Winged Hussars

Origins

Hussars first came to Poland in the early sixteenth century as light horsemen, many of them Serbian and Hungarian mercenaries, who fought with lance and shield. Over the century they grew heavier. Under King Stefan Batory, who came to the throne in 1576, the hussars took on the form that made them famous: armored nobles on big, fast horses, charging with the lance. For roughly a century and a half they were the most consistently victorious shock cavalry in Europe, fighting Swedes, Russians, Cossacks, Tatars and Ottomans.

Organization & Training

The husaria were organized in companies called banners (chorągiew), usually of about a hundred to two hundred horsemen, under a captain, the rotmistrz. Each full member, the towarzysz or "companion", was a noble who brought his own small retinue of armed retainers, called a poczet, and paid for his own horses and equipment. This made the hussars very expensive and socially exclusive. Their tactics were practiced and exact. By most accounts they advanced in fairly open order at the trot to limit the damage from enemy fire, then closed up knee to knee in the final gallop and struck with the lance. A banner could charge, pull back, re-form and charge again.

Weapons & Equipment

The hussar was armed around one weapon, the kopia or Winged Hussar Lance, a hollow-shafted lance up to about six meters long that could outreach infantry pikes. It usually shattered on impact and was replaced from the baggage train. Behind it came the koncerz, a long, stiff thrusting sword of the Estoc family, carried under the saddle, and the curved saber, the szabla. Many also carried the nadziak, a horseman's War Hammer, and pairs of pistols, at first the Wheellock Pistol and later flintlocks. They wore a steel breastplate, arm defenses and a helmet, and officers draped leopard or other animal skins over their shoulders. The famous wings were wooden frames set with feathers, fixed to the saddle or the back. Their purpose is still argued: to frighten horses, to defeat Tatar lassos, or simply for display. The sources support mostly the last.

Notable Actions

At Kircholm in 1605 a Commonwealth army of about 3,600, most of them hussars, routed a Swedish army estimated at around 11,000. At Klushino in 1610 a force of perhaps 6,000 to 7,000 defeated a Russian and Swedish army several times larger, opening the road to Moscow. At Khotyn in 1673 hussars under Jan Sobieski stormed the Ottoman camp. Their greatest day came at the relief of Vienna on 12 September 1683, when Sobieski, now king, led Polish, German and Austrian cavalry down the hills against the Ottoman army besieging the city. Often called the largest cavalry charge in history, it broke the siege, and the Ottoman Empire never again threatened central Europe.

Legacy

Infantry firepower, bastioned fortifications and the cost of the service slowly made the lance obsolete. The hussars became largely ceremonial in the eighteenth century and were formally abolished in 1776. As the emblem of Poland's military golden age, the winged riders have never had a rival, and they appear on everything from paintings to modern Polish army insignia.

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