Battle of Hodów is compared to the Spartans’ fight at Thermopylae. However, 300 Spartans died, while several hundred Polish cavalrymen survived and even won.
Although the king of Poland, Jan III Sobieski, defeated the Ottoman Empire near Vienna in 1683 and stopped its expansion into Europe, the Turks were still dangerous. Especially for the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth – the combined Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.
Tatar raids
Tatars, at the behest of the Turks, kept invading Polish lands. The main goal was to enslave the population and take the spoils. On June 11, 1694, one of the Tatar invasions reached the vicinity of Hodów (today’s Ukraine). There they were met by Polish cavalrymen led by Konstanty Zahorowski and Mikołaj Tyszkowski. They were hussars – the legendary troops of the Polish army, a total of 100 horsemen. There were also 300 armoured cavalrymen on the spot. They attacked a detachment of about 600 Tatars. It soon turned out that the troops of the enemy of the Poles were much more numerous.
Disputes over the number of Tatar troops
Some estimates say about 25,000, others even about 70,000 Tatars. Jan III Sobieski mentioned the figure of 40,000. Currently, according to historians, there were probably 4,000 Tatars. Even if we assume that there was a maximum of 600 soldiers on the Polish side, against 4,000 Tatars, their advantage was huge.
When the bullets ran out, they put Tatar arrows into the gun barrels
When Polish cavalrymen realized how numerous opponents they were dealing with, they changed their tactics. They entered Hodów, got off their horses and decided to defend themselves on foot. Before that, they barricaded the whole village with everything they could: carts, doors, tables, shutters and barrels. The Tatars’ attack lasted 5-6 hours. At that time, cavalrymen fired fiercely with gunpowder weapons, which were not as accurate as they are today, but had a great psychological effect. They defended access to Hodów and killed 1,000-1200 Tatars, losing less than 100 soldiers. One of the fighters on the Polish side reported that when their ammunition ran out, they fired arrows that had previously been attacked by the Tatars. The enemy tried to force the Poles to surrender, but he learned from the Polish Tatars that it would be refused. The losses accounts prevailed. Tatar troops left Hodów.
King Jan III Sobieski generously awarded the winners. He erected a monument to them in Hodów, which is still standing today.