Battle of Chotyn (1673)
Image of the battle from the 17th century
| date | November 11, 1673 |
|---|---|
| place | Chotyn , Ukraine |
| output | Poland-Lithuania victory |
| Parties to the conflict | |
|---|---|
| Commander | |
| Troop strength | |
| 35,000 | 30,000 |
| losses | |
|
approx. 30,000 |
1500 |
The Battle of Chotyn ( Polish : Chocim; Romanian : Hotin; Turkish : Hotin; Ukrainian : Хотин / Chotyn ) was a battle of the Ottoman-Polish War of 1672–1676 and took place on November 11, 1673 near the eponymous city of Chotyn in what is today Ukrainian Chernivtsi Oblast between the victorious Polish troops under Grand Hetman Johann (Jan) Sobieski and the defeated Ottoman troops under Hüseyin Paşa .
prehistory
After the 35,000 strong Ottoman army under Hüseyin Paşa of Silistria had taken winter quarters at the fortress of Chotyn, the Polish Grand Hetman Johann Sobieski decided to attack this with his 30,000 strong army . By an express march he reached the well-fortified fortress on the Dniester on November 9, 1673 , which had been further expanded after the Ottoman-Polish War 1620-1621 .
course
The first Polish attack on Ottoman positions took place on November 10, and the battle itself took place the following day. After the Poles opened the battle with a volley of cannon, Polish infantrymen and dragoons were able to tear gaps in the Ottomans' defenses through which the cavalry could penetrate and attack the Turks. The panicked Ottoman army then tried to retreat to the other bank of the Dnister, but the only bridge over the river was in the line of fire of the Polish field guns and the overloaded structure quickly collapsed, killing hundreds of people and horses in the cold river . Only 4,000 Ottomans, pursued by the light Polish cavalry, managed to escape into the Ottoman-occupied Kamjanez . The rest of the Ottoman army was captured. The Polish casualties amounted to about 1,500 men.
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consequences
The Battle of Chotyn ended in a complete victory for the Polish-Lithuanian troops over those of the Ottomans. With the victory, the Poles won the Chotyn fortress with large supplies of food and military equipment. But neither was the war ended by the battle, nor was Kamianets, which had been occupied by the Ottomans liberated the previous year. However, the victory raised both the reputation of the Polish army as a whole and that of the general Johann Sobieskis, who was nicknamed the Lion of Chotyn after the battle and was elected King of Poland after the death of Michael I in the free election in 1674 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Battle of Chocim, November 11, 1673 on "wilanow-palac.pl", accessed on May 23, 2016
- ↑ Battle of CHOCIM 1673 on kismeta.com , accessed May 23, 2016
- ↑ Battle of Khotin on nekropole.info ; accessed on May 23, 2016
Coordinates: 48 ° 29 ′ 0 ″ N , 26 ° 30 ′ 0 ″ E