Vienna, 9-12-1683: The Winged Hussars Arrived With Coffee and Croissants

It's 9/11 again. And I could be morose... again. Friends of terrorists are ascendant. Friends of the West are written off as Islamophobes and white supremacists. But I'll steal a lyric from Leftist David Crosby's Almost Cut My Hair ... "I'm not giving in an inch to fear. 'Cause I promised myself this year. And I feel, like I owe it ... to someone."

So instead of gloom and doom, I'm celebrating the liberation of Vienna from a 140,000-strong Ottoman Army on Sept 12, 1683. Vienna had been under siege for months. The Ottoman Empire was trying...again...to kick in the back door to Europe, and Vienna was all that barred the door. Finally, a relief army arrived, commanded by King Jan Sobieski of Poland. The iron fist of that army was the Polish heavy cavalry, the Winged Hussars. Calling the Winged Hussars an anachronism is being kind. Recall, 1683 is squarely in the age of gunpowder. There were more than 200 cannons at Vienna. But the Winged Hussars were old-school mounted armored knights. They were slow, expensive, and very much a one-trick-pony. You'd get no reconnaissance, harassment of the enemy, scavenging for supplies, or lightning flank maneuvers from the Winged Hussars. They did one thing and one thing only — they broke massed infantry.

The relief army arrived outside Vienna on the morning of Sep 12th. Units engaged as they came up on the field and remained on the fighting ground all day with no clear victor. Then the Winged Hussars arrived. If you have seen the Lord of the Rings films and watched the Ride of the Rohirrim scenes, you have some idea of what it was like. Director Peter Jackson was inspired by the history of what happened at Vienna when the Winged Hussars hit the massed Ottoman infantry at the gallop, with 16-foot lances extended. It was over in 20 minutes.

The Ottoman army was routed and fled the field, leaving behind their massive stores of supplies. Vienna was on the brink of starvation. The supplies of Ottoman foodstuffs were a boon. Bakers used the flour to produce crescent-shaped pastries reminiscent of the crescents on the Ottoman flags. And there was coffee. Most people in the West had never encountered coffee, a delicacy in the Ottoman world. And the Viennese drank it with enough milk to turn the beverage the color of a Capuchin monk's robes, the original Capuchino. So, yesterday morning I came home with coffee and croissants, and the lovely Mrs E and I toasted the Hussars and their victory.

“Na zdrowie!”