How Effective were Spears Against Cavalry?

[Domen]

Thanks Renatus for quoting what Nazarius writes about those macemen - so we already have two sources confirming the fact that such infantry was used in combats against armored cavalry.

To group infantry close together so that they may better serve as a target for archery?

Uhm, so I suppose that testudo (and other formations which used shields kept close to each other in order to protect from arrows) was used to "make infantry a better target" for archery... ??? :whistle:

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Regarding both charges into close ordered infantry and using blunt weapons against cavalry:

Czech Hussites used mobile wagon forts and war flails against cavalry to great effect - but cavalry was actually recorded charging their squares of wagon forts and even smashing some of their wagons.

For example in the battle of Sudomer 400 Czech Hussites inside 12 wagons (deployed in a square formation as a wagon fort) repulsed 2000 heavy cavalry, but also suffered heavy casualties in the process - including at least 3 of their wagons destroyed, 30 men captured and many more killed:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_S...4%9B%C5%99

As I already pointed out many times before, field fortications were very useful vs cavalry. And Sudomer is another example which confirms this (in this case wagons were used as fortifications):

The Battle of Sudomĕř was fought on 25 March, 1420

(...)

The Battle of Sudomĕř began after Hussite forces which had taken up temporary fortifications on the plains were found by Royalist forces, who closed in for an attack. The Hussites were greatly outnumbered 5 to 1, and initially hoisted the white flag, but when the Royalists refused to accept their surrender the battle truly began.

Though outnumbered and comparatively ill-equipped, facing heavily armoured knights, the Hussites had fortified their surroundings ingeniously. Their flank was protected by war wagons loaded with arquebusiers, and many large ponds and marshy areas surrounded the Hussite infantry - ground which the Royalist Cavalry could not hope to cross.

One thousand Johannites from Strakonice led by Jindřich of Hradec - killed in battle - attacked war wagons placed on a slim dam, with huge casualties but no success. After that, another thousand Royalist cavalrymen, led by Peter von Konopischt of Sternberg - killed in the Battle of Vítkov Hill later that year - rushed a weakly held side of the Hussite formation, but were mired in marshy ground. They dismounted in order to progress, but soon found themselves mired once more. Following this, the Hussite light infantry equipped with flails were able to easily finish the cavalrymen.

The battle ended with the advance of night and fog, during which Žižka and the Hussite forces were able to escape. Though the Catholic Royalists were not entirely defeated, the fact the Hussites were able to inflict such heavy casualties with so few men, and then escape soundly proved to be a great victory. Only 400 hussites - farmers and townsmen, including women and children - beat the 2,000-strong force of heavily armoured cavalry. Hussite General, Jan Žižka, through superior knowledge of tactics and terrain, along with the highly effective deployment of vozová hradba (wagon fort) strategies, won the day.

(...)

Casualties and losses:

Hussites - Heavy, at least 3 wagons destroyed, 30 captured

Catholics - Heavy

Here information regarding the Hussite tactics of using wagon forts as fighting platforms:

http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/matthaywood/m...e%20Wagons

The Wagons

To successfully counter the large numbers of Knights and better equipped infantry the Hussites would face Zizka turned to the humble haulage wagon. From these wagons Zizka created a method of rapidly deploying a defensive wagon laager, in essence a mobile fort. A similar structure was used at the battle of Tannenberg by the Polish for protecting their camp and baggage. From this Wagenberg or Tabor the lightly armoured Hussites would be better equipped to fend off their opponents. Having established the basic structure Zizka further refined the process by creating the Warwagon and other specialised equipment, See warwagons for the details on the differing types of wagons.

The basic unit of the Hussite army was the wagon. Sources either quote 10 or 20 as the standard crew for a wagon. Certainly German ordinaces of the era put the required crew at 20 'after the Hussite fashion'. This is usually broken down as 2 armed drivers, 2 handgunners, 6 crossbowmen, 4 flailmen, 4 halberdiers and 2 pavisiers. The wagons were organised in a basic tactical group of ten.The tactical groups of wagons were assigned to a combat line, commanded by a Zeilmeistern (line master). The number of wagons per combat line was either 50 or 100 presumably the varience depended on the size of the army. See the warwagon pages for additional information on Hussite wagons.

http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/matthaywood/m...20Hussites

The Tabor battle wagons of the Hussites

The Hussites developed wagons specifically for the open battlefield and these became known by the term Tabor in the Christian sources of the time and as Tabur by the Ottoman Turks. Tabor was also used to discribe the defensive laagers built from the individual wagons. For more details on the Hussite wars see the Hussite pages. The term tabor has several possible origins. The commonly held origin is that it comes from the biblical name Mount Tabor, which was the name the Hussites gave several of their Meeting places in Bohemia, One later become the town of Tabor. The second origin, which I find more persuasive is it comes from the Czech word Tabor meaning camp. The associations with a camp wagon are obvious and these wagons formed the initial battle wagons of the Hussites. There is also the battle of Sudomer in 1420, which was one of the first conflicts in the crusades against the Hussites. This battle is also called the battle of the Tabor as Jan Zizka defended a wagon square against a vastly superior force of Royalist Cavalry. This battle predates the founding of the fortress (a pre-existing ruined castle) and town of Tabor whose name, I believe also being chosen on its founding.

Pictures showing Hussite wagon forts:











And a movie depiction of the battle of Sudomer (Czech historical movie "Jan Zizka", 1955):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RpaeyIbk8N8

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Of course the battle of Sudomer was a relatively small-scale battle, with just 12 war wagons.

In some battles of the Hussite Wars, both sides used even hundreds or thousands of war wagons.

For example in the battle of Usti (16 June 1426) the Hussites had around 500 war wagons.