Battles of Luzhinsky- Extract 4- Copyright Robert Fullarton 2016

Battles of Luzhinsky-

Extract 4- Copyright Robert Fullarton 2016

Hours passed on the hinterlands of Vienna the sounds of musket fire, canon blazing and men shouting could be heard in the distance from where the Polish cavalry has assembled. All the pieces were moving forward on the great chessboard, surmounting destiny, facing direct conflict, like a speedy cataclysm that was bent on conflict at the point of no return. Through the shadows and the sun rise, the armies on either side of the frontier marched in different directions.

The infantry were now well ahead of Luzhinsky, having pressed ahead of the cavalry divisions. Luzhinsky rode beside Colonel Von Goetze, Captain Plodauer, Lieutenant Karlovietz and with columns of ornate Hussarian guard marching on either side, looking prime, taut, energetic and impressive to the impressions which Luzhinsky devoured with a heart of exhilaration. Luzhinsky examined the expanse before him, the rolling hills dipping low, the grassy fringes by the forest, the streams of refugees still passing through with carts and horses passing opposite the Polish army.

Figures with Turbans, Asiatic figures in colourful garbs, elegant swords, were exposed as the Turkish scouts exchanged a volley of musket fire in exchange for the Polish guns that approached the their outer positions. Several soldiers squatted behind the upturned cabs of the local coachmen in the abandoned streets of the village, that acted as makeshift barricades for the soldiers under fire. Resistance was fierce for a short time, but the sheer numerical superiority of the Polish infantry pushed back the hasty and sloppy Ottoman retreat. Men poured through the breach in the Turkish outer defences, the charges and the sheer rage in the swift movements of the Polish positions bore the effect of an earthquake unto a flimsy anthill that had been smashed in two as pike men came forward to slay the enemy that were now exposed from their makeshift defences. There was now an exchange of hand to hand fighting between Ottoman infantry units and Polish pikemen, faces were pressed against each other, in the tight spaces of the raw, unsentimental brutality between strangers on opposite side, with the whites of one Turkish soldier baring hatred with his teeth gnashing and fist tightly clenching a dagger. After nearly a five minute grapple between with his Turkish foe, the Pole struck his knife upwards into the throat of his enemy. His bear like grip loosened, his clutch slipped, the struggle was over, the Pole released his knife in haste and the Turk fell down dead.

“Men be on your guard”, said Von Goetze cautiously as the cavalry detachment approached from behind the skirmish mopping up resistance remained.

“We have orders to find an open space to charge and engage the enemy , however we must meet up with Sobieski and Jablownowski’s command. We need to have the central Turkish positions in our sight. We will expose their right flank to the force of our lances”, said Von Goetze with an air of confidence.

The cavalry galloped on, the infantry were bogged down for a time from village to village capturing positions as the Hussars mopped up what little resistance remained. Turkish outer positions of the north were at this stage, distracted by both the massive assaults made by the Holy League forces on the left side of the Ottoman flank. However Mustafa Pasha commanded the Ottoman central positions to continue to tunnel and penetrate the Viennese bastions of the Burg defenders, and to break through. Viennese cannons continued to respond from the defenders to the now tired and beleaguered attacking force. The demoralised defenders hung on under the command of Ernst Von Starhenberg, returning fire for fire, swiftly exterminating the Ottoman sappers that failed to fill the underground defences with explosives.

The Ottoman dead were now far greater than those of the Coalition armies whose well manoeuvred pincer attack grew in its momentum by the hour. Sipahi units of the Ottoman cavalry were distracted with the central Ottoman Command’s obsession with pressing forward at all costs in capturing Vienna’s central Burg bastions, through the gates of Vienna.

Luzhinsky and the officers of the 2nd Cavalry division heard the ominous sound of war as battle grew closer in proximity by the minute. Whirls of smoke spun into the Autumn air, the noise of human rage as the colours of nations charged forward, the opening of the earth with the heavy thud of canon fire to the ground, there came the falling of officers from their steed, with men and beast, lying side by side on the cold earth. Bavarian Dragoons in Royal blue, elite soldiers of the Saxon army in yellow and black uniform, Venetian Cavalry men with feathered felt hats swung their sabres against the central lines of the Ottoman foe, as the Imperial forces continued to pour through in greater numbers.

The Turkish armies, composed of slaves, Janissaries, freemen, nobles, court representatives, Hungarian rebels, with soldiers from as far away as the territory of Sudan and young servant boys, were about the be engulfed by the ensuing Imperial army. The servants of the Ottoman army were being abandoned with the riches and treasures of a hungry and victorious enemy who were to divide and devour the booty left behind in the Turkish caravans, left standing, with beans of coffee to be discovered by the curiosities of the western nations, for the very first time.