A reduit is a fortified structure such as a

citadel A citadel is the core fortified area of a town or city. It may be a castle, fortress, or fortified center. The term is a diminutive of "city", meaning "little city", because it is a smaller part of the city of which it is the defensive core. I ...

or a keep into which the defending troops can retreat when the outer defences are breached. The term is also used to describe an area of a country, which, through a ring of heavy

fortification A fortification is a military construction or building designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is also used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from Latin ''fortis'' ("strong") and ''facere' ...

s or through enhancing through fortification the defences offered by natural features such as mountains, will be defended even when the rest of the country is occupied by a hostile power. . An entry for this word was first included in New English Dictionary, 1904. *1948 Times 31 Dec. 3/3 "The obsolete conception of a national reduit has been abandoned in favour of an extra-territorial base established in the Belgian Congo". *2003 Macpherson ''Amer. Intelligence War-time London'' vi. 177 "As for the Reduit (or Redoubt), this was the rumoured area for 'a last-ditch stand' in the Bavarian, Austrian and Italian Alps".

National Reduit

In English the term National redoubt is fairly commonly used. A

redoubt A redoubt (historically redout) is a fort or fort system usually consisting of an enclosed defensive emplacement outside a larger fort, usually relying on earthworks, although some are constructed of stone or brick. It is meant to protect soldi ...

is an outlying fortification, so its use to describe the Nazis' National Redoubt in the German and Austrian

Alps The Alps () ; german: Alpen ; it, Alpi ; rm, Alps ; sl, Alpe . are the highest and most extensive mountain range system that lies entirely in Europe, stretching approximately across seven Alpine countries (from west to east): France, Swi ...

is an accurate description. However another term that is sometimes used in English and more frequently used in French is "national reduit" (''réduit national'') to describe the holding of the centre of a country while abandoning outlying territory. Examples of this usage are: * National Redoubt (french: Réduit national), a ring of forts built around Antwerp built between 1859 and 1914, was to be Belgium's national redoubt. * National Redoubt (french: Réduit national, german: Schweizer Réduit) was a strategy by which the Swiss would first seek to hold an invading army on the border. If that failed, the army would launch a delaying war, allowing the bulk of the Swiss forces to withdraw to a defensible perimeter in the Swiss Alps.http://strangemaps.wordpress.com/2007/05/07/109-the-schweizer-reduit-hard-core-switzerland/ Strange Maps * Réduit des Flandres, during the Battle of France of the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

, around the

Channel ports The Channel Ports are seaports in southern England and the facing continent, which allow for short crossings of the English Channel. There is no formal definition, but there is a general understanding of the term. Some ferry companies divide thei ...

of Boulogne, Calais and Dunkirk. * Réduit Breton, also during the Battle of France in a later phase, in the peninsula of

Brittany Brittany (; french: link=no, Bretagne ; br, Breizh, or ; Gallo: ''Bertaèyn'' ) is a peninsula, historical country and cultural area in the west of modern France, covering the western part of what was known as Armorica during the period ...

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External links

Fortifications open to the public as museums
{{DEFAULTSORT:Reduit Fortification (architectural elements)