Siegecraft - No Fortress Impregnable

Front Cover
iUniverse, Apr 6, 2003 - History - 252 pages
It has been said that the taking of a fortress depends primarily on the making of a good plan to take it, and the proper implementation and application of the resources to make the plan work. Long before a fortress has been besieged and conquered, it has to have been outthought before it can be outfought. This book outlines some of the more successfully thought out sieges, and demonstrates why it is that no fortress is impregnable.

A siege can be described as an assault on an opposing force attempting to defend itself from behind a position of some strength. Whenever the pendulum of technology swings against the "status quo," the defenders of a fortification have usually been compelled to surrender. We must stay ahead of the pendulum, and not be out-thought long before we are out-fought, for, as it will be shown in this book, "no fortress is impregnable."

 

Contents

Siegecraft
1
Early Defenses
4
Strong Walls
8
Troy
17
Tyre
19
Siegecraft
24
Roman Siege Tactics
34
Celts and Gauls
38
Vienna
111
Londonderry
113
Vauban
114
Louisbourg
129
Gibraltar
131
The Alamo
132
Fort Pulaski
134
Mafeking
136

Siege of Jerusalem
41
Masada
51
Huns Ostrogoths and Visigoths
55
Charlemagne
57
Byzantine Armies
59
Castles and Fortification
61
Carcassone
76
Château Gaillard
81
Orleans
88
Constantinople
92
Rhodes and Malta
96
Tenochtitlan
103
Science of Fortification
104
Newark
107
Verdun
144
Eban Emael
151
Leningrad
154
Dien Bien Phu
156
Alliances
165
Epilogue
167
Afterword
169
Conclusions
171
About the Author
173
Appendix A
175
Appendix B
179
Glossary
183
Bibliography
207
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