1683: At Vienna, the Habsburg Capital Would Not Fall
On July 14, 1683, Turkish troops surrounded Vienna. This siege was not planned, however. General Kara Mustafa, an ambitious and impulsive officer, decided on it en route, hoping to gain immense prestige. He commanded a considerable army (over 200,000 men, according to some sources) while the city was defended by only 15,000 soldiers. Under a merciless siege, they resisted fiercely, forcing Kara Mustafa to deploy a large portion of his forces to mine the walls. On September 4, the Turks managed to breach the walls.
The city seemed at their mercy this time. But on September 12, a relief army commanded by Polish King John III Sobieski and Austrian General Charles of Lorraine (65,000 men) appeared on Kahlenberg hill, overlooking Vienna. Seeing the Ottoman camp undefended, John III exclaimed: “This general knows nothing of war! We will defeat him!” And indeed they did. Overwhelmed by the Austrians and Poles, the Ottoman army fled in disarray, leaving 15,000 dead and 5,000 prisoners on the battlefield.
1686: At Buda, the Garrison is Put to the Sword
In spring 1686, the Austrian Crown committed an army of 100,000 men to conquer Ottoman Hungary. On June 18, Christian troops arrived at the walls of Buda, a Turkish possession for a century and a half. They faced a garrison of only 8,000 men. But the defenders were determined and led by a formidable strategist: Abdhurrahman Abdi Pasha, nicknamed Arnavut (the Albanian), known for his bravery and… alcoholism. The siege that began was bitter. By July 27, the attackers had already lost 5,000 men in unsuccessful assaults.
A Turkish relief army was repelled in mid-August by Prince Eugene of Savoy, generalissimo of the Holy Empire’s armies. On September 3, the city finally fell and Arnavut was killed in this final assault. The city was then sacked by the victors who unleashed violence on the population, both Muslims and Jews. It took the intervention of Charles of Lorraine, one of the Christian commanders, to stop the killings. The bodies of the victims were thrown into the Danube.
1697: At Senta, the Darkest Day for the Ottomans
Despite the defeats, Sultan Mustafa II did not give up. In late summer 1697, a Turkish army of 80,000 fighters set out to wage war in Transylvania. On September 11, thinking the enemy was at a safe distance, Ottoman troops prepared to cross the Tisza River, a tributary of the Danube, south of present-day Senta, Serbia. The sudden appearance of Austrian dragoons, who stormed the camp, caused panic in the Ottoman army, which rushed in great confusion toward the bridge, soon made impassable by the mass of men and wagons crowding it.
Austrian artillery bombarded while its infantry, moving along the bank, cut off any retreat for the fleeing soldiers. It was a massacre more than a battle: 30,000 Ottomans were killed in hand-to-hand combat, compared to 600 imperials. This decisive battle remains one of the worst defeats ever inflicted on the Ottoman Empire, and would force it two years later, in 1699, to sign the Treaty of Karlowitz, which ended Turkish domination over Hungary.
1717: At Belgrade, A Single Shot Changes the Course of Battle
After their victory the previous year at Petrovaradin in Serbia, the Habsburgs’ primary objective was the city of Belgrade. The fortress was known to be difficult to capture. Moreover, its location south of the Danube allowed the Turks to quickly come to its aid. On July 16, the imperial troops set up their camp before the city. They immediately had to face a sortie by the Ottomans, which they repelled with severe losses. On July 22, the bombardment of the city began, supported by an imposing fleet operating from the Danube.
Eight days later, on July 30, the Turkish reinforcement army appeared. Eugene of Savoy, generalissimo of the Holy Empire’s armies, was caught in a pincer movement. His situation was all the more perilous as his troops were ravaged by a malaria epidemic. But on August 14, a dramatic turn of events occurred: a cannonball landed directly on the city’s powder reserve! The explosion killed several thousand defenders. Eugene, wanting to press his advantage, ordered an assault, which began at 1 AM on August 16, in thick fog. The surprise was complete. The city capitulated the next day.