PAGE FROM POLISH HISTORY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23918, 20 September 1939, Page 8

PAGE FROM POLISH HISTORY

Describing the Ties as « people traditionally celebrated for superb fighting men, “ Lucio” recalls in the Manchester Guardian that of these perhaps the most celebrated was John Sobieski, who saved Europe from possible domination from the East. He was born in 1629, and. like many Polish ifficers to-day, received his military education in France. In the Polish Army he successfully fought against the Muscovites Tartars, Turks, Cossacks and Swedes. Elected King he reorganised the army and marched to meet the Turks, who were advancing in great strength. They bottled him up in Lemberg, but he made a surprise sally in a snowstorm and completely routed* his foes. A further huge force, ’ed by “the Devil”— the Pasha of Damascus—was compelled to sue for peace. Some years later came the famous Moslem invasion under Kara Mustapha Spreading death and destruction, it swept triumphantly through Europe and by 1683 was hammering at the gates of Vienna. From the beleaguered capital the court fled, and the city’s fall seemed certain. But Sobieski, in a famous action, arrived at the eleventh hour and. leading a Polish-allied force, drove out the Turks, chased them south in confusion. and saved Vienna and perhaps Europe.