In September 1788, the Austrian army fought one of the strangest battles in human history. Around one hundred thousand Austrian soldiers marched near the town of Karansebes to fight the Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman army was nowhere in sight, but disaster struck anyway.
A patrol of Austrian hussars crossed a river and found merchants selling schnapps. The cavalrymen bought the alcohol and started drinking heavily. Soon after, infantry soldiers crossed the river and demanded a share of the liquor. A fierce fistfight broke out between the two groups.
During the brawl, someone fired a shot. In the dark, soldiers panicked and shouted that the Turks had arrived. Austrian officers yelled orders in German to stop the chaos, but many soldiers spoke Romanian, Hungarian, or Italian. They mistook the German commands for Ottoman battle cries and opened fire on their own comrades.
Artillery units began shelling their own retreating troops across the camp. By morning, thousands of Austrian soldiers lay dead or wounded without ever seeing an enemy. When the Ottoman army arrived two days later, they easily took the town.
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Disclaimer: This video is for entertainment and educational purposes based on historical accounts. The imagery is illustrative.
