| Drawn from illustration in Leithner’s Beständige Befestigung, by permission. |
| Fig. 59.—Disappearing Turret for Searchlight. |
Since Sir George Clarke published his first edition in 1890 continental ideas have expanded a good deal. The foregoing statement as to the three categories of defences would be accepted anywhere now: the differences of opinion come in Infantry redoubts. when we reach the stage of classifying under the first head the permanent works to be constructed in peace time. In most countries these would include forts with guns for the artillery duel, forts with safety armaments, fixed batteries with or without armour, and forts for infantry only. Sir George Clarke will have no armour for guns except in certain special cases of barrier forts. Heavy guns and howitzers requiring permanent emplacements (concrete platforms, &c.) must either be well concealed or be provided with alternative positions. The only permanent works which he admits are for infantry. They are redoubts of simple form intended for 350 or 400 men, with casemate accommodation for three-fourths of that number. Fig. 61 shows the design:—two rows of casemates, one under the front parapet, one under a parados; frontal musketry defence; obstacle consisting of entanglements, mines, &c., with or without escarp and counterscarp.
| Fig. 60.—Transportable Cupola for 5.7-cm. Gun (Friedr. Krupp A.G.). |
“The intervals (he says) between the infantry redoubts may be about 2500 yds.; but this will necessarily depend upon the conformation of the ground. Where there are good artillery positions falling within the sphere of protection of the redoubts, large intervals will be permissible. Thus, in the case of an extended line of defence where the ground offers marked tactical features, the idea of a continuous chain of permanent works may be abandoned in favour of groups of redoubts guarding the artillery positions. In this case, the redoubts in a group might be distributed on a curve bent back in approximately horse-shoe form.”
| From Sir George S. Clarke’s Fortification, by permission of John Murray. |
| Fig. 61. |
The keystones of the close defence of the fighting line in future will undoubtedly be these infantry redoubts, and therefore it is of great interest to compare with the above types two studies put forward by Schroeter (Die Festung in der heutigen Kriegführung), one in his first edition in 1898 (fig. 62), and the other in the second in 1905 (fig. 63). In both these the defensive arrangements are merely trenches of field profile with entanglements, the command and the obstacle being less than in Sir George Clarke’s work; and it will be noticed that in the 1905 type, published after the Russo-Japanese War, the plan is much less simple and arrangements for close flanking defence have been introduced. But these works of Schroeter’s are merely infantry supporting points in a line which contains forts of the triangular type with guns, and armoured batteries, as well as a very complete arrangement of field defences and communications; while Sir G. Clarke’s redoubts are the only permanent works giving casemate protection in the front line.
| From Schoeter’s Die Festung in der heutigen Kriegführung, by permission of E.S. Mittler u. Sohn. |
| Fig. 62. |
The comparative merits of either design for an infantry redoubt are not of much importance. It is agreed that the main line of defence must consist of a more or less continuous line of field defences and obstacles, and that at some points in the line there should be infantry supporting points with bomb-proof protection capable of resisting big shells. The open question is, what additional works, if any, are required for the artillery, whether for the medium and heavy guns that will take part in the “artillery duel,” or for the lighter natures that will help in the close fight and defence of the intervals. Is it best for the defenders to rely on armoured protection or on concealment for his guns?
Official opinion outside England has certainly sanctioned armour, since all over the continent it is to some extent adopted in practice. National practice is usually based on the advice of the most distinguished officers of the day, and therefore it is Opposing views as to armour, gun positions, &c. unsafe to condemn it hastily. Sir George Clarke and those who are with him—and they are many, both in Great Britain and abroad—object entirely to armour. He says (Fortification, ed. 1907, p. 96): “The great advantage possessed by the attack in all ages has been the employment of a mobile artillery against armaments cribbed, cabined and confined by fortification. It is necessary to perpetuate this advantage?” Of course the effect of long-range weapons, in increasing the length of front that can be held by a given force, has given much greater freedom of action to the defence and this should be taken full advantage of.
| From Schroeter’s Die Festung in der heutigen Kriegführung, by permission of E.S. Mittler u. Sohn. |
| Fig. 63. |