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Glacis Plate
A glacis (, ) in military engineering is an artificial slope as part of a medieval castle or in early modern fortresses. They may be constructed of earth as a temporary structure or of stone in more permanent structure. More generally, a glacis is any slope, natural or artificial, which fulfils the above requirements. The etymology of this French word suggests a slope made dangerous with ice, hence the relationship with ''glacier''. A ''glacis plate'' is the sloped front-most section of the hull of a tank or other armoured fighting vehicle. Ancient fortifications A glacis could also appear in ancient fortresses, such as the one the ancient Egyptians built at Semna in Nubia. Here it was used by them to prevent enemy siege engines from weakening defensive walls. Hillforts in Britain started to incorporate glacis around 350 BC. Those at Maiden Castle, Dorset were high. Medieval fortifications Glacises, also called taluses, were incorporated into medieval fortifications to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Talus (fortification)
In architecture, the talus is a feature of some late medieval castles, especially prevalent in crusader constructions. It consists of a battered (sloping) face at the base of a fortified wall. Feature The slope acts as an effective defensive measure in two ways. First, conventional siege equipment is less effective against a wall with a talus. Scaling ladders may be unable to reach the top of the walls and are also more easily broken due to the bending stresses caused by the angle they are forced to adopt. Siege towers cannot approach closer than the base of the talus, and their gangplank may be unable to cover the horizontal span of the talus, rendering them useless. Furthermore, defenders are able to drop rocks over the walls, which will shatter on the talus, spraying a hail of shrapnel into any attackers massed at the base of the wall. See also *Glacis *Counterscarp *Siege A siege () . is a military blockade of a city, or fortress, with the intent of conquering ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Siege
A siege () . is a military blockade of a city, or fortress, with the intent of conquering by attrition, or by well-prepared assault. Siege warfare (also called siegecrafts or poliorcetics) is a form of constant, low-intensity conflict characterized by one party holding a strong, static, defensive position. Consequently, an opportunity for negotiation between combatants is common, as proximity and fluctuating advantage can encourage diplomacy. A siege occurs when an attacker encounters a city or fortress that cannot be easily taken by a quick assault, and which refuses to surrender. Sieges involve surrounding the target to block provision of supplies and reinforcement or escape of troops (a tactic known as "investment"). This is typically coupled with attempts to reduce the fortifications by means of siege engines, artillery bombardment, mining (also known as sapping), or the use of deception or treachery to bypass defenses. Failing a military outcome, sieges can often be ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fortification
A fortification (also called a fort, fortress, fastness, or stronghold) is a military construction designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from Latin ("strong") and ("to make"). From very early history to modern times, defensive walls have often been necessary for cities to survive in an ever-changing world of invasion and conquest. Some settlements in the Indus Valley Civilization were the first small cities to be fortified. In ancient Greece, large cyclopean stone walls fitted without mortar had been built in Mycenaean Greece, such as the ancient site of Mycenae. A Greek ''Towns of ancient Greece#Military settlements, phrourion'' was a fortified collection of buildings used as a military garrison, and is the equivalent of the ancient Roman, Roman castellum or fortress. These constructions mainly served the purpose of a watch tower, to guard certain roads, passes, and borders. Th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pyrénées-Orientales
Pyrénées-Orientales (; ; ; ), also known as Northern Catalonia, is a departments of France, department of the Regions of France, region of Occitania (administrative region), Occitania, Southern France, adjacent to the northern Spain, Spanish frontier and the Mediterranean Sea. It borders the departments of Ariège (department), Ariège to the northwest and Aude to the north, the Mediterranean Sea to the east and the Spanish province of Girona in Catalonia to the south and the country of Andorra to the west. It also surrounds the tiny Spanish exclave of Llívia, and thus has two distinct borders with Spain. In 2019, it had a population of 479,979.Populations légales 2019: 66 Pyrénées-Orientales INSEE Some parts of the Pyrénées-Orientales (like the Cerdagne) are part of the I ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mont-Louis
Mont-Louis (; or ''el Vilar d'Ovansa'') is a Communes of France, commune in the Pyrénées-Orientales Departments of France, department in southern France. Geography Mont-Louis is located in the canton of Les Pyrénées catalanes and in the arrondissement of Prades. Mont-Louis-La Cabanasse station has rail connections to Villefranche-de-Conflent and Latour-de-Carol. Government and politics Mayors Population Sites of interest In 2008, the citadel and the city walls of Mont-Louis were listed as part of the Fortifications of Vauban UNESCO World Heritage Site, because of its outstanding engineering and testimony to the development of military architecture in the 17th through 19th centuries. The Mont-Louis Solar Furnace, is the world's first solar furnace, built in 1949, by engineer Félix Trombe. It is open to visit for practical education on solar energy uses and technologies. The citadel has been hosting for more than half a century the National Commando Trainin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gun Mantlet
A gun mantlet is an armour plate or shield attached to an armoured fighting vehicle's gun, protecting the opening through which the weapon's barrel projects from the hull or turret armour and, in many cases, ensuring the vulnerable warhead of a loaded shell does not protrude past the vehicle's armour. On many tanks during World War II, the gun mantlet covered both the main gun and any coaxial armament, and had the thickest armour on the vehicle. However, in many late Cold War and post-Cold War tank designs, the gun mantlet became one of the weaker parts of a vehicle's turret armour and thus a weakness. This was because as many mantlet designs were attached directly to the gun, it drastically increased the weight of the whole gun system and the amount of effort needed to elevate and depress it. This was an issue for gun stabilizers as they proved to be less efficient and accurate in keeping the gun steady with the added weight of the mantlet. Therefore, as seen in tanks such a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tilt-rod Fuze
Russian TM-57 mine with a tilt-rod fuze A tilt-rod fuze is a device used to trigger anti-vehicle landmines. Typically it consists of a vertical pole, normally around a meter high, which is connected to the top of a landmine. When the track or main body of a vehicle passes over the mine, the rod is tilted, releasing a spring-loaded striker which triggers a pyrotechnic delay of approximately half a second, followed by detonation of the main explosive charge. The small time delay allows the vehicle to continue over the mine before detonating, exposing more of it to the blast. A tilt-rod fuze has a number of advantages over pressure fuzesit acts across the entire width of a vehicle, rather than just its tracks or tires. This allows it to attack the vehicle's belly and potentially cause a catastrophic kill. Additionally, tilt rod fuze In military munitions, a fuze (sometimes fuse) is the part of the device that initiates its function. In some applications, such as torpedoes, a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Anti-tank Mine
An anti-tank or AT mine is a type of land mine designed to damage or destroy vehicles including tanks and armored fighting vehicles. Compared to anti-personnel mines, anti-tank mines typically have a much larger explosive charge, and a fuze designed to be triggered by vehicles or, in some cases, Remote control, remotely or by tampering with the mine. History First World War The first anti-tank mines were improvised during the First World War as a countermeasure against the first tanks introduced by the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, British towards the end of the war. Initially they were nothing more than a buried high-explosive shell (projectile), shell or Mortar (weapon), mortar bomb with its fuze upright. Later, purpose-built mines were developed, including the Flachmine 17, which was simply a wooden box packed with explosives and triggered either remotely or by a pressure fuze. By the end of the war, the Germans had developed row mining techniques, and mines ac ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sloped Armour
Sloped armour is armour that is oriented neither Vertical and horizontal, vertically nor horizontally. Such angled armour is typically mounted on tanks and other armoured fighting vehicles (AFVs), as well as Naval ship, naval vessels such as battleships and cruisers. Sloping an armour plate makes it more difficult to penetrate by anti-tank weapons, such as Armour-piercing shell, armour-piercing shells, kinetic energy penetrators and Rocket (weapon), rockets, if they follow a more or less horizontal trajectory to their target, as is often the case. The improved protection is caused by three main effects. Firstly, a projectile hitting a plate at an angle other than 90° has to move through a greater thickness of armour, compared to hitting the same plate at a right-angle. In the latter case only the plate thickness (the surface normal, normal to the surface of the armour) must be pierced. Increasing the armour slope improves, for a given plate thickness, the level of protection at th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Icon Tank Body
An icon () is a religious work of art, most commonly a painting, in the cultures of the Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Catholic, and Lutheran churches. The most common subjects include Jesus, Mary, saints, and angels. Although especially associated with portrait-style images concentrating on one or two main figures, the term also covers most of the religious images in a variety of artistic media produced by Eastern Christianity, including narrative scenes, usually from the Bible or the lives of saints. Icons are most commonly painted on wood panels with egg tempera, but they may also be cast in metal or carved in stone or embroidered on cloth or done in mosaic or fresco work or printed on paper or metal, etc. Comparable images from Western Christianity may be classified as "icons", although "iconic" may also be used to describe the static style of a devotional image. In the Greek language, the term for icon painting uses the same word as for "writing", and Orthodox source ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Counterscarp
A scarp and a counterscarp are the inner and outer sides, respectively, of a ditch or moat used in fortifications. Attackers (if they have not bridged the ditch) must descend the counterscarp and ascend the scarp. In permanent fortifications, the scarp and counterscarp may be encased in stone. In less permanent fortifications, the counterscarp may be lined with paling fence set at an angle so as to give no cover to the attackers, but to make advancing and retreating more difficult. If an attacker succeeds in breaching a wall, a coupure can be dug on the inside of the wall to hinder the forlorn hope, in which case the side of the ditch furthest from the breached wall and closest to the centre of the fortification is also called the counterscarp. Counterscarp gallery These are tunnels or "galleries" that have been built behind the counterscarp wall inside the moat or ditch. Each gallery is pierced with loopholes for musketry, so that attacking forces which enter the moat can be ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
