Blockhouse

Blockhouse is a stockade or wooden wall, roofed in and loopholed. The timbers which form the walls may be laid horizontally or vertically. They must be bullet-proof (about a square foot in section), and covered outside with earth up to the loopholes, to prevent their being set on fire. A similar precaution is adopted for the roof. Where timber is plentiful, and an artillery attack not to be feared, blockhouses are useful defensive works, and under these conditions they have been much used in the backwoods of America. In more civilised countries they would only be used in mountain warfare or as keeps to redoubts in the plains. In the latter case they may be exposed to artillery fire, and require then a double row of stockading, with 3 feet of well-rammed earth between. A blockhouse may be of any size and shape. It forms a barrack for its garrison, and the guard beds are convenient as banquettes upon which the men stand to fire. If large, a blockhouse is generally cruciform in plan, so as to gain flank defence, or it may have an upper story projecting over the lower to enable men to fire through loopholes in the floor upon the attacking troops. The same object is sometimes attained by placing the upper story diagonally across the lower one. A ditch is excavated round the blockhouse to provide the earth which covers the woodwork, and also to prevent the enemy getting close enough to set it on fire. Stakes are planted in the ditch to make it difficult for the enemy to collect in it, and there rally for the final assault.