Wagon fort is a kind of... fortress in the fortress! It was used in the old days by the army to form the so-called “vozová hradba” (Czech) or Wagenburg (German), composed from several vehicles. The soldiers, who were in the middle of it, had the perfect position to fend off enemy attacks. Such wagon was valued primarily for its high mobility and fairly easy use.
The crew of the wagon could number from a few to a dozen people, while the soldiers were equipped with spears and halberd, as well as missile weapon and firearms. The moment of greatest splendor of wagon forts was the period of the Hussian Wars in Bohemia, when their use on the battlefields was mastered to perfection. Jan Žižka, the commander of the Taborites (radical hussite faction) from 15th Century, was the master of the use of wagons on the battlefield. Very willingly this type of "moving castle" was used later for example by Zaporozhian Cossacks.
This way of doing things is well reflected in the scene of the Battle of the Yellow Waters in the Polish movie - "Fire and Sword", directed by Jerzy Hoffman. The Cossacks were considered to be very experienced and clever soldiers, coping even in the most severe conditions. Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth found out about it tragically during the Chmielnicki Uprising, and then during The Deluge. They also prowled in Chęciny – on April 1, 1657, together with the Transygamians of Jerzy Rakoczy. They burned the city with the castle.
