7 ms·

Bastion Fort

76 points by ferros 6y ago

Waterluvian 6y ago
I love reading about these designs but I find the Wikipedia articles don’t do a great job explaining the logic behind the geometry. I assume it has to do with maximizing what your cannons can see while minimizing flat-on surfaces for their cannons to strike? But then there’s probably some tactical reasons too like how the emplacements on the points of the star forces enemy engagement to take place a certain way. All guesswork. Any good links or videos that really do a good job explaining the why?
- andrenotgiant 6y ago
  There's a good history stackexchange answer on the topic. https://history.stackexchange.com/a/35726 https://history.stackexchange.com/a/35726 > Bastion forts are designed to enable enfilade (or flanking) fire: shooting on the line of attackers from the side, significantly increasing firing efficiency of the defender.
  - Waterluvian 6y ago
    Thanks. Now that I’m thinking about it from the perspective of maximizing flanking fire... geez these are nasty nasty citadels to attack...
  - 082349872349872 6y ago
    The bit about the offensive strategy reminds me of the old city of Jerusalem. We visited the wall, and on the way passed though a new condo development, where I joked that the zig-zag streets would limit flanking fire. My hosts said the architects knew what they were doing, and pointed out various bullet holes around the rest of (their quarter of) J'lem the rest of the day.
- bob1029 6y ago
  If you think about it abstractly, all of these approaches are effectively increasing the surface area of the fortification without substantially increasing its internal area. This increases the number of positions from which defenders can operate, while simultaneously decreasing the effectiveness of any particular attack.
- tgb 6y ago
  After clicking a few linkd deep, I too would like a video link showing not just this fort design but the development through history of these. I couldn't figure out the distinctions between this and star forts and polygonal forts and the differences of Vauban's attack plan versus what is used against polygonal, etc. Any video recommendations?
- Someone 6y ago
  If you build a round tower or a circular fort (which is optimal in both area/wall ratio and strength) (edit: or use any other ‘locally convex’ layout), attackers who manage to sneak up to the wall at a location where there isn’t any opening in the wall (i.e. most places) can hack away at the wall relatively (they may still be hit from above, but even that may be limited, depending on the design of the wall) unimpeded, as nobody shooting projectiles out of the fort can hit them. So, such attackers could work for days or even weeks to bring down part of the wall. These designs are such that, wherever attackers are standing near the wall, there’s a position inside the fort from where one can hit them, often from both sides. You also don’t want you projectiles, aimed at attackers, to hit and damage your own wall. Projectile range and rate of fire mean one cannot simple scale up a smaller design to make a larger one.
api 6y ago
Is this why the Pentagon is a pentagon? I always thought it was to contain the lloigor to prevent it from assimilating souls.
- dragonwriter 6y ago
  No, Bastion forts are not convex polygons like the Pentagon, they are concave because the concavities create kill zones where the fort can fire at attackers from the sides as well as the front. The Pentagon is an (irregular) pentagon because of the roadways surrounding the site when it was selected.
  - bryanlarsen 6y ago
    The original chosen site was on Arlington Farms and was pentagonal. The current site wasn't, but they (mostly) kept the original design.
  - saagarjha 6y ago
    Is the Pentagon not regular? It seems like it is from pictures…
- edoceo 6y ago
  When it was built we (USA) also had five branches of service: Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force & Coast Guard.
  - mulmen 6y ago
    This is commonly repeated but is completely false. The Pentagon was completed in 1943 but the Air Force didn’t exist as a separate branch until 1947. I can’t find any evidence that the Coast Guard was ever headquartered in the Pentagon.
    - edoceo 6y ago
      Yea, thanks! I heard it once on a tour of DC. A bit more history I learned today from here: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/why-pentagon-pentagon-180962719/ https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/why-p...
ranc1d 6y ago
Think this was posted before but the French military are building these today https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/35863/the-french-army-is-building-renaissance-style-fortresses-in-africa https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/35863/the-french-army-...
- azepoi 6y ago
  There are loads of bastion fortresses in France thanks to this guy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sébastien_Le_Prestre_de_Vauban https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sébastien_Le_Prestre_de_Vauban
  - cataflam 6y ago
    For some great examples, in pictures: https://duckduckgo.com/?q=vauban+citadelle&iar=images&iax=images&ia=images https://duckduckgo.com/?q=vauban+citadelle&iar=images&iax=im...
    - pryelluw 6y ago
      Those remind me of the anime Attack on Titan.
kgwgk 6y ago
Again? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24249220 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24249220
nemetroid 6y ago
Gothenburg, Sweden, was built as a bastion fort [1]. When the fortifications were removed in the early 19th century, large parts of the ramparts were converted into a public park, which still surrounds the city center[2]. 1: https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%B6teborgs_bef%C3%A4stningar#/media/Fil:Goteborg1795.jpg https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%B6teborgs_bef%C3%A4stning... 2: https://www.google.com/maps/@57.7036863,11.9640366,2382m/data=!3m1!1e3 https://www.google.com/maps/@57.7036863,11.9640366,2382m/dat...
- fanf2 6y ago
  Also true for Utrecht in the Netherlands. They have just finished restoring the moat that goes around the inner city where the fortifications were. For several decades part of the moat was converted to a motorway. https://bicycledutch.wordpress.com/2020/09/09/cycling-around-the-restored-utrecht-moat/ https://bicycledutch.wordpress.com/2020/09/09/cycling-around...
xlance 6y ago
Fredrikstad, Norway: https://www.google.com/search?q=gamlebyen+fredrikstad&client=ms-android-huawei-rev1&prmd=imvn&sxsrf=ALeKk008urQzVfdSfhhEj7dBL4nGC5WeAA:1599930732069&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiRv8y3juTrAhWQlIsKHaQ-DmgQ_AUoAXoECA8QAQ&biw=360&bih=659#imgrc=MA8mO-59FznucM https://www.google.com/search?q=gamlebyen+fredrikstad&client...
gnatman 6y ago
Fort McHenry- Baltimore, MD https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_McHenry https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_McHenry
cbanek 6y ago
I absolutely love military history, and it's interesting on how much I find it relates to other parts of life. It was just this week I was explaining to my therapist the concept of "Defense in Depth" and how that relates to trust, friendship making, security, life opsec, work opsec, work, and making reliable systems. The geometry in particular I always find to be interesting, since a lot of it is about reacting to life (both animal and human) and the natural shape of the terrain. Things like how animals hunt, or where they like to nest. Where and how colonies are established, etc. Covering distance quickly and secretly, and being able to see others coming. Protecting resources like food, water, or crypto keys.
doukdouk 6y ago
They are still in use, see this [0] French FOB in Mali [0] https://i.redd.it/f325vekqsxh51.jpg https://i.redd.it/f325vekqsxh51.jpg
ForHackernews 6y ago
The trace italienne also features prominently in the novel Wolf in White Van: https://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/26/books/wolf-in-white-van-by-john-darnielle.html https://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/26/books/wolf-in-white-van-b...
dang 6y ago
If curious see also 2019 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19061690 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19061690
- Chris_Newton 6y ago
  Also from 2018 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18482590 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18482590
CameronNemo 6y ago
related: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Area_denial_weapon https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Area_denial_weapon
JoeDaDude 6y ago
If your flight lands on the right runway (27R) at Philadelphia International Airport, you will get a close up view of Fort Mifflin, a bastion fort dating back to 1771 which took part in the Revolutionary War. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/50/Fort_mifflin_from_airplane_arriving_at_PHL.jpg/2560px-Fort_mifflin_from_airplane_arriving_at_PHL.jpg https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/50/Fo...
gatvol 6y ago
Cape Town, South Africa, 1679 -still used in part as a military base. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castle_of_Good_Hope https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castle_of_Good_Hope
- gatvol 6y ago
  https://www.google.com/maps/@-33.9261109,18.4279941,373m/data=!3m1!1e3 https://www.google.com/maps/@-33.9261109,18.4279941,373m/dat...
Animats 6y ago
The history of warfare has gone back and forth between offense and defense being stronger. In the castle era, defense was stronger, which led to military and political strong points. But a castle can't project power very far, at best half a day's ride. Hence, strong barons, weak central governments. Better cannon changed that, and gave the attacker an advantage. Still better artillery and fortifications, plus heavy machine guns, gave the defender the advantage again, resulting in WWI, which was stalled with everyone in fixed positions for some time. Then came tanks, and offense started beating defense again. Arguably, guerilla warfare has given defense an edge again. It's a defense based on hiding and disappearing into the general population, but a defense nevertheless.
- OpticalWindows 6y ago
  >Arguably, guerilla warfare has given defense an edge again. It's a defense based on hiding and disappearing into the general population, but a defense nevertheless. Guerilla warfare has a different purpose than total war and it should not be compared. Guerilla warfare basically happened in the american revolution.
  - 082349872349872 6y ago
    The brits[1] complained it was guerilla warfare, but by the end, Washington had naval support (merci, france), cavalry (dziękuję, poland; köszönöm, hungary), and artillery (merci encore, france), not to mention tacit logistical support from a number of other countries[2]. General Washington explicitly stood on the principles of being a regular, so much so that he would send back british letters unopened if they had not been properly addressed according to military custom. (that custom has been codified somewhat with the Geneva Conventions, but it remains to be seen how applicable these conventions are in the twenty-first century.) [1] hostilities having started when the brits, acting on undeniably accurate intelligence, sent out parties to destroy rural terrorist arms caches somewhere out in the boonies of Middlesex county. After accomplishing their mission despite sporadic hostile opposition, they were subject to sustained small arms fire from unlawful combatants on the return trip. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battles_of_Lexington_and_Concord#First_shot https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battles_of_Lexington_and_Conco... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battles_of_Lexington_and_Concord#Legacy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battles_of_Lexington_and_Conco... [2] Catherine, for instance, not only engaged in sanctions busting, but (at least according to russian sources) reneged on providing troops for the british which her diplomats had initially considered, leaving the public/private military contracting to various HRE relatives of George's. No fan of democracy, she, but "enemy of my enemy" reliably trumps ideologies in geopolitics. (for contrast, the CSA would discover mere economics "but muh property rights! and cheap cotton!" didn't trump a general nineteenth century distaste for slavery: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24260354 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24260354 ) E.g. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hesse-Hanau_Troops_in_the_American_Revolutionary_War https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hesse-Hanau_Troops_in_the_Amer... provided 2'400 troops out of an estimated 30'000 germans, suggesting the coalition of the billing must've been fairly large. https://www.lagis-hessen.de/de/subjects/xbrowse/sn/hetrina https://www.lagis-hessen.de/de/subjects/xbrowse/sn/hetrina might contain better information.
intrasight 6y ago
Fort Pitt in Pittsburgh https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c1/Fort_Pitt_in_1776.jpg https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c1/Fort_Pit... https://i0.wp.com/www.heinzhistorycenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Model-blog-1.23.19.jpg https://i0.wp.com/www.heinzhistorycenter.org/wp-content/uplo...
Razengan 6y ago
Goryōkaku (五稜郭) in Japan: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goryōkaku https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goryōkaku
- 082349872349872 6y ago
  indigenous New Zealand: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pā#Gunfighter_pā https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pā#Gunfighter_pā (mostly innovative in local material use for protection from artillery, but at least one was designed for enfilade)
TeeWEE 6y ago
The Netherlands is full of these, lots of cities have bastion forts around it. When i was in Sri Lanka, Jaffna, I even found one made by purtogese, captured by the dutch during their Colonial era: https://goo.gl/maps/CBEBGZSgTtfHoSV68 https://goo.gl/maps/CBEBGZSgTtfHoSV68
YeGoblynQueenne 6y ago
>> On the other hand, the Ottomans failed to take Corfu in 1537 in no small part because of the new fortifications, and several attempts spanning almost two centuries (another major one was in 1716) also failed.[6][7] The bastion fortifications of Corfu were established shortly before the last Ottoman invasion of 1716, by Count von der Schulenburg, appointed to the Job by Venice. They were destroyed later when Corfu joined the newly freed Greek nation with the treaty of 1864. The destruction of the Corfu fortifications was an actual clause of the treaty. Today, only the (Venetian) Old Fort remains and some few parts of the star-shaped walls. Allegedly, the fortifications were so renowned that the British wanted them destroyed in case they ended up being used against them. A bit of a shame, too, since they were really impressive and they would have made a spectacular historical site today. What remains is already interesting enough. Sources: a bit of wikipedia to remind me of the dates and primarily local lore (I spend a lot of time in Corfu) and also maps depicting the Ottoman siege in 1716, showing e.g. fortified positions of the defenders and the invaders with detailed descriptions of the forces deployed, illustrations of gun emplacements and even the trajectories of enfilading fire etc. Such maps are often exhibited in Corfu, and I must surely look a huge nerd the way I spend hours poring over them every bloody time :)

76 points by ferros 6y ago

I love reading about these designs but I find the Wikipedia articles don’t do a great job explaining the logic behind the geometry. I assume it has to do with maximizing what your cannons can see while minimizing flat-on surfaces for their cannons to strike? But then there’s probably some tactical reasons too like how the emplacements on the points of the star forces enemy engagement to take place a certain way. All guesswork. Any good links or videos that really do a good job explaining the why?

andrenotgiant 6y ago
There's a good history stackexchange answer on the topic. https://history.stackexchange.com/a/35726 https://history.stackexchange.com/a/35726 > Bastion forts are designed to enable enfilade (or flanking) fire: shooting on the line of attackers from the side, significantly increasing firing efficiency of the defender.
- Waterluvian 6y ago
  Thanks. Now that I’m thinking about it from the perspective of maximizing flanking fire... geez these are nasty nasty citadels to attack...
- 082349872349872 6y ago
  The bit about the offensive strategy reminds me of the old city of Jerusalem. We visited the wall, and on the way passed though a new condo development, where I joked that the zig-zag streets would limit flanking fire. My hosts said the architects knew what they were doing, and pointed out various bullet holes around the rest of (their quarter of) J'lem the rest of the day.
bob1029 6y ago
If you think about it abstractly, all of these approaches are effectively increasing the surface area of the fortification without substantially increasing its internal area. This increases the number of positions from which defenders can operate, while simultaneously decreasing the effectiveness of any particular attack.
tgb 6y ago
After clicking a few linkd deep, I too would like a video link showing not just this fort design but the development through history of these. I couldn't figure out the distinctions between this and star forts and polygonal forts and the differences of Vauban's attack plan versus what is used against polygonal, etc. Any video recommendations?
Someone 6y ago
If you build a round tower or a circular fort (which is optimal in both area/wall ratio and strength) (edit: or use any other ‘locally convex’ layout), attackers who manage to sneak up to the wall at a location where there isn’t any opening in the wall (i.e. most places) can hack away at the wall relatively (they may still be hit from above, but even that may be limited, depending on the design of the wall) unimpeded, as nobody shooting projectiles out of the fort can hit them. So, such attackers could work for days or even weeks to bring down part of the wall. These designs are such that, wherever attackers are standing near the wall, there’s a position inside the fort from where one can hit them, often from both sides. You also don’t want you projectiles, aimed at attackers, to hit and damage your own wall. Projectile range and rate of fire mean one cannot simple scale up a smaller design to make a larger one.

api 6y ago

Is this why the Pentagon is a pentagon? I always thought it was to contain the lloigor to prevent it from assimilating souls.

dragonwriter 6y ago
No, Bastion forts are not convex polygons like the Pentagon, they are concave because the concavities create kill zones where the fort can fire at attackers from the sides as well as the front. The Pentagon is an (irregular) pentagon because of the roadways surrounding the site when it was selected.
- bryanlarsen 6y ago
  The original chosen site was on Arlington Farms and was pentagonal. The current site wasn't, but they (mostly) kept the original design.
- saagarjha 6y ago
  Is the Pentagon not regular? It seems like it is from pictures…
edoceo 6y ago
When it was built we (USA) also had five branches of service: Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force & Coast Guard.
- mulmen 6y ago
  This is commonly repeated but is completely false. The Pentagon was completed in 1943 but the Air Force didn’t exist as a separate branch until 1947. I can’t find any evidence that the Coast Guard was ever headquartered in the Pentagon.
  - edoceo 6y ago
    Yea, thanks! I heard it once on a tour of DC. A bit more history I learned today from here: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/why-pentagon-pentagon-180962719/ https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/why-p...

ranc1d 6y ago

Think this was posted before but the French military are building these today https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/35863/the-french-army-is-building-renaissance-style-fortresses-in-africa https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/35863/the-french-army-...

azepoi 6y ago
There are loads of bastion fortresses in France thanks to this guy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sébastien_Le_Prestre_de_Vauban https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sébastien_Le_Prestre_de_Vauban
- cataflam 6y ago
  For some great examples, in pictures: https://duckduckgo.com/?q=vauban+citadelle&iar=images&iax=images&ia=images https://duckduckgo.com/?q=vauban+citadelle&iar=images&iax=im...
  - pryelluw 6y ago
    Those remind me of the anime Attack on Titan.

kgwgk 6y ago

Again? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24249220 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24249220

nemetroid 6y ago

Gothenburg, Sweden, was built as a bastion fort [1]. When the fortifications were removed in the early 19th century, large parts of the ramparts were converted into a public park, which still surrounds the city center[2]. 1: https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%B6teborgs_bef%C3%A4stningar#/media/Fil:Goteborg1795.jpg https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%B6teborgs_bef%C3%A4stning... 2: https://www.google.com/maps/@57.7036863,11.9640366,2382m/data=!3m1!1e3 https://www.google.com/maps/@57.7036863,11.9640366,2382m/dat...

fanf2 6y ago
Also true for Utrecht in the Netherlands. They have just finished restoring the moat that goes around the inner city where the fortifications were. For several decades part of the moat was converted to a motorway. https://bicycledutch.wordpress.com/2020/09/09/cycling-around-the-restored-utrecht-moat/ https://bicycledutch.wordpress.com/2020/09/09/cycling-around...

xlance 6y ago

Fredrikstad, Norway: https://www.google.com/search?q=gamlebyen+fredrikstad&client=ms-android-huawei-rev1&prmd=imvn&sxsrf=ALeKk008urQzVfdSfhhEj7dBL4nGC5WeAA:1599930732069&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiRv8y3juTrAhWQlIsKHaQ-DmgQ_AUoAXoECA8QAQ&biw=360&bih=659#imgrc=MA8mO-59FznucM https://www.google.com/search?q=gamlebyen+fredrikstad&client...

gnatman 6y ago

Fort McHenry- Baltimore, MD https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_McHenry https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_McHenry

cbanek 6y ago

I absolutely love military history, and it's interesting on how much I find it relates to other parts of life. It was just this week I was explaining to my therapist the concept of "Defense in Depth" and how that relates to trust, friendship making, security, life opsec, work opsec, work, and making reliable systems. The geometry in particular I always find to be interesting, since a lot of it is about reacting to life (both animal and human) and the natural shape of the terrain. Things like how animals hunt, or where they like to nest. Where and how colonies are established, etc. Covering distance quickly and secretly, and being able to see others coming. Protecting resources like food, water, or crypto keys.

doukdouk 6y ago

They are still in use, see this [0] French FOB in Mali [0] https://i.redd.it/f325vekqsxh51.jpg https://i.redd.it/f325vekqsxh51.jpg

ForHackernews 6y ago

The trace italienne also features prominently in the novel Wolf in White Van: https://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/26/books/wolf-in-white-van-by-john-darnielle.html https://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/26/books/wolf-in-white-van-b...

dang 6y ago

If curious see also 2019 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19061690 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19061690

Chris_Newton 6y ago
Also from 2018 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18482590 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18482590

CameronNemo 6y ago

related: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Area_denial_weapon https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Area_denial_weapon

JoeDaDude 6y ago

If your flight lands on the right runway (27R) at Philadelphia International Airport, you will get a close up view of Fort Mifflin, a bastion fort dating back to 1771 which took part in the Revolutionary War. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/50/Fort_mifflin_from_airplane_arriving_at_PHL.jpg/2560px-Fort_mifflin_from_airplane_arriving_at_PHL.jpg https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/50/Fo...

gatvol 6y ago

Cape Town, South Africa, 1679 -still used in part as a military base. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castle_of_Good_Hope https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castle_of_Good_Hope

gatvol 6y ago
https://www.google.com/maps/@-33.9261109,18.4279941,373m/data=!3m1!1e3 https://www.google.com/maps/@-33.9261109,18.4279941,373m/dat...

Animats 6y ago

The history of warfare has gone back and forth between offense and defense being stronger. In the castle era, defense was stronger, which led to military and political strong points. But a castle can't project power very far, at best half a day's ride. Hence, strong barons, weak central governments. Better cannon changed that, and gave the attacker an advantage. Still better artillery and fortifications, plus heavy machine guns, gave the defender the advantage again, resulting in WWI, which was stalled with everyone in fixed positions for some time. Then came tanks, and offense started beating defense again. Arguably, guerilla warfare has given defense an edge again. It's a defense based on hiding and disappearing into the general population, but a defense nevertheless.

OpticalWindows 6y ago
>Arguably, guerilla warfare has given defense an edge again. It's a defense based on hiding and disappearing into the general population, but a defense nevertheless. Guerilla warfare has a different purpose than total war and it should not be compared. Guerilla warfare basically happened in the american revolution.
- 082349872349872 6y ago
  The brits[1] complained it was guerilla warfare, but by the end, Washington had naval support (merci, france), cavalry (dziękuję, poland; köszönöm, hungary), and artillery (merci encore, france), not to mention tacit logistical support from a number of other countries[2]. General Washington explicitly stood on the principles of being a regular, so much so that he would send back british letters unopened if they had not been properly addressed according to military custom. (that custom has been codified somewhat with the Geneva Conventions, but it remains to be seen how applicable these conventions are in the twenty-first century.) [1] hostilities having started when the brits, acting on undeniably accurate intelligence, sent out parties to destroy rural terrorist arms caches somewhere out in the boonies of Middlesex county. After accomplishing their mission despite sporadic hostile opposition, they were subject to sustained small arms fire from unlawful combatants on the return trip. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battles_of_Lexington_and_Concord#First_shot https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battles_of_Lexington_and_Conco... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battles_of_Lexington_and_Concord#Legacy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battles_of_Lexington_and_Conco... [2] Catherine, for instance, not only engaged in sanctions busting, but (at least according to russian sources) reneged on providing troops for the british which her diplomats had initially considered, leaving the public/private military contracting to various HRE relatives of George's. No fan of democracy, she, but "enemy of my enemy" reliably trumps ideologies in geopolitics. (for contrast, the CSA would discover mere economics "but muh property rights! and cheap cotton!" didn't trump a general nineteenth century distaste for slavery: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24260354 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24260354 ) E.g. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hesse-Hanau_Troops_in_the_American_Revolutionary_War https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hesse-Hanau_Troops_in_the_Amer... provided 2'400 troops out of an estimated 30'000 germans, suggesting the coalition of the billing must've been fairly large. https://www.lagis-hessen.de/de/subjects/xbrowse/sn/hetrina https://www.lagis-hessen.de/de/subjects/xbrowse/sn/hetrina might contain better information.

intrasight 6y ago

Fort Pitt in Pittsburgh https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c1/Fort_Pitt_in_1776.jpg https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c1/Fort_Pit... https://i0.wp.com/www.heinzhistorycenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Model-blog-1.23.19.jpg https://i0.wp.com/www.heinzhistorycenter.org/wp-content/uplo...

Razengan 6y ago

Goryōkaku (五稜郭) in Japan: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goryōkaku https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goryōkaku

082349872349872 6y ago
indigenous New Zealand: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pā#Gunfighter_pā https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pā#Gunfighter_pā (mostly innovative in local material use for protection from artillery, but at least one was designed for enfilade)

TeeWEE 6y ago

The Netherlands is full of these, lots of cities have bastion forts around it. When i was in Sri Lanka, Jaffna, I even found one made by purtogese, captured by the dutch during their Colonial era: https://goo.gl/maps/CBEBGZSgTtfHoSV68 https://goo.gl/maps/CBEBGZSgTtfHoSV68

YeGoblynQueenne 6y ago

>> On the other hand, the Ottomans failed to take Corfu in 1537 in no small part because of the new fortifications, and several attempts spanning almost two centuries (another major one was in 1716) also failed.[6][7] The bastion fortifications of Corfu were established shortly before the last Ottoman invasion of 1716, by Count von der Schulenburg, appointed to the Job by Venice. They were destroyed later when Corfu joined the newly freed Greek nation with the treaty of 1864. The destruction of the Corfu fortifications was an actual clause of the treaty. Today, only the (Venetian) Old Fort remains and some few parts of the star-shaped walls. Allegedly, the fortifications were so renowned that the British wanted them destroyed in case they ended up being used against them. A bit of a shame, too, since they were really impressive and they would have made a spectacular historical site today. What remains is already interesting enough. Sources: a bit of wikipedia to remind me of the dates and primarily local lore (I spend a lot of time in Corfu) and also maps depicting the Ottoman siege in 1716, showing e.g. fortified positions of the defenders and the invaders with detailed descriptions of the forces deployed, illustrations of gun emplacements and even the trajectories of enfilading fire etc. Such maps are often exhibited in Corfu, and I must surely look a huge nerd the way I spend hours poring over them every bloody time :)