Vienna 1683-2022

 Salvete Omnes,

today is yet another anniversary of the great battle of Vienna 1683AD
and to commemorate this momentous event a poster was produced by a Polish artist Tadeusz Rybkowski, professor in Lwow technical college, in 1883AD - then the 200th anniversary of the event.

 

more images - from 1690

 

and a print of a painting by a Polish painter  Jan Niepomucen Lewicki, 

another XIX century image

the images come  from this site. Polska Akademia Umiejetnosci- Gabinet Rycin.

Valete

Her Royal Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II - Pacem Aeternam

 Salvete Omnes,

                                                                    Equestrian statue of Elizabeth II, Windsor Great Park

 

Her Royal Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II has passed away this evening at Balmoral Castle, UK.

to me  Her Royal Majesty will always be associated with horses and having them around - the last equestrian great monarch of Europe

I hope Her passing is not an ominous sign of dark things to befell UK and to a grater extend the whole Europe.

We may see perhaps  the last great royal British pompa funebris ...

Pacem Aeternam, Queen Elizabeth

Long live the king Charles III

Amen

Orsza 1514 -2022

 Salvete Omnes,

 

and as every year on this day we commemorate the 2nd battle of Orsza 1514AD.

King Zygmunt I Stary (Sigismund I the Old) and his army commanded by prince Konstanty Ostrogski, Ostrogski coat of arms, and hetman Janusz Swierczowski, Traby coat of arms,  won resounding victory over grand prince Vasili III and his  Muscovite army(augmented with the Tatar allied and converted recently into Orthodox Christianity).

 Our king lost Smolensk, his largest and most needed fortress, to Vasili III and his commander Lithuanian Michal Glinski in July 1514- perhaps a 80 thousand strong Muscovy army , with camp followers, servants and retainers, invaded our king's eastern realms in the Spring of 1514Ad.
Polish historian and prolific researcher of this period  prof. Marek Plewczynski puts some blame on the Lithuanian commander prince Ostrogski, who perhaps like the ancient Cuncator tried the tactic of  hanging on  awaiting for the expected large number of Polish Crown troops, but before they could have come to the rescue the fortress of Smolensk fell to mighty charm or magic spelled by prince Glinski. The stronghold at Orsza, however,  defended by Jan Spargeld with resolve and under much less assault than Smolensk withstood perhaps a weaker Muscovite siege and repelled their assaults until king's army came in August.

Having gathered his nobles, retainer, mercenaries and volunteers it was at Minsk in Grand Duchy of Lithuania where our king reviewed his armies before seeing them go east: 

 - 15 thousand Duchy horse - commanded by prince Ostrogski and prince Jerzy Hercules Radziwill.

 - 14 thousand crown horse (heavy lancers, early hussars and light horse armed with crossbows and bows and some early firearms perhaps, and 3 thousand crown  infantry -  this Crown contingent was commanded by Swierzowski, 

 -2,5 thousand court horse, and several thousand of Polish lords private volunteer retinues- commanded by Wojciech Sempolinski, Nalecz coat of arms.

Perhaps as many as 38 thousand horse and men including unknown number of guns, plus many thousands of camp followers and retainers had gathered at Minsk to march onto river and seek a return of captured Smolensk to our lord king's domain.

King decided to stay with 4 thousand soldiers at the fortified camp at Borysow, on the Berezina River, while the combined king's army marched having forded Berezina and forced, with artillery fire,  the vanguard of the Muscovite army to quit the vicinity of Berysow on August 27 and then the royal army marched after the enemy toward Orsza and Dnieper. On the 28 of August Polish vanguard led by Jan Pilecki defeated a Muscovite rearguard ambush, and our royal army continued on the Orsza Road to the Bobr River crossing where at this ford another action was fought, where starost of Rohatyn Jan Boratynski defeated 2000 strong Muscovite command and took their commander, voivode Kiselich(?), prisoner.  During another action by the royal vanguard rotmaister (Captain) Jan Sapieha's command defeated  another Muscovy command.
Voivode Ivan Chelyadnin, who now commanded the entire Muscovy grand prince's field army in this area of war, aided in his command by prince Mikhail Golitza and prince Dymitr Bulgakov withdrew across the Dnieper keen on attacking royal army during their fording of the big river, always a difficult and dangerous maneuver in warfare  for the fording command.

  and so the opposite armies stood, then during the night of 7-8th of September our royal army engineers built two wooden pontoon bridges, on top of wooden large kegs,  the whole royal army crossed fast and the battle joined and the men with lances, bows and arrows, swords, matchlocks and halberds, pikes and axes in hand went to achieve victory.

Ostrogski has become the field victor of this battle  - being supposedly the commander of the combined echelons of the royal army - and here we see this brave Ruthenian as he was seen in this 1540s? Radziwill family painting - now at the Polish National Museum at Warsaw.

Polish heavy lance cavalry and their commander 

early hussars

so let us celebrate with some imagery from the period or near in time period, with some caveat  - our king was unable to recover hie lost city of Smolensk, the most important fortress in that part of  the Grand Duchy of Lithuanian Ukrainian (borderland) zone with the Grand Duchy of Muscovy. It took   circa100 years and a decisive action by our king's namesake Zygmunt, but the III (and his grandson), who campaigned in Grand Duchy of Muscovy and captured Smolensk. 

 ..

 

Valete

Maslowski & his brushes & pencils

 Salvete Omnes,

 

today just some beautiful art from a Polish  artist named  Stanislaw Maslowski (1853 -1926).

He was a scion of a lesser Polish noble family with a rather unusual coat of arms - Samson.
His maternal grandfather, Wincenty Danielewicz(1787-1878) Ostoja coat of arms,  was a chevau-leger lancer of the 1st Polish Light Cavalry Lancers Regiment of the Imperial Guard, for his bravery and heroic actions pan Danielewicz was awarded a Legion of Honor.  

 

 

Pan Stanislaw Maslowski being a working artists also was moved by his passions for art history, especially by the  Italian and French art histories and writings, and this passion resulted in his translation of Giorgio Vasari's famous work The Lives (see the link - :) ) from Italian to Polish.

 

 and this beautiful piece

Pan Stanislaw was also a book illustrator - eg a historical fiction by Walery Przyborowski, Adyutant Naczelnego Wodza( Adjutant of the Supreme Commander) .

enjoy

Valete

 

September 1 1939-2022

Salvete Omnes,

 

yet another anniversary of this hugely consequential date - this is for ever the day of sorrow, mayhem and lost hope.

 

Pacem Aeternam to all, including all the children that died killed in the wombs of their murdered mothers or caused to have died due to the actions by the  Germans and Soviets between 1939-45.

on this day in 1939, our Polish Republic cavalry regiments and squadrons took to the field with bravery and zeal. One of their actions was  an attack carried out against the invading German mechanized infantry at Krojanty, near Chojnice.

Nota bene Chojnice was a town and castle  in wich vicinity but in 1454 AD Polish Royal army was defeated by the  mercenary army of the Teutonic Knights right at the onset of the great conflict  called the 13 Years War.

in the late afternoon on that day the 18th Pomeranian uhlan regiment( part of  the Pomeranian Cavalry Brigade) was personally commanded by colonel Kazimierz Mastalerz - hero of the war of independence 1918-20, among many battles and fighting he took part at the cavalry charge of Arcelin, August 17, 1920. He was awarded Virtuti Miliatri, both the Gold and Silver ones, and Cross of Valour.
So the regiment took to the field in the wooded areas on the outskirts of  the Tuchola forests near Krojanty and upon the orders from colonel Mastalerz the 1st squadron under rotamiester(cavalry major) Swiesciak successfully charged, sabres in hand, the unprepared German infantry - 7th company of 2nd battalion of 76th motorized infantry regiment. 

 

However having crossed the routed infantry lines the uhlans advacnes  into the open meadow where they came under fire of the German machine guns and other weaponry from the secluded  armored cars etc deployed from the direction of Chojnice. The 1st squadron rotameister and the front lines of his command were felled by the German fire. 1st squadron wheeled and went back to gallop across the routed German infantry , but this time they offered more resistance, so the withdrawing uhlans sustained more wounds and loses, due to the German fire they had to dismount and walk across the train tracks and until they crossed the tracks and across small woods they  rejoined the 2nd squadron, and continued their withdrawal.
Colonel Mastalerz and his retinue, having seen the charge by his 1st squadron, i.e., their success and then defeat, moved onto the nearby hill (500 meters from the scrimmage area) and at that moment received three artillery salvos (friendly fire most likely). Colonel died along with 2nd lieutenant Milicki and 2 soldiers, and two more uhlans were seriously wounded.
In this action 18th Uhlan regiment lost 25 killed, at least 50 wounded and perhaps more than a dozen taken prisoners. Also they had taken serious losses in horses and equipment, while German loses are quite impossible to determine, as they sources are scant and incomplete. The blooded uhlan regiment moved away from the battlefield towards Rytel and fought on during this part of the defense maneuver carried by the Polish army.
The charge, at first successful and then defeated, accomplished its tactical purpose - for the cavalry action caused the advancing German motorized columns to stop and regroup near the highway from Chojnice, which allowed Polish units of the Pomorze (Pomeranian) Army to take defensive positions near Rytel and fighting went on.

this year, the weekend of 3rd-4th of September,  there will be another celebration of the engagement at Krojanty,  so if you are near by perhaps you could visit and enjoy a weekend of cavalry reeactment.

 ps
 

I am rereading the 1982 (published) Polish officer's memoirs titled 'Zolnierz losunie wybieral' (Soldier did not chose his destiny)-

the first part of the book, some 30 pages, consists of his recollections about preparing for and fighting the Slovakian army units on the southern Polish border (near Dukla). In September 1939 the Slovak army was but a small part of the German invasion force attacking Poland from the south and southeast.

His own command - 1st company of the 2nd KOP battalion - held their entrenched positions in the mountainous terrain for 8 days; while the first actual German assault they fought off took place on the 8th of September. Then the orders came to withdraw towards Sanok and more fighting and marchers followed.

Therefore this particular officer and his company made a successful fighting trek across the southeastern Poland, where having regrouped at Turka, they also fought the Ukrainian nationalists-insurgents (or German led Ukrainian) V column units around Turka, rather close to the Polish-Hungarian border on the 17th and 18th of September , and then they marched to Sianki where they crossed into friendly Hungary on the 19th, thus ending their participation in the defense of Poland '39...

Consequently this officer, Stefan Kazimierczak, went from Hungary to the Polish armies training in France, he then defended France in 1940, was taken prisoner by the Germans during the late French campaign, run away from the German laager into the Vichy France, crossed the Spanish border and was interned in Spain, again run away from the interment and crossed the sea to UK, trained with the Polish forces in exile and as part of these Polish contingent forces fought and liberated France 1944, then Netherlands 1944, and took part in the conquest of Germany 1945 etc .. at first being an infantry and then armored division officer and gentleman.

Valete