During the Austro-Ottoman War in September 1788, the Habsburg army set up camp near the town of Karánsebes. A vanguard of hussars crossed a river to scout for Ottoman forces. Finding no enemy, they encountered a group of Romani traders and bought several barrels of schnapps.
When infantrymen later joined them and demanded a share of the alcohol, a heated brawl broke out. A shot rang out in the darkness, and someone yelled 'Turks! Turks!'
to scare the others away. Instead, panic instantly ripped through the encampment. Slavic, German, Italian, and Hungarian units within the multi-ethnic Austro-Hungarian army could not communicate effectively due to language barriers.
When officers shouted 'Halt! Halt!' in German, non-German speaking soldiers misunderstood the commands as shouts of 'Allah!
Allah!' Infantry units opened fire on approaching cavalrymen believing they were Ottoman raiders, and artillery batteries began shelling their own retreating ranks. Chaos ensued as tens of thousands of soldiers fled in terror through the dark, trampling comrades and abandoning artillery.
Two days later, the actual Ottoman army arrived at the battlefield to find thousands of dead and wounded Imperial soldiers scattered across the plain.