Page 157 - Conflitti Militari e Popolazioni Civili - Tomo I

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“Jews’ Quarter” because a large Jewish community lived there. Again enormous gunpowder
weapons – “eight of the great bombards” – attacked the wall fired from a mole in the harbor
known as Scaffold Mole because it was the site of Rhodes’ executions. Dupuis writes:
The Turks also were not hindered by the fact that the wall to the right of the Jewish Quar-
ter was more than twenty-eight feet in height; they hit and battered the wall so hard and so
sharply and for so long that there was no one in the city who was not very frightened of the
fury of these bombards. 22
Breaches began to appear. Everyone responded: “neither the Master, nor the stewards,
nor the priors, nor the knights, nor the citizens, nor the merchants, nor the women, nor the
brides, nor the girls avoided work. They carried stones and earth.” the Hospitallers and
23
townspeople tried to repair these but could not keep up. Stone, wood, and barrels of earth
could only do so much to reinforce the wall.
In the meantime, the Ottomans prepared for an assault of the breaches in these walls. They
filled the moat with stones; again the Rhodians could not keep up, although Grand Master
Pierre d’Aubusson estimated that they carried more than 3,500 stones out of the moat and
into the city. Finally, on 28 July, the Turkish assault began. The initial onslaught of the Ot-
24
tomans completely overwhelmed those guarding the walls of the Jewish Quarter. Without too
much difficulty they quickly mounted these walls, defeated the defending troops there and
planted their standards and banners. D’Aubusson describes the effort to regain control of
25
the walls:
Suddenly, our men opposing themselves to the enemy, on the right and left of the walls,
fought them in the highest places, causing great confusion and preventing them from advanc-
ing any further . . . we climbed up to the enemy, opposed them and protected and defended
the place. There were 2,000 very well armed Turks on top of the walls, crowded together with
us and fighting hand to hand struggled by force of arms to drive us away. But by the persis-
tence and constant valor of our fighters we held on. Following those Turks who were already
on the walls, was a huge number of Turks from their camp who filled the breach, the wall
and the moat, so that it was impossible to see the ground. Deserters stated that 4,000 Turks
had made the assault. Our men drove about 300 of the enemy who were on the walls into the
Jewish quarter, where they were killed to a man . . . The battle was fought with great ferocity
for two hours. Finally the Turks, pressed, fatigued and terrified, and wounded, turned their
backs, and took to flight with such great haste that they became an impediment to one an-
other, and added to their destruction. In the fight there fell about 3,500 Turks, whose corpses
were found inside the city and upon the walls, in the moat, in the enemy’s positions and in
the sea, and which afterwards were burnt to prevent disease. The spoils of their corpses were
taken by our men, who, following the fleeing Turks all the way to their camp on the plain,
killed them vigorously and afterwards returned unharmed. 26
The Grand Master was twice wounded in the struggle. He had led the attack on the Turks

22 Dupuis, p. 95. See also Caoursin, p. 9, and d’Aubusson, p. 307.
23 Caoursin, p. 9.
24 d’Aubusson, p. 308. See also Dupuis, p. 96.
25 d’Aubusson, p. 308.
26 Dupuis, p. 101.