Today is the anniversary Battle of Torvioll which happened on 29 June 1444 where the renowned athlete of Christ George Kastrioti "Skanderbeg", defeated the Mohammedan Ottoman army for Christendom! It was the first battle in his 25 year long fight against the Ottomans!
Skanderbeg had served the Ottomans before 1443 where he got his nickname but became disillusioned and switched side during the battle of Nish where the crusaders won against the Ottomans. He retreated from the battle with his 300 loyal Albanian horsemen to the city of Kroja.
At Kroja, Skanderbeg announced that he was a Christian again and took action against the Islamization that had been occurring around Kroja (or Kruja, Krujë in Albanian). Those who refused to accept Christianity, including the Ottoman officials he had seized, were impaled!
Skanderberg's actions started inspired people to revolt elsewhere and his goal was to unite all the Albanian chiefs into a league to resist the Turks. In march 1444 he formed the mighty League of Lezhë in the Venetian town of Alessio (Lezhë), consisting of Albanian aristocracy.
Skanderbeg received considerable support and was made the head of the league, and from then on signed himself as the Dominus Albaniae, the powerful leader of the rebellion of this remote land that would challenge the Ottomans!
Skanderbeg would embark on an illustrious journey of glorious battles and skirmishes against his powerful and numerically superior enemy, the Ottomans. The battle of Torvioll would be his first challenge, as the Ottomans responded to Skanderbeg's new might with a full invasion!
Torvioll showed the military genius of Skanderbeg as he planned several moves ahead. He only had 15000 men to face the 40000 strong Ottoman army, and planned an ambush, while positioning part of his army on the bottom of the hill to lure the Ottomans to attack it!
The Ottomans fell into the trap and attacked Skanderbeg's forces and would soon found themselves attacked from all sides by the units that Skanderbeg had hidden in the forests nearby. The defeat of Ottomans was devastating as they were overwhelmed from all sides and routed!
Many Ottomans were killed, supposedly around 10000-20000 dead. The sultan's trusted commander Ali Pasha himself was almost killed. He fled with his elite personal battalion to report of the humiliating loss to the Sultan!
Skanderbeg was very calm after the victory. Despite the success against all odds and the spoils his army took, he realized that this was only a start to a long war against the mighty Ottomans. Over the next decades he and his league would continue to fight and to triumph!
Skanderbeg's triumphs would give him much praise and respect all over Europe! Pope Calixtus III declared him an Athleta Christi, the Athlete of Christ, a very ancient title dedicated to Christian soldiers who were martyrs in ancient Rome, and that was also used by crusaders!
(My main source was John Fine, The Late Medieval Balkans: A Critical Survey from the Late Twelfth Century to the Ottoman Conquest, 1994.)
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This is the Mercedes-Benz W125 Rekordwagen made in 1937.
I was always fascinated with this car.
It's crazy how in 1938 this car recorded a speed of 432.7 km/h (268.9 mph). This remained the fastest ever officially timed speed on a public road until broken in 2017.
The record was set by German driver Rudolf Caracciola who drove this car on the Reichs-Autobahn A5 between Frankfurt and Darmstadt on 28 January 1938.
This reflected the obsession with breaking records and showcasing industrial prowess of nations at the time.
The onlookers who observed the spectacle of a car racing at astonishing 432.7 km/h past them also noted the brutal boom of the side spewing exhaust stacks as the silver car hurtled past.
It must have been an incredible spectacle to witness!
Hussite war wagons proved so effective that within 100 years this tactic spread from Bohemia all the way to India!
In 1526 Mughal Emperor Babur employed war wagons to win the First Battle of Panipat.
A short thread on how this style of warfare spread over the world. 🧵
The tactic of "wagenburg" (wagon fort) was adopted in the Hussite Wars (1419-1434) by the Hussites, a religious movement which fought armies of crusader knights from all over Europe.
The use of such war wagons enabled them to withstand the cavalry charges of armored knights.
The purpose of these war wagons was not just to present an obstacle for the cavalry but also to give handgunners protection to fire their weapons at the enemy.
The main weakness of handguns at the time was the long reloading time, during which handgunners were vulnerable.
There was a scene in the movie Lord of the Rings where they light signal fires to warn of an attack.
But this is how the defense system of Habsburg lands actually worked against the Ottoman threat!
A network of bonfires was in place to warn people of incoming Ottoman raids. 🧵
In the Lord of the Rings these are called the Beacon-hills of Gondor.
They are permanently manned stations across the hills where great fireplaces are kept in the state of readiness.
In this manner, people all over the kingdom can be informed of an attack quickly.
People might think this is something that belongs to the fictional world, but in 15-16th centuries the Habsburgs actually established a similar system like this.
The mountainous regions of Carniola and Styria offered many good strategic positions!
In 1927 Benito Mussolini ordered to drain the Lake Nemi south of Rome to recover the wrecks of the Nemi ships, two large pleasure barges built under the reign of the Roman emperor Caligula.
Unfortunately the remains of the ships were destroyed by fire in 1944 during WWII.
It is speculated that Nemi ships were elaborate floating palaces, with mosaic floors, heating and plumbing, baths, galleries and saloons, as well as a large variety of vines and fruit trees, similar to other Caligula's galleys described by Suetonius!
Lake Nemi is a volcanic lake which was popular by wealthy Romans due to clean air and uncontaminated water and cooler temperatures during the hot summer months.