09-19-2006, 01:37 PM
The Battle of Vienna
The Ottoman Turks had Vienna under siege for a couple of
months in 1683, and although the Austrians and Germans put
up a good fight, on Sept 12 the Turks made several major
breaches in the city walls. But later that day, an army
arrived from Poland, and with the support of the Germans
and Austrians the Turks were soundly defeated. That battle
ended any hope the Muslims had for conquering Europe. I
think we all owe a lot to that Polish army.
One website I found about the battle ended as follows:
> The Turks never recovered from the battle. While the
> Ottoman Empire survived for another two hundred plus
> years, from here on out it was merely a holding action.
> For Poland, this was her last great moment on center
> stage until the Battle of Warsaw in 1920 when once again
> she saved Europe from the East.
After reading that last sentence, I had to do some more
research and find out about the Battle of Warsaw. It turns
out that after the communists took over Russia, they
started moving into Eastern Europe. Poland alone decided
to try to stop the Russians (even England and France
refused to help). Heavily outnumbered, the Poles suffered
several major defeats until Russia was on the verge of
capturing Warsaw. The Polish army, with their backs to the
wall, launched a "do or die" counter attack, and once
again soundly defeated the invading army. This was an all
out effort by the Polish people. To again quote from a
website:
> Officers of the 21st Polish Infantry Division witnessed
> peasants armed with pitchforks accompanied by their
> wives carrying flails assisting soldiers in the bayonet
> charge on the enemy positions...
I don't think the Poles have received the recognition they
deserve. They saved Europe from being invaded by Muslims,
and a few hundred years later they beat back the Russians
and postponed the communist takeover of Eastern Europe by
25 years. And of course Poland also sent troops to Iraq
during the latest Gulf War. I think that Poland is going
to turn out to be one of the USA's most important allies
during the next few decades.