Battle of Berestechko

The Battle of Berestechko (Polish: Bitwa pod Beresteczkiem; Ukrainian: Берестецька битва, Битва під Берестечком) was fought between the Ukrainian Cossacks, led by Hetman Bohdan Khmelnytsky, aided by their Crimean Tatar allies, and a Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth army under King John II Casimir. Fought over three days from 28 to 30 June 1651, the battle took place in the Polish province of Volhynia. It was, very probably, the world's largest land battle of the 17th century.

The number of Polish troops is uncertain. One of the senior Polish commanders on the day, Duke Bogusław Radziwiłł, wrote that the Polish army had had 80,000 soldiers. Modern historians Zbigniew Wójcik, Józef Gierowski, and Władysław Czapliński have reduced this figure to 60,000-63,000 soldiers. The Cossacks are thought to have numbered as much 100,000 men, most of them low-grade foot troops, plus 40,000 allied Crimean Tatar cavalry and a few thousand Turks and Vlachs. Both sides had about 40,000 cavalry. Fighting was close, with the core of excellent Cossack infantry making up for the weakness of their cavalry; much of the decisive fighting was by the infantry and dismounted dragoons of each side.