5 Most Legendary Charges of All Time

the battlefield charge can be one of the most efficient yet devastating tactics in warfare the shock effect of a large number of soldiers crashing into enemy lines often able to completely route an entire army in one brief but intense engagement even when facing vastly superior numbers on several occasions throughout history the charge has been the decisive moment of key battles that changed the world however they can also be extremely risky and often result in defeat instead of victory whether by cavalry or on foot successful or disastrous here are my choices for 5 of the greatest charges of all time number 5 the charge of the 65th months of bitter fighting unimaginable hardships the constant threat of death and the almost daily sight of countless friends lives traded away for control of insignificant hills mountains and valleys to be used as nothing more than a bargaining chip at the negotiating table would be enough to break even the most disciplined soldiers morale yet despite engaging the enemy in vicious battles all over the korean peninsula while at the same time fighting discrimination from their own side the men of puerto rico's 65th infantry regiment found the resolve to look almost certain death in the face and engage in what became the last battalion-sized bayonet charge in u.s army history overrunning an entire chinese division despite being massively outnumbered and outgunned the up close and personal combat that followed killing nearly 6 000 enemy soldiers and capturing over 2000 prisoners however despite their now legendary charge and prowess on the battlefield the korean war would end on a dark note for the men of the 65th formed in 1899 for decades the 65th infantry regiment was the u.s army's only all-hispanic unit its soldiers earning a well-deserved reputation for skill morale and bravery with thousands laying down their lives for the united states on the battlefields of france germany and italy during the second world war however the looming conflict in korea just five years later would forever secure the regiment's place in the history books on june the 25th 1950 north korean troops poured into south korea hoping to unify the entire peninsula under communist raw since the end of the second world war the u.s and her allies had watched on with fear and dismay as soviet-backed communism spread across the globe like wildfire and with the chinese-backed north koreans close to overrunning the entirety of south korea it looked as if yet another domino was about to fall to the reds on the global chessboard the u.s decided that enough was enough and quickly moved to intervene securing a u.n resolution which authorized military action to aid south korea in throwing back the communist invaders with a total of 15 u.n members mobilizing their armed forces the 65th infantry regiment from puerto rico received orders to ship out along with the main u.s force however by the time they arrived in korea the situation on the ground was dire a string of defeats had pushed the outnumbered korean and yuan forces back into a tiny pocket around the port city of busan where they fought a heroic last stand on the verge of total defeat a north korean victory was only averted thanks to the arrival of large numbers of un reinforcements combined with a daring amphibious landing behind enemy lines which broke the siege around the busan perimeter as soon as they disembarked from their transport ships the 65th infantry regiment was sent straight into action taking part in the un breakout and drive north assisting in rapidly resting back control of south korea from the invaders over the next few weeks the regiment would primarily be used to cut off enemy escape routes resulting in their capture or destruction and barely a month after their arrival in korea the 65th had inflicted over 1500 confirmed casualties on the enemy at the cost of just 221 of their own with five men earning silver stars for gallantry and combat as the regiment crossed the border and drove deep into north korea spirits were high and it seemed as though the war would be over soon however the mountains were hiding a nasty surprise before the war started china had made contingency plans to assist the north korean allies in case their invasion of the south backfired uben forces had ignored stern chinese warnings not to cross the border into north korea and with the american-led force now rapidly approaching the border leaders in beijing decided that they could not let a friendly regime and important strategic buffer state be overthrown now was the time to act huge numbers of chinese soldiers poured into north korea under total secrecy and on november the 27th u.n units who earlier had thought the war was all but over found themselves overrun by unbreakable human waves containing tens of thousands of chinese troops the shocked men of the 65th regiment realized that the war was far from over and prepared to fight for their lives the now massively outnumbered un troops made the enemy pay dearly for every patch of ground gained however the chinese red armies near limitless manpower forced the allies back into south korea it was while conducting a counter-attack on three unnamed but strategic hills on the outskirts of the south korean capital that the 65th infantry regiment permanently secured their place in history after days of hard fighting the objective was finally in sight but as the three hills were swarming with chinese soldiers dislodging the well-fortified enemy might take days of costly fighting to achieve impatient with the slow rate of progress and mounting casualties two battalions of the 65th infantry regiment fixed bayonets and prepared to carry out what would become the last battalion-sized bayonet charge in u.s army history accepting that a quick death was the most likely outcome of their attack the determined men emerged from the shell-battered trenches and rushed towards the enemy the bayonets glinting in the daylight with murderous intent the sight of this handful of weathered men charging directly towards them must have both terrorized and surprised the chinese soldiers who are about to be set upon in hand-to-hand combat after all the mechanized nature of modern warfare had virtually rendered the cold hard steel of the bayonet charge a thing of the past perhaps it was this shock and surprise that turned the tide as instead of charging to their death against a hail of machine gun bullets the attack completely routed the stunned chinese soldiers who turned tail and fled for their lives and in the resulting battle the three hills were successfully cleared of all hostile forces with nearly 6 000 enemy killed and 2 000 prisoners taken yet despite successfully carrying out a charge that earned them fame renown and prestige back in the u.s in the weeks after the counter-attack continued heavy casualties a shortage of qualified non-commissioned officers language and cultural barriers between the enlisted men and american officers and chronic supply shortages led to a complete collapse of morale and breakdown in discipline and when ordered to defend a position from a huge chinese attack the men refused to obey the resulting court martial was the largest of the entire korean war and 91 soldiers were found guilty of insubordination and mutiny the men were sentenced to terms ranging from 1 to 18 years of hard labor however unwavering support and goodwill earned by the earlier charge from the public and media back in the united states let the secretary of the army quickly issuing clemency and pardons to all those involved back in korea the remaining soldiers of the 65th infantry continue to do their duty with impressive effectiveness winning a total of 10 distinguished service crosses 250 silver stars 600 bronze stars and more than 2 700 purple hearts from the numerous battles and operations fought across the korean peninsula until an armistice that ended the fighting was finally signed on july the 27th 1953 number four the battle of shiroyama nearly 150 years ago the slopes of an unremarkable hill bought witness to the era of the feared and legendary japanese samurai crashing to a bloody but fittingly heroic end as the last 40 survivors of a one-time 20 000 strong rebel army raised their swords and charged directly into the masked gunfire of thousands of enemy peasant conscripts who they consider to be inferior hopelessly outmatched and with everything they had fought so hard to preserve now rendered obsolete these real-life last samurai chose a certain death in battle over the shame of an inglorious but survival ensuring surrender unwilling to tarnish the formidable reputation of the samurai which had been built up over a millennia by the blood and sacrifice of the millions of warriors who had come before them this tragic last stand of the samurai ending an entire way of life with a final grand gesture as the dying old world was brutally snuffed out by an emerging new one the 19th century had seen great turmoil unleashed across japan as the emperor cast aside the traditional policy of isolationism in favor of modernization and trade with the outside world believing that japan's future independence from outside powers and even his very existence could only be ensured by the rapid westernization of its economy and military the entire country would need to be completely transformed from a medieval feudal society into a modern industrial powerhouse that could stand toe to toe with the world spanning empires of the western powers yet these dramatic changes would prove highly divisive as those who had benefited from the old ways did not take kindly to this new threat against their ancient privileges if japan was to have a modern western style army the traditional warrior class of the samurai would need to essentially be abolished in favour of conscripted peasant troops armed with the latest rapid-fire rifles massed accurate gunfire and heavy artillery would replace the lifetime of training in the noble and traditional arts of war that all samurai had previously undertaken this unending strive for all things modern would not only destroy the privileged social status enjoyed by the samurai class but also their financial interests as the regular payments of rice which had been the main source of income were now abolished japan had become a ticking time bomb as huge numbers of men who had spent their entire lives training for war were now left unemployed in poverty and directionless such dismal prospects coupled with intense outrage of what they saw as the destruction of their entire way of life and a betrayal of everything their forebears had fought and died for was about to lead to all-out war what became known as the satsuma rebellion broke out in 1877 as samurai who favored a return to the old ways clashed with the emperor's westernized conscript army and his samurai supporters for control over japan's very soul both sides engaged in a struggle that would determine their nation's future course the job of leading this revolt fell to a highly renowned and well-respected samurai hero named saigo takamori a man who had at one time been a loyal servant of the emperor and supporter of modernization but now felt that the reforms were simply going too far sympathetic to the plight of his disenfranchised fellow samurai zygo had been a strong advocate of war with korea as a way in which out of work samurai could find a meaningful and honorable death even going so far as to request to personally travel to korea on a diplomatic mission during which he would behave in such an insulting manner that the koreans would be sure to kill him thus providing japan a pretext for war yet when his audacious plan was rejected he resigned from the government in disgust and returned to his hometown where he went on to establish a training school for unemployed samurai which authorities saw as little more than a front for the recruitment and training of men who would one day become rebels eager to uncover the truth about what was going on in the secretive academies government agents were dispatched to investigate however they were quickly captured and interrogated by the samurai and after enduring hours of torture confessed to being assassin sent by the government to dispatch saiko takamori himself this act was the spark that would ignite outright rebellion as saigo students demanded that he come out of retirement and lead them on the battlefield against the hated government which was destroying their entire way of life despite initially viewing the government army of rifle-armed conscripts with disdain the rebel samurai soon learned how effective modern weaponry and tactics could be suffering a string of decisive defeats at the hands of soldiers they consider to be their inferior yet in the age of the rifle and heavy artillery a lifetime of training with bows and swords made little difference to the outcome of a modern battle after all your skill in swordsmanship counted for nothing if you were cut down by accurate gunfire before even getting within striking range of your enemy outnumbered and outgunned the 20 000 samurai rebels were slowly whittled down until a mere 500 survivors found themselves trapped on the hill of shiroyama by an imperial army of over 30 000 men yet rather than immediately moving in for the kill the imperial general yamagata wanted to leave nothing to chance constructing a series of fortifications around saigo's position to remove any possibility of escape while ordering five nearby warships to bombard the rebels with an estimated 7 000 shells while this might seem like overkill this move is a testament to the formidable reputation saigo and his rebel samurai held and the general order was issued to fire on any enemies engaged even if it meant cutting down friendly troops in the process although massively weakened the remaining rebel samurai were not to be underestimated surrounded on the hill saigo refused to surrender despite being given the option for him and his men to give up their arms and have their lives spared this was to be the last stand of the last samurai with peace terms rejected the imperial troops attacked after a final massive bombardment of the samurai position however rather than sitting back and waiting to be destroyed saigo and his men charged forward despite being outnumbered by as much as 60 to one reportedly managing to get close enough to engage their foes up close and personal with their swords unleashing panic and disarray amongst the imperial soldiers who had not been trained to deal with such antiquated combat techniques for a brief moment it looked as though the massively outnumbered rebels might actually prevail as the imperial lines buckled under the ferocious samurai assault however after three hours of combat the samurai attack finally faulted against the sheer weight of numbers opposing them and when saigon was wounded in the stomach and thigh the last 40 rebels still alive retreated back up the hill to witness the commander end his own life via ritual sabuku the legendary leader remaining a true samurai until the very end having endured hours of bombardment from thousands of shells trapped with no hope of escape and now leaderless with their cause and very reason for living reduced to ashes the 40 remaining samurai rebels drew their swords emerged from the shadows and charged down the hill directly into the overwhelming firepower of their waiting foe where they were killed to the last man cut to pieces by overwhelming enemy firepower which included the new and extremely lethal gatling guns more romantic accounts of the charge paint the samurai as meeting their end in glorious hand-to-hand combat with the enemy however it's far more likely that they were unceremoniously mowed down by the torrents of bullets spewing out of the gatling guns before they got anywhere close enough to even threaten the imperial soldiers the charge and subsequent deaths of these last 40 rebels on the blood-stained grass of the hillside marked both the end of the rebellion and the end of the old ways of the japanese samurai these proud warriors who had fought to the last man to preserve their traditions passing into history with a defiant roar while at the same time serving as a bloody demonstration of how simple conscripts armed with modern weapons and basic training could crush the famed military nobility of old paving the way for the expansion of a national japanese army that would go on to dominate east asia humble the western powers and play a crucial role in the course of the 20th century number three pickett's charge on the third and final day of the battle of gettysburg the fate of the united states of america lay in the hands of 13 000 confederate troops who were given orders to charge directly into the center of the enemy's defenses in an audacious last-ditch attempt to win the battle and the entire american civil war in one dramatic courage-fuelled assault yet despite their incredible bravery this bold maneuver would go down in history as one of the main turning points in the conflict not due to its stunning success but to its disastrous defeat as the cream of the confederate army was thrown into the hopeless and futile meat grinder that would inflict a casualty rate of 50 percent in just a single hour of grim combat that gruesomely demonstrated how in the age of modern weaponry the time of the heroic head-on charge was coming to an end its limitations in the face of overwhelming firepower laid bare for all to see in the mounds of ruined confederate corpses strewn across the battlefield this entirely avoidable disaster dealing an irreversible blow to the southern war effort from which the confederate states of america would never fully recover with the destructive american civil war ravaging the country in july 1863 confederate general robert e lee led 75 000 men north on a second invasion of the union in a year hoping to win a decisive victory that might put an end to the ruinous conflict once and for all such a bold attack would relieve pressure on war-ravaged virginia by forcing union troops back on the defensive while at the same time allowing the confederate army to live off the rich farmlands of the north without needing to draw on precious supplies from home if the invasion went well general lee could threaten philadelphia pennsylvania and washington and perhaps even take advantage of the growing peace movement in the north forcing politicians to give up the prosecution of the war and sue for peace however the battle that followed was about to shatter these lofty dreams the two armies collided at gettysburg on july the 1st as general lee threw everything he had at the union army in a concerted effort to destroy them and leave the path north unguarded yet after two days of fighting that inflicted massive losses on both sides the union defenders were still stubbornly holding on and the entire battle seemed likely to descend into a bloody stalemate as each hour passed the confederate dream of a dramatic final invasion of the north began to fade however general lee was convinced that one last grand all-out assault on the union center would break the enemy lines once and for all earning him and his army the total victory that had so far proved elusive the plan called for around 13 000 men to charge the union center in the aftermath of a massive artillery bombardment the seething massive men converging on a perceived weak point in enemy lines in one almighty fist it was hoped that this dramatic all-out assault would completely overwhelm the yankee defenders enabling the confederates to punch a hole in the union lines which would open up the way north shatter the union army and thus end the war in one fell swoop on the third and final day of the battle of gettysburg the plan that would become pickett's charge was put into motion as a massive artillery duel commenced on a scale never seen before on american soil the combined thunderclap of 300 union and confederate guns deafening the thousands of men within earshot each soldier no doubt praying to make it through the day without feeling the deadly bite of the thousands of shells crashing down across the battlefield confederate planners hoped that the sheer scale of the bombardment would destroy the union army's artillery and thus greatly improve the odds that the planned charge would succeed however a series of mistakes would result in the confederate infantry facing the full fury of the largely intact yankee cannons huge clouds of smoke given off by the artillery barrage concealed much of the battlefield and made judging accurate distances and range virtually impossible while the shell fuses supply to the rebel artillerymen were slower burning than those they normally worked with resulting in a significant portion of the bombardment overshooting union lines leaving the position about to be charged by the infantry relatively unscathed yet it was a final masterful deception that would seal the fate of the southern infantryman preparing to attack the officer in charge of the union artillery ordered his guns to cease firing so as to save enough shells to repel the forthcoming attack however rather than silencing all of his cannon at the same time he staggered the shutdown gradually to create the illusion that they were steadily being destroyed by the ferocious confederate bombardment a ploy that lulled general lee into believing that the union artillery had been neutralized and no longer posed a threat to his infantryman waiting in the wings to attack this belief couldn't have been further from the truth and the men taking part in the charge were about to pay a heavy price for the mistakes of the officers with the artillery duel over at 2pm around 13 000 confederate troops were given the order to advance the nine infantry brigades stretched across a one mile front steadily walking towards their impending doom worryingly the artillery cover they were promised had not materialized the rows of rebel cannons standing maddeningly inactive behind them as no resupplies of shells had been brought forward reducing the advancing infantry to little more than defenseless fodder for the hungry union guns eagerly preparing to receive them as the rebels approached their foes the calm of a sunny afternoon was quickly subsumed by the hellish sound of the northern artillery opening up in unison the deadly payloads punching into the tightly packed ranks of the grey-coated confederates with horrific results as men were tossed into the air like ragdolls or torn into unidentifiable pieces as huge gaps were carved out of their lines the men still standing naturally moved in to fill them until the entire front was shrunk to just 500 yards after weathering such a terrible storm of death the union positions were finally within reach and the rebels charged forward however the suffering at the hands of the enemy artillerymen was far from over with the confederate infantry just a few hundred yards away and rapidly closing the distance the union gunners switched to canister shot cylindrical rounds filled with hundreds of iron balls which effectively transformed the cannons into giant shotguns capable of laying waste to entire platoons of men with a single blast while the union infantry added to the carnage firing volley after volley into the advancing army despite being on the receiving end of such a horrific firestorm the confederates refused to give in and continued charging forward climbing their way over obstacles that littered the battlefield until they could finally unleash retaliation yet despite managing to force open a breach in the union lines there were simply not enough confederate troops left alive to keep it open or exploited and as union reinforcements counter-charged into the breach the rebels were forced to retreat just a single hour of combat had seen pickett's charge repulsed with over 50 percent casualties the battlefield the rebels had advanced across just 60 minutes earlier now carpeted with the broken bodies of the dead and dying general lee's grand dreams of a decisive breakthrough shattered the gamble had failed and many historians believe that the south never fully recovered militarily or psychologically from the costly failure of pickett's charge the furthest point reached that fateful afternoon often referred to as the symbolic high-water mark of the confederacy and although the war would continue for another two grueling years total defeat had now become an almost unavoidable certainty number two the battle of omdaman outnumbered more than two to one a british colonial invasion force would utterly crush the sudanese enemies while losing just 47 men for the more than 12 000 they slaughtered in a decisive victory that methodically demonstrated the utter superiority of a highly disciplined army equipped with cutting-edge weaponry over sheer numbers and brute force in a pivotal battle that birthed two spectacular charges each with vastly differing results as a massive sudanese charge was cut to pieces by the modern firepower of precise artillery and rapid-fire machine guns while the last official formal cavalry charge in british history survived a lethal ambush and made heroes of the men involved the annihilation of the sudanese army concluding a war that although supposedly inspired by revenge for the earlier beheading of a british general was in fact waged with far more cynical objectives the sudan of the late 19th century was far from a harmonious place with occupation by the british controlled egyptian neighbours in the north characterized by extreme brutality and excessive taxation the country was teetering on the brink of all-out revolt and so when a charismatic leader calling himself the mahdi took on the mantle of a long prophesied messiah sent to redeem the islamic faith thousands of discontented sudanese flocked to his banner to take part in a holy war which he promised would drive out the egyptians british and anyone else who might dare interfere in the sudan from his base in darfur the maddie managed to inflict several defeats upon british and egyptian forces that had been sent to crush him each victory adding to his prestige and swelling his ranks with fresh recruits leading to the british deciding to abandon the sudan once and for all rather than risk suffering further costly and embarrassing defeats general charles gordon was the man dispatched by london in 1884 to oversee the safe evacuation of all egyptian and british forces stationed across the sudan however upon his arrival in khartoum he decided to disobey his orders and instead attempt to keep control of the country believing that giving in to religious rebels here might encourage further revolts in egypt endangering british control over the suez canal which was her lifeline to india and the rest of her empire in the far east hoping to pressure the british government into sending reinforcements he prepared a last-ditch defense of the city of khartoum however no aid arrived and after a nine-month siege by the madis forces the rebels overwhelmed the city and beheaded the defined general gordon's abandonment by the british government and his subsequent violent deaths at the hands of men viewed as little more than criminals caused a fiery uproar back in britain and the late general became something of a national martyr who had been callously sacrificed by craven politicians and almost immediately calls for revenge rang out across the streets of london however it would take 13 years before british wrath would be unleashed back in the sudan the victorious maddie had little time to celebrate vanquishing general gordon succumbing to typhus just three months later however his successor was determined to follow in the original maddie's footsteps ruthlessly cementing his hold over the country and wiping out any remaining tribes who still refused to fall in line it was not until 1896 that a new british prime minister authorized a return to the sudan supposedly to avenge general gordon's earlier demise but in reality motivated by the never-ending game of international politics and imperialism which demanded that british interests in the region be protected from rival french territorial ambitions general kitchener was dispatched with around 25 000 men armed with the latest and greatest firepower the potent force tasked with defeating the madi and restoring british control over the sudan kitchener was not the kind of man to leave anything to chance and rather than storming into the country guns blazing he ordered the construction of a 385 mile long railway snaking through the sudan running parallel to the river nile to ensure that his army would have access to supplies and transport via land and sea slowly moving his army south as the railway grew in length the railway was finally completed on july the 3rd 1898 and by the end of august general kitchener was just 18 miles from khartoum and within striking distance of a small town named omtaman a seemingly insignificant place to outsiders but practically a holy capital for the madists since it was the location of the first maddie's tomb such an important site could not simply be abandoned without a fight and so the sudanese prepared to make a final stand against the invaders in a battle that would determine the fate of the entire country confident that the madi would come to him kitchener deployed his army in an arc formation with their backs to the nile from where a flotilla of 12 gunboats could provide heavy artillery cover and waited for the enemy storm to arrive despite possessing the latest firepower the british empire could muster his 25 000 men were still outnumbered two to one by an enemy who had already proved their bravery and skill in battle on countless occasions as night fell kitchener's men peered nervously into the surrounding darkness well aware that should the madi attack their own advantage in high-tech rifles and artillery would be nullified by the pitch black of the night however in a move that still baffles military historians to this day the madi leader made the fateful decision to attack at sunrise a disastrous error that would cost him his army and his life rather than sitting back and waiting for the british to come to them a human wave containing some 8 000 sudanese spearmen and riflemen charged straight at the british lines and the maelstrom of artillery and gunfire they unleashed shells from 52 quick-firing artillery pieces rained down upon the swarming mass of soldiers as soon as they were in range exploding amongst the tightly packed ranks with terrible results yet still the sudanese advanced soon the storm of artillery fire was joined by the unending volleys of machine gun fire from state-of-the-art maxim guns the world's first self-powered machine guns capable of spewing out a deadly 600 rounds per minute that cut through the sudanese charging towards them with chilling efficiency yet still they kept coming finally the disciplined rifle fire of the british and egyptian infantry opened up on the already tormented sudanese who had somehow made it this far the hollow-point bullets they fired causing horrific internal injuries to any man unfortunate enough to be struck against such a terrible barrage of lead and explosive the sudanese wave of flesh and blood stood little chance no matter how brave and determined and men were torn to pieces in their thousands during the resulting carnage in fact the british firepower was so intense that it's estimated that not a single sudanese soldier got closer than 50 meters to british lines the entire charge stopped dead in its tracks after some 4 000 men were cut down equalling a staggering 50 percent of those taking part in the charge next it was the turn of the british to launch their own charge with the madison full retreat kitchener ordered the 21st lancers to pursue the fleeing remnants and prevent them from escaping to omdaman the 320 advancing horsemen quickly spotted a small group of 100 or so skirmishers and launched what was about to become the last formal cavalry charge in british army history expecting to make short work of the quarry the lance's initial glee quickly turned to horror as they reached their objective discovering some 3000 sudanese warriors hidden in a dry watercourse waiting to ambush them yet by now the sheer momentum of their charge meant that they were irreversibly committed the 320 cavalrymen crashed head-on into the seething massive enemy the impact of the charge so great that hundreds of sudanese were trampled to death in the first few seconds yet this charge would be far from one-sided some 30 men were almost immediately unhorsed surrounded and hacked to pieces by their furious foes and before long the entire charge descended into little more than a chaotic melee of brutal close-quarters combat each side slashing at the other with wild abandon by the time the surviving lancers managed to escape a mere two minutes later 22 men had been killed along with another 50 wounded and 119 horses lost this single small cavalry charge claiming over 40 percent of all british casualties for the entire battle making heroes of the survivors back home in the process the sudanese launched two unsuccessful counter-attacks before withdrawing from the field having lost over half their army by the end of the day twelve thousand madist corpses lay strewn across the battlefield in a gruesome illustration of the killing efficiency of the modern weaponry wielded by the british a point made crystal clear when you consider that the victory was won at a cost of just 47 british and egyptians the war would drag on for another year however the battle of onderman broke the back of the maddest movement and made the reconquest of the sudan inevitable the blood-soaked battlefield not only avenging the murdered general gordon but fending off the attentions of the french and securing egypt and the sewers canal for the british empire number one the siege of vienna the history books are littered with bold and boastful claims about supposedly decisive moments that completely altered human history however if there is one event that not only lives up to the lofty tales that have since been told about it but perhaps even exceeds them then surely it's the charge of the polish winged hussars at the battle of vienna in 1683 as a mighty coalition of twenty thousand polish austrian and german cavalry put aside their petty differences and united together into one mailed fist to defend christian europe carrying out the largest cavalry charge in history as they smashed head-on into a massive ottoman invasion force that was just moments away from capturing the vitally important city of vienna the sheer weight of iron and flesh that tore into their ranks utterly smiting the invaders in doing so bringing the seemingly unstoppable expansion of the ottoman empire to a grinding halt and finally slaying the turkish menace that had struck terror into the hearts of european leaders for centuries europe and the near east had long been at war muslim invaders had reached as far as france in the west before being thrown back and overran much of what remained of the roman empire in the east seizing control of syria egypt and north africa only held at bay from striking further into the continent by the tenacity of a series of gifted byzantine emperors who used their limited remaining resources to stave off the looming and inevitable death of the millennia-old empire yet from the 14th century onwards it was the ottoman sultans of modern-day turkey who posed the greatest threat to the christian world pushing the borders of the empire deep into eastern europe having finally brought down the decaying byzantine empire at the fall of constantinople reaching as far as hungary as they rapidly rose to become the greatest military and political power of the age the ottoman sultan controlling a vast empire that stretched across europe africa and persia the strategically important city of vienna now lay in the crosshairs of the ottomans as it not only controlled a number of valuable trade routes but also barred the way to further expansion into central europe and germany yet capturing such a prize had eluded even the mighty sultan suleiman the magnificent his attempt at besieging the city in 1529 ending in a disastrous failure however the ottomans desire to take control of the city would never fade it would take more than a century and a half before the time was right for another attempt on vienna to be made as with europe left divided and weakened after the devastation wrought by the protestant reformation and thirty years war the city finally seemed ripe for conquest with european nations squabbling amongst each other over religion and border disputes and with the two european superpowers of austria and france at each other's throats it must have seemed to the ottomans that if vienna was attacked then christian europe would be unable to put up any kind of unified resistance keento finally seized the city years of meticulous preparations came to fruition in april 1683 as an ottoman army some 150 000 to 300 000 strong marched north to finally incorporate vienna into the empire clearing the way for unlimited expansion into the rest of europe after surrounding vienna with his enormous army the ottoman commander demanded that the city's hopelessly outmatched garrison of 11 000 soldiers and 5 000 militia volunteers lay down their arms and surrender unconditionally or face death however word had reached the trapped viennese of an ottoman massacre of unarmed citizens of a nearby town who had been given a similar choice and chose to surrender yet were put to the sword nonetheless the austrian defenders refused to give in and vow to fight to the death if the city was to fall then they would go down on their feet not on their knees as their 150 cannons unleashed an unrelenting bombardment upon vienna the ottomans set to work digging a vast network of trenches to shield their troops from enemy fire as they advanced towards the city walls while at the same time the sappers carved out elaborate tunnels running below the austrian fortifications allowing engineers to place explosive mines underneath the towering walls above for two months the siege continued vienna's defenders stubbornly keeping their foe at bay despite being outnumbered by as much as twenty to one yet the unrelenting turkish tide could only be resisted for so long as the strength and manpower was slowly whittled away by the ravages of siege warfare it seemed that defeat was all but certain for the desperate band of austrian men who dare to defy the ottoman sultan however despite the deep divisions plaguing the christian world many european leaders were not willing to simply sit back and allow the ottomans to gain such an important foothold into central europe a foothold that could quite easily be used as a springboard for further invasions and perhaps even result in the eventual conquest of the entire continent with the full support of the pope austrian leaders had been working frantically on the diplomatic front managing to secure the support of several german states in the holy roman empire who subsequently assembled a relief force under the leadership of the emperor however perhaps most crucially of all the famed polish king sobieski agreed to join the anti-ottoman alliance and march towards vienna at the head of the entire polish army leaving his own kingdom virtually defenseless in the process as the german and polish relief force closed in on vienna the ottoman commander ordered the bulk of his forces to attack them but made the mistake of leaving a sizeable force to continue the siege in the desperate hope of taking vienna before the polish king arrived with his feared cavalry rather than throwing everything they had at the christian relief army the ottomans split their forces and thus failed in both of their objectives proving unable to take vienna nor crush the relief army coming to his aid the ottomans who survived this failed attack now found themselves trapped between the walls of vienna and a rapidly approaching relief force containing 47 000 german troops and a further 27 000 poles including 3 000 of the legendary winged hussars elite heavy lancers who were widely considered to be the best cavalry in the world thanks to their impressive record on the battlefield and proclivity for delivering crushing battle-winning all-out charges that completely overran the opposition exactly why they wore the famous wings is still debated with some believing that they made a terror-inducing noise as the wind blew through them at full gallop with others arguing that the huge wings frightened enemy horses who were unaccustomed to their sight but whatever the real reason they gave the cavalry unit a strange but unmistakable appearance when you saw the winged riders approaching there was no doubt about who you were about to face on the battlefield so perhaps plain old intimidation was the main reason for their use after a long day of fighting a huge force of 18 000 german and polish cavalry slowly emerged from the forests atop the hills surrounding vienna headed by the polish king and his three thousand winged tessars a huge cheer emerged from the beleaguered christian infantry who had been battling all day to keep the ottomans at bay for they knew salvation had finally arrived after scattering the turkish cavalry sobyeski ordered his 18 thousand men to charge directly at the center of the ottoman camp in an effort to end the battle in one all-out attack that would become the largest cavalry charge in human history the sound of 18 000 horses galloping down the hill at the same time created a thunderous man-made earthquake that could be heard for miles around the unstoppable wave of steel and flesh crashing into the ottoman infantry at the foot of the hill and carving out huge holes in the tightly packed lines the piercing impact of the blow delivered by the wing tessar's long lances could neither be avoided nor deflected and thousands of turks met their demise impaled on the end of a polish lance in just the opening minutes of the charge the fearsomely long weapons often skewering two men at the same time against this massive and unstoppable tide of men and horses the ottoman will to fight on crumbled and their once orderly lines collapsed into a disorderly mob of men fleeing for their lives the unstoppable momentum of the charge carrying the christian cavalry all the way through to the supply tents in the ottoman rear with the turks in full flight the real slaughter began as the victorious poles and germans ruthlessly pursued their fleeing enemy cutting down thousands in the process and although sporadic fighting continued into the night the unrelenting force of the largest cavalry charge in history had completely smashed the ottoman army and ended the entire battle leaving as many as 15 000 turkish corpses strewn across the battlefield the poles and germans entered vienna in triumph the city and perhaps all of europe had been saved thanks to king sobieski's charge and with the ottoman drive into central europe utterly crashed the failed siege marked the beginning of the end of ottoman domination in eastern europe and the start of the empire's long and terminal decline the turkish threat to the christian world had finally been snuffed out however despite the glory won by the winged hussars that fateful day even they could not escape the unending march of history and advances in firearms and artillery would soon render them obsolete but not forgotten so those are my choices for five of the most legendary charges in history let me know in the comments which other charges you would have included and i'll see you again on the next video

Channel: Unknown5

Views: 900,497

Keywords: charges, legendary, unknown5, top5, top 10, top 5, history, documentary, education, entertainment, long documentaries, history documentary, samurai, winged hussars

Id: Oawd8XrJ9Mw

Length: 44min 35sec (2675 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 05 2019