Battle for Damascus, 1152
Excerpts from the diary of Vartholomaios Ksiros, Marshall of the Order of St. John
July, 1152. After a surprisingly easy march through the the mountains and the desert the remnants of the crusader army have arrived with me to Damascus. We have invested the city, with the main force camped on the west side of the town. It is heavily garrisoned and I have no desire to uselessly kill any more of my men than I have to. I fear this will be a long siege to sit out. Scouts have reported sightings of a larger band of rabble that keeps roaming the countryside. Nothing conclusive yet, however. Might be just ordinary bandits.
August, 1152. It seems the band of rabble has some semblance of a military leadership. Whoever is in charge has more courage than sense, though. They didn't bother to coordinate much with the city garrison and are now chasing my outlying pickets straight towards our main camp. Scouts report that the garrison has also sallied, emboldened by the "successful" attack of the relieving force. There's a nice ridge a few miles out and I plan to give them battle there, before the two forces have time to merge.
The scouts most helpfully led our force to the best defensive ground they could find. Too bad that they didn't notice the absolutely perfect hill just to the south. The hill's southern and eastern faces are totally impassable, even by men without arms and armor, and grade gradually lessens to the north. I shall move my archers to the top of the hill with the spearmen and heavy infantry guarding the northern approach. It is just about perfect place to battle horse archers!
I have to leave the details to my subordinates though, the relieving force is almost here and I want to catch it on level ground with my cavalry. Cavalry forward!
The cavalry attack went surprisingly well, despite the first botched charge by the lancers. The Seljuk spearmen got more kills in that charge than during the rest of the skirmish. However their brave but foolish captain also bought it there and that made the rest much easier. Otherwise it was almost a textbook attack. Vardariotai and byzantine cavalry hooked to their rear while the lancers and my bodyguard charged their flanks. Looking at the hill the infantry seems to be at place.
There's still time for a few small movements and a quick word at the diary while before the enemy is in range. The cavalry will form a north-south line with large intervals to allow uninhibited movement and clear fields of fire as well as opportunities to charge. I am confident that we will have victory in this battle!
The actual battle has been almost an anti-climax. Our archers gutted their horse archers from afar and had plenty of time to concentrate on their foot that was desperately trying to charge up the slope... straight into the maw of our Saracen mercenaries. Poor bastards routed almost instantly.
I had to pull in the cavalry line somewhat to draw the enemy horse into our archers' field of fire. Lancers had some casualties mopping up the rest behind the enemy line.
Now it's evening and the men are sitting by their camp fires, recounting their individual skirmishes, thrust by thrust and parry by parry. The stench from the battlefield is not too bad yet, though I don't want to be near - or downwind - tomorrow when sun rises again. The captains have finished counting their men and we didn't even lose 50 men! Over half of the lost were from the lancers, some from their initial unhappy charge and the rest from chasing the horse archers.
The enemies losses are beyond count, 700 dead and twice as many taken prisoner. I have sent the prisoners in one long line southward, with enough guards to make sure that they keep going that way. I have no stomach to summarily execute that poor lot, but neither do I wish to fight them again.
Now I will retire to my bed for tomorrow we will enter the city!
Re: Battle Reports
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks