9 months ago

The official lyric video for Sabaton's "Winged Hussars", from the album "The Last Stand".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcYhYO02f98

The winged horsemen known as the hussars were a uniquely Polish kind of cavalry sometimes called ‘one of the world’s most efficient units’ due to their spectacular victories. Thanks to their unparalleled skills, carefully-designed lances and uniquely-devised tactics, they won against most opponents, even when heavily outnumbered. But their seeming invincibility couldn’t last forever.

The hussars were born in the 16th century, had their heyday in the 17th and a period of demise in the 18th centuries. Their uniqueness lied, primarily, in them preferring melee weapons at a time when European armies were becoming more and more reliant on firearms. When it was becoming standard to employ not only infantry but also riders to shoot, the hussars would charge enemy soldiers, impaling them on deadly, intricately designed lances and making entire units flee from the battlefield. Thanks to their incredible horseback riding skills, tactics and gear during the first two centuries of their existence, they would usually win against most kinds of enemies sustaining minimal casualties against shooters as well as melee fighters.

François Paulin Dalerac, a French courtier of Polish King Jan III Sobieski, commander of the famous Battle of Vienna during which the hussars played a key role, writes in the 1699 book Les Anecdotes de Pologne:

The hussars never halt, they ride their horses at full speed, breaking through everything that’s in front of them.

The hussars – very elite troops – would often win despite being heavily outnumbered. This gave their victories a special kind of glory, and is one of the reasons their status in Polish history is near legendary. Basically every Pole has heard of them, sort of like most people in Europe have heard of the Roman legions.
https://culture.pl/en/article/polands-winged-knights-from-invincible-glory-to-obsolescence

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