinda like here in America when the native American chiefs showed up with their warriors, outlining the mountain top.
When I first learned about this Calvary charge I did some kinda lazy math with how many horses and the space for them and it came out to something like 14football fields (2rows of 7). That would be one ungodly wall of horses to see running at you.
Awesome!!
'Cavalry".
"We dont beg for freedom, we fight for it" Gen. Witold Urbanowicz
If I recall, the defenders on Vienna called out for both Holy Romian Empire and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth to help defend. And because it was such a short time, the king of Poland (Mind you the only elected king) chooses to get his forces ahead to help. That meant that when Holy Romian Empire did came, then the Winged Hussars petty much wrapped up the enemy forces. Holy League was something that first formed later between the European countries during the Great Turkish War. Petty much from 1684
Also, you should try to read on the tactics that Winged Hussars used during their time. One that I like the most is that they starting to charge at the enemy if petty much disorderly stage and slowly formed up to a thnner column just before they began to smash through the enemy lines. Also, the "wings" that they had was used I think to make some kind of sound which could make fear and disorder the enemy. Like the Jericho trumpets on the Stukas could do while they were diving
I‘m not quite sure what you’re trying to say.
The armies of the various countries that provided troops for the relief army combined their troops a couple of days before the Battle of Vienna (circa 74.000 troops, of which roughly 24.000 were Polish).
They then moved together the remaining distance to the battlefield.
The terrain was rather hilly and forested, thus in the end the left wing and the center arrived on the battlefield prior to the right wing which consisted primarily out of the Polish infantry and cavalry.
The Ottomans started to attack the relief army in the early morning, thus the left wing of the relief army clashed with the Ottoman right wing and also the center got involved.
The Polish troops started to arrive in the afternoon, the Polish infantry joined the fight prior to the Polish cavalry.
At the time of the famous cavalry charge the Ottoman right wing had been defeated and the central Ottoman position was under infantry attack from several sides.
The cavalry charge (18.000 cavalry: circa 3.000 Winged Hussars, 9.000 other Polish and 6.000 HRE cavalry) was launched in the late afternoon to exploit the dire situation of the Ottomans.
Time for some polish history! Nice! Looking foward to seeing more Sabaton!
-Do you remember the 21st night of september?
-We remember in september when the wingd hussars arrive!
The scenes are from the movie, "Battle of Vienna". The typical weapon loadout for a winged hussar would be his lance, sword, secondary weapon of sword or hammer and two pistols. You can see them firing their pistols at the end of the video.
At around 9:00 we see John III Sobieski, King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania, the leader who spearheaded the expedition others thought foolish, who stationed his artillery atop the "unclimbable" Tannenberg, then led the cavalry charge down a slope too steep for horses. Behind him we see a youthful figure, Prince James (Jakub), King John's eldest son, age 15. King John was "all in".
It is still the biggest cavarly charge in known history to this day.
I remember reading somewhere that the feathers attached to the wings made a loud screaming sound when they were in full gallop. Kind of like those Japanese arrows.
oh that's cool!!
Bez honoru nie podchoc Bóg Honor Ojczyzma pozdrawiam Michał
@@HistoryBuff i also read that they were used to counter lassos
1 from American generals who fight with Polish soldiers in IIWOW say : never fight vs Polish soldiers and never drink vodka with them :)
I'd imagine if they did indeed use those feathered wings in battle they'd not only have a demoralising effect on the enemy, but also a huge morale boost for any allies that see them, considering the Hussar's reputation.
There were only 3000 winged hussars in the charge.
And the holy league was the alliance of the holy roman empire and the poland lithuania commonwealth.
Firearms were also still new and not as effective as they could be so walls and heavy lancers were still a potent force.
The video you saw was from a movie called: The Day of the Siege: September Eleven 1683. Its a pretty accurate representation of what happened during the siege of Vienna. Some stuff had to be made up and or guessed as there just simply wasnt enough facts regarding the battle. So much of the battles history and facts were lost, its impossible to truly know what happened.
The battle in the video is a Polish movie about the siege of Vienna, where the City was being attacked by an Ottoman army of 185,000 which was eventually defeated by the Viennese garrison and the 20,000 Winged Hussars with there cannons. If you are a military history fanatic like me its a great movie even though it's in Polish. I absolutely love Sabaton and the Sabaton History channel. 💂♂️💂♂️💂♂️💂♂️🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧
It is very highly possible they never lost a battle. It was really God`s cavalry :) About the canons, it was very expensive to produce canons back then a lot of resources and time to make them.
The technology of guns was still in its infancy, while the flintlock was commonplace, they still used smooth bore muskets. Rifling while understood, in a muzzle loading firearm of the day loading a rifled barrel took a very long time, and they fouled easily. So while simple to use, you needed a lot of fire to hit a target past 50 meters reliably, and past 100 that shot is going in a random direction. For long ranges the bow and arrow still saw extensive use, there's a museum display of Ottoman artifacts captured at the siege and swords, maces, bows ect are still the majority weapon. Grenades, demolition charges, and cannons were a more common uses of gunpowder. Also by this time 'bulletproof' plate armor had come in. At the Royal Armory in Leeds, UK, you can see this armor, each suit of which has a dent where a gun was fired into it by the maker to prove it would deflect the round. This is also what fueled the evolution of knights into Dragoon Cavalry with only helmets and breastplates, as the plate had to get thicker to stop better and better firearms it became prohibitively heavy to armor the entire body.
Ah, the old times when the king led his men into battle.
There were 150 000 Ottomans, some estimates go as high as 300 000. And the Hussars were 4000 - 6000 others were the Tatars and other Europeans numbering 20 000 men.
Fun fact, this was mentioned in LOTR, in the battle of Helms Deep when Gandalf shows up with the Rohan cavalry. Also a fun fact, there are several hills surrounding Vieena. Biggest one is Kahlenberg. But one is named Roan. So this might be where Rohan men got their name.
Love the reaction and even more so love the honesty about what songs you listened to and won't be reacting to, way too many people "react for the first time" to stuff they have clearly heard before so I really like the honesty from you. Overall a good video!
The hussar wings were all about the sound they made. As the horses ran at a gallop, the wings made a terrible noise that hardly anyone could stand. This sound was like a thunderstorm with a very strong wind
Plus remeber that the galloping horses make the whole earth rumble and shake. Imagine fear of defenders.
@@patrykgodowski1514 No joke. I've been near a dozen horses galloping, and you can feel that with your whole body. I can only imagine what thousands of them would be like. The absolute terror of facing that must have been mind shattering.
Remember that firearms in those days did not have the penetration of todays firearms. Those hussars had steel plate mail and/or plate armour. The bomb they planted was in a sewage tunnel or structure that was the weakest part of the wall. Ultimately the explosion of that wall was the downfall of the city. The hussars were heavy cavalry and they would have had huge and heavy war horses with mail armour and lances or spears. Imagine 10,000-20,000 heavy armoured cavalry thundering into your infantry positions. It was extremely effective, also the cannons are heavy and slow to move and aiming them was also tedious.
Polish people are proud of their history, 1,050 years of history as a country to be exact. If you want live, check SABATON Woodstock, Poland 2012. There was about 700,000 people there.
Awesome reacton!! Wanna see some live performances? Live, Woodstock ”white death”, ”uprising”, ”ghost division”, ”40:1” and the price om a mile. A great show 😁
Greetings from Sweden!
Love your videos mate. 👍
Thank you sir!
I absolutely come here to see you nerd out as well as react. 😉 That's the beauty of Sabaton songs, the sheer amount of nerding out potential.
If you watch the epic Ride of the Rohirim from the Return of the King, that’s an on-screen portrayal of 6,000 cavalry charging. The real-life charge of the Winged Hussars was THREE TIMES that big! Incredible.
That's insane!!
fun fact: Lord of the Rings two towers was inspired by battle of Vienna and winged Hussars
Siege of Vienna i July 1683 th ottoman empire forces begun the Siege of Vienna on 12 sept 1683 King Jan Sobieski of the Polish Lithuaniang Commonwelth launched the worlds biggest cavaly attack 18000 horsemen , he lead the Winged hussars abt 6000 of them in the frontline The Ottoman started to Flee and this deadly blow made the Ottoman army to collapse and after a couple of hours the combined Polish-Lithuanian Commonwelth, Habsburg, Holy roman empire could liberate vienna
This is lotr helms deep? No, this is Winged Hussars.
That was fun. I never listened to metal until I stumbled onto Sabaton's Night Witches. Now I'm a Sabaton fan.
If you are into medieval history I think you would like "Alan Stivell An alarc'h / Le cygne de Montfort - brezhoneg / français / english" Stivel is a Breton harpist & this song has to do with the Breton War of Succession. The Montfort name is no doubt familiar to you. He might even be your ancestor.
I was married to a history professor for 34 years, and one thing I learned was to never ask a question unless I was prepared to sit and listen to a 55-minute lecture.
Lol, thats great advice!
The Best of Poland
you just need to imagine 1k people running their horses down at you
We remember in September, that's the night Vienna was freed. Long live Johann III Sobieski (Lang lebe Johann III Sobieski)
Yeah, the wings were to protect from whip or lasso (not sure how to call it) that mongols were using. Then you just loose wings and not to be knocked from the horse. Sry for eng.
this song feels different while playing Mount&Blade WFaS. I think the turkish troops are the strongest overall in that game, but nothing compares to riding into battle with full contingent of winged hussars and just smashing through the enemy line.
also, playing Empire Total War as the swedish with carolus rex in the background is an experience every strategy game fan should try at least once.
I read somewhere that when the hussars came charging down the mountain the horses came so fast down they didnt have time.to slow them down and ran over the ottomans, if thats true thats even scarier than thousands come down the mountain, then get ran over by horses
We could really use those guys now
Yes we could!
According to the lie I just made up, one of my ancestors was a Winged Hussar at Vienna.
And after 89 years (The Battle of Vienna - 12 September 1683) Polish was the First Partition of Poland took place in 1772 as the first of three partitions that eventually ended the existence of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth by 1795 by Habsburg monachy, Kingdom of Prussia and Russian Empire.
In other hand, according to the 19th century tradition, with the demonstrative question "Has the envoy from Lechistan arrived yet?" official audiences were to begin with the Turkish Sultan, expecting an envoy from Poland, which no longer existed on the map of Europe at that time.
Geeking out is the best thing ever!
This song always makes me giggle with glee.
Winged Hussars never lost a battle in 150 years. They won many against the odds like the battle of Kircholm on 27.09.1605 where 3600 Poles charged 10.868 Swedish army. Stats 100 Poles killed, 200 wounded. Swedish army 7600-8000 killed captured and dispersed!
they were using longs pikes, sabers, weapon called "koncerz" which was something between saber and metal spear, pistols, and some of them even bows and axes
The wings originated, as I understand, as a defence against Mongols, who fought using lasso.
This time im really late to the party, just like the Winged Hussars :) , Great reaction to one of the iconic Sabaton songs that spawned the most memes
18k cavalry in total but around 3k Hussars as a front charge, that what I have heard. Really cool video, greetings from France.
They also had rock pistols and also called the hussar saber - it was longer and heavier than a regular saber. It was known as the black saber, curved saber or sloped saber. After charging and losing pikes, the hussars would retrieve these sabers and continue fighting.
I always get the battle of helms deep scene from Lord of the Rings in my head when i hear this song 😂
YESSSS!!! TOTALLY! When the Riding Rohans arrived!!!!
@@HistoryBuff And since Tolkkien fought in WWI, Rohirrim (Rohan cavalery) might be based on the Winged Hussars. Alot of Tolkkiens stuff is based on WWI and war/history 😊
Fun fact: Peter Jackson actually traveled back in time to Vienna. On the 12:th of September 1683 he hid in a bush on a ridge nearby where the Hussars charged the Ottomans.
I always figured he had some kind of insider information!
Tolkiens Rohirrim based on the winged Hussars.
The race against the mine was underground ottomans dig tunnels also the defenders dig tunnels and alot of fights happend down there
About the period of time. Hussars were like a tanks. They have pikes sometimes even 7m long and light because empty inside. Sabre and pistols also. In that period guns were not so efficient so while charging loses from shooting were really small. Hussars had also very special attack system. They were charging in very loose array and suddenly before contact they gathered in the arrow
not something i know much about, but I thought the winged hussars were like he mention knight cavalry, heavy armor, lance and swords, BUT who also were armed with pistols or/and carbines, SEVERAL of them so they did not have to reload which made them like the modern version of the Mongols, horses made them very mobile and could use attack and evade tactic and vs those with no ranged weapons they could just pick of from distance because they were on horses the enemy could not reach them
The hussars were a very technically advanced formation - apart from their appearance, they had little in common with medieval knights - extreme training for fighting in formation, extremely long, hollow lances, armor - relatively light, but extremely effective, because of varying degrees of thickness and made of the best materials, and finally - a specially breed of horse. All this made it the best MEDIUM cavalry in the world
King Jan Sobieski and winged hussars NEVER lost a battle!
Some say there were 120000 Ottomans some say 170000. there was 18000 cavalry, however, not all of them were wing hussars. like one from lord of the rings in real life :) does not change the fact that was the biggest cavalry charge in the human history
They had many 'pikes' per Hussar with them, and the most that Hussar was able to 'kebab' onto one pike was 6 ottomans 😏
"Żaden swego nie chybi i trzech drugi dzieje,
Że im ciepłe wątroby kipią na tuleje" - Wacław Potocki, Wojna chocimska, ;)
beside the big numbers, small historical input. vienna was besieged twice by the ottoman empire, after the first attempt, vienna was fortified in the most modern way, possible for this time. very strong walls, a modern fortress. the ottoman canons could no penetrate the walls, so the ottomans changed tactics, they dig tunnes and placed charges under the wall, to bring it down. so an underground war startet as well. the defenders themselves dug tunnels and fought the ottomans there. at some point a charge was detonated and hole was blasted in the defences. when the ottomans charged into the gap, the defenders fought back as hard as they could and pushed the ottomans back. closed the gap and the game reset. the defenders starved, running low on manpower. called for help. the holy league was devided at this time, who should provide aid, relief etc. thanks to the polish relief force, the winged hussars, who charged down mount kahlenberg, cought the ottomans of guard. when the defenders saw the polish army charging down, the charged out of the city and in this "pincer attack" the ottomans were defeated. fighting on 2 fronts, over a wide area, on the one side the city of vienna on the other side the polish winged hussars. the ottoman empire was never able to take the city. if the had, europe would be different today.
some history illustrations can be found here : ua-cam.com/video/ukyquQkQAYo/v-deo.html&ab_channel=SandRhomanHistory
The whole situation that happened there is well shown. Interesting.
You can see Jan III Sobieski on 500 polish zloty also gold hussar helmet on it.
-Hey Turkey!
-What?
-Vienna!
-I didn't get it...
-That's the point ;)
3000 Winged Hussars led 18000 other cavalry for the largest cavalry charge in human history vs 300,000 Turks (though only 150-200 thousand were soldiers.
About a canons...
Before hussars attack canons attacked first. The battle lasted about 12 hours. About 11 hours was a cannon fire.
About guns. The best shooters could make 3 shots par minute. To make shot you need to reload your rifle it took about one minute. The bullets were round, so their range and accuracy were very poor. During the cavalry attack, the defenders were able to fire one volley.
Anyone who has been to horse races knows how the ground shakes when several horses run. Imagine a thousand horses charging at you.
You can't see it in the video, but at the moment of impact, the hussars were very close to each other. Two defending pikemen were usually attacked by three hussars. This required a great deal of training from both horses and riders. But the effect was that for many decades the hussars spread fear among all European armies.
The winged hussars used flintlock pistols though (instead of their "only for showing up" bows
If you ever read the Baroque Cycle by Neal Stephenson in the first book (Quicksilver) two of the protagonists are introduced to each other at the Siege of Vienna in the aftermath of the Charge of the Winged Hussars.
FYI those wings make hell of a sound when they are charging. You can hear it on some history festivals, where 5-10 horesmans will fit them and use in mock battle.
Having like 100, 1000 of them? Freaking jet engine sound... And yeah, leave alone horses, pretty sure not even medieval humans could not be scared...
Damn ur such a nice guy and u know a lot of European history respect
Thanks lil 🧊!
Polish historii
We attacked the Ottomans from the hill. Although everyone said we couldn't do it, we dragged the cannons up that hill, actually on our own backs. We did the same thing later capturing Montecassino. It's just the way we are. For us nothing is impossible if we know what we are fighting for.
You want to see what the real hussar ride looks like
I see quite few mistakes about who were winged hussars. First- lances. They were light but not that easy to break- in the battle of Plonka in 1660, one hussar impaled 6 Russian soldiers on his lance. Hussars were also replacing their lances once broken, so saying "one day" fighting day is complete misunderstanding. Don't want to mention about other weapons- sabers, pistols or very successful strategy, much different from other units. Many battels they won even if they ran out of lances- please see the battle of Kluszino or Trzciana (even being heavily outnumbered). During the battle of Vienna, there were only 3000 of winged hussars, they swept thru Ottoman's lines in very spectacular way opening the camp for remaining cavalry. Possibly, they were the most advanced form of heavy cavalry in the history, unstoppable in open field, unless opponent managed to fortify own position before the battle (as we know, Ottomans failed to fortify the camp from the Kellenberg side, as they believed that no army can get thru the forest/mountain).
Enjoyed the video. Sabaton is one of my top five favorite bands of all time, honestly. Sooo....I have watched every react video for the song "1916" that I could find, and was wondering if you had done it...and if not, are you going to do it at some point?
The interesting thing is that the relief army was a combined army of the Holy Roman Empire of Emperor Leopold who needed to save his capital Vienna and the kingdom of Poland, with command given to the Polish king Jan Sobieski, all financed by the Pope.
Some sources say there was about 200 000 Ottomans against A few dozen thousands of Polish, German a few Czech etc. soldiers. These were the times when the europeans were not always united, but moraly strong and healthy...
Turkish muskets had weaker penetration than Western versions, and the hussars' armor was about 9 mm thick, so it was enough. The Swedes, for example, had three lines of shooters shooting at once from a distance of 25 meters and stopped the charges that way.
Awesome!
12:32 the " pike " snap and they will go to secondary weapon pistol " small musket " fire one bullet and go to the sword...transition...
It's all fun and games until the Winged Hussars arrive.
And we still have this enthusiasm for fight💪🇵🇱💥
Appreciate it😊
yup the video is scenes from a movie, September Eleven 1683 (2012) aka The Day of the siege. Pretty good movie actually
Hi 7:43 min. To this program...hmmm...the wings were making sound that the enemy would hear like a wind coming towards them and will panic... but in this movie they didn't show the proper formation of the Husar cavalry...
My friend not only in ww1 horses were used !! In ww2 German used a lot of horses too
For a history buff you kind of messed up with the numbers there mate. There was 18,000 cavalry men on the side of the Relief army (some sources argue of more than 20k but it's disputed), but Hussars themselves arround 3,000, they did lead the charge though. And on the Ottoman side depending on the sources 138k-300k of people (not all of which were soldiers), during battle itself (since their forces were split into those who remained siedge and those facing the Relief army) - 67,000 troops.
Well, this is my first dive into Polish history so my understanding was wrapped up in the little I could remember after my 15 minutes with Indie
Cuting edge technology is not allways the best strategy. The early muskets had bayonetts for very good reasons, because at the range they were effective were not far from the range you can run over and charge with pikes and wipe out a musket regiment.
I think that is tru for most new technology, it has to mature a bit to become superior to the technology that came before.
Fun fact: After the battle for Vienna, Germans didnt wanted to pay up for Polish Hussar's help and expected Sobieski to pay his soldiers for helping other country. Can you imagine?
Also not long after that Germans, Austrians, and Russians partitioned Poland :)
In the early muskets age it was possible to line your armor with ball resistant shit and be bullet proof. And the winged hussars as the ultimate elite polish cavalry largely were.
The Polish army did have cannons they hauled them up the mountainside and they were firing cannons down at the Ottoman empire they don't show it in this scene but they did have cannons and they did have guns you have to watch the movie that this clip is showing this is a showing from the movie you need to watch the movie
Vienna Sends a message to the Sky, God sends the Winged Hussars 🙏🏻✝️
5:25 18,000? There were 1,800 to 2,500 hussars near Vienna, depending on the source, the whole formation never exceeded 10,000 members, as far as I know