During the Austro-Turkish War in September 1788, an army of roughly 100,000 Austrian soldiers set up camp near the town of Kar! nsebes to scout for Ottoman forces. A vanguard of Hussars cavalry crossed a nearby river to search for the enemy.
Finding no Ottoman troops, they instead encountered a group of traders who offered to sell them barrels of schnapps. The Hussars eagerly bought the booze and set up a makeshift drinking post. Shortly after, a battalion of Austrian infantrymen crossed the river and demanded a share of the alcohol.
The Hussars refused, built improvised barricades around the barrels, and a heated argument broke out. In the mounting tension, an angry soldier fired a gunshot. Instantly, brawling erupted across the camp.
In the chaos, some infantrymen foolishly shouted 'Turci! Turci!' (Turks!
Turks! ) to frighten the Hussars away from the booze. The trick backfired catastrophically.
Panic swept through the dark camp. The Habsburg military was a multi-ethnic force whose soldiers spoke German, Hungarian, Romanian, and various Slavic languages, making communication near impossible. When German officers screamed 'Halt!
Halt!' to restore order, panicked non-German soldiers misheard the command as 'Allah! Allah!'
, believing Ottoman forces were overrunning them. Cavalrymen fled through the infantry lines, causing foot soldiers to believe they were being charged by enemy cavalry. Panicked artillery officers fired cannons indiscriminately into the darkness at their own fleeing troops.
By the time Emperor Joseph II managed to escape the mayhem, the entire army had routed itself. Two days later, the real Ottoman army arrived to find thousands of dead and wounded Austrian soldiers scattered across the abandoned camp, allowing them to capture the town effortlessly.