The Battle of Hodów was fought on 11 June 16941 during the Polish-Ottoman War. About 400 Polish cavalrymen, roughly 100 hussars and 300 armoured cavalry2, were caught by a Tatar raiding army many times their size. They retreated into the village of Hodów, dismounted, built barricades and held out for five to six hours3, firing Tatar arrows from their guns when their ammunition ran out4, until the Tatars gave up and withdrew. The stand is often called the Polish Thermopylae.
In June 1694 a few hundred Polish horsemen rode out to meet a Tatar raid and found themselves facing a whole army. They did not flee. They turned a village into a fortress and held it until the enemy gave up.
A Tatar raid
Eleven years after the relief of Vienna, the war with the Ottoman Empire and its Tatar allies still went on. In June 1694 a large Tatar army (traditionally described as Crimean; recent research identifies it as the Budjak horde, Ottoman vassals) entered Podolia, by recent research mainly to escort supplies to Ottoman-held Kamianets, raiding the countryside on the way. Two small groups of Polish cavalry, led by Konstanty Zahorowski and Mikołaj Tyszkowski, about 100 hussars and 300 armoured cavalry in all, rode out to meet it.
Into the village
Near the village of Hodów the Poles attacked the Tatar vanguard. Then they realised that the main Tatar army, many times larger, was approaching. Unable to fight it in the open, they fell back into the village, dismounted and barricaded themselves behind wagons, fences, tables and barrels.
Arrows for bullets
For five to six hours the Tatars attacked on foot and with firearms. The defenders beat back assault after assault, and when their ammunition ran short they are said to have loaded Tatar arrows into their guns in place of bullets. Tatar envoys demanded their surrender, and the Poles refused.
The Tatars withdraw
Unable to break the defence and having suffered heavy losses, the Tatars gave up and withdrew towards Kamianets. Almost all the defenders were wounded and several dozen were killed. Zahorowski died of his wounds three days later3, and Tyszkowski was taken captive and later ransomed.
The Polish Thermopylae
King Jan III Sobieski rewarded the survivors and in 1695 ordered a monument raised to them, which still stands1. Because of the enormous disparity of forces, Hodów is often called the Polish Thermopylae, a name it shares with other famous Polish last stands.
