0:00 An army's greatest enemy is supposed to be the one across the field.0:05 What happens when the enemy is inside the camp?0:08 The result is usually more efficient.0:11 And far more embarrassing.0:13 I feel like that’s a theme for us.0:15 Last week it was a city brought to its knees by molasses.0:20 This week, we have an entire army that managed to defeat itself without any help at all.0:26 Correct.0:27 We're in September of 1788.0:29 The Austrian army, about one hundred thousand strong, is at war with the Ottoman Empire.0:35 They are marching on the town of Karansebes, in what is now modern-day Romania.0:41 A hundred thousand men.0:43 That’s a significant force.0:45 It was.0:46 The Holy Roman Emperor himself, Joseph the Second, was with them.0:50 The plan was simple: set up camp around the town and prepare for a fight with the approaching Turks.0:58 So they send out scouts.1:00 Standard procedure.1:01 Exactly.1:02 A vanguard unit of hussars—light cavalry—crosses the river to scout for the Ottoman army.1:08 But they don't find any Turks.1:11 What do they find?1:12 They find a group of Romani traders selling schnapps.1:16 Schnapps.1:17 Yes.1:17 The hussars decide to buy up the liquor and have a party.1:21 A little while later, a second Austrian unit, this time infantry, arrives at the same spot.1:28 They see the party.1:29 They, too, would like some schnapps.1:32 And the hussars, I'm guessing, were not in a sharing mood.1:36 They were not.1:37 An argument started.1:39 It escalated.1:40 Fortifications were built out of the schnapps barrels.1:44 Then, someone fired a shot.1:46 So we have one army, two groups of soldiers, arguing over alcohol in the dark.1:52 And one gunshot.1:53 How does that unravel a hundred-thousand-man army?1:57 Panic.1:57 And miscommunication.1:59 During the brawl, someone—it's not clear who—starts shouting "Turci!2:04 Turci!" "The Turks!2:05 The Turks!" Precisely.2:07 The drunk hussars, now terrified, scatter.2:10 They flee back across the river towards the main Austrian camp, shouting that the Turks are attacking.2:18 And the main army hears this chaos coming towards them.2:22 They hear shouting and horses stampeding through the darkness.2:26 An officer, trying to get control of the situation, yells "Halt!2:31 Halt!" But the army was multi-lingual.2:34 It was a collection of Germans, Serbs, Croats, and Italians.2:39 Many soldiers didn't speak German.2:41 They misheard "Halt" as "Allah." Oh.2:44 So they hear what they believe is the Ottoman war cry, coming from the direction of the supposed attack.2:52 Yes.2:52 And that is when the entire camp dissolves.2:55 Artillery commanders open fire on their own infantry.2:59 Different units, unable to see who they're fighting, start shooting at any shadow that moves.3:06 The entire force turned on itself in a chaotic, self-inflicted firefight that lasted for most of the night.3:14 So by morning, what was left?3:16 By morning, the army had effectively routed itself.3:20 The Emperor's own carriage was lost in the chaos.3:24 He apparently had to hide in a cornfield.3:27 But the real enemy, the Ottoman army, was still nowhere to be seen.3:32 When did they finally show up?3:34 Two days later.3:35 They arrived to find the town of Karansebes completely undefended.3:40 They also found, according to reports, ten thousand Austrian casualties.3:45 Ten thousand?3:46 From… nothing?3:47 From a drunken argument over schnapps.3:50 The Ottomans took the town without a fight.3:53 The Austrians lost a key position and a significant number of men, all before the battle had even begun.4:01 We've seen this before.4:03 Not with armies, maybe, but with systems.4:06 A small error, a communication breakdown, a single point of failure that cascades.4:12 It's the same pattern as any major industrial accident.4:16 Or a financial collapse.4:18 The initial error is rarely the problem.4:21 The problem is a system so fragile that it cannot absorb a single mistake.4:27 In this case, the mistake was a bottle of schnapps.4:30 And a hundred thousand men who couldn't speak to each other in the dark.4:36 That's the part that's actually true.
