The Hussite Wars
1419-1434

Hussite Wagon Fort Tactics

by Michael W. McGuire

Tactics

Unable to field heavy cavalry to oppose their enemies on equal terms, the Hussites developed wagon forts out of necessity. War wagon tactics evolved simultaneously with the improvements in the wagons themselves. A simple circle (left) expanded into more complicated squares and triangles formed by parallel columns {right}, based upon an organization using the "rota" -- a unit of approximately 100 men (5 wagons). Zizka's demand for discipline and constant training enabled the Hussites to become so skillful with the war wagons that they could form theirfort in the midst of the enemy!

War wagons were not unique, the Goths had used them in 378 A.D. to defeat the Romans at Adrianople, but Zizka refined them to their most sophisticated level in the five years he led the Hussite field armies. The wagon forts, once positioned on favorable terrain in mutually-supporting positions-with catapults, bombards, and light cavalry to buttress the battle line-proved impregnable to the undisciplined Royalist cavalrJ, and infantry for over fifteen years.

War Wagons

Originally the war wagons were only peasant carts modified with wooden boards to give added protection. By the end of the wars the wagons had evolved intc, large assault vehicles pulled by 4-8 oxen or horses. The bottom drawingsshow such wagons {including firing ports) with an early gun "snake") mounted on one of them-the first self- propelled artillery in history. A typical crew of 18-20 employed half as handgun-armed musketeers and crossbow archers in the wagon, while the remainder fought as pikemen from the spaces between the war wagons.

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© Copyright 1974 by Dana Lombardy
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