Military Engineering Barriers
Military obstacles are artificial barriers and barriers created in advance or during military operations in order to inflict losses on the enemy, impede the advancement or maneuver of his troops on land, ships and other floating craft on water, flights of aircraft in near-Earth space and landing of aircraft (helicopters) on land. Depending on the place of application, military obstacles are land, sea (lake, river) and air; by the method of action - explosive, non-explosive and combined. Military obstacles can be used in all types of combat and operations. Explosive obstacles are most widely used (see Land mines , Sea mines ) . In defense, a system of various types of military obstacles is created.
Ground-based defences are divided into anti-tank, anti-personnel, anti-transport and anti-landing. Anti-tank defences include: anti-tank minefields, individual mines, land mines , scarps , counter-scarps, anti-tank ditches , craters in the ground, reinforced concrete, wooden and metal obstacles , forest and stone blockages , barriers, metal hedgehogs , traps, snow banks, flooding of the terrain, fires that impede the movement of troops.
Anti-personnel defences include: anti-personnel minefields, land mines, surprise mines, earthen ramparts, ditches, wolf pits (depressions in the ground in the form of a truncated cone), abatis , blockages, wire fences, spiral nets, slingshots , hedgehogs, snares, loops, thrown wire, electrified and water obstacles, fire shafts, etc. Anti-vehicle protective devices include: anti-vehicle mines, land mines used to destroy the bed of railways and highways, bridges, tunnels and road structures, digging up roads, creating blockages, barricades, antitank obstacles, craters on roads, mining the bed of roads.
Anti-landing protective devices are arranged against air and sea landings. To counter airborne assaults, antitank, antipersonnel and other mines are used, as well as ramparts, pits, pillars, rocks, ditches, wire nets, hedgehogs, and slingshots. To counter the landing of sea (lake, river) assaults, as well as to counter the enemy in forcing water obstacles, explosive and non-explosive barriers are set up on the shore and in the water, which make it difficult for enemy landing craft and assault forces to approach the shore and exit ashore.
Sea (lake, river) barriers are used to prevent enemy ships from passing through sea (lake) communications, fairways, rivers, canals, and also to hinder the penetration of enemy ships, submarines, torpedoes and other floating craft into harbors, ports, roadsteads and landing sites for sea (lake, river) assault forces. When constructing such barriers, contact and non-contact sea (river) mines, floating booms, cable nets, antitank obstacles, cribs, overpasses, etc. are used.
Foreclosure mechanisms have a centuries-old history. Since ancient times, earthen ramparts, ditches, wolf pits, stone walls, wooden palisades, forest abatis and blockages, and flooding of the terrain have been widely used as ground forensic mechanisms; overpasses, cribs, anti-tank obstacles, and other means have been used as sea forensic mechanisms. In the 18th century, explosives gradually began to be used for the construction of forensic mechanisms, and land mines were used during the defense of Sevastopol in 1854-55.
During the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-05, during the defense of Port Arthur, Russian troops used anti-personnel mines, electrically detonated field mines, and electrified wire obstacles. Various types of forensic mechanisms became widespread during World War I (1914-18), especially mining of terrain and the creation of continuous strips of barbed wire obstacles. During this war, Russian military engineers — Gritskevich, Dragomirov, Revensky and others — developed a number of designs for new anti-personnel and anti-tank mines, which were successfully used in constructing obstacles. In England, Italy and France, anti-aircraft obstacles in the form of air barrage balloons were used for the first time in 1916 to protect London, Venice and Paris.
Before World War II (1939-45), in fortified areas of European countries and during the construction of the fortified lines of Maginot (France), Mannerheim (Finland), Siegfried (Germany) and others, metal, concrete, reinforced concrete, granite obstacles, anti-tank ditches, wire nets, flooding and swamping of terrain, forest blockages were widely used, minefields and land mines were installed. During World War II (1939-45) and especially the Great Patriotic War (1941-45), explosive barriers were widely used in all types of combat. For their construction in the Battle of Moscow, Soviet troops first began to use mobile barrier units in 1941, which were subsequently successfully used in other operations. During the war, the Soviet Army used more than 70 million different mines, including about 30 million anti-tank mines. Simultaneously with the mining of the terrain, non-explosive bsarriers were used.
Non-Nuclear Craters were considered by the Americans to be effective obstacles to enemy movement if properly constructed and placed at critical points along the enemy's route of movement. Craters are usually placed in roads or other routes of movement that the enemy is expected to use. They should be placed in places that the enemy cannot easily bypass. For example, where the road runs along an embankment and the surrounding terrain is impassable for equipment (e.g. swampy) or in a depression flanked by cliffs or steep hills, dense forest, etc.
The main objective is to delay or stop the enemy, tie up his troops, who become good targets for shelling, and force him to use overcoming means, such as earthmoving equipment and bridge layers. The use of anti-personnel and anti-tank mines in conjunction with craters enhances the stopping capabilities of the latter. The steepness of the walls greatly depends on the type of soil. In hard soil, the width of the ditch may be significantly less, and in soft soil, the walls may be too flat. According to requirements, it is necessary to determine the type of soil each time and make the necessary calculations of the mass and depth of the charges.
A deliberaty planned road crater differs from a hasty one only in its dimensions. It can have a depth of 2.1-2.4 meters, a width of up to 4.8 meters at the top, and a wall steepness of 30-37 degrees. When preparing it, deeper boreholes are drilled and the mass of each charge is 36 kilograms. In fact, the difference between a planned crater and a hasty one is that the volume of work on preparation is significantly greater and it is prepared based not on the existing tactical situation, but according to a pre-prepared plan of combat operations in a given area. And the blasting of both is carried out as needed, depending on the tactical situation.
In the post-war period, the means used for the creation of various explosive devices, especially explosive ones, have undergone significant development. Nuclear explosive devices (nuclear land mines) and ground (underground) explosions of nuclear munitions can be used for this purpose.
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