Blindage

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Blindage, in fortification, any fixture for preventing the enemy from seeing what is going on in a particular spot. Such are, for instance, the fascines placed on the inner crest of a battery, and continued over the top of the embrasures; they make it more difficult, from a distance, to perceive any thing through the embrasures. More complete blindages are sometimes fixed to the embrasures, consisting of 2 stout boards, moving in slides from either side, so that the embrasure can be completely closed by them. If the line of fire is always directed to the same spot, they need not be opened out when the gun is run out, a hole being cut through them for the muzzle to pass. A movable lid closes the hole, when necessary. Other blindages are used to cover the gunners in a battery from vertical fire; they consist of plain strong timbers, one end of which is laid on the inner crest of the parapet, the other on the ground. Unless the shells are very heavy, and come down nearly in a vertical direction, they do not pass through such a blindage, but merely graze it, and go off at an angle. In trenching, some kinds of blindages are used to protect the sappers from fire; they are movable on trucks, and pushed forward as the work advances. Against musket fire, a wall of strong boards, lined on the outside with sheet iron, supported by strong timbers, is sufficient. Against cannon fire, large square boxes, or frames, filled with earth, sandbags, or fascines, are necessary. The most common kind of sappers’ blindage consists of a very large gabion, or cylinder of wicker work, filled with fascines, which is rolled before them by the workmen. Wherever the sap has to be covered in from above, the blindage is constructed by laying square balks across the top, and covering them with fascines, and finally with earth, which renders them sufficiently bomb and shot proof.