In the Russo-Japanese War the Russian trenches at the outset were of old-fashioned type and very conspicuous. Later on better types were evolved. Figs. 90 and 91 are a couple of sections from Port Arthur; the first borrowed from the Boers but wider at the top. The Japanese appear to have taken their type mainly from the latest British official books, but applied them with great skill to the ground studying especially invisibility. In their prepared positions they used large redoubts manned by several companies.
| From Mil. Engineering: Field Defences, by permission of the Controller H. M. Stationery Office. |
| Fig. 92.—Gun-pit. |
Cover for Guns.—Some degree of cover for guns, in addition to the shield, is always desirable. If the gun stands on the natural surface of the ground, the cover is called an epaulment. In that case a bank is thrown up in front of the gun, about 1 ft. high in the centre, and 3 ft. 6 in. high at the ends. On either side of the gun and close up to the bank is a small pit for the gunners. The rest of the earth for the epaulment is got from a trench in front. If the gun is sunk, the shelter is called a gun-pit.
In this case there is no bank immediately in front of the gun. Shelter can be got more quickly with a pit than an epaulment, but it is generally undesirable to break the surface of the ground.
The commonest forms of obstacle now used are abatis and Obstacles. wire entanglements. Fig. 93 shows a well-finished type of abatis. The branches are stripped and pointed, and the butts are buried and pegged firmly down. Wire entanglement may be added to this with advantage. An abatis should be protected from artillery fire, which is sometimes done by placing it in a shallow excavation with the earth thrown up in front of it.
| From Mil. Engineering: Field Defences, by permission of the Controller H.M. Stationery Office. |
| Fig. 93.—Abatis. |
Wire may be used as a high or low entanglement or as a fence or trip wire or concealed obstacle. The usual form of high wire entanglement consists of several rows of stout stakes 4 or 5 ft. long, driven firmly into the ground about 6 ft. apart, and connected horizontally and diagonally with barbed wire.
| Fig. 94.—Crows’ Feet. | Fig. 95.—Plan and section of Trous-de-loup. |
Palisades are still used, and need no description. They were formerly often made bullet-proof, but this is no longer possible. Fraises are seldom heard of now, though they may appear occasionally in a modified form. They were much used in connexion with deep ditches, and are palisades placed so as to project horizontally from the escarp, or sloping forward in the bottom of the ditch. Military pits both deep and shallow (the latter, shown in fig. 95, called trous de loup) are not so much used as formerly, because the obstacle is hardly worth the labour expended on it. Both, however, were employed in the Russo-Japanese War. Crows’ feet, formerly much used as a defence against cavalry, are practically obsolete. They consisted of four iron spikes joined together at their bases in such a manner that however they were thrown down one point would always be pointing upwards (fig. 94). Chevaux-de-frise (q.v.) were formerly a much-used type of obstacle.