Hedgehog position (military)
The hedgehog position (or hedgehog for short ) is a defensive position of the infantry and other branches of arms for all-round defense , which was developed by mercenaries of the 14th and 15th centuries and is still used today in a modified form.
history
Even the mercenaries of the Middle Ages developed a hedgehog to defend themselves against attacking armies in all directions. The equipped with spikes Landsknechte formed while a circle - with a plurality of staggered rows one behind the other - and turned their sticks together after (outside see. Hedgehog ). It was a purely defensive formation that offered effective protection against cavalry . In more modern warfare, the all-round defense of groups up to battalion level in a base-like defense is called "hedgehog".
A square is also a form of hedgehog position in which the infantrymen armed with muskets are arranged in a dense square. A proper karee was a tempting target for artillery or musket fire because of its dense formation, but was practically invulnerable to cavalry.
After the collapse of Army Group Center in 1944, it became increasingly apparent that a continuous front line could no longer be maintained. The German Wehrmacht shifted to a base-like defense. In Vietnam , too , the war was fought with this means. In the Bundeswehr such hedgehog positions are constantly being set up as part of the bivouac . All tent arrangements according to Central Service Regulation 3/11 should be placed in a circle around the fire. They are considered a point of retreat. According to the service regulations, holes must be dug and secured with an earth wall. The tent is erected over it. In the event of withdrawal from the actual position, the bivouac room can be used as a hedgehog position.
Structure and effect
Basically, it didn't take much time to set up a hedgehog position. In a confined space, foxholes with connecting trenches are built that form a circle around a central point, usually the corresponding headquarters. These positions are reinforced with barbed wire or mortars if possible and as appropriate . Light or, if available, heavy machine guns are posted at crucial points . These relatively heavy weapons cover the space that could possibly be best suited for attacks, but can be quickly relocated within a hedgehog position to forestall another attack. The individual positions were partially reinforced by heavy wooden planks and thus formed a kind of combat bunker for the crew. Sheet steel and other materials were also used, provided that these materials were available. There is no such expansion within the Bundeswehr, since the fight from the hedgehog position was recognized as fundamentally tactically and strategically wrong. The bivouac position is the last possibility of retreat and not a fixed point of defense.
rating
The hedgehog position is always advisable when there is no contact with friendly troops on the flanks, i.e. an attack can come from any direction. By defending in every direction you are armed against attacks from every conceivable direction. With this, however, there is a problem with the formation of a focus: if you defend yourself in all directions, the defense is much weaker at every point, viewed locally. For example, if four machine guns are available and each of them has to cover a direction, then only one machine gun is available there in the event of an attack from the north. With a continuous front, however, all four machine guns can be aligned to the north. On the other hand, in a hedgehog position, the enemy cannot roll up the entire front from the flank after a breakthrough.
Hedgehog position in other contexts
Hedgehog position is also used in other contexts, such as fire fighting or politics. Overall, the hedgehog position is connoted as unfavorable. In chess, the hedgehog is an opening type that has motifs similar to the military hedgehog.
Description in Meyers Konversationslexikon
“The flourishing cities of the Hanseatic League, but above all the Swiss Confederation , created a new infantry out of the bourgeoisie in the 14th and 15th centuries , which with halberd and spike forced the knight off his horse and, after the handguns and artillery, always larger numbers appeared on the battlefields, also removed the tank. The large, 3-4,000-strong squad of the Swiss became smaller, up to 1,000 men among the mercenaries. In front of them the lost servants opened the battle with arquebuses and muskets and retreated under the protection of the pikes of the bright heap before the attack of the horsemen. This made the hedgehog against cavalry , comparable to our square, whereby the skewers, pointing outwards at an angle, were pushed into the earth with the shoe. "
literature
- Wehrkunde: Organ of the Society for Wehrkunde, Volume 7, Edition 6, Verlag Europäische Wehrkunde, 1958, p. 339.
Web link
Individual evidence
- ↑ Jan Südmersen, Ulrich Cimolino, Nicolas Neumann, standard rules of use: fighting forest and wildfire , p. 68, ISBN 978-3-609-69824-3 .
- ↑ Red hedgehog position. Bridges to the small PC , Der Spiegel , No. 24, 1949, p. 5.
- ↑ Article 'Fechtart'. In: Online version of Meyers Großes Konversations-Lexikon, Volume 6, 1906. Retrieved April 29, 2009 .