page_title: Jan Žižka
section_title: Wagenburg tactics
hierarchical_section_title: Jan Žižka / Rise to prominence / Wagenburg tactics
caption_attribution_description: Čeština: Portréty českých osobností od Jana Vilímka
context_page_description: Jan Žižka z Trocnova a Kalicha was a Czech general, a contemporary and follower of Jan Hus, Hussite military leader, and later also a Radical Hussite who led the Taborites. Žižka is held to be one of the most renowned military leaders by many historians and today he is widely considered a Czech national hero.
  He was born in the small village of Trocnov in the Kingdom of Bohemia into an aristocratic family. He was nicknamed "One-eyed Žižka". From his youth, he was attached to the royal court and held the office of Chamberlain to Queen Sofia of Bavaria.
  He fought in the Battle of Grunwald, where he defended Radzyń against the Teutonic Order. Later he played a prominent role in the civil wars in Bohemia during the reign of Wenceslas IV. Žižka's tactics were unorthodox and innovative. In addition to training and equipping his army according to their abilities, he used armored wagons fitted with small cannons and muskets, anticipating the tank of five hundred years later. He knew how to exploit geographic features to the full, and maintain discipline in his armies.
  In the Battle of Kutná Hora he defeated the army of the Holy Roman Empire and Hungary.
context_section_description: Žižka helped develop tactics of using wagon forts, called vozová hradba in Czech or Wagenburg by the Germans, as mobile fortifications. When the Hussite army faced a numerically superior opponent they prepared carts for the battle by forming them into squares or circles. The carts were joined wheel to wheel by chains and positioned aslant, with their corners attached to each other, so that horses could be harnessed to them quickly, if necessary. In front of this wall of carts a ditch was dug by camp followers. The crew of each cart consisted of 16–22 soldiers: 4–8 crossbowmen, 2 handgunners, 6–8 soldiers equipped with pikes or flails (the flail was the Hussite "national weapon"), 2 shield carriers and 2 drivers.
  The Hussites' battle consisted of two stages, the first defensive, the second an offensive counterattack. In the first stage the army placed the carts near the enemy army and by means of artillery fire provoked the enemy into battle. The artillery would usually inflict heavy casualties at close range.
  In order to avoid more losses, the enemy knights finally attacked. Then the infantry hidden behind the carts used firearms and crossbows to ward off the attack, weakening the enemy. The shooters aimed first at the horses, depriving the cavalry of its main advantage. Many of the knights died as their horses were shot and they fell.
  As soon as the enemy's morale was lowered, the second stage, an offensive counterattack, began. The infantry and the cavalry burst out from behind the carts striking violently at the enemy, mostly from the flanks. While fighting on the flanks and being shelled from the carts the enemy was not able to put up much resistance. They were forced to withdraw, leaving behind dismounted knights in heavy armor who were unable to escape the battlefield. The enemy armies suffered heavy losses and the Hussites soon had the reputation of not taking captives.
caption: Jan Žižka z Trocnova, fictional portrait by Jan Vilímek
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