When The Austrian Army Accidentally Went To War…With Itself!

Written By Southpoint Collective

I can only imagine how truly terrifying it must be to find oneself on the front lines of a war. Every out of place sound tricking you into thinking that the enemy was surely about to ambush you, every lantern moving through the trees surely the sight of impending doom. But it’s exactly this kind of thinking that is the cause of so many unnecessary wartime casualties, soldiers tragically cut down by their own comrades.

But that’s just it, usually they are isolated incidents when a soldier has finally snapped under the pressure and reacted in a moment when he shouldn’t have. It’s an entirely different story when an entire army fights itself by accident. And that, is exactly what happened during the night of 21 September 1788. 

Today, we’re going to have a look at the Battle of Karansebes, a truly catastrophic chapter in the overarching narrative of the Austro-Turkish war, a battle that gives an entirely new meaning to being your own worst enemy.

Wars have one fundamental principle. This side over here, wants to fight that side over there. Generally these opposing forces are groups of people gathered together under a common nationality, ideology or principal. And it was no different when in 1787, war broke out between the Habsburg Monarchy of Austria and the Ottoman Empire of Turkey.

Now, this overarching battle raged for four years between 1787 an 1791, and while it is widely known as the Austro-Turkish war, in reality, it was a lot more complicated than that.

As mentioned, the side attacking the Ottoman Empire was none other than that of the Habsburg Empire, and they were by no means limited to just Austria. In fact, the Habsburgs control extended far and wide across the European continent and as such their so-called Austrian army actually consisted of soldiers from Austria, Czechoslovakia, Germany, France, Serbia, Croatia, Poland and Italy.

Now it doesn’t take a genius to work out that communications between the troops of all these different nations must have been an absolute nightmare, and with no google translate or duolingo at their disposal, they simply had to make do as best they could.

But it wasn’t just communications issues that were hampering the Austrian army’s efforts. The emperor of the Habsburg empire Joseph II decided that actually the best course of action would be for him to lead his own men into battle, despite having little to no battlefield experience whatsoever.

It seems he had become so enraged by the Ottoman Empires advance into Eastern Europe that not only was he prepared to take his people to war, but he was going to lead them himself. In one sense, this is actually kind of refreshing behaviour from a ruler, buuuut in another sense the whole concept of “If you want something done right, do it yourself” only really applies, if you actually know what you’re doing.

His first major blunder was to gather all of his troops into one large encampment near Belgrade. Due to his lack of military experience, he was entirely unaware that this particular spot just happened to be right next to a vast expanse of stagnant water, or put another way, Disneyworld for mosquitoes.

Soon, a massive malaria outbreak ran rampant through the camp, causing him to lose an enormous number of his men before they’d even engaged the enemy.

They eventually packed up their camp and continued on their way to a town called Karansebes in what is modern-day Romania. They found a new place to set up camp, paying special attention to even the slightest hint of anything buzzing nearby, and when they were satisfied that all was in order, they settled in properly.

It was now September 1788 and Austria was positioning themselves to fight the Turkish army for control of the Danube river. They knew this was a crucial battle to win and the men, already ravaged by the malaria outbreak, were on high alert, having been informed that Turkish soldiers had been spotted converging somewhere in the surrounding areas. As the army, still around 100 000 men strong at this point, was finalising the campsite, a group of Hussar cavalrymen were instructed to cross the nearby Timis river and, as quietly as possible, scout for any signs of the opposing Ottoman forces.

The cvalrymen made their way stealthily across the expanse and spent a few hours searching the nearby area for any sign of campfires, smoke or noise that would show them where exactly the Turkish soldiers were. 

It was tiring work, and as luck would have it, they happened to cross paths with some travelling folk who were passing through the area. They were only too happy to sell the men as much alcohol as they could afford to purchase. 

The weary soldiers gratefully sat together, surrounded by their newly acquired barrels of Schnapps and chose to settle their nerves the best way they knew how. They settled in for long night of drinking and before long they were having a grand old time, laughing, singing and enjoying what might very well be their last night on earth, knowing that they would be fighting the Turkish army the very next day, if they could ever find them.

We’re going to take a short break, but when we return, we’re going to see just how quickly things can spiral out of control, when fear and alcohol are mixed.

As the scouting party of cavalry soldiers were really getting into the party mood, another group of infantry soldiers were crossing the river nearby. Hearing the sounds of laughter and song, they made their way over to where it was coming from. As they approached the scene cautiously, they were soon overjoyed to see not only that it was their own fellow soldiers, but even more so the sight of large numbers of barrels containing what could only be high grade alcohol.

The infantry soldiers had soon crashed the party demanding that the cavalrymen share the alcohol with them. 

Now no-one likes it when uninvited guests crash your party, and so it was with the Hussar cavalrymen who told the newly arrived soldiers to get lost. But this was not what they wanted to hear and soon they began threatening the Hussars that if they didn’t share the alcohol, they would have more to worry about that just some Turks. 

Drunk, and already tensed for a fight, the Hussar cavalrymen launched themselves at the infantry soldiers and fists soon began flying between the two groups. It soon became clear that they were somewhat outnumbered and in a break in the fighting, retreated behind their barrels, using them as a makeshift fortification.

The shouting between the groups continued until, and to this day no-one knows which side it came from, the sound of a gunshot rang out loudly into the night. While it may have caused a momentary pause in their localised quarrel, the shot itself had just set into motion a series of events that would go down as one of the worst military blunders in history.

Just across the river, and even further into the town, the gunshot was heard loud and clear by almost every soldier in camp. Without warning, one panicked soldier began shouting “The Turks are coming, The Turks are coming!”

As I’m sure you can imagine, everything then erupted into chaos.

It’s worth noting at this point that according to some accounts, it just so happened that on that very night the moon was almost non-existent, and because of this, and the fact that it was almost midnight, the landscape was even darker than usual.

Soldiers everywhere were in a panic, reaching for whatever weapon they could get their hands on.

Some, entirely unprepared, simply fled as quickly as they could.

Now the group of soldiers on the other side of the river, from whence all of this panic had originated, heard the commotion going on back in camp and assumed that they were all under attack. The cavalrymen jumped on their horses, and the infantry set out at a run, both headed back to aid their fellow soldiers.

Unfortunately for them, all the soldiers in the camp could see in the darkness was a group of figures hurriedly crossing the river and assumed these were the Turkish soldiers they had heard were attacking them and not knowing what else to do, simply opened fire on them.

The men who were in fact crossing the river, now found bullets whizzing past their heads. They then mistakenly assumed that the camp had already been overrun by Turkish forces and so began returning fire.

Commanding officers were trying desperately to get the troops under control, but no-one could understand each other and so the air became filled with a mass of garbled orders that no-one was paying attention to. Not until one group of German officers, now at the rear of the conflict began shouting at the fleeing soldiers to stop, commanding them to turn around and rejoin the fight. But in German, and with their thick German accents, the words “Halt Halt!” sounded to many non-German speaking troops like a group of angry men shouting the name of “Allah” which was one of the famous Turkish battlecries, imploring their god to aid them as they entered into battle.

This caused even more panic as the soldiers now thought they were being attacked from behind as well, and so they swung around firing indiscriminately towards the direction of the shouting.

The Hussar cavalrymen, now with a brief reprieve from being shot at, spurred their horses into the fray, charging through the camp. Little did they know that this was nothing more than jumping out of the frying pan and into the fire. One of the Corps Commanders, seeing the charging horseman, mistakenly assumed it was an Ottoman Cavalry charge and ordered the artillery unit to begin firing their cannons directly at them.

All hope was lost by this point and without clear orders, the soldiers were simply shooting at anything that moved.

And in case you had forgotten who else was present in this moment, The Emperor Joseph II himself became caught up in the frenzy. Not knowing what to do or where to go, he mounted a nearby horse and rode it away from the sound of gunfire. Unfortunately for him, and possibly owing to just how dark it was, he saw too late the land begin to slope suddenly downwards, and within just a few seconds he found himself flung from his horse, only to land face-first in a nearby stream.

Still in fear for his life, and desperate not to be captured by the Turks, he crawled out of the water and through the muddy riverbank until he made it to the safety of a nearby house.

He would later go on to write a letter to his brother Leopold, the Grand Duke of Tuscany in which he wrote about the incident:

“The diversity of our troops, though a strength in numbers, has proven to be a formidable challenge in command. The men, unable to understand one another, fall into disarray at the slightest provocation. Discipline is difficult to maintain, and I fear this may lead to greater troubles in our engagements with the Turks.”

But it was not the Turks he had to worry about, as after his midnight swim in the river, he came down with a chest infection he just couldn’t quite shake, and just over a year later his health continually declined until his eventual passing in 1790.

Two days after that fateful night, the real Turkish army arrived at the town of Karansebes and couldn’t quite believe their eyes. As far as the eye could see lay dead and wounded soldiers, who, no surprise, put up very little fight as the Ottoman forces easily took control of the town.

When the dust had settled on the whole affair and troop numbers could be counted once again, it was determined that in just that one night of chaotic friendly fire, 10 000 soldiers had lost their lives.

To make matters worse, in the general confusion of the army’s retreat, they had left a number of their cannons behind, as well as an enormous chest filled with coins that was to be used as the army’s payroll. So when the Turks came upon the town, they gladly accepted these gifts that been accidentally left behind.

All in all, it was a perfect storm of terrible circumstances that led to this tragic event. A dark night, an accidental gunshot, and thousands of soldiers primed to expect an attack all played their part in the ensuing madness. And this one incident led to even farther reaching consequences for the broader campaign. The Habsburgs position had been summarily weakened, soldiers were demoralised and along with a few other key setbacks, the Austrian army would eventually be forced to the negotiation table to broker peace and and end to the fighting.

And so, the Battle of Karansebes goes down in history not as a clash of empires, but as one of the most ridiculous, tragic, and utterly baffling self-inflicted disasters ever seen on a battlefield. In a war where armies fought for dominance, the Austrian forces managed to defeat themselves before their enemy even arrived. It’s a stark reminder that confusion, poor communication, and a little too much alcohol can be just as deadly as any opposing army.

SOURCES

Southpoint Collective

From savvy startups to established businesses needing a refresh, we can help tell your story. We offer solutions to help you create your website, handle social media, produce fresh new content and brand your business.

https://www.southpointcollective.com
Next

Trying To Blow Up A Confederate Camp With Exploding Donkeys