Author Wheatcroft on Book `Enemy at the Gate': Lewis Lapham from Bloomberg - All Podcasts

Check the Bloomberg podcast of the interview with the author, here. Also, The Telegraph recently reviewed the book; the review itself is excellent, and serves as a great primer for those that are studying the topic (say in high school or college, for some project). In the article, Noel Malcom writes:

[...] Andrew Wheatcroft shows, an Ottoman army moving forward on campaign had two major advantages: the Ottomans' logistics were much better than those of the West European armies, and they also derived great benefit from their use of Tatar auxiliaries - large numbers of highly mobile light cavalry, ideally adapted for raiding, foraging and reconnaissance. Once they had arrived at the theatre of war, however, there were two quite different forms of fighting to be undertaken. Siege warfare played to their strengths: efficient logistics on a huge scale, disciplined (and relatively hygienic) camps, and highly skilled miners and engineers. A stronghold well stocked with food, water and ammunition (as Vienna was) could hold out for a long time, but tunnels could reach under even the mightiest bastions, and gunpowder would then bring them down.

See that review, here. See also: Victory at Vienna: The Ottoman siege of 1683 : a historical essay and a selective list of reading materials, The Islamic World in Ascendancy: From the Arab Conquests to the Siege of Vienna, Historic Print (L): [Siege and relief of Vienna in 1683, with portraits of Ernst Rudiger von Starhemberg, Em, The Siege of Vienna: The Last Great Trial Between Cross & Crescent