Attack of Fortified Places. Including Siege-works, Mining, and Demolitions.: Prepared for the use of the Cadets of the United States Military AcademyMercur, James
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Attack of Fortified Places. Including Siege-works, Mining, and Demolitions.: Prepared for the use of the Cadets of the United States Military Academy
Mercur, James
Defensive (Military science); Military engineering; Offensive (Military science); Siege warfare
These false attacks are sometimes successful, and preparations for
taking advantage of this contingency should not be omitted. The
subdivisions of the assaulting force should each receive explicit
instructions as to its special object, and under no circumstances
should their lines of march intersect. Unmistakable signals of
recognition should be prescribed to prevent conflicts arising between
the different parties meeting within the work. The bombardment
preceding the attack should not cease, and thus notify the defence
when the assault is to be made; but the guns should be directed upon
adjacent parts of the work until the assault penetrates the work or is
repulsed.
=94.= In the =attack by the sap= the method of crossing the
ditch adapted to the circumstances is used (pars. 39-41, Pl. IV, Figs.
37-41) and the sap is started at the foot of the breach, driven up it,
and the breach is crowned according to the methods previously described
(par. 36).
The sappers are protected from small sorties by the fire from the
crowning of the covered way and any other points bearing on the head
of the sap. Fireballs, electric lights and other means will be used
during the night to light up the parapets of the work and expose the
defenders, in this as in the previous operations of the siege. The
crowning of the breach will be extended and converted into a place
of arms, from which further sapping can be carried on in a similar
manner, until the breach in the last retrenchment is crowned and the
preparations for the final attack upon the garrison are made, or the
place surrenders. If the garrison takes refuge in an interior keep and
continues the defence the keep must be reduced by similar methods.
=95.= =Additional Operations in the Attack of an Intrenched
Camp.=--The operations above described are those necessary to
reduce a fortified place of the older type, or a detached work of an
intrenched camp. The latter, though of less extent and with a smaller
garrison, offers as a rule greater resisting power, since it is usually
subject to front fire only, has more complete bomb-proof cover, and is
free from the presence of non-combatants.
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