Although they still often fought against the Poles, warfare against the pagan Lithuanians predominated during this period. This largely took the form of frontier forays by both sides, which usually concentrated on the destruction or capture of a particular enemy fortress but nevertheless often ended up as little more than cattle-raids on a grand scale, large numbers of horses, cattle and prisoners generally being taken. Normally the Order launched up to 8 such raids a year and there were 2 main raids annually, these being the winter-reysa (of which there were often two, in December and January) and the summer-reysa; whereas the former generally comprised only 200-2,000 men, the latter was a large-scale affair involving a considerable portion of the Order’s military strength. The Lithuanians preferred summer campaigns ‘when the swamps hindered the Christian cavalry and the forests offered concealment’, while the Teutonic Knights favoured winter raids for exactly the opposite reasons. Either way, because of the marshy nature of the frontier, weather conditions had to be just right: in the summer it needed to be hot and dry, otherwise floods could cut the army off; and in winter it had to be mild, but cold enough to freeze the marshes and rivers and harden the ground. Fighting in any other conditions was nigh impossible, and at best gave the advantage to the Lithuanians.
What pitched battles there were normally entailed the interception by one side of a raiding party sent out by the other. In such situations the Teutonic Knights would normally seek out a piece of flat, solid ground on which to deploy their heavy cavalry, since they fought in conventional Western European fashion (see volume 1); the importance of a clear, open field to their success is readily apparent from the ‘Livonian Rhymed Chronicle’. Standard deployment in the 15th century was in 3 bodies of heavy cavalry (left and right wings, plus a centre which sometimes formed a reserve), with the infantry drawn up to the rear to provide a defence against rear attacks and to act as a defensive screen behind which the cavalry could reform if necessary. Artillery was normally positioned in front of the centre. This battle formation was used at Tannenberg in 1410, for instance, and more successfully by von Plettenberg at Lake Smolina in 1502. Although the Order had light cavalry of its own (largely natives) it appears to have made little use of them other than as scouts or as a second line to back up the men-at-arms.
World History
