Battle of Vienna: Laying Siege

This is my second of three/four installments on the Battle of Vienna. I haven't decided how many yet. There were some questions as to what a Grand Vizier actually is. I am sorry that Disney's Aladdin wasn't that helpful. The Grand Vizier was the top minister of the Sultan and could only be axed by the Sultan himself. He had absolute power of attorney and could call together all the other ministers in the land to deal with matters of state. So... the sultan is numero-uno, and the Grand Vizier is his right-hand man.

Sieging the City

The Ottoman Turks were not fighting alone. The Khanate of Crimea, Moldovia, Transylvania and Wallachia aided the Ottomans, bringing the total force to 150,000 troops and 300 canons. Leopold and 80,000 civilians high-tailed it out of city as the Ottomans advanced closer to Vienna. The Emperor entrusted 11,000 soldiers, about 5,000 volunteers and 300+ cannons to Ernst Rüdiger von Starhemberg. The task of defending the city would be a difficult one. Outnumbered 9 to 1, the only chance of victory for Starhemberg was holding out until a Christian relief force arrived, but the odds of fending of the empire were great indeed.

The Ottomans arrived on July 14th, surrounded the city and demanded surrender. Upon hearing that Perchtoldsdorf, a town outside of Vienna, had surrendered and then a large portion of it's populace was slaughtered, Starhemberg refused to surrender Vienna to Grand Vizier Mufasta. He was banking on the imminent arrival of the reinforcements and, well, there was apparently no point in surrendering anyway. Starhemberg and Mufasta entrenched their forces and the second siege of Vienna ensued.

Fortifications

Time to pause our regularly scheduled program and talk about Vienna's fortifications. With the introduction of the cannon in the Late Medieval period, the impregnable fortresses of the day became obsolete. No longer did seeking refuge behind castle walls guarantee victory. Medieval fortresses consisted of walls at 90 degree angles. A cannon ball shot directly at a castle wall that is perpendicular to the ground would have a devastating impact on the defenses. There would be many blind spots for the defenders as well. If an attacking enemy made it all the way to the foot of the castle wall, he was covered from enemy fire coming from the castle due to the extremity of the firing angle. To get around this, engineers started constructing walls at sloping angles to absorbed the onslaught of cannon fire which would now impact the walls with only indirect hits. It also kept the attackers in plain sight even when they were at the foot of the walls.

There were other innovations at work with Vienna's fortifications. In the 15th century in Italy, the star fort emerged. It was such an effective design that major cities all over Europe–including Vienna–started adopting this style. The star fort takes advantage of maximum firing and covering potential for the defenders. It consisted of diamond-shaped bastions that jut out from the main wall and give the defenders up to a 280˚ line of sight. With these bastions laid out around the entire fortress, no attacker is safe from enemy fire. The star fort also utilized heavily sloped fortifications called ravelins that were detached from the main fortress and specialized in firing down on the attackers. Since the attackers are running uphill at and angle, defenders at the edge of the ravelin have to only sweep their guns from left to right.

Back to the Story

Vienna's defenses were state-of-the-art and included 11 bastions, ravelins, and a moat. They were well prepared for any attack to get over the walls. Starhemberg had all the trees and villages surrounding Vienna razed to the ground so they would have a clear line of sight on the approaching Turks.

The Ottomans decided to dig. The Grand Vizier sent his sappers to start digging trenches towards the city walls to provide cover. Musfasta, seeing that his cannons would be of little use against the massive walls, decided to use his gunpowder in a different way–explosives. The plan was to dig tunnels underneath the walls in an attempt to blow them up. All through the summer the sappers worked underground inching closer and closer to Vienna's defenses.

Mufasta was taking his time, he wanted Vienna unspoiled–ripe for looting. He could not, in his mind, risk razing Vienna to the ground. Vienna was a rich and wealthy city, and it would all belong to him... and the Ottoman Empire, of course. His lack of urgency in conquering Vienna did give Jan III Sobieski a chance to honor his pact with Leopold by allowing him more time to raise an army in Poland-Lithuania and lead it to Austria.

But Poland still felt like a long way off. The Ottomans had the city completely surrounded–cutting off the food and water supply. The defenders were exhausted. It was difficult to keep watch all around the city with such large fortifications with so few men. The situation became so dire that Starhemberg ordered that any man caught sleeping at his post would face the firing squad. To make matters worse, they had not heard from Charles V, Duke of Loraine, who was leading the Imperial forces, nor from the King Poland. With the city surrounded it would be very difficult to get word to Charles as it was.

They needed a hero.

Someone that could remove himself from the equation.

To be continued...