The war wagon was a medieval development during the Hussite Wars around 1420 by Hussite forces rebelling in Bohemia.
It was a heavy wagon given protective sides with firing slits and heavy firepower from either a cannon or a force of hand-gunners and crossbowmen, supported by infantry using pikes and flails. Groups of them could form defensive works, but they also were used as hardpoints for Hussite formations or as firepower in pincer movements. This early use of gunpowder and innovative tactics helped a largely peasant infantry stave off attacks by the Holy Roman Empire larger forces of mounted knights.
The war wagon is similar to the Korean Hwacha, which was first produced in 1407 by the order of King Sejong the Great during the early Joseon Dynasty.
Famous quotes containing the words war and/or wagon:
“... there was the first Balkan war and the second Balkan war and then there was the first world war. It is extraordinary how having done a thing once you have to do it again, there is the pleasure of coincidence and there is the pleasure of repetition, and so there is the second world war, and in between there was the Abyssinian war and the Spanish civil war.”
—Gertrude Stein (1874–1946)
““A bumpity ride in a wagon of hay
For me,” says Jane.”
—Walter De La Mare (1873–1956)