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The Guns of ConstantinopleBy Roger Crowley | Military History | one comment | Print This Post | Email This Post Mehmed knew the time had come: On May 29, 1453, he ordered a climactic full-scale assault. At 1:30 in the morning, to the beating of drums and clashing of cymbals, the Ottoman army rolled forward along the whole four-mile sector. Behind them the cannons put up a withering fire. Volleys of stone shot sprayed the walls, peppering the defenders and felling Ottoman troops from behind. The extraordinary noise of the battle was so deafening that, according to one defender, “the very air seemed to split apart….It seemed like something from another world.” Subscribe Today
After several hours of confused fighting, one of the big cannons landed a direct hit on the stockade and opened a hole. Dust and cannon smoke obscured the front line, but Ottoman troops moved quickly into the breach. Mehmed’s men soon overwhelmed the defenses and sacked and burned the city in a few hours of terrible massacre. Mehmed had succeeded where all previous Ottoman attempts had failed, and it was the big guns that made the difference. The fall of Constantinople symbolized the end of outmoded medieval techniques of castle construction and siege warfare and opened a terrible new chapter in military history. The use of massed artillery bombardment would prevail all the way to the battlefield of the Somme and beyond. Mehmed lies buried in a mosque complex in the city he captured. At the door of his tomb stands a stone cannonball. For further reading, Roger Crowley recommends his own 1453: The Holy War for Constantinople and the Clash of Islam and the West and The Fall of Constantinople, by David Nicolle, Stephen Turnbull and John Haldon. Or listen to a radio discussion on the subject in the BBC audio archives at [www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/history/inourtime]. This article was written by Roger Crowley and originally published in the September 2007 issue of Military History Magazine. For more great articles, subscribe to Military History magazine today! Pages: 1 2 3 4 5Help HistoryNet by bookmarking to
            Tags: Ancient-Medieval, Historical Conflicts, Historical Figures, Military Technology, Weaponry
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One Comment to “The Guns of Constantinople”
On the whole I enjoyed this article but it omits several important points, the most important being the fact that the Turks did not obtain victory until they found an unguarded and open postern gate at a point in the wall that had seemingly been forgotten.
Also, it is worth point out the genius of Constantinople’s gun master Giustani who figured out every possible way to counteract the Ottoman offensive measures. Also, the Knights Hospitallers would defeat the Turks using a defensive system similar to the Byzantine empire in 1480 at Rhodes and in 1565 at Malta.
By Ryan Silve on Oct 25, 2009 at 10:52 pm