The Battle of Obertyn was fought on 22 August 15312 between a Polish army of about 6,0003 under Hetman Jan Tarnowski and a Moldavian army about three times larger under Voivode Petru Rareș. Tarnowski fortified his camp with a ring of wagons, beat off the Moldavian assaults and artillery fire, then counterattacked with his cavalry and routed the enemy. The victory restored the province of Pokuttya to Poland and made Tarnowski famous.
In the summer of 1531 the Moldavian ruler Petru Rareș invaded the borderland of Pokuttya with an army far larger than anything Poland had in the field. Hetman Jan Tarnowski answered with a few thousand men, a ring of wagons and a plan.
A borderland in dispute
Pokuttya, a fertile strip of land along the Dniester, had been fought over by Poland and Moldavia for decades. In 1530 and 1531 Petru Rareș occupied it again. King Sigismund the Old raised a small army of hired soldiers4 and gave command to Jan Tarnowski.
The wagon fort
Facing an army roughly three times larger, Tarnowski chose to fight on ground of his choosing near the town of Obertyn. He drew up his wagons into a fortified camp, the tabor2, protecting his infantry and guns, and kept his cavalry ready inside.
Assault and counterattack
On 22 August the Moldavians bombarded the camp with their artillery and launched assaults against the wagons. The Polish infantry and guns held. When the attackers were worn down, Tarnowski led his cavalry out of the camp against their flank.
The rout
The Moldavian army broke and fled. Rareș escaped, but much of his artillery was captured and his losses were heavy1, while Polish losses were light by most accounts.
Why Obertyn mattered
Obertyn returned Pokuttya to Poland5 and made Tarnowski one of the most celebrated commanders of his age6. It became a model for the Polish art of war, combining a defensive wagon camp with a decisive cavalry counterstroke, a method Tarnowski later described in his own writings on war7.
