The French Army Is Building Renaissance-Style Fortresses in Africa
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Re: The French Army Is Building Renaissance-Style Fortresses in Africa
#2Similar concept, lot more stars:
Re: The French Army Is Building Renaissance-Style Fortresses in Africa
#3Re: The French Army Is Building Renaissance-Style Fortresses in Africa
#4Also worth visiting when travel reopens:
https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/musee-des-plans-reliefs-...
Re: The French Army Is Building Renaissance-Style Fortresses in Africa
#5> While the design ... appears anachronistic
Nothing anachronistic about it; this is likely an optimal design when considering how to maximise the effective coverage of guns. This is good design for a fortification that is meant to be held.
This design is relatively quite modern and is a direct response to the introduction of artillery to warfare. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_gunpowder#Changes_t... . It is a difficult fortification to crack. In fact it has a long history of use in colonial expeditions according to Wikipedia.
Re: The French Army Is Building Renaissance-Style Fortresses in Africa
#6> While the design ... appears anachronistic Nothing anachronistic about it; this is likely an optimal design when considering how to maximise the effective coverage of guns. This is good design for a fortification that is meant to be held. This design is relatively quite modern and is a direct response to the introduction of artillery to warfare. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_gunpowder#Changes_t... .…
It's anachronistic in the sense that it was largely made obsolete by artillery advances during the 19th century, replaced by polygonal forts (which could even adapt to high-explosive payloads, and actually proved their worth in both world wars), as well as the more modern bunkers & fortified emplacements.
It makes a lot of sense when unlikely to face artillery and bombers though, as it's pretty straightforward and cheap to build and operate.
But it is a throwback to something which has largely become decorative in the lands or originate from.
Re: The French Army Is Building Renaissance-Style Fortresses in Africa
#7> While the design ... appears anachronistic Nothing anachronistic about it; this is likely an optimal design when considering how to maximise the effective coverage of guns. This is good design for a fortification that is meant to be held. This design is relatively quite modern and is a direct response to the introduction of artillery to warfare. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_gunpowder#Changes_t... .…
It's anachronistic in the sense that it was largely made obsolete by artillery advances during the 19th century, replaced by polygonal forts (which could even adapt to high-explosive payloads, and actually proved their worth in both world wars), as well as the more modern bunkers & fortified emplacements. It makes a lot of sense when unlikely to face artillery and bombers though, as it's pretty straightforward and ch…
The decorative aspect is actually a major piece of it's function here. It's intended to be highly visible, and maintaining a highly visible military presence is part of counterinsurgency tactics.
It's also a very French thing to do.
Re: The French Army Is Building Renaissance-Style Fortresses in Africa
#8Am I missing something or is this article very short on photos? I can see only three of the actually fortification under discussion, none of them particularly enlightening.
Re: The French Army Is Building Renaissance-Style Fortresses in Africa
#9Other nations built castles in Afghanistan using the same HESCO bastion [1] techniques shown in the article, don't think they were as interesting shapes though.
Re: The French Army Is Building Renaissance-Style Fortresses in Africa
#10Am I missing something or is this article very short on photos? I can see only three of the actually fortification under discussion, none of them particularly enlightening.
What I gleaned from the article was that the French only released a handful of non-security-compromising photos (eg, closeup of a flag raising), and the author padded out the remainder of the article with drawings and pictures of other forts.