Battles of Luzhinsky- Extract 5 Copyright- Robert Fullarton 2016

Battles of Luzhinsky- Extract 5

Copyright- Robert Fullarton 2016

Entire lines of Ottoman conscripts were fleeing from the battle across the open fields as the Polish army of Sobieski engaged with the Ottoman right flank. Pistols were drawn and hand to hand fighting continued, while conscripts, slaves and the adolescent ranks of the Ottoman army were being pursued by units of the Polish light infantry, against the glances of their violent Ottoman overlords.

Luzhinsky’s cavalry division under Colonel Von Goetze were partially camouflaged in the colours and density of the Vienna Woods. Then at approximately 4pm after King Sobieski had made a stirring speech unto the men assembled before him, consisting of various cavalry divisions, the second heavy Cavalry division, the first and second Hussarian Guards and the Lithuanian lancers. Impressive figures in full armour, with the Hussars in steel plated uniform, as unflinching men of courage and duty on the eve of battle, being drilled and prepared for the charge towards the Ottoman right flank.

These soldiers followed Sobieski at full speed across the open planes around Vienna, out poured the great steel congregation, the cavalcade of apocalyptic warriors, drawing lances, as distances grew less and less between the ferocity and momentum of Sobieski’s forces and the Sipahi divisions. Luzhinsky ordered a detachment to follow suit with Von Goetze and lieutenant Kaminski’s guards to join in the great bulk of the charge. The war cries of the great torrents of human energy met the Turkish foe, until all were engaged and the fighting became a merciless slaughter, at the cost of Ottoman tactical errors. Luzhinsky’s heart had skipped a beat, in a moment of exhuberant, even aesthetic joy, as he forgot himself in the sounds of steel, pistol fire, of lances driving through the Ottoman shields and the colours of the green and red crescents and standards that had been flung downward, lay on the carpet of the dead below.

Von Goetze ordered his men to “draw swords and engage. Do not let the enemy retreat remember that the quicker we get this done, the sooner we can inspect the enemies caravans of supremely important items for the war effort!” Laughed Von Goetze while tangling with a young Ottoman officer, having knocked his pistol from his hand he knocked him over with a swift knock to the head and silence him with a bullet to the chest.

Luzhinsky fired his pistol into the forehead of an infuriated Sipahi horseman, to see him wobble and then turn backwards, headfirst off his stallion. The Ottoman foe repeatedly tried to re-organise their defences, but found themselves surrounded on several fronts , having given much ground and lost a great number of their attacking force. The Polish “whirlwind” continued to drive the Ottoman defenders into the advance of the German armies that pressed home their advantage. It was the end of Mustafa Pasha, his days as an army commander were numbered, three months later he was to be strangled to death with a silken cord under the orders of Sultan Mehmet IV.

The evening twilight settled over the corpses of the fallen dead, the colours of the Imperial flag, the colours of the Habsburgs flew in the western wind. The colours of Gold and Black were raised up high upon the bastions of the Burg defences, from the steeples and parapets of the churches, from the gothic “spine” of Stephansdome flew the flags and standards of the victorious armies. The colours of Bavaria, of the Veneitian republic, the flag of the Polish- Lithuanian Commonwealth and the colours of Saxony were raised in the central courtyards of Vienna, as cries and cheers rang out with men of all ages, rank and background filled with a jubilant feeling of ecstasy in the spectacle of this historic victory.

For the Turks it was a calamity and one which was a botched invasion on the central command’s account. Sobieski and Emperor Leopold gave each other warm embraces, while salutations were also exchanged between the Margrave of Baden, Charles of Lorraine’s escort, various representatives of the Venetian republic and the various Saxon generals that assembled outside the army quarters of General Von Starhemburg. Men were meeting together, from the Vistula to the Rhine, from the Gulf of Venice to the plains of Serbia, men from many nations drifted out of their formations, sharing jokes, brandy, wine and exchanged items looted from the Turkish caravans. The merriment of men sung out in song, the lights of taverns were re-ignited as Viennese bartenders returned like moles from beneath the thunderous earth, to open old barrels of beer for the haughty soldiers of several armies that exhausted the few remaining civilians with requests for food and alcohol.