When 18,000 Cavalry Charged Down a Mountain

In July 1683, the Ottoman Empire marched over one hundred thousand soldiers straight toward the gates of Vienna. With only fifteen thousand defenders remaining behind crumbling ramparts and Ottoman sappers tunneling beneath the city basements, Vienna was just hours away from falling. Then, on September 12th, King John III Sobieski of Poland arrived with a massive coalition army—unleashing eighteen thousand horsemen, led by the legendary Winged Hussars, in the largest cavalry charge in recorded human history. This is the dramatic story of the Siege of Vienna and the clash that halted Ottoman expansion into Central Europe forever.