What are the greatest battles in Polish history?
The Battle of Warsaw in August 1920 tops our ranking: it saved the reborn Polish state from Soviet conquest. Next come the relief of Vienna in 1683, Grunwald in 1410, Monte Cassino in 1944 and the Warsaw Uprising of 1944. The fifteen battles on the list run from Legnica in 1241 to Monte Cassino and Falaise in 1944.
For seven centuries, from Legnica in 1241 to Monte Cassino and Falaise in 1944, Polish and Polish-Lithuanian armies fought battles that decided the fate of the state, and some of the best remembered were defeats. These fifteen are ranked by score, with most weight on how well known each battle is and on what it decided for Poland; see how we chose them. For more of the story, see our guides to the battles that won Polish independence, the greatest last stands, the greatest cavalry charges and the greatest battles of World War II.1
This page ranks the greatest battles. For the whole story, from the Piast kingdom to World War II, with every Polish battle on this site grouped by era, see our guide to the military history of Poland.
1 Battle of Warsaw, 1920
- Where
- Approaches to Warsaw, from the Wkra to the Wieprz, Poland
- War
- Polish-Soviet War
- Sides
- Poland (Józef Piłsudski) vs Soviet Russia (Mikhail Tukhachevsky's Western Front)
- Strength
- About 120,000 Polish vs about 114,000 Soviet troops around Warsaw, by one Polish estimate; counts vary
- Result
- Decisive Polish victory; 60,000 to 66,000 Soviet prisoners
Two years after independence, the state itself was at stake. In July 1920 Tukhachevsky's Western Front drove on Warsaw under his order that the road to a world conflagration ran “over the corpse of White Poland.” The plan was to hold the bridgehead east of the capital while a strike group gathered on the Wieprz against the Soviet flank; the Museum of Polish History says Tadeusz Rozwadowski's General Staff worked it out from Piłsudski's general concept, while the Józef Piłsudski Museum credits it to Piłsudski himself. By one Polish estimate about 120,000 Polish soldiers faced about 114,000 Red Army troops around the city; other counts differ.2
From 13 August the Red Army stormed the bridgehead; Radzymin, 25 km from the city center, changed hands for three days, and at Ossów the volunteers' chaplain, Father Ignacy Skorupka, was killed. On 16 August Piłsudski's group struck north from the Wieprz, and within ten days the Soviet armies were broken. The IPN gives 25,000 Soviet dead and 66,000 prisoners; the Museum of Polish History, which calls the Soviet figures estimates, gives 60,000 prisoners and about 4,500 Polish dead.3
Poland kept its independence, and the Treaty of Riga then divided the lands of today's Belarus and Ukraine between Poland and the Soviet side. Myth and fact: “Miracle on the Vistula” began as a phrase of Stanisław Stroński, a right-wing opponent of Piłsudski, in Rzeczpospolita on 14 August 1920; the historian Mariusz Wołos calls it almost pure propaganda.4
Why it ranks here: The battle that saved the reborn state takes full marks for recognition, decisiveness, consequence and memory, with 15 August still Armed Forces Day, and loses one point only on certainty, because Soviet strength and losses vary between sources; 49 of 50 makes it No. 1.5
2 Vienna, 1683
- Where
- Vienna and the Kahlenberg heights, Austria
- War
- Great Turkish War
- Sides
- Relief army of Polish, imperial and German troops under King John III Sobieski, with the Habsburg garrison, vs the Ottoman army of Grand Vizier Kara Mustafa
- Strength
- 100,000 to 120,000 Ottomans at the siege vs a relief army of 65,000 to 69,000, about 27,000 of them Polish crown troops
- Result
- Ottoman defeat; siege broken on 12 September 1683; 10,000 to 15,000 Ottoman losses
For Poland the road to Vienna began in Podolia. In 1672 the Ottomans took the province, and the Peace of Buczacz bound the Commonwealth to pay 22,000 thalers a year in tribute; the Sejm rejected it, and Hetman Jan Sobieski beat the Ottomans at Khotyn in 1673. As king he signed an alliance with Emperor Leopold I on 1 April 1683, and when Kara Mustafa's army closed around Vienna in July, 100,000 strong by the Wilanów museum's count and about 120,000 by the City of Vienna's, he marched with 27,000 crown troops without waiting for the Lithuanians.6
On 12 September a relief army of 65,000 to 69,000 under Sobieski's command came down from the Kahlenberg. After a trial charge by hussar companies, in which Stanisław Potocki fell, some 20,000 horsemen charged late in the afternoon and the Ottoman army broke and fled, losing 10,000 to 15,000 men. Sobieski wrote to the Pope: “Venimus, vidimus, Deus vicit,” we came, we saw, God conquered. The victory opened the Holy League's long war, which ended at Karlowitz in 1699; the historian Konrad Bobiatyński notes that Austria gained most, while the Commonwealth, after many costly campaigns, won back only what it had lost in 1672, Podolia with Kamieniec and right-bank Ukraine.7
Why it ranks here: Full marks for recognition, consequence and memory: the relief of Vienna began the Ottoman retreat from Central Europe, and Sobieski's charge remains a symbol of Polish arms. For Poland itself it decided less, since Podolia came back only at Karlowitz sixteen years later, so decisiveness 3; it ties Grunwald on 45 points and on recognition and goes above it on consequence.
3 Grunwald, 1410
- Where
- Near the village of Grunwald, then in the Teutonic Order's Prussia, now northern Poland
- War
- Polish-Lithuanian-Teutonic War of 1409 to 1411 (the “Great War”)
- Sides
- Poland under Władysław II Jagiełło and Lithuania under Grand Duke Vytautas vs the Teutonic Order under Grand Master Ulrich von Jungingen
- Strength
- About 30,000 Poles, Lithuanians and allies vs about 20,000 for the Order (estimates 16,000 to 39,000 vs 11,000 to 27,000)
- Result
- Polish-Lithuanian victory; the grand master and most of the Order's high officers killed
Once the Teutonic Order seized Gdańsk Pomerania early in the fourteenth century it became Poland's most dangerous neighbor, and the union with Lithuania in 1385 made a showdown likely. When war came in 1409, Jagiełło and Vytautas planned to join their armies and march on Malbork to force the knights into a pitched battle. Recent Polish research puts the Order's army at about 15,000 against 19,000 to 20,000 Poles and 10,000 Lithuanians; other estimates run to 39,000 allies and 27,000 for the Order.8
On 15 July 1410 the grand master's heralds brought the king two swords. Myth and fact: the swords themselves were a chivalric custom; what insulted the Poles was the heralds' speech taunting Jagiełło for hiding in the woods. The Lithuanians attacked first; the Order's charges slowly lost ground, and Ulrich von Jungingen fell leading his last reserve, with most of his high officers.
Malbork held, and the First Peace of Toruń in 1411 returned only the Dobrzyń land to Poland and Samogitia to Lithuania, and that only for the lifetimes of Jagiełło and Vytautas. Yet, the historian Michał Kopczyński argues, the Order never again dared to meet Poland in a pitched battle, and the long decline that followed ended in 1466 with Gdańsk Pomerania and Warmia in Polish hands. As early as 1412, 15 July was made a state holiday.9
Why it ranks here: The best-known Polish and Lithuanian victory and a national symbol for six centuries takes full marks for recognition and memory. It broke the Order's field army, but Malbork held and the peace of 1411 gave back little, so decisiveness and consequence 4 and, with disputed numbers, certainty 4; it ties Vienna on 45 points and on recognition and goes below it on consequence.
4 Monte Cassino, 1944
- Where
- Monte Cassino massif above the town of Cassino, Italy
- War
- World War II, Italian campaign
- Sides
- 2nd Polish Corps (Gen. Władysław Anders) in the British Eighth Army vs German forces of the Gustav Line, including the 1st Parachute Division
- Strength
- Under 50,000 in the Polish corps, by Jakub Żak's count, vs elite German units including the 1st Parachute and 5th Mountain Divisions
- Result
- Monastery ruins taken on 18 May 1944; 923 Polish dead and 345 missing (dzieje.pl), over 1,000 dead by the Ministry of Culture's count
Three Allied assaults on Cassino, from January to March 1944, had failed against the Gustav Line when General Oliver Leese gave the 2nd Polish Corps the hardest task of the fourth: the monastery hill. The corps, men freed from Soviet camps, soldiers from Britain and veterans of Tobruk, was under 50,000 strong by the historian Jakub Żak's count. Anders wrote that he accepted because success would answer Soviet propaganda that the Poles would not fight the Germans.10
The first Polish attack, from 12 May, broke down under heavy fire; the second, on 17 and 18 May, took Hill 593, the Phantom Ridge and San Angelo, and that night the German 1st Parachute Division began to pull out on Kesselring's order. At 10:20 on 18 May a patrol of the 12th Podolian Uhlans raised its pennant over the ruins. By dzieje.pl's count 923 Poles were killed, 2,931 wounded and 345 missing; the Ministry of Culture says over 1,000 died.11
Myth and fact: the Poles did enter ruins the Germans had left, but Żak stresses that the withdrawal was forced by the French, Polish and British advance. The battle won glory, not a border: the corps' commanders later opposed their soldiers' return to communist Poland, and the dead lie in the Polish War Cemetery below the hill, remembered in Feliks Konarski's song “Czerwone maki na Monte Cassino.”12
Why it ranks here: For this page's readers recognition and memory score full marks (recognition 4 in our World War II guide, which scores a world readership), and the record is good, so certainty 5. It opened the road to Rome on a secondary front and decided nothing about Poland's fate, so decisiveness and consequence 3.
5 Warsaw Uprising, 1944
- Where
- Warsaw, German-occupied Poland
- War
- World War II
- Sides
- Home Army (Gen. Tadeusz Bór-Komorowski) vs German army, SS and police forces (Erich von dem Bach-Zelewski)
- Strength
- About 25,000 to over 40,000 Home Army soldiers on 1 August, few of them armed, vs a German garrison of 13,000 to 20,000, soon reinforced
- Result
- German victory after 63 days; about 16,000 insurgents and 130,000 to 150,000 civilians dead (Warsaw Rising Museum)
In late July 1944, with the Red Army at the Vistula and Moscow radio calling on Warsaw to fight, the Home Army command, hoping to free the capital before the Soviets entered, set W-hour for 5 p.m. on 1 August. The Warsaw Rising Museum counts about 25,000 Home Army soldiers in action on the first day, one in ten armed; the IPN historian Paweł Kosiński puts the Home Army in the city at over 40,000. Włodzimierz Borodziej put the German garrison at 13,000 to 20,000, reinforced from 4 August by the Kaminski and Dirlewanger brigades.13
From 5 August German forces stormed Wola and massacred its residents, then took the Old Town; earlier counts of the Wola dead ran to 60,000, while an IPN article now favors Marek Strok's estimate of about 15,000. Stalin refused Allied aircraft the use of Soviet airfields, and on 2 October the capitulation was signed at Ożarów.14
The museum counts about 16,000 insurgents killed or missing and 130,000 to 150,000 civilians dead; other estimates of civilian dead run to 180,000. The Germans razed the city. In the museum's words the defeat of the rising was a defeat of Polish hopes of independence, sealed at Yalta, and the ruin of Warsaw made communist rule easier to impose. Since 2009, 1 August has been a state holiday; at 5 p.m. sirens sound and traffic stops.15
Why it ranks here: Recognition and memory take full marks, but the rising was a defeat that could not change the course of the war, so decisiveness 2. Its consequence for Poland was heavy, with the capital destroyed, 130,000 to 150,000 civilians dead and the underground state's army broken before the Soviet takeover, so consequence 4, one more than in our World War II guide.16
6 Kircholm, 1605
- Where
- Kircholm on the Daugava near Riga (now Salaspils, Latvia)
- War
- Polish-Swedish War
- Sides
- Lithuanian army of Hetman Jan Karol Chodkiewicz vs the Swedish army of King Charles IX
- Strength
- About 3,600 Polish-Lithuanian vs about 11,000 Swedish troops
- Result
- Swedish army destroyed; 8,000 to 9,000 Swedes dead (estimate) against 100 to 200 Polish-Lithuanian
The war with Sweden grew out of a quarrel within the Vasa dynasty, and from 1600 it was fought mainly in Livonia, whose greatest prize was the port of Riga. In September 1605 Charles IX was besieging Riga, and the Lithuanian hetman Jan Karol Chodkiewicz marched to relieve it with about 3,600 men, 2,600 of them horsemen, against a Swedish army of about 11,000 by the Museum of Polish History's count.17
On 27 September at Kircholm the Swedes held a strong position on a hill. Chodkiewicz drew them off it by having part of his force fake a flight, and when the Swedish line came forward the winged hussars charged. The Swedish cavalry was driven off, and the infantry, split into isolated blocks, was cut down. The Museum of Polish History puts Swedish dead at 8,000 to 9,000, about 70 percent of the army, and the Commonwealth's losses at 100 to 200, only 13 of them hussars.18
The news ran across Europe: the rulers of England and Persia and the Pope sent their admiration, and today the battle is in every Polish history textbook. Yet it brought no strategic gain. Unpaid soldiers left the hetman, the Swedes agreed to a truce, and the war went on. In 1621, while the Commonwealth was fighting the Ottomans, Gustavus Adolphus took Riga, which in the historian Mariusz Balcerek's words gave Sweden practically the whole province.19
Why it ranks here: The model hussar victory, won against an army at least three times larger, is known to almost every Polish reader, so recognition and memory 4. It saved Riga only for the moment and the war went on until Riga fell in 1621, so decisiveness and consequence 3.
7 Siege of Jasna Góra, 1655
- Where
- Pauline monastery of Jasna Góra, Częstochowa, Poland
- War
- Swedish Deluge (Polish-Swedish War)
- Besiegers
- Swedish army corps under General Burchard Müller, about 2,000 men, many of them German and Polish mercenaries (accounts after the siege claimed 10,000)
- Defenders
- About 160 soldiers with the monks and a few nobles, some 250 armed men in all, under Prior Augustyn Kordecki
- Outcome
- Held; the Swedes withdrew on the night of 26 to 27 December 1655 after about 40 days
In 1655 the Commonwealth nearly collapsed. The Greater Poland levy capitulated at Ujście, Lithuania accepted Swedish protection, King John Casimir took refuge in Silesia, and much of the army went over to Charles X Gustav. Even Prior Augustyn Kordecki recognized the Swedish king on 7 November in return for a promise that the monastery would be spared, while he quietly sent the miraculous icon away to Silesia; the historian Idzi Panic sees his letter to Charles Gustav as playing for time.20
The siege began on 18 November, when Burchard Müller's troops were refused entry. Jasna Góra was a modern bastioned fortress whose guns outmatched the besiegers'. Müller's demands for surrender, then for a payment to withdraw, were refused, and after a last failed assault at Christmas the Swedes marched off on the night of 26 to 27 December.
Myth and fact: the monastery was not saved by the icon, which was not there during the siege; the decisive factor was the fortress artillery. Kordecki's own account, which Panic finds credible, later served Sienkiewicz in The Deluge. The Museum of Polish History calls the defense the culminating point of the Deluge, which roused the will to resist, and on 1 April 1656 in Lwów John Casimir placed the kingdom under the care of Mary, naming her Queen of Poland.21
Why it ranks here: Sienkiewicz's novel and the cult of the Queen of Poland keep the defense alive, so memory 5, recognition 4. A small garrison that decided no campaign scores 2 for decisiveness, and much of the story rests on Kordecki's account, so certainty 3; it ties Khotyn 1621 on 35 points and goes above it on recognition.
8 Khotyn, 1621
- Where
- Fortified camp at Khotyn on the Dniester (now Khotyn, Ukraine)
- War
- Polish-Ottoman War of 1620 to 1621
- Sides
- Polish-Lithuanian army (Jan Karol Chodkiewicz, after his death Stanisław Lubomirski) and Zaporozhian Cossacks (Petro Konashevych-Sahaidachny) vs the Ottoman army of Sultan Osman II
- Strength
- About 30,000 Polish-Lithuanian troops and 30,000 to 40,000 Cossacks vs about 100,000 to 150,000 Ottomans and Tatars
- Result
- Ottoman assaults repulsed; treaty of 9 October 1621, no territory lost
The war began in disaster: in 1620 Hetman Stanisław Żółkiewski's army was routed at Cecora in Moldavia, Żółkiewski was killed, and the Crown was left almost without an army while Tatar raiders laid Ruthenia waste. The Sejm voted taxes for 60,000 men, but only about half that number could be raised, and in 1621 Osman II marched north with about 100,000 men; the Encyclopedia of Ukraine counts 150,000 Ottomans and Tatars. Chodkiewicz crossed the Dniester and dug in at Khotyn to keep the fighting off Crown soil, and on the eve of battle about 30,000 Cossacks arrived and camped beside him.22
From 2 September the Ottomans stormed the camp again and again; after the general assault of 8 September failed, they settled for a siege. Chodkiewicz died of illness on 24 September and Lubomirski took command; a last assault on 28 September failed, though the camp was down to a single barrel of powder. The treaty agreed on 9 October let both sides claim success, but the sultan gained no territory, and in May 1622 the Janissaries deposed and murdered him, the first regicide in Ottoman history. For the Commonwealth Khotyn reversed Cecora; Wacław Potocki and Samuel Twardowski wrote of the war in the seventeenth century, and in 2021 the Polish Senate marked its 400th anniversary.23
Why it ranks here: The camp, with the Cossacks beside it, held the sultan's army for over a month and the war ended without the loss of a province, so decisiveness 4, as in our Ottoman guide; the name is less familiar to Polish readers, so recognition 3. It ties Jasna Góra on 35 points and goes below it on recognition.
9 Klushino, 1610
- Where
- Klushino, west of Moscow, Russia
- War
- Polish-Muscovite War
- Sides
- Polish-Lithuanian army of Hetman Stanisław Żółkiewski vs the Russian army of Dmitry Shuisky and foreign mercenaries under Jacob De la Gardie
- Strength
- 2,700 to about 6,700 Polish-Lithuanian troops, mostly cavalry (the higher figure our sum of J. Rickard's counts), vs about 15,000 to 30,000 Russians and several thousand mercenaries (estimates differ)
- Result
- Polish-Lithuanian victory; Tsar Vasily Shuisky deposed weeks later
In 1610, with Muscovy torn by the Time of Troubles, King Sigismund III was besieging Smolensk, and a Russian army under Dmitry Shuisky marched to relieve it with a corps of foreign mercenaries under Jacob De la Gardie. Hetman Stanisław Żółkiewski went to meet it with an army made almost entirely of cavalry. How many he had is disputed: J. Rickard lists 5,556 hussars and about 1,200 other troops (our sum of his figures), while Przemysław Gawron of the Wilanów Palace Museum cites an estimate of 2,700 to 4,000 and warns that the pay rolls may describe a later garrison. Estimates for the Russians run from about 15,000 to 30,000.24
After a night march the Poles struck the enemy camp on 4 July. The hussars charged again and again, broke the Russian horse and then the mercenary cavalry; after hours of fighting the mercenary infantry surrendered and the Russian commanders fled. The consequences reached Moscow itself.
On 27 July Tsar Vasily Shuisky was deposed, Żółkiewski agreed with the boyars that Prince Władysław would take the throne, and Polish troops held the Moscow Kremlin until November 1612, though Sigismund never accepted the deal and Michael Romanov was elected tsar in 1613. In 2019 the Sejm named 2020 the Year of Hetman Stanisław Żółkiewski, and its resolution recalls the victory won with about 3,000 horse over a Russian and Swedish army of more than 30,000.25
Why it ranks here: Klushino decided the campaign and changed who sat on Moscow's throne, so decisiveness and consequence 4; but it is less known than Kircholm and the numbers on both sides are estimates, certainty 3. It is the only battle here on 34, a point above the four tied on 33.
10 Legnica, 1241
- Where
- Plain southeast of Legnica, Lower Silesia
- War
- Mongol invasion of Europe
- Sides
- Duke Henry II the Pious with Silesian, Greater Polish, Opole and Moravian knights, crusaders and military orders vs the Mongol army
- Strength
- Unknown: about 8,000 Mongols by the Museum of Polish History's reckoning (C. de Bridia speaks of one tumen of 10,000), and 1,500 to 10,000 for Henry's army
- Result
- Mongol victory; Henry the Pious killed
In 1241 the Mongol invasion of Europe reached Poland. After beating the knights of Lesser Poland at Chmielnik on 18 March and taking Kraków, a Mongol army moved into Silesia. Duke Henry II the Pious of Silesia gathered the knights of Silesia, Greater Poland and Opole, Moravians, crusaders and military orders. The friar C. de Bridia speaks of one tumen of 10,000 sent against Poland; the Museum of Polish History's account, allowing for losses on the way, settles on about 8,000, and puts Henry's army anywhere from 1,500 to 10,000.26
On 9 April 1241 Henry sent his four divisions in one after another. Under Mongol arrows the Opole men broke first, and Henry, charging with his own troop, was cut down and beheaded. Myth and fact: Jan Długosz wrote that a Mongol banner breathed out stinking smoke that made the knights faint, but that is a chronicler's tale, not a known weapon. The Mongols ravaged Silesia and Moravia; Batu withdrew from Europe in 1242 after the death of the Great Khan Ögedei, for reasons of his own empire, not because of Legnica. For Poland the loss was lasting: with Henry died the best chance of reuniting the kingdom under the Silesian Piasts. A Benedictine monastery rose where he fell.27
Why it ranks here: A defeat that counts among the greatest because Poland met the Mongol invasion there and lost the prince most likely to reunite it; but the Mongols left for reasons of their own, so decisiveness 2, and its numbers are guesses, certainty 3. It ties Racławice, Somosierra and Westerplatte on 33 and recognition and goes above all three on consequence.
11 Racławice, 1794
- Where
- Near Racławice, Lesser Poland
- War
- Kościuszko Uprising
- Sides
- Polish insurgent army of Tadeusz Kościuszko vs the Russian corps of Alexander Tormasov and Fyodor Denisov
- Strength
- About 4,000 soldiers and almost 2,000 peasant scythemen vs about 5,000 to 6,000 Russians (accounts differ)
- Result
- Polish victory; 12 Russian guns taken
The Kościuszko Uprising began in Kraków on 24 March 1794, and Tadeusz Kościuszko soon marched north toward Warsaw with a small army. Short of regulars, he called up peasants armed with scythes, the kosynierzy. By Piotr Bejrowski's count for the Museum of Polish History, he had about 4,000 soldiers and almost 2,000 scythemen; the Russian corps of Alexander Tormasov and Fyodor Denisov sent to stop him are put at about 5,000 (dzieje.pl) to 6,000 (Bejrowski), though not all of them reached the field in time.28
On 4 April the armies met near Racławice. A Russian battery was tearing into the Polish lines when Kościuszko sent a column of just over 300 scythemen along a ravine and straight at the guns. One of them, Wojciech Bartos from Rzędowice, is said to have smothered the fuse of a cannon with his cap; Kościuszko made him an ensign and gave him the name Głowacki.
The Russians fled and left twelve guns behind. Bejrowski puts their dead at as many as 1,000, about twice the Polish loss. The road to Warsaw stayed closed, but the news helped bring Warsaw and Wilno into the rising. A century later Jan Styka and Wojciech Kossak painted it on a canvas 114 meters long, the Racławice Panorama, now in Wrocław.29
Why it ranks here: Almost every Polish reader knows Racławice through the scythemen and the Panorama, so memory 5; but it beat one Russian corps and the uprising was crushed within the year, so decisiveness and consequence 2, and the accounts of the Russian strength differ, certainty 3. It ties Legnica, Somosierra and Westerplatte on 33 and recognition, goes below Legnica on consequence and above the other two as the older.
12 Somosierra, 1808
- Where
- Somosierra pass on the road north of Madrid, Spain
- War
- Peninsular War (Napoleonic Wars)
- Sides
- Polish light horse of Napoleon's Imperial Guard vs the Spanish army of General Benito San Juan
- Strength
- One squadron of about 88 to about 200 riders (accounts differ) vs some 8,000 to 9,000 Spaniards with 16 guns
- Result
- Pass taken in about eight minutes; about 54 to 56 Poles killed or wounded
In November 1808 Napoleon was marching on Madrid, and his road ran through the Somosierra pass. General Benito San Juan held it with 16 guns in four batteries along the climbing road and some 8,000 to 9,000 infantry. On the morning of 30 November the emperor sent the 3rd squadron of the 1st Polish Light Horse Regiment of his Guard, under Jan Kozietulski, straight at the guns.30
The squadron galloped up the winding road into the fire of battery after battery. Its strength is disputed: J. Rickard counts 87 or 88 riders, Polskie Radio about 200. Lieutenant Andrzej Niegolewski reached the last battery with nine bayonet wounds and two bullet wounds and survived; the whole charge took about eight minutes.
The Poles lost about 54 to 56 killed and wounded, some 3,000 Spaniards were taken prisoner, and Napoleon entered Madrid on 4 December. His bulletin gave the main credit to French units, but in Poland the charge became a legend, painted again and again from January Suchodolski to Wojciech Kossak. For Poland itself it changed nothing: it was fought in Spain, in someone else's war, and the Spanish war went on for years.31
Why it ranks here: Somosierra has full marks for memory as a living Polish legend, but it decided nothing for Poland and the Spanish war went on, so decisiveness and consequence 2, and its strength is given as anything from about 88 to about 200 riders, certainty 3. It ties Legnica, Racławice and Westerplatte on 33 and recognition, goes below Legnica on consequence and below Racławice as the younger, and above Westerplatte as the older.
13 Westerplatte, 1939
- Where
- Westerplatte, at the mouth of the port of Gdańsk (Danzig)
- War
- German invasion of Poland, World War II
- Sides
- Polish garrison of the Military Transit Depot vs German forces, with the battleship Schleswig-Holstein
- Strength
- Just over 200 defenders (about 217 by the Museum of Gdańsk's count) vs about 4,000 Germans, 65 guns and nearly 50 aircraft
- Result
- Held seven days instead of twelve hours; 15 defenders killed, about 30 wounded
The Polish Military Transit Depot at Westerplatte stood on a spit of land at the mouth of the harbor of the Free City of Danzig. Polish plans asked its garrison of just over 200 men to hold for six hours, until relief came; on 31 August the order was raised to twelve. The commander was Major Henryk Sucharski.32
At 4:45 on 1 September 1939, 4:48 by the ship's log, shells from the battleship Schleswig-Holstein signaled the assault on the depot. The Germans sent about 4,000 men, 65 guns, over 100 machine guns and nearly 50 aircraft against it. When Sucharski broke down, his deputy, Captain Franciszek Dąbrowski, kept the defense going. The garrison held for seven days and laid down its arms on the morning of 7 September; 15 defenders had been killed and about 30 wounded.33
While it held, Polish Radio repeated that Westerplatte was still fighting and that the commander-in-chief saluted its heroic garrison, and Konstanty Ildefons Gałczyński wrote a poem about its defenders. A small depot on a sandbank became the symbol of September 1939 and of the will to fight in a campaign that Poland could not win. The garrison tied down German troops for a week, but the campaign was decided far from Gdańsk.34
Why it ranks here: Westerplatte is a national symbol and very well documented, with full marks for memory and certainty; but about 200 men could not change the course of the September campaign, so decisiveness 1 and consequence 2. It ties Legnica, Racławice and Somosierra on 33 and goes below all three: Legnica on consequence, the other two as the younger.
14 Falaise, 1944
- Where
- Chambois and Mont Ormel (Hill 262), near Falaise, Normandy, France
- War
- Normandy campaign, World War II
- Sides
- Polish 1st Armoured Division with Canadian, British and American forces vs the German 7th Army and 5th Panzer Army
- Strength
- About 1,500 Polish infantry and 80 tanks on Hill 262 vs German forces breaking out of the pocket
- Result
- Pocket closed on 21 August; over 5,000 prisoners taken by the Poles
By mid-August 1944 the Allied breakout in Normandy had left the German 7th Army and 5th Panzer Army almost surrounded around Falaise. General Stanisław Maczek's Polish 1st Armoured Division, formed in Britain and fighting in the II Canadian Corps, had been attacking since 8 August; in the last days it was sent to close the gap at Chambois and on the ridge of Mont Ormel, Hill 262, which Maczek called the Maczuga, the mace.35
On 19 August about 1,500 Polish infantry and 80 tanks dug in on the hill, cut off from the rest of the army. For two days German columns tried to force their way out past them, and the 2nd SS Panzer Division attacked from outside the pocket. By the night of 20 to 21 August, by HistoryNet's account, only about 110 able-bodied men were left, with some 300 wounded and hundreds of German prisoners inside the perimeter and ammunition almost gone.36
Canadian Grenadier Guards reached the Poles that afternoon, and in the evening the pocket was declared closed. The division took over 5,000 prisoners. Its losses are given as 325 killed and about 1,000 wounded (dzieje.pl) or 466 killed, 1,002 wounded and 114 missing (HistoryNet). Montgomery is still quoted as saying that the Germans were as if in a bottle and the Polish division was the cork. Thousands of Germans had still escaped before the gap shut.37
Why it ranks here: A large Polish share in a decisive Allied victory, but it decided Normandy, not anything for Poland, many Germans escaped, and the name is less known in Poland than Monte Cassino, so 3 for recognition, decisiveness, consequence and memory; the Polish losses differ between sources, certainty 4. It ties Khotyn 1673 and the Bzura on 31 and recognition and goes above both on consequence.
15 Khotyn, 1673
- Where
- Ottoman camp by the fortress of Khotyn (Chocim) on the Dniester, Moldavia (today Ukraine)
- War
- Polish-Ottoman War
- Sides
- Polish-Lithuanian army of Grand Hetman Jan Sobieski, with Moldavian and Wallachian allies, vs the Ottoman army of Hussein Pasha
- Strength
- A larger allied army (the Sejm voted taxes for 43,000 men; about 45,000 were raised, by dzieje.pl's count) vs about 30,000 Ottomans
- Result
- Ottoman camp stormed; by the Wilanów museum's account only about 4,000 Ottomans survived
In 1672 the Ottomans took Podolia with the fortress of Kamieniec Podolski, and the Commonwealth had to accept the humiliating Treaty of Buczacz. The Sejm voted taxes for 43,000 men and, by dzieje.pl's count, an army of about 45,000 was raised. In autumn 1673 Grand Hetman Jan Sobieski led the Polish and Lithuanian forces to the Dniester, where Hussein Pasha's army of about 30,000 lay entrenched by Khotyn.38
On the night of 10 to 11 November rain and snow fell on Ottoman troops unready for an early winter; Sobieski spent it among his gunners. The assault began at eight in the morning. The ramparts fell within about fifteen minutes, the infantry filled the ditch under fire, and when the Ottoman cavalry came at them the hussars charged into the camp and decided the day. Fleeing men fell from the cliffs above the Dniester or drowned when the bridge gave way; by the Wilanów museum's account only about 4,000 Ottomans survived.39
King Michał Korybut Wiśniowiecki died in Lwów during the campaign, and in May 1674 Sobieski was elected king. The victory did not end the war, though: the Commonwealth won back Podolia and Kamieniec only in the war that ended at Karlowitz in 1699. Henryk Sienkiewicz wrote the battle into Pan Wołodyjowski as the revenge for Kamieniec, and Clausewitz praised it as an operation on the enemy's interior lines.40
Why it ranks here: A great Polish victory that helped make Sobieski king and lives on through Sienkiewicz, so memory 4; but it did not end the war and Podolia stayed Ottoman until 1699, so decisiveness 3 and consequence 2. It ties Falaise and the Bzura on 31 and recognition, goes below Falaise on consequence and above the Bzura as the older.
How we chose and ranked these greatest Polish battles
We counted a battle, siege or uprising fought by a Polish or Polish-Lithuanian army from Cedynia in 972 to 1945, defeats as well as victories, because Legnica and the Warsaw Uprising belong to Polish history as much as Grunwald does. Battles abroad count when a Polish formation carried a decisive part of the fight, as the 2nd Polish Corps did at Monte Cassino; where Poles were a small share of someone else's battle, as at Arnhem, in the Battle of Britain or at Berlin, we left the battle to our guide to the greatest battles of World War II.41
The battles of 1914 to 1921 other than Warsaw, among them the Niemen and Komarów, are ranked in our guide to the battles that won Polish independence; Somosierra and Kircholm also appear among the greatest cavalry charges, and Westerplatte among the greatest last stands.42
We considered 35 candidates and scored each one from 1 to 5 on five criteria. Recognition counts three times, because this page answers the question of which Polish battles are the greatest and readers will judge the list by the names they know; decisiveness, consequence and memory count twice, and certainty once:
- Recognition (×3). 5 if the name is known to almost every Polish reader and well beyond Poland, 4 if almost every Polish reader knows it, 1 if only specialists know it.
- Decisiveness (×2). What the battle decided for Poland: 5 if it decided a war or the fate of the Polish state, 3 if it decided a campaign, 1 if it decided nothing beyond the battlefield.
- Consequence (×2). Consequence for Poland and Europe: 5 if it changed borders, the balance of power or the course of Polish history for generations, 1 if little changed after it.
- Memory (×2). 5 if it is still a living memory (a state holiday, a famous painting, song or novel, a place of pilgrimage), 1 if it is forgotten.
- Certainty (×1). 5 if the numbers and events are confirmed by independent sources, 1 if they rest on one source or are disputed.
The list is ranked by total score, not by date. Ties go to the better-known battle, then to the one with the greater consequence, then to the older one. The scores are our editorial judgment, made on the evidence in the sources below, and the table shows every one of them, so you can see exactly why the Battle of Warsaw is first and why Westerplatte, which every Polish reader knows, sits only thirteenth: about 200 men held for seven days and became a national symbol, but they could not change the course of the September campaign.43
| Rank | Name | Recognition ×3 | Decisiveness ×2 | Consequence ×2 | Memory ×2 | Certainty ×1 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Battle of Warsaw | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 49 |
| 2 | Vienna | 5 | 3 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 45 |
| 3 | Grunwald | 5 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 45 |
| 4 | Monte Cassino | 5 | 3 | 3 | 5 | 5 | 42 |
| 5 | Warsaw Uprising | 5 | 2 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 41 |
| 6 | Kircholm | 4 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 36 |
| 7 | Siege of Jasna Góra | 4 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 3 | 35 |
| 8 | Khotyn 1621 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 35 |
| 9 | Klushino | 3 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 34 |
| 10 | Legnica | 4 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 33 |
| 11 | Racławice | 4 | 2 | 2 | 5 | 3 | 33 |
| 12 | Somosierra | 4 | 2 | 2 | 5 | 3 | 33 |
| 13 | Westerplatte | 4 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 5 | 33 |
| 14 | Falaise | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 31 |
| 15 | Khotyn 1673 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 31 |
Close calls
Six battles came close and did not make the fifteen:
Bzura, 1939. From 9 to 20 September 1939 Armies Poznań and Pomorze struck the flank of the German 8th Army in the largest battle of the September campaign. It stopped a quick German capture of Warsaw but ended in defeat, and only about 30,000 men broke through to Warsaw and Modlin. It ties Falaise and Khotyn 1673 on 31 and misses, below Falaise on consequence and Khotyn 1673 as the later.44
Cecora, 1620. In 1620 the aged Hetman Stanisław Żółkiewski led a small army into Moldavia. During the retreat on 6 October the camp broke up in panic, the Tatars fell on it, Żółkiewski was killed and Field Hetman Stanisław Koniecpolski was taken prisoner. The Ottoman invasion that followed was stopped at Khotyn in 1621. It misses by one point and ties Maciejowice, going above it as the older.45 › Stanisław Żółkiewski
Maciejowice, 1794. On 10 October 1794 about 6,000 Poles under Kościuszko met some 12,000 Russians under Ivan Fersen; the Polish line broke, and the badly wounded Kościuszko was taken prisoner, which doomed the uprising. Myth and fact: he denied ever crying “Finis Poloniae.” The numbers rest on one count, certainty 3, and it goes below Cecora on the tie as the younger.46
Tobruk, 1941. Between 19 and 29 August 1941 Colonel Stanisław Kopański's Carpathian Rifle Brigade, a little under its establishment of about 5,200 men, was shipped into besieged Tobruk by night; it held part of the perimeter for over four months and took Medauar Hill in December. The Poles shared the Australians' name, the Rats of Tobruk. It was one brigade in an Allied siege, so decisiveness 2.47
Olszynka Grochowska, 1831. On 25 February 1831, at the gates of Warsaw, General Józef Chłopicki's army of about 40,000 men and 120 guns met Field Marshal Diebitsch's 60,000 and over 200 guns; losses on the two sides together exceeded 15,000. The Poles stopped the attack on Warsaw, and Diebitsch's army fell back, but the battle decided nothing and the uprising was lost later that year. It misses on score by two points.48
Berestechko, 1651. From 28 to 30 June 1651 King John II Casimir's army fought Bohdan Khmelnytsky's Cossacks and their Crimean Tatar allies in Volhynia; on the last day the Tatars left the field and carried Khmelnytsky off, and the Cossack army was surrounded. He had to sign the Treaty of Bila Tserkva, but the uprising went on, and the numbers on both sides are guesses, certainty 2.49
A nation forged on the battlefield
Poland's place between powerful neighbors meant that much of its history was written in war. Its armies produced one of the most famous formations in Europe, the winged hussars, whose charge decided battles from Kircholm to Vienna. The same geography brought catastrophe, partition and, in 1918, rebirth, followed two years later by the stand on the Vistula. These battles are remembered not only for their scale but for what was at stake each time.50
Each battle above has its own full account, and you can meet the men who led them in the greatest commanders in Polish history. The wars behind Jasna Góra, Warsaw 1920 and Westerplatte have their own guides, the Swedish Deluge, the Polish-Soviet War and the invasion of Poland in 1939, and so does the November Uprising of 1830 to 1831.
Test yourself on these battles in the Polish battles quiz, put them in order in Put the Battles in Order, or play today's Battle of the Day.
