Coastal fortification

This article describes military fortifications on coasts. For bank reinforcement on coasts to protect against the effects of water, see coastal protection .

Aerial view of Fort Sumter in the United States.

Coastal fortifications are a peculiar type of permanent fortifications. They are designed to act against warships at sea. Unlike land fortresses, they are not fortified against attacks from the land side.

Coastal fortifications should prevent enemy ships from using harbors , roadsteads , entering estuaries , straits , etc. Since they only have to expect a bombardment of ships, not a formal attack ( siege ), they are usually built as open earthworks, beach or coastal batteries . They are basically only built for heavy artillery (coastal artillery ), the smallest caliber of which is the 15 cm cannon. Each gun stands between two trusses .

In places where a narrow fairway to be controlled with a low number of guns and crew and only a limited construction site is available, you can tank works build. The armor resting on wall structures (in Great Britain made of rolled iron, in Germany made of chilled cast iron) are either battery armor or armored turrets . The guns behind armor are in minimal articulated mounts. The works must be laid out in such a way that they are secured against high tides, side and back fire.

As fortified war ports , the coastal fortifications should take up combat with an enemy fleet lying in front of the port entrance in order to facilitate the departure of their own ships and / or an approach of the enemy for the purpose of bombarding targets on land (ports, naval facilities, arsenals , shipyards , Docks , magazines, etc.). These fortifications are built, as they have to be secured against an attack from the land, closed (coastal fort ). The number and location of these depend on the location, which, even if larger landings are feasible near the port, may require a land fortress to be attached to the coastal fortifications, as should be done, for example, at Kiel.

However, these fortifications alone are not sufficient, they still require the fairway to be blocked off by sea ​​mines , fixed or floating barricades , e.g. sunk ships, floating beams, ropes, ropes, networks, chains, etc. that are within the range of the guns must lie.

See also

• Coastal defense
• Coastal gun
• List of coastal guns
• List of coastal fortifications

Web links

Commons : Coastal Fortification  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Note: the Meyers-Lexikon probably meant the Friedrichsort Fortress , the only sea ​​fortress in Germany

This article is based on a text in the public domain from Meyers Konversations-Lexikon , 4th edition from 1888 to 1890.

Please only remove this note if you have revised the article to such an extent that the text reflects the current state of knowledge on this topic, this has been proven and it meets today's linguistic requirements.
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