"Hussite War Wagons: Static or Active?" Topic

Were Hussite war wagons primarily used on the battlefield as static defenses, or were they so maneuverable they could be used to encircle their opponents?

Static surely otherwise their horses would be easy prey.

Static. Weren't chains also run between the wagons, or maybe that was the Poles?

Actually, both.

Static preferred, but the Hussites did move! I understand they would maneuver closer and set up the wagenburg to force a battle. There was one battle where they were attacked before setting up.

At least one period source says that they were active.

How trustworthy that source is has been much debated.

The sources would, in theory, be easy targets, but the wagons were full of shooters and the Hussites would probably have had far more shooters than their enemies.

Static, at least in battle.

If still active, this certainly was not of the Hussites choice…

At the Battle of Kutna Hora the Hussites smashed their way out of an encirclement by flanking their infantry with long columns of wagons chained together. The wagons only paused to fire artillery in support of the infantry – much like mobile artillery of today. After the breakout the wagonburg was set up as usual to tempt the Imperial forces to attack as they normally would.

Victor Verney's "Warrior of God – Jan Zizka and the Hussite Revolution" has some good descriptions of the various battles and how the wagons were used.

Being encircled sounds exactly like the situation that was not of the Hussites choice :-)

Good to hear that the wagons were of use mobile, though. The success of the Hussites created a large boom of war wagons in the second half of the 15th century, with many forces in Europe adding them to their arsenal.

I have always heard that the war wagons were mobile. Usually a large open box formation with any cavalry that they had skirmishing on the outside of the box.

After seeing some Hussite wagons in Prague, it would be fascinating that if they did move as is claimed in battle, how did they protect the horses? It would make just an easy target for any crossbowmen, kill one horse and the wagon is static?

" kill one horse and the wagon is static"

As discussed earlier.

I think it is rather more easily said than done. I think horses are rather hard to kill, but more to the point, a) the Hussite shooters far outnumbered their opponents and b) they were shooting from behind cover.

Chariots were used for a thousand years against opponents with far more bows.

There is a big difference between a lumbering war wagon and a light chariot which after all fell out of use and were hardly successful outside of biblical armies.
It is more logical if the Hussites outnumbered the Imperials however the Czechs at the museum certainly imply they were always outnumbered.

The Hussites may have been outnumbered at times, but not likely in missilemen. In most battles after the inital stages, modern estimates put numbers on each side as fairly even and the 'crusaders' tend to have far fewer infantry. They generally rely on their knights despite their lack of success against the wagons.
When the Hussites were faced by enemy missiles, that is the time to stop and roll out the artillery to support their large numbers of crossbowmen, handgunners and light guns fired from within the wagons.

As it happens, while I think that Hussite wagons could move about, I think they probably did so outside of engagement range and then formed up. The artillery then provokes the enemy.

There is obviously a big difference between a wagon and chariot, but the point is that both are inconvenienced by dead horses.
"Hardly successful outside of biblical armies". Yeah. Only used for a thousand years or so from the Atlantic to the Yellow Sea. Their use ended but not, seemingly, because of the dangers of having horses shot down by massed archers.