Ditches By Reinhard

A ditch, deep enough to hide the the base of the walls and protect them from enemy cannons, surrounded the entire fortress. A small trench filled with water and with a wooden palisade in the inner side ran along the bottom of the ditch. Reinhard knew that it had a technical name which he had read and forgotten when he was being trained as an officer, but he remembered that it was designed to slowdown the advance of enemy soldiers which were trying to reach the base of the walls. Anyway that palisade will be the least of his problems. The dragoon officer thought looking at the great ravelin inside the ditch. They were triangular shaped solid constructions placed in front of the walls that connected the four bastions. One side of the triangle was parallel to the wall between the bastions, so the opposite point was oriented towards the enemy. …show more content…
From their tops, the cannons would have a clear line of fire in enfilade over the bottom of the ditch packed with infantry transforming the narrow space between the wall of the ditch and the ravelin in a deadly place.
Reinhard, with his patrol of ten dragoons behind him, started to went on the bridge which crossed the ditch towards the gatehouse in the middle of one the curtain walls. The bridge was divided in two sections one that allowed to access the ravelin in front of the gate ran parallel to the face of a nearby bastion, so the defenders could fire at pleasure against any assault force trying to approach.
A sharp curve on the ravelin, which would break the impetus of any charge and create confusion, directed towards the second section with a drawbridge at its end that, once raised, would make impossible to reach the