Full Thread: Hungary
View Single Post
Old April 25th, 2011 #58
Kennewickman
Banned
 
Join Date: Nov 2010
Posts: 2,128
Default And these same Turks are invited now to be our best friends in the EU…

The Siege of Szigetvar

Szigetvár, situated close to the city of Pécs in
Southern Hungary, was never a particularly large or
strong fortress. Its existence, however, had been a
thorn in the Turks' side since 1556, when Ali Pasha of
Buda had lost ten thousand men under its walls in an
unsuccessful siege.

Ten years later Suleiman the Magnificent, the victor
of Mohács, decided that as a preparatory step to the
capture of Vienna, Szigetvár must be destroyed. When
in August 1566 he arrived with 90,000 troops and 300
cannons under Szigetvár, he was not impressed. To him,
Szigetvár was a "molehill."

A few hundred kilometers to the north another army,
80,000 strong, struck camp between Gyor and Komárom.
These were the troops gathered by Emperor Maximilian,
King of Hungary, to fend off the anticipated Turkish
advance on Vienna after the expected fall of
Szigetvár. The efforts of Hungarian leaders to induce
Sam Ekhard, the Imperial commander of his force, to
aid the beleaguered fortress were of no avail.

Count Miklós Zrínyi, who was then the Ban (viceroy) of
Croatia, decided to take charge of the defense
himself. With only 2,500 Hungarian and Croatian
soldiers he had no illusions about the final outcome.
The wives and daughters of Zrínyi's officers refused
to leave the city, they wanted to stay with their
husbands and fathers until death.

After due preparations for the siege, Zrínyi gathered
his men for a meeting during which all swore to defend
Szigetvár against the infidels to their last breath.
Then red flags were hoisted as a signal to the Turks
that Zrínyi was ready for battle.

What made Szigetvár defensible at all were not high
hills or strong walls, but the marshes of the Almás
Creek which surrounded Szigetvár, a city built on
three islands. A dammed lake added to its defense
potential. Szigetvár's three islands were connected by
wooden platforms built over the water. The largest
island was situated in the middle, serving as the base
for the "old city." Connected to it on one side was
the "new city" and on the other side the fort proper,
which included a high point called Nádasdy Hill. From
Nádasdy Hill, gun emplacements looked down on the
plain around Szigetvár.

The defenders were at an immediate disadvantage,
because an unusually dry summer had reduced their best
weapon: water, to inundate the marshes. Whatever was
left in the lake and moats had been drained by the
Turks, who had destroyed the dam in preparation for
the siege. As a next step, the Turks built three
causeways of brushwood and dirt across the drained
lake bed. The Portuguese artillery expert, Aliportug,
whom the Sultan had used at the siege of Malta,
devised a monster platform, made of forty-two wagons
(three wagons wide, fourteen wagons long). fastened
together by tree trunks to bridge the gap between the
bastion and the causeway.

The Turks took the indefensible "new city," built on
the smallest island, in two days, a feat claiming the
lives of 3,000 Turks and 300 defenders. But the
fortress proper still stood and the guns from Nádasdy
Hill continued to batter the attackers, causing heavy
casualties.

In his frustration, Grandvizier Ahmed Sokolovits
changed tactics. He sent envoys to Zrínyi, promising
him eternal possession of all of Croatia and Slovenia
if he would only surrender. Zrínyi turned the offer
down with contempt. Next, the Turks used arrows to
shoot messages written in Hungarian and Croatian to
the defending soldiers to induce them to open the
gate. The result was the same.

Angered. the Grandvizier ordered the fortress to be
bombarded on all four sides day and night. At the same
time, his men began sinking shafts to under-
mine the entrenchments, to no avail. The general
attack on the night of August 26 was beaten back with
the Turks losing Ali Pasha of Buda, and Ali Borsuk,
the commander of Turkish artillery.

Suleiman Dead and Still "Alive"

Suleiman the Magnificent was furious. On August 29,
the 40th anniversary of his Mohács triumph, the aged
Sultan personally took charge of an all-out attack
which was renewed ten times during the day. But this
time it was Zrínyi who took revenge for Mohács:
thousands of the Sultan's best soldiers were piling up
dead or wounded in the ten futile attempts at a
breakthrough. The Portuguese Aliportug was one of the
first victims, felled on his wagon-bridge trying to
crossover with Janissary troops. The defenders even
captured the commander of the Janissaries.

The "Magnificent" was crying in shame and anger when
he witnessed how his best regiments took to flight
from the walls. At the end, when he was helped down
from his horse, he was a dying man although he had not
been touched by any weapon.

For five days a deadly silence fell upon the Turkish
camp while new attempts were made to sink shafts under
the fortress. This time the Turks succeeded. On
September 5th a shattering explosion demolished
Nádasdy Hill, fire engulfing all the surrounding
buildings. Through the gaps caused by the explosion
thousands of Janissaries rushed in and began to sack
the buildings in the marketplace, killing women and
children. They thought the fortress was already
theirs.

Not quite. Zrínyi and his soldiers descended on them
like avenging angels killing most of the invaders and
repelling two new attacks. Turk bodies were piled up
in the passages made by the explosion, blocking
further attempts to enter. Those who remained alive
were seen fleeing like scalded ants from an ants'
nest.

Sultan Suleiman could not bear the sight any longer.
When the Turkish trumpets signaled retreat again, a
fatal stroke felled him.

Sultan had come to kill Miklós Zrínyi and ultimately
it was Zrínyi whose resistance killed him.

Suleiman died, but he lived for three more days -
officially, that is.

The Grandvizier believed it was essential to conceal
the truth from his troops to prevent general panic. In
an act of make-believe unprecedented in history, he
had the Sultan dressed up in his imperial robes with a
diamond-studded turban on his head and a golden
war-hammer in his hand, and placed him in a chair
under his tent as if he were watching his troops in
review.

This farce continued for three days to allow time for
the complete capture of Szigetvár, now practically
ruined and with only 300 defenders left under Zrínyi's
command. All their cannons and supplies, except for
the ammunition, had been destroyed by the flames.

Zrínyi knew that the end was near.

Storming out into Certain Death

The defenders were all prepared to die in keeping with
their oath, but first a horrendous task awaited them.
Their wives and daughters were still alive in the
tower. Should they fall into Turkish hands, they would
suffer a fate worse than death, and so, they had
chosen instead to die at the hands of their beloved
fathers and husbands.

After tearful farewells the men plunged daggers into
their loved ones' hearts. This was the Hungarian
version of Masada. the immortal self-sacrifice of
Jewish zealots in a Roman-besieged fortress two
millenniums ago.

With this tragic event behind him, Zrínyi donned the
silk and velvet garment he had worn on his wedding
day, and hung a heavy gold chain around his neck. He
discarded his shirt of mail and instead, stuffed his
pockets with gold pieces to "provide for my funeral"
and with the unsheathed sword of his father in hand he
joined his men in the tower yard. He blessed and
thanked them for their loyalty. His men, following
their commander's example, also discarded their armor.

Then Miklós Zrínyi, with the national flag in one
hand, his sword in the other, ordered the opening of
the gate behind which enemy troops swarmed on a
bridge. When the gate was flung open Zrínyi's men
fired two heavy cannons stuffed with nails and sharp
pieces of iron, point blank into the enemy ranks. A
moment later Zrínyi and his 300 men stormed out of the
fortress. "Like a fiery ray of lightning he cracked
down on them, cutting down everybody within range to
make way for himself and for the courageous men
following him," wrote the German historian Wagner.

The bridge had been cleared of Turkish troops when the
inevitable happened. Zrínyi was fatally hit by two
bullets in the chest and by an arrow in his eye. His
officers and men also fell - all except three.

Zrínyi's head was promptly severed by the Janissaries
and his body placed on a cannon. As a sign of victory,
his head was put on a plate and rushed to the Sultan's
tent by troops still unaware of the Magnificent's
death.

This, however was not the end of the resistance.

Booty-hungry Janissaries invaded the fortress
searching for the alleged treasures of Miklós Zrínyi.
Thousands jammed the yard and the tower when the last
holdout, a young woman hiding in the underground
ammunition chamber, threw a flaming torch into the
gunpowder stored in the cellar. The terrible
detonation which followed buried not only those in the
tower but practically everyone in the yard. Thus, it
became the burial ground for 3,000 Janissaries.

All told, the Battle of Szigetvár claimed the lives of
2,500 Magyars and Croatians and 25,000 Turks in a
siege in which no stones remained unturned.

The remains of the fortress of Szigetvár still stand
as a silent memorial to a battle fought for country,
faith and honor.