Contemporary sources claim that 16-83,000 Teutonic Knights and 26-163,000 Poles and Lithuanians were involved in this battle, but modern estimates put their strengths more credibly at 21,000 cavalry and 11,000 infantry for the Teutonic Knights, and 18-29,000 Polish cavalry, 4,000 Polish infantry, 11,000 Lithuanian cavalry, 1,000-1,500 Grim Tartar cavalry, plus some Wallachian and Serbian cavalry and a few Lithuanian infantry, and artillery on both sides. Traditionally the Teutonic Knights were organised in 52 ‘banners’ and the Poles and Lithuanians in 50 and 40 ‘banners’ respectively (the Poles forming the left and the Lithuanians the right of their battle-line). The Polish-Lithuanian commander-in-chief was technically King Vladislav II, but it was his brother. Grand Duke Vytautus, who effectively took control. The Knights were commanded by their Hochmeister, Ulrich von Jungingen.
The battle commenced at 9.00 a. m. After initial skirmishing between the opposing light cavalry the Knights’ artillery opened fire, goading the Lithuanians into a wild charge which, met by a counter-charge of 15 banners under Friedrich Wallenrod, Grand Marshal of Prussia, was rolled back after a fierce engagement and then broken in rout. Only the 3 Smolensk banners withdrew in good order to join up with the Poles, though they were pursued so closely by 7 of Wallenrod’s units, who intended to take the Poles in flank, that one was cut down almost to a man.
By this time battle had also been joined in the centre and on the left, with the Poles under pressure both to their front (from 20 divisions of Knights under Konrad von Lichtenstein, the Grand Commander) and on their right, exposed by the Lithuanian rout. However, the Smolensk banners had delayed Wallenrod long enough for the Poles to ready themselves for his attack. Nevertheless, pressure on this flank steadily increased as one by one Wallenrod’s other 8 divisions rallied from their pursuit of the Lithuanians and added fresh impetus to the attack. Eventually, when a fierce melee for the Polish royal banner ended in favour of the Poles, the psychological advantage shifted, and the Hochmeister had to commit his reserve of 16 banners (plus his own) in order to try and retrieve the situation. At much the same time the Polish infantry came in on the Knights’ right flank and began to inflict considerable slaughter amongst the crowded, immobilised horsemen, and soon afterwards the Lithuanians, having rallied on the shores of Lake Lubicz, charged in on the Order’s rear, so that the Knights were all but encircled, other Lithuanians meanwhile sacking the Order’s camp and slaughtering its infantry. The battle then degenerated into a massacre as the numerical superiority of the Polish-Lithuanian forces finally took effect on the trapped Knights, organised resistance collapsing on the death of the Hochmeister, ending an engagement that had lasted some 10 hours.
The Teutonic Knights recorded. their own losses in the battle as 18,000 dead, while the Poles claimed to have captured up to 14-16,000 more, probably including many non-combatants. At least 205, and probably 400, brethren were amongst the dead, Sienkiewicz writing that of 700 ‘white-cloaks’ only 15 were taken alive. Their losses included virtually the entire high command of the Order, the Hochmeister, Grand Commander, Marshal and Treasurer all being killed. Modern estimates put the Polish-Lithuanian losses at 4-5,000 dead and 8,000 wounded. The Poles, however, failed to take advantage of the magnitude of the Order’s defeat: ‘No-one’, as one modern authority states, ‘ever wasted such a great victory so completely.’
World History
