24. Marching on Vienna
In May, 1529, Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent advanced from the Black Sea with an army of about 120,000 Ottoman combatants. However, things began to go wrong from the start. Unusually heavy rains turned the routes of advance into seas of mud, in which the heavy siege artillery got stuck and had to be abandoned. The inclement weather also wreaked havoc on the soaked troops’ health.
A significantly weakened army arrived before Vienna in September and put it to siege. The defenders, about 20,000, were greatly outnumbered. However, they were sheltered behind strong walls and fortifications, which proved more than capable of withstanding bombardment by the Turks’ light field pieces. The heavy siege guns, abandoned in the mud en route, were sorely missed by the besiegers.