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!
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