When the Crusaders mustered their forces and closed in on the raiding Russian army, Alexander purposefully fled. It was late March, early April and ice still remained on the Russian streams and rivers. As the Russians fled back to their homeland, the Crusaders had their first victory. They managed to cut off and ambush a force of Russians separated from the main army, destroyed it and forced the survivors to flee for their lives to the main army (Nicolle, 67). At this point, Alexander must have felt some uncertainty--he did not know exactly what he was up against, but he knew his own men. They would fight.

The Russian army fell back to the area of Lake Piepus, still frozen over, but with an uneven surface…still the ice was thick enough for infantry and lighter cavalry to cross it [note: the lake was not all that deep in many places] with little difficulty (Nicolle, 69). Here is where the Russian Prince showed his knowledge of the enemy. He formed up his army, no on the lake itself, but ashore where he could face the attacking enemy--who would be disordered by the ice.

The numerous Russian archers were stationed in the center of the northern edge of the army with the horse archers to the right flank to counter the Teutonic Order, which rode in the center of the Crusading army. Crusader allies were stationed on the right flank, Danes and Estonians to the left and auxiliaries to the rear in support (Nicolle, 74). As William Urban described it, "The heavily armored Western knights formed the spearhead of a column followed by light cavalry and foot…, which charged into the Russian infantry" (98-99).

As the N.C. noted, Prince Alexander and all the men of Novgorod drew up their forces by the lake, at Uzmen, by the Raven's Rock, and the Germans and Estonians rode at them, driving themselves like a wedge through their army (Christiansen, 129). Yet another translation of this same passage told that "(The Germans) fought their way through (Alexander's) army in a wedge" (Nicolle, 71). Whatever the case, the Crusaders obviously wasted no time in attacking the Russian army.

The Livonian Rhymed Chronicle gives us an even more vivid description of the opening attack. "(The Crusaders) decided to attack the Russians (who) had many archers and the battle began with their bold assault… The (Teutonic Order) banners were soon flying in the midst of the archers and the swords were heard cutting helmets apart" (Nicolle, 74). The Crusaders had a very basic plan--kill or capture the Russian leader. Without their prince, the Russians would fragment because of loss of command control. The Germans knew this and so did Alexander Nevsky.

No doubt the Russian center reeled and fell back from the force of the Crusader mounted attack, but they did not break. Instead, the horse archers methodically began to destroy the Danish wing of the Crusader army. Much like the Germans and Poles discovered at Liegnitz the year before, the Danes were finding out what it was like to be faced with an enemy they could not catch and that hurt them without being able to reply. As David Nicolle wrote of the horse archers, "They may still have been a novelty to the Russian author (of the Life of Alexandre), whose description of God's Host coming through the air to help Alexander could be an echo of the whistling rain of arrows which fell upon the surprised King's men" (75).

The Novgorod Chronicle simply states "And there was a great slaughter of Germans and Estonians (but)…God helped Prince Alexander" (Christiansen, 129). One can only imagine the shock of swarms of arrows coming from the ranks of the elusive horsemen. Likely, the Estonians and Danes either died in their tracks or began to run for any escape from certain death. Once this occurred, the vastly superior Russian army began to outflank the outnumbered Crusaders.

Though initially successful, the Crusader knights tired quickly from not only their disordered charge over the ice, but by the heavy fighting along the shoreline. The numerous Russian foot had bent but had not broken as the knights smashed into their ranks, forcing lanes into the spearmen but in turn being pulled from their horses as they stumbled along the slippery shore. As the Crusaders grew more exhausted from swinging their swords and wielding their lances, the Russian numbers began to tell. But the knights still were pushing the Russians back. Then the Russian prince released his own cavalry, the druzhina.

The Russian cavalry were fresh and eager to come to grips with their enemy. As they slammed into the Crusaders, the Germans and their allies realized just how perilous their situation had become. The fighting became desperate as the Crusaders fought first to survive and then to escape. Surrounded, they began to fall beneath the blades of the victorious Russians. Still, they did not yet panic. But Russian numbers and fresh troops as well as the open flank which the horse archers had cleared meant that it was only a matter of time before the battle would be decided.

The Crusaders were slowly forced back to the shoreline and then, like in so many battles where morale and courage suddenly failed for one side or the other, they broke and ran. In Eisenstein's classic film, the Teutonic Order are seen as being destroyed when they fled onto the lake and the ice broke, but the Russians actually did the destroying. They did not need the ice…no mention is made in the Novgorod Chronicle of them breaking though it…the Russians broke the Crusader army by themselves and apparently did not need nature's help.

Twenty of the Brethren died that day. The bloody personal combat can be verified by the fact that only six of them were actually taken prisoner…this in the time of high ransoms paid for valuable prisoners. The Crusader infantry were not so lucky, 400 of the Germans killed according to the Novgorod Chronicle and only 50 of them taken prisoner (Christiansen, 129).

Battle of Lake Piepus 1242

Introduction
Russia and the Teutonic Order
Campaign of 1242
The Battle: April 5, 1242
Aftermath