The (Staggering) Siege of Vienna 1683

Video Statistics and Information

Video
Captions Word Cloud
Reddit Comments

Kara Mustafas Zelt war angeblich am heutigen Augustinplatz in 1070 aufgestellt.

đŸ‘ïžŽ︎ 1 đŸ‘€ïžŽ︎ u/FatFaceRikky đŸ“…ïžŽ︎ Oct 05 2020 đŸ—«︎ replies

Fun fact // Story ; der (angebliche) SchÀdl Kara Mustafas wurde aus dem Grab in Edirne Geraubt und an die Stadt wien geschickt - die in ihre Sammlungen aufgenommen hat - wurde bis Anfang 2000er im wien Museum ausgestellt

đŸ‘ïžŽ︎ 1 đŸ‘€ïžŽ︎ u/Aberfrog đŸ“…ïžŽ︎ Oct 06 2020 đŸ—«︎ replies
Captions
On the 14th July 1683, an Ottoman army under the command of the Grand Vizier Kara Mustafa Pasha arrived at the Gates of Vienna. Their arrival marked the beginning of a siege characterized by subterranean warfare, delays on both sides, and an “apocalyptic storm” of Tatar riders ravaging the hinterland. The siege was eventually ended by the battle of Vienna, when the Polish winged Hussars arrived under King Jan III Sobieski famously charged into the Ottoman army. The siege and battle of Vienna are discussed extensively by historians up to this day. It is considered the turning point in the westward expansion of the Ottomans and it is an interesting case study for any student of warfare. This is how contemporary historiography tells the story of the staggering siege of Vienna: Chapter 1: A Threat from the East When the Ottoman grand vizier Ahmed KöprĂŒlĂŒ died in 1676, there had been twelve years of peace between the Ottomans and the Austrians. After two years of conflict, the Austro-Turkish war had ended with the peace treaty of VasvĂĄr in 1664. KöprĂŒlĂŒ had been satisfied with the benefits of the treaty, but after his death the fanatically anti-Austrian Kara Mustafa Pasha succeeded him as Grand Vizier. In 1682 the peace treaty should have been extended, but the negotiations failed. Further to the west the other great rival of the Habsburg empire at the time, France, noticed the change of mood. They hastened to encourage the Ottoman aspirations. Pressure was adding up on Austria, that since 1678 already had to deal with an open rebellion of the Protestant nobility of Hungary whom the Catholic Habsburgs had been suppressing. The leader of the revolt, Emeric Thököly, quickly gained control over the highlands of upper Hungary. The Ottomans certainly appreciated this development. In 1682 the Ottoman-Hungarian friendship ripened into a full alliance. It soon became obvious that the Ottomans were preparing another war against Austria. It was no surprise when on the 2nd of January 1683, they declared war on the Hapsburgs. Although they had been preparing this war for a while, they were very slow to make their appearance at the border region, as the historian and siege expert Christopher Duffy explains. It took the Ottoman army until the beginning of summer when they had completed their march and were ready to invade Habsburg lands. This gave the defenders the time to prepare themselves and reach out for help. After lengthy negotiations and a series of intrigues the Polish King Jan Sobieski, who had previously considered an alliance with the French, signed a defensive agreement with the Holy Roman Empire on the 31st of March 1683.1 When the Ottoman army reached Belgrade, Sultan Mehmed IV named made Kara Mustafa serasker, that is commander of the army. Then the Sultan exchanged the armor of the warrior for hunting clothes and left the army. According to the historian Klaus-Peter Matschke, it was only when the Ottomans reached Stuhlweissenburg/SzĂ©kesfehĂ©rvĂĄr on the 25th of June that Kara Mustafa announced his further plans.2 To the great consternations of his commanders he intended to push straight on to Vienna instead of reducing the frontier strongholds3. Not only did this take the Ottoman leaders by surprise, but also the defenders of the empire. The commander of their field army, Duke Charles V of Lorraine4 had only about 33’000 men at his disposal. At first, he tried to distract the Ottomans by besieging the fortress of NeuhĂ€usel. This failed and cost him valuable time. He then hurried to Raab5 which had been built up as the main means of the Austrian line of defense by the experienced chief engineer of the Empire Georg Rimpler. Despite all preparations, however, the Tatars swam the river Raab ten miles above the city on the 1st of July and Charles, fearing to be outflanked, left only a small garrison in the city. He himself fell back in the direction of Vienna. Near the town of Petronell the quickly moving Tatars encountered the rearguard of Charles’ army. After some initial confusion in the rows of the rearguard, the Tatars were pushed back and routed. However, for the next months they plundered and ravaged the land around Vienna. This “apocalyptic storm”, as historian Ekkehard Eickhoff calls it, left villages and monasteries in burning ruins while many of their inhabitants were raped, abducted, and killed.6 Meanwhile, according to Christopher Duffy, Kara Mustafa was still in Raab and beset by doubts. He sent a messenger to Sultan Mehmed IV asking for his retrospective approval to attack Vienna.7 The seven-day delay resulting from this request was vital for the Viennese who had only fully understood their situation after the encounter at Petronell. After seven days Kara Mustafa left 12’000 men to blockade Raab and marched towards Vienna – without having received an answer from the Sultan. Emperor Leopold I organised the defense of the city, appointed Count Ernst RĂŒdgier von Starhemberg commander of the garrison, and then left the city on the 7th of July. About 80’000 citizens followed him. 1683 was not the first time an Ottoman army stood at the gates of Vienna. One and a half-century earlier, in 1529, a Turkish army had already tested the defenses of the city. Now, before the second Ottoman siege, it was the task of the famous engineer Georg Rimpler to prepare the already formidable defenses of the city for the upcoming battle.8 According to the historian Andrew Wheatcroft9, Rimpler understood the Turkish style of siege warfare from his experience at the siege of Candia. There he was present when the Ottomans besieged the city for a total of 21 years. He knew that the main threat would be posed by the Turkish miners. He correctly assumed that it was almost impossible to approach the city from the north and east because of the rivers Danube and Wien. So, Rimpler focused his resources on the south-western and southern side of the city.10 Vienna was designed as a bastion fort which meant it was built with thick and relatively low walls of earth and stone, intended to withstand artillery fire for a long time. Moreover, the bastions and their corresponding outworks were aligned in a way that they could cover all areas of attack with musket and artillery fire. Rimpler ordered to cut embrasures in the parapets of the existing defenses to create protected artillery positions and, wherever there was enough space, had his soldiers – supported by the people of Vienna – build strong retrenchments and palisades on the bastions and ravelins. On the far side of the ditch, the Viennese also strengthened the covered way by adding additional strongpoints and palisaded traverses.11 These were additional small walls on the covered way. They were built to reduce damage by enemy artillery fire, prevent enfilades and contain attackers in case the outer defensive line would be breached. In the ditch itself a lower rampart, in military jargon a faussebraye, was built and a network of covered passageways, called caponiers, was run from the ravelins to the shoulder angles of the adjacent bastions. This covered the ditch with fire from a secured position. Young and old worked frantically on the defenses until the last possible minute. Food and powder were still brought into the city during the last moments, together with masses of people from the hinterland seeking refuge behind the walls. Rimpler made Vienna a towering stronghold of steel, stone, and earth. Chapter 2: David vs Goliath On the 14th of July, finally, Kara Mustafa and his men arrived at the gates of Vienna. The size of his army is still subject to debate. Ekkehard Eickhoff reckons he brought about 150’000 men, but numbers given by modern scholars range from 110’000 to 200’000.12 About 20’000 of them were Janissaries, the elite infantry of the Ottoman army. Kara Mustafa and his vast force faced a garrison that was relatively small for a city of the size of Vienna. The commander of the defense, Ernst RĂŒdiger von Starhemberg had only about 10’000 regular soldiers and an unexperienced urban militia at his disposal. All in all, this was about a tenth of the Ottoman force. On the day the Ottomans arrived, a messenger informed the Polish King Jan Sobieski about the dire situation of the town. Immediately, Sobieski began to muster the Polish army. He planned to march before the end of July and to reach the gates of Vienna with 50’000 men on the 20th of August. The Ottomans made camp west of Vienna. On the 15th of July the Grand Vizier sent an envoy to the city demanding from the Viennese to capitulate, to convert to Islam and to pay tribute to the Ottoman Empire.13 Starhemberg refused – and the Ottoman guns opened fire.14 The Ottomans had significantly less artillery at hand than the defenders of the city, which was highly unusual for a siege. Moreover, according to Christopher Duffy, their guns were mostly of medium caliber and they didn't have any heavy pieces at all. This meant that breaching walls as thick as those of Vienna from afar was even more difficult than with heavy guns. Like in any other European siege, the Ottomans had to dig extensive networks of ditches and trenches to slowly approach the walls and install artillery positions close enough to breach the wall. Much to the Ottoman’s delight, they could open their trenches very close to the walls, covered safely by the ruins of the Viennese suburbs outside the walls. These had been burnt by the defenders, but they were not fully destroyed.15 By the 16th of July, Vienna was completely surrounded.16 To answer the encirclement the isolated Viennese garrison had to come up with some way of communicating with the field army, their allies, and the emperor. The solution was a group of brave messengers who either swam the Danube at night or somehow sneaked through the enemy lines. These messengers maintained a trickling flow of communication. However, not all of these stealth missions were successful. Some of the messengers were caught by the Ottomans and interrogated. This was the case with one envoy heading for the camp of the field army on the 18th of July. He was tortured until he told Kara Mustafa the numbers of the defenders. Starting in the Suburbs, the Ottomans drove forward three groups of trenches against the Löwel-Bastion, the Burg-Ravelin and the Burg-Bastion.17 The Ottoman trenches wormed forward quickly and in the night of the 22nd to the 23rd of July the first battery was established and opened fire. In parallel to the earthwork on the surface, tunnels were dug by Ottoman miners and on the 24th the first two mines exploded on the far side of the ditch opposite the Löwel- and Burgbastion. Subsequently, the Viennese positioned a man in every basement to listen for digging and tapping noises to detect future mine attacks early. They now also began to dig mine-tunnels themselves, but they had fewer and less experienced miners. On the 25th of July Ottoman mines damaged the palisades opposite the Löwel- and Burg-Bastion and during a successful counterattack against one of the breaches, Rimpler's left arm was shattered.18 He was taken back to the city, where he died on the 3rd of August. Vienna had lost its best engineer. Chapter 3 The Battle for the Covered Way The Viennese continued to undermine the Ottoman trenches. Their first mine under the field fortifications of the Ottomans exploded on the 26th of July but didn’t cause much damage. On the following days, the Ottoman miners were much more successful. They repeatedly collapsed parts of the palisades and the covered way.19 On the 30th July, one explosion near the Burg-Bastion was followed by an assault of the janissaries. This, the Viennese couldn’t stop. They were forced to abandon their trenches and pull back to the covered way.20 The Ottomans now reached the palisades in front of the ravelin and installed a battery of thirty guns before the Löwel-Bastion. In almost no time, the Ottomans destroyed the elevated artillery platform of the bastion, the cavalier. The Viennese couldn’t do anything about it and had to confine themselves to recover their artillery from the chaos and to cut embrasures into the remnants of this defensive structure. In the meantime, the emperor had arrived in Passau from where he relentlessly organized support for the relief of the city. This was an expensive undertaking. Most of the finances were supplied by Pope Innocent XI21 who wanted to prevent any further Muslim expansion in Europe by all means necessary. An additional budget was granted by the imperial diet. First reinforcements from Bavaria appeared on the 23rd of July. Further reinforcements were on the march and Leopold I was informed that Sobieski was gathering his men. The field army under Charles of Lorraine had taken position in Jedlesee, north of Vienna and was constantly skirmishing with the Tatars and trying to secure strategically important locations. However, he couldn’t hinder the Ottomans to take several cities and strongholds in the surrounding area of Vienna. In the Ottoman camp Kara Mustafa came under pressure when he finally received an answer from Sultan Mehmed. The Sultan was bewildered that the Grand Vizier attacked Vienna instead of supporting the Hungarian uprising and conquering strongholds along the border. Meanwhile, tension within the city rose as well. On the 27th of July the Viennese mobilized all able-bodied men not already serving and began to fix prices for fundamental goods such as food and medication. Additionally, the bodies heaping up within the city were becoming a problem. Orders on how to dispose of them were issued. On the other side of the walls supplies ran low as well. Nobody had expected the siege to last that long and at the end of the month all provisions in the Ottoman camp had been eaten up. Additional supplies had to be brought from the remote Ofen, today Budapest, because the Tatar raids had destroyed much of the surroundings during their raids. Although it became increasingly more difficult for messengers to get through the Ottoman lines, from time to time a brave soul made it. The risk repelled most from even trying and those who did demanded an extraordinary reward of up to 200 ducats, which equals approximately 100’000 to 150’000 dollars. Probably the most famous among these messengers was the Polish nobleman Jerzy Franciszek Kulczycki, who sneaked out of the city disguised as Turk and came back on the 17th of August to inform the battered Viennese that a relief army of nearly 70’000 men was gathering near the city. Legend has it that he used his reward to open the first cafĂ© in Vienna, using coffee beans left behind by the Ottomans. However, nowadays most scholars regard this as a myth. In the meantime, the Ottoman pressure on the covered way increased from day to day until on the 3rd of August they conquered a long stretch of it. The defenders had no choice but to abandon the palisades before the ravelin. Continuing their advance, the Ottomans built descents into the ditch.22 This heralded the second stage of the siege, the battle for the ditch. Chapter 4: The Battle For The Ditch The Ottomans entered the ditch through two tunnels opposite the bastions and began to work their way towards the ravelin. While the Ottomans advanced their saps and mines, the defenders could now utilize Rimpler’s low lying caponiers. From the safety of these defenses they maintained a deadly fire and by using lose earth from an exploded mine, they built a number of small redoubts.23 Even though the Viennese destroyed the tunnel closest to the Burg-Bastion and buried 30 Ottomans alive, the besiegers came closer. In a storm assault on the 8th of August the first janissarIES reached the city wall. On the next few days, Ottomans mines exploded under the Bastions and the ravelin, causing a breach in the latter which the Viennese barred only in the last possible moment. Then, they launched a number of sorties to destroy the tunnels of the attackers. They all failed and many valuable men were lost. The Ottoman pressure on the city lasted. While the fight in the trenches was raging on, the bloody flux broke out in the city. This is an infectious disease that results in diarrhea with blood. It decimated the town's population across all social groups. Count of Starhemberg too fell sick on the 11th of August. He survived, but it took almost ten days until he recovered enough to take up command again. By then, he had to conscript all men who had not yet been working on the defenses or fighting, even those who weren’t able bodied. Those who refused were threatened to face the death penalty. The Ottomans, meanwhile, made further progress. Despite three of their own mines being destroyed by Viennese counter mines and artillery, they had advanced to the center of the ditch by the 15th of August. The Viennese immediately launched a sortie to counter the Ottoman progress. This time round, they succeeded and dealt the attackers a severe blow. Storming forward from their positions, they killed most Ottomans in the ditch, then destroyed their earthwork, burnt support beams and finally destroyed all the mines they found. For the Ottomans this was a severe setback. It took them 12 days to regain full control over the lost positions. For the next two weeks, no side made any notable progress, although they had a number of bloody fights. More Ottoman mines exploded 24 and their soldiers charged the positions of the defenders repeatedly. These, in turn, tried to throw the attackers back further by launching sorties. Both parties won little but suffered heavy losses. Overall, the Viennese who were fewer in number suffered more from this than the large Ottoman army. Later, in the last week of August, when heavy rainfall turned the siege into a mud fight, Starhemberg mobilized all resources. He ordered his men to construct a second line of defense behind the city walls spanning from Burg-Bastion to Löwel-Bastion.25 The commander feared for the city walls. While the defenders of Vienna were struggling to hold up against the ongoing assaults, the emperor had no choice but to wait for more reinforcements as they were arriving slowly, little by little.26 Charles V of Lorraine and his army left Jedlesee on the 24th of August and marched towards the agreed venue at Tulln. However, the most important reinforcements were late. King Jan III Sobieski left KrakĂłw only on the 14th of August – two weeks later than he had promised.27 Chapter 5: “We Remember in September
” On the 1st of September a messenger made it to the city and brought news that the relief army would soon arrive. He was immediately sent back to the emperor with a desperate appeal for help: The defenders couldn’t take it any longer. The toll of the ongoing bombardment of the city was high. In early September food ran out. While the Ottomans could at least forage small amounts of food, hunger became a real problem within the city. Only short lived relief came when two successful sorties from the Schottentor brought back 22 oxen and two horses. This was no long-time solution for the large Viennese population but it alleviated the problem for the moment. To signal the dire situation to the approaching relief army, every night the Viennese launched rockets from the tower of the St. Stephens Cathedral (Stephansdom). While the situation was becoming more and more dire, Starhemberg pushed everyone hard to finish the line of defense in the streets behind the threatened section of the wall. They dug redoubts and walkways, built palisades and parapets feverishly and desperately. On the other side of the wall, the Ottomans continued their approach. The defenders again made multiple sorties to destroy more Ottoman mining tunnels, but they mostly failed.28 Eventually, Starhemberg ordered his men to abandon the rests of the ravelin, the counterscarp and the caponiers. By the night of 2nd to 3rd September the ottoman trenches virtually embraced the ravelin. Their mine tunnels reached two to three meters under the city walls. Now everything came down to the defense of the curtain wall, that is the piece of wall between the two bastions. While the Ottomans reinforced their saps by covering them with a roofing of planks, tree trunks and sandbags, the Austrians relentlessly pelted them with earthenware hand grenades. Enemy miners now frequently encountered each other in their tunnels. The tunnels had grown so dense that they virtually formed a subterranean network. When miners of the two sides encountered each other – either by coincidence or intentionally because they wanted to destroy the others mines or tunnels – bloody and brutal struggles ensued. With melee weapons, crammed together in the muddy dark tunnels where they could often barely stand upright, the men blindly fought for their lives. The commanders of the relief army, Charles of Lorraine and Jan III Sobieski met at Oberhollabrunn far ahead of their armies on the 31st of August to hold a council of war. According to Ekkehard Eickhoff, it was somewhat surprising how well the two got along, considering that they had both competed for the throne of Poland twice in the past. Charles V left the overall command to the Polish king without quarrels. Five days later their two armies and troops of Bavaria, Saxony and various other German states joined near Tulln. According to Christopher Duffy this force numbered about 68’000 men in total (21’000 imperial, 20’000 poles, 18’000 Bayern und Sachsen, weitere kleine kontingente). In early September the first mine detonated under the curtain wall. Although it was very effective, lose parts of the wall fell towards the ditch and slowed down the Ottoman assault following the blast. This gave the townspeople enough time to bar the gap with strong palisades. Shortly after, another explosion tore down a large segment of the Burg-Bastion. Janissaries were sighted on top of the bastion. However, the ascent was too steep for a full-scale assault. After two hours, the janissaries had no choice but to give in to the steady fire of the defenders and to pull back. The breach was fixed with sandbags and chevaux de frises, that is, portable barriers of spikes, and fully closed under the cover of night. At that time, the strain of continuous battle was heavily wearing down both belligerents. The Ottoman troops were disaffected with Kara Mustafa because he doled out their pay. The Tatar leaders were offended by the way he treated them, too. According to Christopher Duffy the janissaries were especially discontented because the siege had been going on for longer than the customary forty days and because they feared the Grand Vizier could negotiate terms with the city which would deprive them of their right to plunder. Although the mood in the Ottoman camp was now running low, they again tried on the next day. After detonating two more mines at the outer end of the Löwel-Bastion, they launched another assault and were repelled again. Within the city, no more than 4’000 able-bodied men were left to defend Vienna. On top of that, the artillerymen refused to take their position unless they got a massive pay rise and the citizens would only set to work when threatened with death. As time was passing, the relief army came ever closer. Pressure rose on Kara Mustafa who wanted to take the city before it arrived. When a Viennese envoy who betrayed his city informed Mustafa that the relief army was very close, he fully realized how pressing his situation was. The grand vizier prepared for a clash. On the 7th of September he had no choice but to muster his troops and redeploy his troops to face the relief attack. He held a council of war on the upcoming battle and scouted the possible approaches for Sobieski and Charles of Lorraine. In the meantime, the Ottomans conquered the faussebraye on the next day and prepared five huge mines under the city walls. The charges were placed and the fuses ready to light when the relief army came into sight on the height of the Kahlenberg. Chapter 6: And then the Winged Hussars arrived The relief army crossed the Danube over a pontoon bridge not too far from Vienna. At the recommendation of Charles V, who had convinced the Polish King of his battle plan, the relief army left its baggage train and marched through the Vienna Woods. The way through this almost impassable terrain was arduous and slow. Only very few artillery pieces could be brought along. No supplies could reach the men so that they had to march without provisions for two days. However, there were no other difficulties because there were no Ottoman fortifications on the Kahlenberg. On the 11th of September, the Viennese allies arrived on the top of the mountain and went to sleep, already arranged in battle order. In this tense moment Charles of Lorraine received a short note, written by Stahemberg. It said “There is no time to lose, my lord, no time to lose at all.”29 Kara Mustafa left 10’000-15’000 men in the trenches and ordered the rest to deploy for battle at the foot of the hill. When the sun rose above Vienna the allied troops marched down the hill, still holding battle order. The left flank consisted of the imperial field army under the command of Charles of Lorraine, the center of troops from Saxony, Bavaria, Franconia, Swabia and other German states. The Polish under the command of their King formed the right flank. They faced roughly 80’000 Ottoman soldiers who were drawn up in similar matter: Kara Mustafa and the Ottomans in the center, the Moldovian and Walachian vassals on the right and the Tatars on the left flank. When slowly advancing down the hill in full battle order, the left wing of the relief army made contact first. In a fierce struggle they drove back a detachment of Janissaries at Nussdorf. In a steady advance the relief army pushed forward, forcing the Ottomans back. After six hours of constant advance during which most of the fighting happened on the left flank, Charles V and his men stood before the Ottoman camp. Then, they halted to let the Polish catch up on the right flank where they had to cover the longest distance. Now, Sobieski who had been waiting on the Kahlenberg to observe the events, joined his troops. For a moment, the army paused in suspense. Suddenly, the men of the left flank stormed forward, before Charles V had a chance to order the attack. The center of the army almost immediately joined the assault. On the right flank, Jan III Sobieski and his winged Hussars set their horses in motion. On the slightly declining ground they built up their momentum, charged down the hill and swept through the weakened and disordered Ottoman army. Seeing this, the defenders of Vienna gathered their last strength and launched a final sortie to the Ottoman trenches. Before sunset the fight was decided. The Ottoman army turned to flight. Kara Mustafa himself fled as well after his eye had gotten injured. Vienna was saved. After the battle the Polish turned to looting the camp of the defeated where they found enormous treasures. Meanwhile, the rest of the army had to stay in battle order because Charles of Lorraine didn’t yet fully believe in the victory. Nobody thought of pursuing the Ottomans. As the defenders reviewed the damage at the walls, they found the five mines ready to explode and realized they had been at the verge of losing their wall. On the next day, the emperor hurried to the city, participated in the victory mass in the St. Stephens Cathedral. Only on the 18th September Polish and imperial troops set out to pursue the fleeing Ottomans. Meanwhile, Kara Mustafa searched for a scapegoat and executed the governor of Ofen (Buda), claiming that he was the first to flee. However, Sultan Mehmed was well aware of the truth. On the 25th of December, when the Grand Vizier arrived in Belgrade, emissaries of the Sultan delivered to him a death warrant and then strangled him with a silk string.
Info
Channel: SandRhoman History
Views: 783,149
Rating: 4.913578 out of 5
Keywords: siege of vienna 1683, vienna 1683, vienna 1683 history, siege of vienna history, vienna siege history, vienna siege documentary, vienna siege 1683 documentary, documentary, military history, history, educational, sandrhoman, staggering sieges, battle of vienna 1683, battle of vienna, winged hussars, polish winged hussars
Id: ukyquQkQAYo
Channel Id: undefined
Length: 30min 3sec (1803 seconds)
Published: Sun Oct 04 2020
Related Videos
Note
Please note that this website is currently a work in progress! Lots of interesting data and statistics to come.