In 1788 an Army Fought Itself in the Dark and Hundreds of Its Own Soldiers Died

 On the night of September 21 and 22 in 1788 the Austrian army suffered one of its worst defeats of the Austro-Turkish War.

The Turks were not involved.

The Austrian army defeated itself.

What Happened

The Austrian army of around 100,000 men had set up camp near the town of Karansebes in what is now Romania. A group of cavalry scouts crossed a river to look for Turkish forces. Instead of enemy soldiers they found a group of Romani traders who were selling schnapps.

The scouts bought the schnapps and started drinking.

When the infantry arrived to cross the river the cavalry did not want to share. They set up an improvised barrier to keep the infantry out. An argument broke out.

Someone fired a shot. Nobody is entirely sure who.

In the dark and confusion that followed soldiers started shouting that the Turks were coming. The cry spread through the camp. Soldiers who had been asleep woke up in a panic and grabbed their weapons. In the darkness and noise the different ethnic groups that made up the Austrian army, Germans, Czechs, Croatians, Italians, and others, could not communicate clearly with each other. When soldiers shouted warnings in one language soldiers who did not understand that language assumed they were enemy soldiers.

The entire army started fighting itself.

Artillery opened fire on its own troops. Infantry charged into infantry. Cavalry rode over their own men.

By the time dawn came the army had scattered across miles of countryside. Somewhere between 1,000 and 10,000 men were dead or wounded depending on which historical account you read. The precise number was never confirmed because the records of the chaos are themselves chaotic.

When the actual Turkish army arrived two days later they found the site of a massive battle with no enemy. They advanced almost unopposed.

What This Tells Us

The Battle of Karansebes is funny in the way that only things that happened to other people are funny. For the people involved it was a catastrophe.

It happened because of a chain of small failures that combined into a disaster. Alcohol. Communication breakdown between soldiers who spoke different languages. Panic spreading faster than clear information. Command structures that collapsed when the confusion started.

None of those things are unique to the 18th century Austrian army. They are failures that happen in any large complex organization operating under stress.

The specific details of drunk cavalry and schnapps traders are colorful. The underlying story of how chaos compounds and spreads through systems is relevant to understanding almost any organizational disaster in history.

It also makes for one of the most extraordinary military stories ever told. An army of 100,000 men. Not one Turkish soldier. And somehow thousands dead.

Robert Lee Beers III is a writer and digital preservation advocate based in North Charleston South Carolina.