BATTLE OF GRUNWALD
Long columns of the Teutonic Order’s army filed past the village of Grunwald in Prussia at first light on 15 July, 1410. After a 15-hour forced march to head off the Polish-Lithuanian host, they had at last caught up with their foe.
Grand Master Ulrich von Jungingen scanned the ground east of the village and decided that it would suffice for a contest of arms. He liked what he saw. A triangular patch of open ground between the villages of Grunwald, Tannenberg and Ludwigsdorf would offer his mounted knights sufficient room for the classic shock charge of heavy cavalry. Upon his orders, pioneers, commoners and foot soldiers began digging pits to impede the advance of the enemy’s cavalry. They covered the traps with tree branches and grass to make them difficult, if not impossible, for the enemy horsemen to spot before they charged.
Thousands of cavalrymen deployed for battle in a line facing southeast that stretched for two miles. The most respected of these troops were the brother knights and sergeants-at-arms. The Poles called them the Black Crusaders in reference to the white mantles they wore over their armour, which bore the black cross of the order. Shouts rang out, weapons
