September 11, 1683

[zimmerstutzen]

Was the siege of Vienna by 300,000 turks under the Grand Vizeer.    The city was defended by only a  paltry 15,000 soldiers from Vienna and some other local Germanic kingdoms.  The Vizeer had his sites on Roma and intended to crush Christianity for all time as retribution for the crusades.  As other small groups of reinforcements came to the aid of the city, a Polish leader, Jan Sobiesky arrived with 40,000 soldiers and cavalry.  But Sobiesky was an artillery genius and managed to cut a road and drag the artillery to the top of mount kalberg where they could fire down into the Turkish camps, but also be out of range of the Turk's artillery.  On September 11, 1683, Sobiesky rained hell on the turk's encampment and after terrorizing the turks with artillery, he sent his winged Hussars cavalry unit against the Turks.  The turks ranks broke and ran.  The Grand Vizeer was executed for his failure.    There is a good movie about it available on You Tube.  search for September 11, 1683 The Battle for Vienna. 

At the time, one of my ancestors lived in Kriegsheim, a small town a few hundred miles west  from Vienna.  As a Quaker, he refused to pay a tax imposed to help support troops against the Turks, He refused to serve sentry duty at the town gates and otherwise aggravated the local officials.  In 1685, a local judge wrote to his superior asking for permission to throw five families of Quakers out of the country, including great great great great great grandpa.              Much to the judge's pleasure, in 1685, the five families asked for and received permission to leave for Pennsylvania.  While here in Philadelphia, in 1687, great great, etc., tried to get city council to outlaw slavery.    Two of his grandsons were elected Mayor's of colonial Philadelphia.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               

[old salt]

Enjoyed the history lesson

[hotfxr]

I do love historical snippets like these, thanks for sharing.

[Red Badger]

AS a History minor I will file this away for future reference.. :) 

[zimmerstutzen]

The movie about the battle is available to stream free on Tubi (a streaming service) called "Day of the Siege, September 11, 1683"

[beowulf]

Have seen the film a few times ! oddly, if you look up battles lost by the ottoman empire , more than a few were lost on september 11, and it has been suspected for years that the reason the muslim terrorists attacked the united states on september 11, was a symbolic gesture , and more or less revenge for earlier losses !.... now that , is holding a grudge !

[Patocazador]

Lately, Turkey has shown that they really are not a pro-western nation. Perhaps it's time for Jan Sobieski to scatter them again.