Field fortification

“ The only really marked change in the arrangements of field defences has been caused not by gunpowder but by quick-firing rifled weapons. For that reason it is worth while to consider briefly what were the principles of field fortification at the end of the 18th century. That period has been chosen because it gives us the result of a couple of centuries of constant fighting between disciplined troops with fairly effective firearms. The field defences of the 19th century are transitional in character. ”

“ Every infantry officer, in a word, should be conversant in field fortification at least, if not acquainted with the general system. For without some knowlege of its branches, how will he, in cases of emergency, be capable of throwing up a temporary redoubt, of fortifying a spot of ground which he is ordered to maintain, or of securing a common outpost? ”

“ Temporary Fortification.—It has been stated in the preceding chapter that temporary fortifications are properly confined to the operations of a single campaign, and are used to strengthen positions which are to be occupied only for a short period; and that they are usually made of earth, thrown up by the troops in a single day. Temporary fortifications, as a part of field-engineering, may therefore be regarded rather as an arm than an art. ”

“ This must needs have a marked effect on strategy, and it is quite possible to foresee such an ultimate triumph of field fortification as that one force should succeed in surrounding another stronger than itself, and by entrenching prevent the latter from breaking out and compel its surrender. ”

“ Although an engineer may be perfectly master of the different methods by which a town can be strengthened and secured by permanent works, he should not remain satisfied with that acquisition, but carefully direct his attention to the distribution of ground, for field fortification. He should be able to ascertain, with geometrical precision, all the relative divisions and corresponding points of any situation in which it might be judged expedient to construct that species of fortification which consists in intrenched lines, fortins, or small forts, and in redoubts of various denominations. ”

“ This was to put into effect, on a stupendous scale, a very elementary principle of minor tactics, namely, that field works are constructed for the purpose of reducing the number of men required to defend a given front or locality.
In themselves, field fortifications have, of course, no offensive value whatever, but their use permits a reduced number of men to defend one place, in order that a greater number of men may be available to attack another place. ”

“ A village under fire is not now an ideal defensive position. A single shrapnel penetrating the outer wall may kill all the occupants of a room; a single field-howitzer shell may practically ruin a house. At the same time, a house or line of houses may (without any preliminary labour at all) give very good protection against shell fire to troops behind them. Further, the value to the defence of the slightest cover, once the infantry attack has developed, is so great that the ruins of walls and houses occupied at the right moment may prove an impregnable stronghold. ”

“ Of course a soldier is always interested in a fortress, for it is in the line of his profession; and the greatest fortification in the world could but be regarded with a curious eye by old soldiers like those who had led our armies for four years; who had conducted great campaigns, with long marches and battles and sieges—battles among the bloodiest of modern times, and one siege (that of Richmond) which lasted as long as the famous siege of Gibraltar. ”

“ At the same time it must be remembered that they differ from ordinary field-works in having an unusual degree of strength, plenty of time and civilian labour having been available for their construction. In this respect they approximate more to semi-permanent works, the main reason why they did not receive under the circumstances a greater development of ditch and parapet being that in addition to the large number of works required, much labour was expended in abatis, inundations, scarping hill-sides and constructing roads. ”

“ These interior defences and retrenchments were intended to guard against a general panic amongst the garrison, which would necessarily be composed in part of indifferent troops, and also to prevent the loss of the work by the entry of the assailants at any weak or ill-defended point. Such interior lines to rally on are absolutely essential to the security of a large field-work. They serve as substitutes for a blockhouse or tower, placed in the interior of all well-constructed permanent earthen works, and merit far more attention than they generally receive. ”

“ Such guns would naturally be in secure positions inside the forts, and if they are to be worked from such positions they must have armour to shield them from the concentrated fire of the numerous field artillery that a besieger could bring to bear from the first. ”

“ Permanent works wholly constructed in peace time and forming the key points of the position. (2) Gun emplacements, magazines and shelters for men in rear of the main line, all concrete structures and platforms to be completed, though some earthwork may be left until the position is placed in a state of defence. (3) Field works, trenches, &c., guarding the intervals between the permanent defences in the main line, or providing rear positions. ”

“ In fact, the redundancy of fortification all over this mountain, the useless repetition of walls over a precipice itself inaccessible, the care with which every hole in the boulders through which an arrow could pass is closed, prove that the occupants were in constant dread of attack, and lived like a garrison in the heart of an enemy’s country. ”

“ In practice there will always be occasion for some use of fortification. A mountain range may lend itself to an economical defence by a few men and some inexpensive barrier forts. A nation may have close to its frontier an important strategic centre, such as a railway junction, or a town of the first manufacturing importance, which must be protected. ”

“ Their right, like that of their white fellow-citizens, dates back to the dread arbitrament of battle. Their bones whiten every stricken field of the Revolution; their feet tracked with blood the snows of Jersey; their toil built up every fortification south of the Potomac; they shared the famine and nakedness of Valley Forge and the pestilential horrors of the old Jersey prisonship. ”

“ Natural fortification consists of obstacles, such as marshes, mountain passes, &c., which are found in some countries, and should be taken advantage of to impede the approaches of an enemy.
Artificial fortification comprises those works which are constructed to defend a place. ”

“ The one great leading step which modern fortification took beyond the mere flanking system, is the discovery of the glacis for covering the stone-work, and protecting it from the attacks of cannon. The whole system, it appears, is now on trial. The charge against it is, that every addition made to it in the way of protecting works, only renders a fort the more certain of ultimate capture, since these protecting works are themselves easily taken. ”

“ To see a fort is naturally supposed to be not the most formidable of undertakings; but to see Fort Fisher means a ride of miles over the bleakest of sand bars; means the climbing of great heaps of sand, under the hottest of suns; means a scrambling over irregular chasms and precipices of sand, where the explosions have destroyed at once every semblance of fortification and every foot of solid earth—means all this, prolonged for hours, under the penalty of the consciousness that otherwise you would be pretending to see Fort Fisher, when you were doing nothing of the sort. ”

“ The objection that fortifications are becoming out of date, is so puerile as scarcely to deserve refutation. We know that, with the exception of such modifications as have been rendered necessary by improvements in arms and projectiles, the art of fortification has scarcely undergone a change for the better since the days of Marshal Vauban. ”

“ The want of heavy guns and the requisite carriages has prevented the fortifications here from being armed with them to any extent, and I do not think it wise to take them for this purpose from other points where, in my opinion, they are more needed. Any system of fortification which could be constructed during the war for the defense of this city would only serve to gain time. An army which allows itself to be shut up in a fortified city must finally yield to an enemy superior in numbers and munitions of war. ”

“ For defensive purposes nature and art have combined to render the place exceedingly strong. Ranges of hills, varying from 300 feet to 1500 feet, surround the port and town almost completely, offering scope for fortification of the most formidable character, advantages which, as far as construction goes, have been well utilized, massive and lofty stone forts occupying every point of advantage. ”

“ Walls and windows, massive, lofty, and nearly touching each other from above afforded a perpetual fortification; lanes innumerable, and extending from one depth of darkness and intricacy into another, a network of attack and ambush, obviously gave an extraordinary advantage to the irregular daring of men accustomed to thread those wretched and dismal dens, crowded with one of the fiercest and most capricious populations in the world. ”

“ The fort is built on a natural mound in the plain. It is a huge rambling building six stories high, surrounded by a courtyard, where mules and ponies are stabled. As a military fortification Phari Jong is by no means contemptible. The walls are of massive stonework which would take heavy guns to demolish. The angles are protected from attacking parties by machicolated galleries, and three enormous bastions project from each flank. These are crumbling in places, and the Pioneers might destroy the bastion and breach the wall with a bag or two of guncotton. ”

“ A special technical use of the term is in fortification, where it is applied to a work or series of works constructed in rear of existing defences in order to bar the further progress of the enemy should he succeed in breaching or storming these. A modern example may be found in the siege of Port Arthur in 1904. When early in the siege Fort Panlung fell into the hands of the Japanese, the Russians connected up the two adjacent first-line forts to a fort in the rear by means of new works, the whole forming a rough semicircle facing the lost fort. ”

“ Now even though you may not be versed in warfare, you must realize that for a thousand men to throw up such a fortification as I have described, between midnight and daybreak, which came about four of the clock, was a wonderful piece of work, and in addition to all this two strong fences made of stones and rails had been built either side of the entire works, thus forming a fairly good obstacle in case an enemy attempted to make an attack elsewhere than directly in front. In the rear was the sharp slope of the hill up which soldiers could not well make their way. ”

“ In the present day isolated forts are seldom used, and only for such purposes as to block passes in mountainous districts. Fortresses are used either to protect points of vital importance, such as capital cities, military depots and dockyards, or at strategic points such as railway junctions. ”

“ The great strength of modern fortification consists certainly in the glacis, or in that smoothly sloping mound which conceals and covers the rampart to87 the very chin, yet is severed from it by a deep and impassable ditch, screening it from every injury, even by the heaviest and most numerous ordnance, whilst its own gradual slope is swept by a rain and hail of cannon-balls, grape shot, and musketry, both from its own parapet and that of the superior rampart. ”

“ If, therefore, the position and direction of a mountain chain makes it favourable to a defensive line, it is necessary to close its roads and passes by small forts, built for this purpose only, and at the least possible cost, the great outlay on works of fortification being reserved for the important places of arms in the level country. ”

“ The wonderful trenches, too numerous to mention in detail, show a very high order of military skill in fortification, and this is the more remarkable when we discover that Neolithic man was probably answerable for their construction, although the fort has been subsequently occupied by men of the Bronze Age, and also by the Romans. ”

“ A fortification, in its most simple form, consists of a mound of earth, termed, the rampart, which encloses the space fortified; a parapet, surmounting the rampart and covering the men and guns from the enemy's projectiles; a scarp wall, which sustains the pressure of the earth of the rampart and parapet, and presents an insurmountable obstacle to an assault by storm; a wide and deep ditch, which prevents the enemy from approaching near the body of the place; a counterscarp wall, which sustains the earth on the exterior of the ditch ”

“ In fortification, is a central or retired work within any other work, intended to afford the garrison a last retreat, whence they may capitulate. It is commonly of masonry, loop-holed, and often circular. Many engineers doubt the use of reduits altogether, as blocking up the working space, being themselves inconvenient for the men, and incapable of protracted defense, while they frequently mask the fire of other works more to the rear. ”

“ To be able to reconnoitre the defences of a fortress was surely the a b c of the trade of war. Captains and soldiers of fortune never risked advancing against a fortification without knowing first whether there were water, morass or briars, and arming themselves accordingly with siege train suitable to the occasion. When the water of the moat was deep they launched leather boats carried on horses' backs. ”