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THE SONS OF SIMON DE MONTFORTBattle of Belgrade, 1456by Paul Kerrison |
It was on a snowy February Sunday morning that more than 190 stone of
British manhood belonging to thirteen members of The Son’s of
Simon De Montfort wargames club (SODS), descended upon Quorn Hall in
Leicestershire to refight the Battle of Belgrade 1456.
The massive siege guns blasted three large breaches in the city walls
which heralded the beginning of the mass Ottoman attack. Mike, Gary
and Barry launched their Azab archers and spearmen towards the walls.
With battering rams, siege towers, scaling ladders and pavises for
protection; these boys meant business! At first the withering
shooting from the Christian archers in the wall towers checked the
advance, but slowly, as the Azabs started to return fire, the
Ottomans approached the walls. Opposing them, defending the walls,
were three formidable Christian generals led by Paul Hancock
(Giovanni Capistrano). With Chris Lambert to his left he was
supported by arguably the greatest exponent of defensive warfare ever
to grace the wargames table. In fact, it would be fair to say that
Chris can turn the static hold of any defensive position into a
relative work of art!
In contrast, Dave Marshal, Paul’s right hand man, immediately
flung open the gate and launched an early counter-attack with his
armoured infantry into the heart of Gary’s assault troops and
threatened the Ottoman siege guns. This ambitious gamble managed to
disrupt the attackers for a number of game turns until Gary’s
spearmen and Azabs eventually surrounded them.
In the centre Paul Simms (Mehmet II) steadily advanced his Janissaries
and elite Qapikulu cavalry towards the retinue troops of Janos
Hunyadi (Trevor Brown), the overall commander of the Christian
forces. With the finest troops of both sides facing each other, this
was always destined to become round after round of medieval butchery,
with no side willing to give ground or quarter.
On the left flank under the command of Dave Grenz and Roger West, the
Akinjis and Sipahis of the massed Ottoman cavalry were launched
towards the mixed troops of the Christian right under Mark Biddles
and Graeme Spencer. It was fairly obvious by the grins on their faces
that the Ottoman cavalry commanders fancied their chances of smashing
through their ‘inferior’ opponents, with Graeme’s
command comprising mostly militia spearmen and mounted sergeants,
plus only two units of heavy cavalry. However, Mark’s
war-wagons and supporting infantry would prove a very tough nut to
crack! And so it was that he did his impression of Stonewall Jackson
as wave after wave of frustrated sipahis were bounced of his unbroken
line of medieval tanks!
On the walls of Belgrade the Christian defenders held firm as the
Ottomans surged through the breaches made by the massive siege guns,
only to be confronted by a hastily constructed second barrier of
wagons bravely defended by peasants and town militia. Thankfully for
the Christians, the battering rams failed to smash open the gates,
which would have given them even more holes to plug.
By lunchtime Graeme’s cavalry had lost both ground and troops to
the relentless advance of the sipahis, and were forced to seek refuge
behind his militia spearmen occupying the slopes of the escarpment
just in front of his own table edge. To their left the war-wagons
held firm as Paul Simms focussed his main attack upon Janos Hunyadi’s
forces in the centre. This proved decisive, because during this
pivotal encounter Janos was killed, and by mid- afternoon his troops
were retreating back to the walls of Belgrade. As a result the left
wing of Mark’s line of war-wagons became exposed as the Sipahis
swarmed through the gap in the Christian lines.
Belgrade was still holding firm thanks to the herculean efforts of Paul
Hancock and his supporting generals. Then something surreal occurred;
Chris Lambert launched an attack! He sent two units ‘forward’
through one of the gates which caught Barry by surprise, in fact,
this unusual occurrence left everyone stunned! This sortie fragmented
the Ottoman assault along a large section of wall scattering the
attackers. Great stuff Chris!
Unfortunately, by this stage of the game attrition had reduced the Christian numbers
in the centre section of the wall and the Ottoman infantry began to
gain a strong presence inside the city, and cause even greater losses
to the defenders as they tried in vain to push them back. Mike
Coffey, who had been attacking relentlessly all day, now mustered
enough Ottoman troops to attack both left and right inside the walls.
As a direct result of this, Giovanni Caspirano was eventually killed
and the Christians last hope of victory died with him. A great and
very decisive Ottoman victory was thereby declared, and accepted by
4.15 on a Sunday afternoon.
And so it came to pass that with the fall of Belgrade, the whole of
Western Europe was laid open for the Ottomans to conquer. Once more
the SODS had created an alternative history in which Mehmet II’s
Ottomans armies can invade Britain at just the right time to play
their part in the Wars Of The Roses!
