6.3.1645 - Battle of Jankov

At Jankov, the Imperials were able to position themselves in time on advantageous higher positions. There was no indication that they would be beaten head to head. But the Swedes, aware of their disadvantage, decided on a night bypass. This required a good deal of courage. One must take into account the tactics of the time, associated with moving in large formations, which certainly did not favour such things.

The key to the Swedish success, however, was the artillery, which at first was ableliterally shoot the imperial cavalry trapped in a ravine between two hills and a pond andnext, as a "moving" unit, they literally jumped from hill to hill on the wooded ridge, causing both huge losses and hardly imaginable chaos in the ranks of the Imperial infantry.

Yankov marked a shift in the stalemate in which the 30 Years' War found itself. After a series of indecisive battles came a battle for the Imperialists that literally broke the back of their army. Some 6,500 soldiers were killed in the battle. Also interesting is the participation of the Falckrabe Karl Gustav, the future King Charles X. Gustav. He commanded the Kuron Cavalry Regiment as a colonel. Although the vast majority of the regiment's men were killed or wounded, the future Charles X emerged from the battle unharmed, but with 4 bullet wounds in his dress and hat.

The battle is still shrouded in many ambiguities and mysteries. It would certainly be worth mapping, just as the Battle of Rakovník was treated by the TGM Museum.