THE MOST RIDICULOUS FAILURES IN MILITARY HISTORY Pt.2


The most ridiculous failures in military history

Yes, Austria once fought itself. How can a country fight a battle against itself? A civil war? A revolt? No, much worse.

First things first, let’s contextualize. It all happened during the 2nd Russian-Turkish war (1787-1792). 100,000 Austrian soldiers were to camp in Karansebes (Romania) in order to invade Turkish land. But they weren’t in fact Austrian – most of them were natural from other subdued countries: Italy, Romania, Hungary… and few spoke German.

So, it all started with the Hussars exploring to ensure that the camping site was secure. It indeed was, but they encountered some gypsy merchants selling spirits beverages. Why I say “but”, you will guess it in a moment. The hussars bought almost all their stock, and got drunk as good hussars they were. Sometime later other regiment came, and they demanded some drink, but the drunken hussars refused and started a fight. In the turmoil, a shot was fired.

Then, chaos. The Romanian infantry thought it was a Turkish sniper who had fired that shot. Realizing of what they had done, the hussars fled – but the damage was done. While the infantry was running away, the Austrian officials tried to call to order saying “Halt! Halt!” – but, as the Romanians didn’t speak German they understood “Allah! Allah!”, the Turkish battle cry, so the chaos got even worse.

Just by the time another regiment was drawing near and, seeing the mess in the camp and the hussars circling around it, they had no doubt that the Turk cavalry caught them, so their officials ordered their cavalry to charge to the battle; only to alert an artillery regiment that was coming close too, who thought – with no doubt, again – that they were the Turks, and they deployed the artillery and fired to these last horsemen.

All the army was driven mad, and they kept of fighting for hours. Finally, confused to the limit, they all ran away for their lives. During this butchery, the horse of Joseph II, the Austrian emperor ran wild and he ended down in a pit.

Well, told you that not only Spain is so sad in battles! Thanks for reading, and don’t forget to comment!

No comments:

Post a Comment