Tête-de-Pont

A bridgehead. Any fortification established to protect a bridge or river crossing point. The term was usually applied to works thrown up on the enemy's side of a river to either secure a bridge against attack or provide a reduit to cover an army's retreat across a river. In his Treatise on Field Fortification (1862) D. H. Mahan outlined five conditions that effective têtes-de-pont should meet:

1. Allow the defense to continue until all troops have crossed the bridge;

2. Cover the bridge from enemy artillery fire;

3. Its development and arrangements for passing through the works should be suited to the size of the army;

4. Its flanks should rest on the river banks and be protected and flanked by works on the other side of the river;

5. The bridge itself should be protected by a strong interior redoubt.

Mahan suggested simple or complex crownworks with two or more bastion fronts of fortification for larger têtes-de-pont and redans or lunettes with flanks to cover smaller or less important river crossings. In either case, a fortification designed to cover a bridge had to be suited to the ground and could be traced as a line with intervals based on redoubts, a continuous line, or could consist of a single field work open at the gorge. The route for the passage of an army through the tête-de-pont was usually directed around one or both of the flanks or so directed that it passed parallel to and within close range of the work's faces and was covered by crossing columns of fire.

January, 2003