Trench pranks

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Trench strokes is the name for systems or rooms of various types in fortifications , from which the trench could be painted with hand weapons and small-caliber artillery . Such structures, which serve to defend the moat close by , became common shortly after the introduction of bastion fortifications in the 16th century. A distinction was made between "bomb-proof" trench strokes, which were located in closed casemates or in galleries in the moat walls or in caponies in front of the wall, and "open" trench strokes. These include the Fausse-Braie or Niederwall , the “Grabentenaille” or “Grabenschere”, the “Trabenkoffer” (according to Vauban ) and free-standing walls in the trench that were provided with loopholes. Construction methods and materials used in trench digging can vary, they have changed over time and adapted to the progressive armament of the attackers. With the trench strokes one differentiates between front and throat trench strokes, depending on whether they are on the front (enemy side) or on the "throat" of a fortification. Because of the increased effectiveness of weapons, hardly any “open” trench weirs were created from 1815 onwards.

Trench pranks in a casemate in the counter scabbard (in section)
Trench pranks like those built into a casemate in the countercarpe at the Verle plant (top view).

The task of the trench was to defend the moat against invading enemies. In the older bastionary fortifications , special trenches were relatively rarely built in, but the French marshal and fortress builder Vauban always used " trench trunks " between the curtain wall and the ravelin in his 2nd and 3rd fortification style , but otherwise largely relied on the "trench shears" for trench defense “And Fausse-Braie (in German also Niederwall ). But you already knew in the older Italian attachment style in the 16th century at the height of the trench-scale casemates in the bastion flanks , from which one as Escarpe -Grabenstreichen the ditch in front of the curtain wall with rifles or light guns with grapeshot could spread. The German fortress builder David Speckle (1536–1589) described in his "Architecture of Fortifications" (1589) for the first time in detail the construction of special casemates to coat the fortress moats. Since the construction of good and adequately ventilated casemates was very expensive and time-consuming (and hardly possible with pure earth walls as in the " Dutch fortification manner "), the Niederwall (Fausse-Braie) was mainly used until well into the 18th century Trench defense, which fulfilled the same function as a trench blow, but was not adequately protected against fire from above.

Although Albrecht Dürer recommended the installation of caponiers in his well-known "Fortification Theory" to cover the moat in front of the bastions , it was not used until the 19th century, when the bastionary fortifications that had been common up until then were first given up in Germany special trench strokes in use. Trench strokes in the form of large capons are thus a typical characteristic of the New German or New Prussian fortress style . These were mostly built at the protruding corners of the ramparts ( saillants ) to line the trenches of both the main rampart and the detached forts at the foot of the Eskarpen wall (i.e. on the inside of the trench).

After the general introduction of explosive ammunition from 1890 and the increased effectiveness of the siege artillery as a result, trenches were built in the Contrescarpe (i.e. on the enemy side of the trench) to coat the front and flank trenches , where they were withdrawn from the siege artillery and occasionally connected to the main plant by postern . This already applies to the forts built from 1886 around Copenhagen and the forts around Namur and Liège built from 1888 and also for the German festivals around Metz, the French forts, and for most of the fortifications in Austria-Hungary, where the compact unit works in in the Alps until 1907, " suitcases " were still built in front of the Escarpe on the fronts and flanks . Numerous forts built between 1870 and 1886, for example around Strasbourg or the French Séré de Rivières' , were adapted by removing the capons on the flanks and faces and building trenches in the contrescarpe instead. The throat ditches of the new as well as the modernized forts were mostly still painted from the escarpe on the throat side facing away from the enemy siege fire , whereby different solutions were used, such as casemates in the throat barracks , capons or casemates in each case a re-entrant angle (flanks) of the throat wall to the left and right of the entrance gate, such as in Fort Douaumont of Verdun . Also, to coat the throat side, trenches were built into the Contrescarpe, such as in the triangular forts of the "Feste Kaiser Wilhelm II." Near Strasbourg.

Several digs were always required.

Remarks

  1. ↑ Blumhardt: The standing attachment. Volume 1: The Doctrine of the Individual Parts of Fortification. 1864, p. 86ff, p. 126–195 (detailed representation of trench strokes of every kind): Bernhard von Poten : Concise dictionary of the entire military sciences. 1877, sv fortifications, sv "trench trenching", sv suitcase, sv capon, sv casemates.
  2. ↑ Blumhardt: The standing attachment. Vol. 1 The doctrine of the individual parts of the fortification. 1864, p. 86ff, p. 126–195 (detailed description of trench strokes of every kind): Hoyer: History of the art of war since the use of gunpowder. 1797, Vol. 2, p. 512; Bernhard von Poten : Concise dictionary of the entire military science. 1877, sv fortification, sv "Grabenstreichen", Zastrow: history of permanent fortifications. 1839, passim (description of all fortification manners and variants including Montalambert and Carnot).
  3. ↑ a special form of the curtain wall to cover the curtain wall
  4. ^ Bernhard von Poten : Concise dictionary of the entire military sciences. 1877, sv "Speckle"
  5. ↑ as the graves in the Netherlands or in northern Germany were mostly filled with water, “real” trench diggings were rarely necessary
  6. ^ Bernhard von Poten : Concise dictionary of the entire military sciences. 1877, sv "Faussebraye", sv Niederwall; sv "Dutch fortification manner"; Riistow: Military concise dictionary. 1858, sv "Faussebraye"
  7. ↑ Dürer: Several lessons on fortifying the castle, Stett and Flecken. (1527 - numerous facsimiles and reprints to this day, including translations into modern German). Zastrow: History of the permanent fortification. 1839, pp. 16-36.
  8. ↑ Blumhardt: The standing attachment. Vol. II, 1864, pp. 184-220.
  9. ↑ first attempts to use gelatinized picric acid (trinitrophenol) or melinite as a garnet filling, between 1884 and 1886 by the French chemists Vieille and Turpin. Introduction of the "Garnet filling 88" (picric acid) in Germany.
  10. ↑ Christensen Copenhagen
  11. ↑ Rolf: Panzerfortifikation
  12. ↑ Gaber: Le Forts de Toul. 2003, passim; Le Hallé: Verdun. Les Forts de la Victoire. 1997, passim
  13. ^ Mörz de Paula, fortifications
  14. ↑ Gaber: La Lorraine fortifié. 1997, p. 51 ff .; Gaber: Le Forts de Toul. 2003, passim; Le Hallé: Verdun. Les Forts de la Victoire. 1997, passim.
  15. ^ B. Bour in: Strasbourg. The history of its fortifications. 1998, pp. 207-221.

literature

  • Bi Skaarup, Bjørn Westerbeek Dahl, Peter Thorning Christensen: The Fortifications of Copenhagen. A Guide to 900 Years of Fortification History . Skov- og Naturstyrelsen, København 1998, ISBN 87-7279-110-1 (English, Danish: Guide til Københavns befæstning. 900 års befæstningshistorie . Translated by Donald Bryant).
  • Erwin Anton Grestenberger: Imperial and Royal fortifications in Tyrol and Carinthia 1860–1918 . Austria, Vienna 2000, ISBN 3-7046-1558-7 .
  • Kurt Mörz de Paula: The Austro-Hungarian fortifications 1820–1914 . Stöhr, Vienna 1997.
  • Hartwig Neumann: Fortress construction art and technology . German defense architecture from the 15th to the 20th Century; with a bibliography of German-language publications on fortress research and use. Bernard & Graefe, Bonn 1994, ISBN 3-7637-5929-8 .
  • Rudi Rolf: The German tank fortification. The Panzerfest in Metz and their prehistory . Biblio, Osnabrück 1991, ISBN 3-7648-1784-4 .