Storm stakes

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Storm stakes at Fortezza Rohan
Back up down
Storm stakes during the American Civil War

Storm piles were in the fortress a system inclined or mounted in a horizontal position sharpened stakes. They were attached to ditches , ramparts and walls to make climbing difficult. There were three ways of setting the piles:

  • obliquely upwards: This variant protects the fastening against climbing and was mostly attached to its base. But it is relatively easy to destroy by artillery .
  • horizontal: the variant was attached further up on the fastening and prevented the creation of scaling ladders ; it was also better protected against artillery fire.
  • sloping downwards: This variant should make climbing ramparts and walls more difficult. To do this, however, it was necessary that the trench was deep enough or that the wall was sufficiently high so that the enemy could not easily grasp the obstacle.

The single stake should be about 18 cm (7-8 inches) in diameter, terminating at least 2 meters above the bottom of the trench or 3 meters from the contrescarpe . Thinner stakes are too easily destroyed.

literature

  • Johann Rudolph Fäsch, War, Engineering, Artillery and Sea Lexicon , 1733, Volume 5, p. 877
  • Heinrich Uhl, Field fortification for self-study for younger officers and as a teaching aid , p. 24
  • Heinrich F. Rumpf: General Real Encyclopedia of the Entire Art of War, Volume 2, p. 425 [1]

Web links