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Tenaille |
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In the bastion system of fortification a tenaille was a low outwork
in the main ditch immediately in front of the curtain. Its primary purposes
were to cover the scarp of the curtain and bastion flanks while providing
a secure area where troops could be organized for a sortie or reorganized
after a sortie after a besieging force had
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January, 2003 |
A
System of Fortification in which the sides of the fortified polygon were
broken into a series of alternating salient and re-entrant angles. Salients
were never to be less than 60°, re-enterings were between 90° and
100°. Flanking arrangements in the tenaille system were incomplete and
defective, leaving dead angles in the re-enterings and offering too many
salients subject to enfilade fire, and the length of parapet required to
covered any one side of the fortified polygon was too great for the space
enclosed by the enceinte wall.
crowned the
covered way and occupied the demilune. Fire from the tenaille defended the
main ditch and ditch of the demilune redoubt while adding a second tier of
fire (along with fire from the bastion flanks) defending the flanked angles
of the bastions.
