ValeOfShadows 🇵🇱 on Gab: 'September 12th, 1683, Vienna, Austria.
The 30 years war had significantly weakened Europe causing the Ottoman Empire to break the peace treaties signed with the Holy Roman Empire and attack them hoping to capture Vienna the capital of the HRE. This was the second attempt to conquer Vienna as the first was attempted by Suleman the Magnificent in 1529. On July 14 the Ottoman army arrived at Vienna with 150k soldiers. Emperor Leopold the first of The Holy Roman Empire had left a few days earlier to gather reinforcements to fight the Ottomans and to get military assistance from King Jan(John) Sobieski of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, as the HRE and the Commonwealth had signed a military alliance treaty 2 years earlier(becoming a new Holy League).
The defenders of Vienna numbered about 15k with every able bodied man defending the city. The Ottomans initially demanded the city surrender, but Viennese garrison refused after hearing a report about a nearby Austrian town that had surrendered but the Ottomans proceeded to massacre everyone in it anyways. On July 17th the Ottomans began besieging the city, as Grand Vizier Kara Mustafa Pasha wanted to capture the city mostly intact. Ottoman sappers began digging tunnels under the city to plant explosives which would cause sections of the walls to collapse. However the Viennese defenders found the tunnels and diffused the explosives and collapsed the tunnels. The defenders launched daring night raids against the Ottoman encampments in hopes of weakening them. The defenders held on for almost two months until on September 6th when Charles V, Duke of Lorraine's relief force (80k men) met Sobieski's (40k men) near the Danube river. On the night of September 9th the defenders launched fireworks from the tallest building in Vienna, hoping allied forces were in the area and respond not expecting much, they were taken by surprise when a response came from over the Kahlenberg hill signaling that the Holy League's army had arrived. Initially the HRE forces got to Vienna first and began attacking the Ottoman forces to draw pressure off of the city.
The Commonwealth forces arrived a day late but when they did and Sobieski's Winged Hussars emerged from the forest, the entirety of the HRE forces began cheering. After engaging in a battle with the small amount of Ottoman cavalry forces at Vienna and routing them Sobieski regrouped his forces on the Kahlenberg hill, after a few hours of Polish cannons bombarding the Ottoman positions, Sobieski combined his cavalry with the HRE's (30k) and initiated one of the largest cavalry charges in history which Sobieski and 3k Winged Hussars personally led. While charging down the hill all of the Winged Hussars simultaneously shouted out "Mother Mary give us strength" before hitting the Ottoman lines. The momentum of the charge was powerful enough that it immediately shattered the Ottoman lines and pushed them back to their supply tents and caused a mass route of the army.
At the end of the battle Sobieski proclaimed Venimus, vidimus, Deus vicit (We came we saw God conquered) After this battle the Ottomans never threatened Europe again and gradually lost territory to the Commonwealth, HRE and the Russian empire. Ottoman Sultan Mehmed IV had Kara Mustafa Pasha executed for his failure to take Vienna. It is also worth noting that the battles in the Lord of the Rings The Two towers and Return of the King are based on the battle of Vienna.'
ValeOfShadows
BowserNoodle ☦️
Dagnar
LordOfTheKangs
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