WAR GROUNDS

The four kilometers long Defense wall of Constantinople had four parts.
The middle part of the wall called, 'Likes Valley', was the most important. In
fact this was the part where the wall was the weakest. This part had gates
on both sides. called St. Romulus Gate and the other one was
Hadrianople.The Sultan had deployed 50,000 soldiers against the wall of
Likes Valley in front of his camp. Among them 12,000 were the Janissaries.
Another 50,000 were positioned ahead of St. Romulus Gate at the coast of
Marmara. On the left of the Sultan from Hadrianople Gate to the Golden
Horn around 100,000 troops were deployed. They were trained soldiers
and were called, 'Bashi Bazouks. The Turks engineers had dug out a
trench in front of the Ottoman army and 250 meters away from the City
wall. This trench went through the whole defense wall of the Constantinople
city. Emperor Constantine spread his total 9000 troops to the four kms City
Wall to face the Ottomans. The Romans had only 15 cannons against 70 of
the Ottomans. the walls were vulnerable to collapse by the jerks of the
gunfire. Therefore, the guns were fitted on the wall as a decoration piece.
The 5 kms long City wall on the side Sea of Marmara was less open to
attack by the Ottomans. Therefore, some troops at a distance and few guns
were installed there. Now it was the third wall on the side of the Golden
Horn of the City. This part had already been secured by a chain-barrier to
stop advancement of the Ottomans. Therefore, no deployment was made
on that side the naval position of both the armies. From 140 or 180 ships of
the Ottomans were patrolling from the Sea of Marmara to the Strait of
Bosporus’s Ottomans ships were unable to enter the Golden Horn due to
this chain. Up to 30 ships were included in the Constantinople fleet that
was stationed safe at the coast of the Golden Horn.

START OF WAR
On the night of April 12, 1453, the Gun fired the first cannonball that rocked
the walls of Constantinople City. Along with the guns, heavy stones were
pelted through catapults inside the City. As many as 120 shells were fired
daily on Constantinople. The earth shocked in miles when up to 600 kgs
heavy shells landed in the City of Constantinople The Romans deployed on
the wall, also decided to fire guns to counter the Ottomans' attack. But their
largest cannon exploded as it fired the shell. to defend the City anyway. For
that they tried to bolster strength of the City wall by pouring down a mixture
of bricks and charcoal on if. After a week these cannonballs pulled down a
large part of the outer wall but here the Ottomans faced a problem. The
Super Gun of the Ottomans was fast getting cold after fire whereof its
barrel developed cracks. And to protect the barrel against cracks, the
Ottomans poured boiling hot oil on it. The Super Gun was fired only seven
times a day due this problem. So, this problem repeatedly interrupted firing
of the guns. In that interval thousands of Romans joined to get the wall
repaired. They repaired the broken wall on the side of St. Romulus Gate by
fencing it with rocks and bricks. The used clay and sand to repair the wall
at some other points. On April 18, the Ottomans tried to enter the City
breaking a weak spot on the wall. But the rain made this muddy part of the
wall slippery. So, the Ottomans failed to mount the wall. Moreover, the
Romans were also shooting arrows, rocks and bullets as many as 200
Ottoman soldiers lost their life in this attack. When the Ottoman troops
could not open the gate and enter the City, at the same time

They also came across another tragedy. It was the initial days of the battle
when the center of all hopes of the Sultan, the Super Gun, exploded. The
Super Gun blast also killed its operators and the soldiers around it. The
pioneer of the Gun, Engineer Orban was also killed in this incident. They
did not have time to prepare a new Super Gun. So, the solution was found
in repairing barrel of the broken Gun by means of putting iron rings on it.
This method temporarily worked and after some fires, the Gun broke down
again. He and his companions did much brainstorming to enable the Super
Gun work for some time. Hold on, another 'super shock' was yet in the
waiting. Hungary broke the peace agreement all of a sudden. Now Hungary
was no more neutral rather it could come to the aid of Constantinople. On
the other, another European state, Geneva also asked its citizens to help
Constantinople. These incidents pressed the Sultan to conquer the City as
early as possible or go back to save his Sultanate
AMBASSADOR
surprisingly in the meantime, the Ottomans received enormous help from
an enemy. The Hungarian ambassador who came to annul the agreement,
gave a very useful information to the Sultan. The Ambassador laughed at
the inexperience of the Ottomans towards firing the cannons He suggested
for firing the City wall in a triangle in three shots to loosen its strength.
So, the Turks came by the formula to break the wall.
So, they followed this method that stepped up the process of demolishing
the wall.

ENTERING GOLDEN HORN

At the same time, Under the command of Admiral Salman Baltaoglu the
Turkish fleet launched first attack on the Golden Horn. But the
Constantinople ships were much huge in size. The Ottomans' shelling
failed to cast any significant effect on the Roman Ships. The ship guards
repulsed the Ottomans showering arrows on them. Two days later three
ships from Geneva confronted the Ottoman fleet at the Sea of
Marmara.These ships were sent by Pope Nicholas These ships were
carrying troops, arms and food for Constantinople. They were also
accompanied by a trade ship of Constantinople. That the rival ships much
larger than the Ottomans' in size The bombardment and the rain of arrows
were not affecting them at all. Now Constantinople had got the capacity to
withstand the siege by the Ottomans for a longer time. The Sultan reached
the headquarters of his fleet along with 10,000 troops. Under his order
Admiral Salman Baltaoglu was hit 100 lashes and his property was
attached. Salman was removed and Hamza Bey was appointed Admiral in
his stead Sultan Mehmed had very deeply studied the war history. He knew
many historical occasions when the ships were hauled on the ground
tracks. Sultan Saladin Ayyubi had done all that only 250 years ago. Saladin
had set the precedent by shifting the boats from the Nile to the Red Sea
dragging them on the ground. Therefore, the Sultan also decided to put his
ships into the Golden Horn carrying them through the land. He constructed
1.5 miles long wooden track from Galata to the Golden Horn. A 200 feet
high mountain also came in the way of this path. Wooden wheels,
lubricated with the animal fats, were put on this road Pulleys were used to
lift the small ships from the sea like a crane and they were put on the
wheels Hundreds of oxen and men pulled these ships and put them into the
Golden Horn bypassing the chain. Constantinople had lost a strong
support. It was a hue and cry all over Constantinople after the Ottoman
ships crossed the Golden Horn. Hundreds of Roman soldiers and archers
were sent to the Golden Horn from the Western wall of the City. The
Constantinople guards saw safety of the City in removing the Ottoman fleet
from the Golden Horn. With this aim, 5 large size ships and vessels of
Constantinople attacked the Ottoman fleets on April 28. The Romans tried
to burn the Ottoman ships by Greek fire. But this attack failed the Romans
released water to the ditches the Ottomans had dug to lay down the mines.
It meant another loss to the Ottomans.

PSYCHOLOGICAL TRICK
The Sultan and his advisers decided to make a last forceful attack on the
City. They decided to lift the siege in case the Ottomans failed to conquer
the City. Sultan Mehmed employed a psychological trick before launching
the last attack on May 26, 1453.He ordered his soldiers to have two big
campfires every night He also wanted his soldiers to beat the drums till
midnight and chant loud slogans. As the campfire was alighted first night it
illuminated every object around. The army band was played to such a loud
sound that it scared the Roman guards in Constantinople. This practice
was maintained for three nights from 26 to 28 May.

TRATORS IN BETWEEN
On May 27 some Christian soldiers in the Turkish army secretly warned the
Romans of the imminent attack. They shot arrows to Constantinople on
which messages were wrapped to forewarn the Romans. The messages
conveyed the Romans about the decisive attack on them by the Ottomans
so get on their guard. From 26 to 28 May the Ottomans carried out
unprecedented bombardment on the City wall. Besides Super Gun other
cannons also fired shells that tore the wall to pieces at many places. The
Sultan remained among his soldiers during these three days. By that time,
the Ottomans had fired 5000 shells on the walls of Constantinople.

THE FINAL AMBUSH

The Ottomans were to attack the Center of the Western wall that had
mostly been demolished. It then was the side of the St. Romulus Gate that
was fenced only by a heap of clay and rocks. After midnight Sultan
Mehmed ordered his army to attack this wall. Thousands of Ottomans
crossed the trench and attacked the weakly fenced wall. The Romans
valiantly fought to defend the wall under the command of Justiniani.They
attacked the Ottomans with rocks, Greek fires and arrows and killed a
number of them. A fierce battle continued for two hours. After two hours of
pitched battle when the City guards had also completely exhausted...the
Sultan withdrew the City guards and ordered the fresh Anatolian Infantry to
attack. The Anatolian Infantry was confronted by a rain of arrows and rocks
as it advanced behind the shields. The Roman guards also opened fires
from the small cannons. Hundreds of Infantry soldiers lost their lives. Now
the Sultan had no option except to retaliate the Roman guards with cannon
fires. Although fires from the Ottoman guns might also put lives of the Turk
soldiers in the battlefield at stake. But Sultan Mehmed was compelled to
take this risk. So, he ordered his artillery to launch a forceful offensive on
the fenced wall. Now an intense bombardment on the fence had begun.
This strategy worked A big shell torn apart a major part of the fence. This
created a cleavage that enabled 300 Ottoman Infantry men to enter the
City. But the Roman guards were also at a high alert. They did not allow
the 300 Ottoman soldiers to advance much and repulsed them out of the
City Sultan called the Infantry back. The Ottoman army had become highly
exhausted in these attacks. Now the Sultan had left with only 12000
Janissaries and 5000 other soldiers. Which meant, the Sultan had a total of
17000 fresh troops after the rest were bone-tired in the night attacks. The
Sultan did not want to give a respite to the Roman guards. So, he ordered
the last section of his army to attack The Sultan was mindful that his order
of attack to the last part of his army was a big gamble he had played.
Sultan’s victory in the war solely depended on this final assault The
Janissaries were leading this final attack. They made a very forceful attack
on the Romans. But the Roman guards despite tired, faced the Janissaries
bravely This historic war was at its peak when the Ottomans received an
unexpected success. That was a secret door called 'Circus Door' in the
basement of the Western wall of the City. The Roman guards used this
door to conduct raids on the Ottomans' camps. On May 28, the Roman
soldiers forgot to shut this door after conducting raids on the Turkish
camps. A Turkish soldier saw the door open. Then 50 Turk soldiers went
up the City wall through this door and raised the Ottoman flag tearing the
Romans’. On its Commander of the Western Wall, Justiniani who had clad
after the legendary hero, Achilles, sustained serious injuries. Due to deep
wounds he was not able to lead the Roman army. The condition of
Justiniani was so serious that Emperor Constantine asked him to flee
through the secret door but as soon as some soldiers carried the
Commander Justiniani to the door...hundreds of other Roman soldiers
followed him and it left the wall undefended. At the same time, Janissary
Agha Hassan mounted the fence along with 30 others and raised the
Ottoman flag. Although Hassan and 30 others laid down their live yet they.
Succeeded in showing the Turk soldiers and the Romans the Ottoman flag
raised on the wall. It was early morning of May 29 when the Ottomans had
conquered Constantinople after 1000 years.