The National Archives - Forts

FOR PETER CLARKE

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First published in Great Britain in 2018

Jeremy Black 2018

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: Detail from WO 78/317 (3) Mahon Harbour Minorca 177275 (The National Archives).

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CONTENTS

PREFACE

Centres for defence and bases for attack, fortifications are a crucial aspect of military history. Their remains offer a still potent, and often dramatic, testimony to the strength of these sites and the power of these works. This book provides a history of fortifications based on their presentation in maps and plans. The potential threat posed by siegecraft is also considered.

As emerges repeatedly in this book, there is no clear definition of fortification. Visiting Japanese castles or German coastal defences on Guernsey, this might appear absurd, but there are, in practice, many issues of definition. To take just those examples, is a castle less of a fortification if its prime function was residential or to act as a jail? Are the German submarine pens on the west coast of France, ones that remain impressive to this day, any less fortifications because they protected the submarines against air attack? These are all dramatic examples of fixed fortifications. But what of the relationship with those that were not fixed, and never intended to be fixed? They were fortifications and designed for protection. Here we really are in conceptual, methodological and historiographical difficulties. If the emphasis is on protection then, at the individual level, armour or any form of protective clothing is fortification. If we move to the use of temporary or enhanced positions, then the trench hastily dug or the farmhouse with bolted windows and doors becomes a fortification. That approach may appear mistaken, but, given the emphasis in recent literature on both insurgencies and counterinsurgency warfare, it appears mistaken to omit the relevant defences from any discussion of fortifications. So also with irregular warfare and, indeed, with changing patterns of symmetrical conflict.

The ambiguous nature of warfare extends to the dubious use of the language of warfare to discuss very different activities. This can be seen, for example, with the use of the language of war, defences and attack to describe cancer and other diseases. There is less confusion if policing or law and order are considered because a major purpose of fortifications was indeed to provide internal security and this could be directed as much against lawlessness as against rebellion. In this case, as others, fortification ensures or enhances the capacity for defence. That point can then be taken further, into fresh fields for conceptual uncertainty, by thinking first of the fortified nature of weapons and platforms designed for, or at least used for, defensive purposes, for example, armoured trains, as in the Russian Civil War. Second comes the fortified nature of those used for attacking purposes, as with armour and secondary defensive weaponry on warships or aircraft. The notion of a bomber as a Flying Fortress captures only part of its function, and certainly not that which might be more accurately conveyed by an interceptor fighter designed to block such bombers. To add to the complexity, escort fighters (and the equivalent warships) have defensive tasks as part of the process of fortifying, i.e. protecting, the strike force.

To offer a clear definition of logical weight is not credible. Here a number of criteria are offered. There is no discussion of the situation as far as war at sea or war in the air are concerned. There is, however, full consideration of non-fixed alongside fixed fortifications; although this non-fixed character does not extend to vehicles, whether chariots or tanks. Although body armour will be mentioned, the emphasis is very much not on the protection and fortification of individuals. Instead, the enhancement of their protection by means of positional defences, whether permanent or not, is the subject. Correspondingly, the means employed to attack these defences will also be considered, although siegecraft focuses far more on fixed defences. Ultimately, the intention is to encourage readers to think widely about the subject. Reflecting on its complexities, not least in definitional terms, is part of this process of thought.

In one respect, the history of fortification is a history of mankind, indeed a global history. I have benefited from opportunities to visit fortifications around the world, from Japan to the United States, New Zealand to Panama, and to lecture at a number of fortified sites, including the Tower of London and the positions at Yorktown. While working on this book, I particularly profited from being asked to lecture on a tour to Peninsular War battlefields. I am most grateful to Stephen Church, Kelly DeVries, John France, Bob Higham, Kaushik Roy, and Ulf Sundberg for their advice on all or much of an earlier draft. Lisa Thomas has proved a most helpful editor. This book is dedicated to Peter Clarke, who shares my interest in military history and is the partner of Wendy Duery, a work collaborator whose help over the years has been greatly appreciated.