Gorge (fortification)

A gorge in fortification construction is the "unexposed side of a fieldwork",[1] typically the rear of an independent fieldwork or detached outwork in front of the main fortress or defensive position.

Overview

Towards the end of the 18th century, when the Vauban style of fortification went out of fashion due to cost,[lower-alpha 1] military engineers began instead to build self-contained outworks, such as the polygonal system, in front of fortresses. These outworks were, as a rule, in the shape of an arc facing the likely enemy approach and designed primarily to defend attacks from that direction. The "chord" of the arc was only weakly fortified[lower-alpha 2] and consequently the most vulnerable side of an outwork or fieldwork – hence its name. The design of an outwork or fieldwork was such that its gorge was still in artillery or rifle range of the fortress or main defensive position and could therefore still be covered by fire.

Outworks with open gorges

Straith describes three commonly used classes of field work: "works open at the gorge, works enclosed all round and lines." He lists the following as works open at the gorge:[2]

Closed works are the redoubt, star fort and bastioned fort.[2]

Gorges of 'half-closed works' were usually closed either by a parapet or stockade.[3]

Footnotes
  1. The cost of this type of fortification could be exorbitant, because to reinforce it another ring of bastions had to be built around the existing bastions
  2. The attacking artillery could not normally use it - an exception was e.g. Fort Douaumont, when after its capture by the Germans, the gorge was used by the French

References
  1. _ 1878, p. 70.
  2. Straith 1850, p. 7.
  3. _ 1878, p. 71.

Literature
  • _ (1878). Text Book of Fortification and Military Engineering, Part 1. London: HMSO.
  • Neumann, Hartwig (1994) Festungsbaukunst und Festungsbautechnik. Deutsche Wehrbauarchitektur vom XV. – XX. Jahrhundert. Mit einer Bibliographie deutschsprachiger Publikationen über Festungsforschung und Festungsnutzung 1945–1987. 2nd edition, special edition. Bonn: Bernard & Graefe. ISBN 3-7637-5929-8, (Architectura militaris 1).
  • Straith, Hector (1850). Treatise on Fortification and Artillery, Volume 1. London: Allen.
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