Sources for Hussaria

[Hakonarson]

Does anyone know of resources for Hussaria in Polish that are readily available in the West (Polish Hussars from about 1525-1675)?

I have jsut me a perfectly beautiful Polish lass who's offered to translate at "cut rate" (she's a professional translater) because of the Polish content.........and beign eth shy retiring type I am I need an exuse to keep corresponding!! http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/wink.gif

[Del]

To be honest your best bet is to let business be business and take a direct, confident approach to this girl, as a separate matter.

But as far as further resources on the battle of which you speak... sorry.

Del

[Hakonarson]

Bump.

Oh I have no trouble on that front - I just thought the board could use a little gender-based innuendo for a change!! http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/smile.gif

[pithorr]

It looks I've been allowed to post here at last:
Here you may find the link. (http://www.husaria.jest.pl/) in Polish.
Have a fun with translation... http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

[Hakonarson]

Thanks - I hadn't seen the original page and it seems to have more info in it than the English version - I shall try my best to enjoy the translation http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

As an aside, a few days ago I received Frost's "The Northern Wars" & have ben pooring over it. Some of his text was quoted in a thread on the previous board to show that Hussaria had ridden down infantry from the front, particularly at Kircholm in 1605.

I was surprised to find that, IMO, he says nothing of the sort.

Indeed the initial Hussar charge at 1 Swedish regiment failed to break it despite "breaking into" it, and the Hussars withdrew, having suffered 24 men and 100 horses killed. The men were half Towarsky (sP??) - ie the "noble" hussaria, half their followers.

Those who remember the debate about Courtrai will recall that the French broke into the Flemish there too, but didn't break them.

Frost does say that there were plenty of pole arms in the Swedish army at Kircholm - a figure of 3800 or so IIRC, out of some 8-9000 infantry, but curiously says that this total was "pike and halberd".

Now I have no problem with lancers charging down halberdiers with their much shorter weapons - even with shorter lances than hte Hussars had, so I wonder what this means - you wouldn't expect there to be significant numbers of Halberds in a pike block at this time, but the native Swedes had great problems in adopting pikes over their previous pole-arms. Even after Gustavus Adolphus' death (1635) they are recorded as shortening their pikes to make them easier to carry

He also says that the initial charge was not intended to break the infantry, but to disorder them - which I find an odd statement. You don't charge to disorder someone - you charge to defeat them, or, in a few cases, to delay them (eg the English cavalry at Pinkie) while other things are happening.

however the rest of the Swedish infantry were similarly NOT broken by Hussaria charges into their front alone. They WERE destroyed by a combination of charges and firepower - both from foot and horse (including the Hussaria themselves) and pretty much massacred on the battlefield as opposed to the Swedish horse whose bodies littered the line of rout/retreat..

Remmebering that the Swedes had marched 10 miles in the rain the night before, and had stood for several hours in the hot sun that day, and that 2/3rds of the Swedish infantry were rather indifferently trained and equipped natives (the rest were western mercenaries) I reckon that's not an unexpected result for infantry stripped of its cavalry.

The massacre of the infantry pretty much parallels the battle of Falkirk, where the Scots pike were destroyed by cavalry charges after being decimated by bowfire, or many, many other battles where infantry were left alone on the battlefield after their cavalry were chased off - from Alexander the Great at Granicus to the English Civil War and beyond.

In many such cases the Infantry would surrender outright. Frost doesn't go into any reasons why this didn't happen at Kircholm. My guess would be that the Poles weren't interested in taking prisoners - the wars up in that part of the world weer exceedingly bloodthirsty even by the standards of the day.

There's nothing magical about it.

Whereas the West had more-or-less abandoned shock by cavalry in favour of firepower, the Poles had adopted firepower in addition to shock. The flexibility of the Polish cavalry armies was excellent - if their initial charges were unsuccessful they could caracole until they felt it was appropriate to charge again

[pithorr]

Well, what I know Hetman Karol Chodkiewicz set the trap:
When Poles simulated withdrawal Swedish king ordred the attack of his main forces. Then small unit of hussars absorbed first line of Swedish infantry, main heavy units charged from the side and massacred Swedes. Defeat was completed by the chaos in Swedish lines heightened by retreating cavalrymen breaking 2nd line of infantry trying to stand Polish assault.
The rest of the day could be well known from MTW tactical battles when retreating infantry is followed by merciless horsemen http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

[Hakonarson]

Yes you're quite right Pithor, in so far as what you know.

The battle was won against the Swedish cavalry on the flanks. The rest was, as they say, history once the cavalry was defeated.

[CBR]

Ahh nice with some facts compared to that discussion we had some time ago.

Good job Hakonarson http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/pat.gif

CBR