Battle of Valea Albă

Battle of Valea Albă/Războieni/Akdere
Part of the Moldavian-Ottoman Wars
Date July 26, 1476 Location Războieni, present-day Romania Result Ottoman victory
Belligerents
Ottoman Empire Wallachia	Moldavia
Commanders and leaders
Mehmed II Basarab Laiotă cel Bătrân	Stephen III of Moldavia
Strength
Unknown Ottoman troops 12,000 Wallachians troops	Unknown
Casualties and losses
heavy	heavy

Ottoman Empire

Mehmed II

The Battle of Valea Albă or Battle of Războieni or Battle of Akdere was an important event in the medieval history of Moldavia. It took place at Războieni, also known as Valea Albă, on July 26, 1476, between the Moldavian army of Ştefan cel Mare and an invading Ottoman army which was commanded personally by the Sultan Mehmed II.

In 1475 the Ottoman's attempt to bring Moldavia under their control, at winter by using an army of Rumelian local levies, ended disastrously with a defeat in the Battle of Vaslui. During the proper military campaign season, the Ottomans assembled a large army under the command of the Sultan, Mehmed II and entered Moldavia in June 1476. Meanwhile, groups of Tartars from the Crimean Khanate (the Ottomans' recent ally) were sent to attack Moldavia. Romanian sources may state that they were repelled,. Other sources state that joint Ottoman and Crimean Tartar forces "occupied Bessarabia and took Akkerman, gaining control of southern mouth of Danube. Stephan tried to avoid open battle with the Ottomans by following a scorched-earth policy." In the process the Moldavians forces ended up being dispersed throughout the country, leaving only a small force of about 12–20.000 men, led by Ştefan cel Mare himself, to face the main Ottoman attack.

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Wikipedia