Hello.

Phonsavan is a small village in Laos, famous mainly for the Valleys of the Jars. However, there are also a number of much cooler attractions there.

There is not a single attraction of Phonsavan in Phonsavan itself. To each point you need to travel from 10 to 40 kilometers. Pedestrians travel by taxi or on excursions; we, of course, were able to quickly get around everything on motorcycles. In general, this region of Laos is developing due to the echo of the Vietnam War. There are consequences of American bombings everywhere, which have long been used as a lure for tourists. Although occasionally you come across authentic things.

Among the attractions, it’s worth heading to the Jugs, seeing the Burnt Buddha, the Field of Funnels - that’s also quite good. And the Tad Ka waterfall is really quite good. But the promoted “Village on Bombs” looks something like this:

Nothing special. If once upon a time this was an authentic village, built using unexploded aerial bombs lying here and there, now most of the metal has already been handed over, a small part of the bombs is used only to maintain the status of a landmark. But it’s really not entirely clear why local residents need this, since tourist traffic will still persist: the village is located right on the way to the Tad Ka waterfall.

Funnel fields.

This area came under large-scale bombing; huge craters from the explosions of aerial bombs remain to this day.

This field of funnels is located, I can’t even imagine how to get there without your own transport, but if you look at Google maps more carefully, you can find other similar fields, closer to Phonsavan.

Single funnels are found everywhere.

Tad Ka waterfall.

Located . A beautiful waterfall with several cascades, to which a mountain dirt road leads.

Valley of Jugs.

Nobody knows why, but someone once made huge stone jugs and scattered them in a bunch over several surrounding fields. There are several pitcher fields around Phonsavan; it’s worth visiting them all only if you are a very big fan of pitchers. The most convenient field is located, there is also a cozy small cave with Buddha.

Here we need to make a small branch. In Laos, there are no such large attractions that a normal person would want to climb for a long time, like the Cambodian Angkor, which you can easily spend several days on. And moving between these small places, like the Field of Funnels and the Valley of Jars, you understand how convenient a motorcycle is as transport for these places.

There are interesting places that we did not go to, and therefore I will not describe them here. Like the same quarries where stones were mined for making jugs. But these places are local and small, and do not require much time to explore. There are also no adequate places for trekking in Phonsavan, so if you decide to travel around Laos by public transport, it is quite possible that Phonsavan should be crossed out of the route altogether.

Burnt Buddha and Wat Phia Wat.

The temple was built in 1322 and stood safely until the 1970s, when it was hit by an American aerial bomb. Everything was destroyed except the Buddha statue itself. The Buddha is still in place, receiving guests and not even asking to take off their shoes upon entering, like his other colleagues from other temples. The statue is located, is exceptionally apocalyptic and in its atmosphere, in my humble opinion, is more compelling than other places in the vicinity of Phonsavan.

Phonsavan-Kong Lor.

The entire road is asphalt and mountain. Sometimes the road descends into a valley, but in general, you spend the whole day shifting the motorcycle from side to side.

Locals weave scarves and keep strange pets.

Gas stations are manual, although bottles of gasoline for sale are ubiquitous in Laos.

And again the night drive, and again Vanya lights the way for both. The ride is similar to a traffic police motorcade, but with the caveat of chickens and piglets flying under the wheels. At the approach to Kong Lor we felt a change in climate: we came down from the mountains.

Some village, dark, grass burning, smoke everywhere. A roadside shop where the owners of the whole family count stacks of local banknotes (even a small purchase there will amount to tens of thousands of local vulons, so everyone has a lot of money). We buy beer before everything closes completely and think, where did we end up? A couple of kilometers later, closer to a dead end, we see a lot of quite decent guest houses, we go into the first one we come across, we are surprised at the low prices, the presence of a restaurant and the crowd of Europeans from different countries. We must have come to the right place! 🙂

The First World War in Photographs / World War I in Photos
Alan Taylor series in 10 parts

One hundred years after the start of the Great War, not a single one of its participants is alive, and all that is left to us are crumbling relics, fading photographs, overgrown traces of war in natural landscapes and memorials and cemeteries around the world.

~~~~~~~~~~~

From the author (Alan Taylor). The other day, June 28, 2014, the 100th anniversary of the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand was celebrated. The killer, Gavrilo Princip, launched what would become a horrific, decades-long bloodbath with his shot. However, after the ceasefire on Armistice Day, the number of casualties continued to rise. Revolutions in Russia and Germany led to the arbitrary redrawing of national borders, setting the stage for subsequent decades of conflict, while harsh reparations conditions contributed to the rise of Nazi Germany and the outbreak of World War II. The First World War continues to kill to this day - in March of this year, two Belgian construction workers were killed by an unexploded shell that had lain in the ground for a century. Every year, many tons of such discovered shells are disposed of in France and Belgium. Although the events of the First World War are not preserved in living memory, traces remain - landscapes scarred by explosions, thousands of monuments, artifacts preserved in museums, photographs and stories passed down through generations - reminding us of those terrible losses.

For this 100th anniversary, I've pulled together photographs of the Great War from dozens of collections, some digitized for the first time, to try to tell the story of the conflict and all those caught up in it, and how it all affected the world. Today's article is the 10th of 10 parts about the First World War.

Behind the tree branches is the Canadian World War I Memorial, also known as the Pensive Soldier, in Saint-Julien, Belgium, on March 7, 2014. The statue and memorial commemorate the Canadian soldiers killed by gas attacks in the First World War in 1915. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert)

2.

Sheep graze in an area still dangerous due to unexploded ordnance left over from the First World War, on the grounds of the Canadian National Memorial in Vimy, March 26, 2014, in Vimy, France. (Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images)

3.

Crosses in front of the Douamont Hall of Fame (with a huge basement crypt) - a WWII memorial, near Verdun, France, March 4, 2014. (Reuters/Vincent Kessler)

4.

The former battlefield of Verdun, which still bears shell craters, was photographed in 2005.

5.

An ammunition disposal specialist displays unexploded British grenades found near Courcelette, where one of the scenes of the Battle of the Somme took place during the First World War, March 12, 2014. Every year, farmers unearth several tons of shells, shrapnel, gas cylinders and unexploded grenades, nicknamed "engins de mort" (weapons of death), which disposal experts in Amiens remove and destroy. (Reuters/Pascal Rossignol)

6.

Sculpture by German artist Käthe Kollwitz “Mourning Parents” at the German WWII cemetery in Vladslo, Belgium, May 8, 2014. There are graves of more than 25,000 German soldiers in the cemetery. The artist's son, Peter Kollwitz, who was killed in that war when he was just 18 years old, is buried in a grave in front of the statue. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)

7.

Members of the German WWII Historical Reenactment Association sit on the remains of a French 155mm long-range cannon mounted near the village of Bezonvaux, near Verdun, in eastern France, March 29, 2014. Members of French and German historical groups, which meet annually, visited the Verdun battlefield in France, the site of a bloody World War I battle that lasted about 10 months in 1916, costing hundreds of thousands of lives and destroying scores of villages. (Reuters/Charles Platiau)

8.

9.

HMS Caroline berthed at Alexandra Dock in Belfast, Northern Ireland on January 29, 2013. A grant from the National Heritage and Remembrance Trust will fund urgent conservation work to preserve Caroline. Built by Cammell Laird at Birkenhead in 1914, the ship was part of the 4th Light Cruiser Squadron, which took part in the Battle of Jutland in 1916, and is the last remaining Royal Navy ship left operational. At the time of her decommissioning in 2011, she was the second oldest ship still active in the Royal Navy, after the flagship Victory Nelson, which is stored at Portsmouth, being the oldest. Caroline was later converted at Alexandra Dock into a storage and training ship for the Royal Navy Reserve. (Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images)

10.

A diver from the ammunition disposal unit retrieves an unexploded shell from the river at Cappy, WWII battlefield, March 19, 2014. (Reuters/Pascal Rossignol)

11.

A member of the Society's War Graves Commission shows a maple leaf, the emblem of an army jacket, found on the remains of a Canadian soldier by archaeologists in the town of Sancourt, near Cambrai, northern France, June 9, 2008. The soldier who fought at the Battle of Cambrai fought from September to October 1918 and was part of the 78th Winnipeg Manitoba Battalion, part of the 4th Canadian Division. (Reuters/Pascal Rossignol)

12.

The site where the village of Fleury once stood, near Verdun, is now a forest, March 5, 2014. A hundred years after the guns fell silent of the First World War, nine villages destroyed by fighting in the battles of France continue to lead a ghostly existence - their names still exist on maps and in government documents, their mayors are appointed by locals authorities, but most of the streets, shops, houses and people who once lived in this French army stronghold near Verdun are already gone. (Reuters/Vincent Kessler)

13.

A watch found among the remains of French WWII soldiers, June 3, 2013, Verdun, France. At least 26 bodies of French soldiers were found in the basement of a farm in the completely destroyed village of Fleury-devant-Douaumont. The seven were identified by their military identification plate. (Jean-Christophe Verhaegen/AFP/Getty Images)

14.

A man looks at the names of the missing at the Thiepval memorial in Arras, France, November 4, 2008. The Community War Graves Commission oversees 956 cemeteries in Belgium and France that bear witness to the great loss of life on the Western Front during the First (1914-1918) and Second (1939-1945) World Wars. (Matt Cardy/Getty Images)

15.

Archaeologists excavate a WWII-era British Mark IV tank at Flesquieres, near Cambrai, northern France, November 19, 1998. British troops abandoned the tank on November 20, 1917, and then German troops buried it and used it as a bunker. (AP Photo/Michel Spingler)

16.

The Somme battlefield includes many cemeteries - Beaumont-Hamel (foreground), Redan Ridge Cemetery No. 2 (right) and Redan Ridge Cemetery No. 3 (top), March 27, 2014, in Beaumont-Hamel, France (Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images)

17.

Gas masks from World War I are on display at the new exhibition "1914 - in Central Europe" at the Ruhr Museum at the former Zollverein coke plant in Essen, Germany, May 6, 2014. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner)

18.

Red poppies bloom in a field near Peutie, Belgium, June 3, 2014. The red poppy was one of the most common flowers growing on the WWII battlefields and was therefore widely recognized among the Allied countries as a memorial flower worn on Armistice Day. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)

19.

Unexploded shells stacked for disposal are found by a French farmer while plowing his fields next to the British cemetery at Courcelette - the WWI Somme battlefield, March 12, 2014. (Reuters/Pascal Rossignol)

20.

The casket of US Corporal Frank Buckles lies in the chapel at Arlington National Cemetery, in Arlington, Virginia, on March 15, 2011. Frank Buckles, the last American veteran of World War I, died on February 27, 2011 at the age of 110. He served in the army from 1917, at the age of 16, until his discharge in 1920. (Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images)

21.

A sculpture of a caribou overlooks the trenches at the Newfoundland Memorial in Beaumont-Hamel, France, on March 27, 2014. The preserved battlefield park covers the area where the Newfoundland regiment led an unsuccessful attack on July 1, 1916, the first day of the Battle of the Somme. (Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images)

22.

A digital echo sounder displays the contours of a sunken WWII-era German submarine on the bottom of the North Sea. The sunken U-106 was discovered off the island of Terschelling, in the Wadden Sea, off the Northern Netherlands, where it became an official war grave, as announced by the Dutch Ministry of Defense on Wednesday, March 16, 2011. The boat sank in 1917 from a mine explosion, then everyone died 41 crew members. (AP Photo/Dutch Defense Ministry)

23.

Members of an ammunition disposal unit lower a large unexploded shell into a box of sand and load it onto a truck at a construction site in Ypres, north-west Belgium, January 9, 2014. According to the Belgian Department of Defense, two construction workers died on Wednesday, March 19, 2014, when they stumbled upon ammunition in a construction zone. (AP Photo/Yves Logghe, file)

24.

Interior view of a WWII-era trench at Massiges, northeastern France, March 28, 2014. During the fighting of the Battles of Champagne and Argonne between September 1914 and September 1915, these trenches changed hands several times between French and German forces. In the process of restoring the trenches over the past two years, the Massiges Restoration Society has found seven bodies of dead soldiers. (Reuters/Charles Platiau)

25.

Rusty WWII-era barbed wire on the Franco-Swiss border at Pfetterhouse, near Kilometer Zero (Zero Mile) of the front line, September 5, 2013. The front began at the Swiss border and went 750 km towards the North Sea. (Sebastien Bozon/AFP/Getty Images)

26.

Archaeologists in the northern French city of Arras have discovered the intact remains of 24 British soldiers who were buried in 1917 during WWI. The discovery of skeletons lying side by side in their army boots, untouched by anyone, suggests that they were from the same places. They were discovered during excavations at the construction of a new BMW plant at the end of May 2001. The war graves community that received the remains identified 20 of the soldiers as belonging to the 10th Lincoln Battalion. Three others found in a nearby crater were Marines and another was found buried separately. (Reuters)

27.

Monument to local men who died during WWI, photographed June 24, 2014 in Wildenroth, Germany. In the villages of southern Germany, as a rule, a small monument is erected to the men who died while serving in the German army in WWII, on which their names are listed (the number listed sometimes reaches tens or even hundreds, even in villages with a small population). (Philipp Guelland/Getty Images)

28.

A road sign "Main Street" stands in what used to be the village of Bezonvaux near Verdun, March 4, 2014. A hundred years after the guns fell silent of the First World War, nine villages destroyed by fighting in the battles of France continue to lead a ghostly existence - their names still exist on maps and in government documents, their mayors are appointed by locals authorities, but most of the streets, shops, houses and people who once lived in this French army stronghold near Verdun are already gone. (Reuters/Vincent Kessler)

29.

Vera Sandercock holds a photo of her father, Private Herbert Medlend, who served in World War I in the "doubly thankful" village of Herodsfoot, England, April 4, 2014. There are thirteen villages in England and Wales where, after the end of the two world wars, relatives waited alive for everyone who went to the front. In English, such villages are called double thankful (blessed) villages - that is, twice grateful (blessed) villages. The unusual status of many of these villages is commemorated by a modest monument or plaque. (Reuters/Darren Staples)

30.

A visitor walks to the Canadian National Memorial in Vimy, France, March 26, 2014. (Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images)

31.

Divers examine the inside of a ship in the Burra Sound, off Orkney, Scotland, May 8, 2014. During both world wars, Scapa Flow was an important British naval base and the site of significant loss of life. After the end of the First World War, 74 German warships were interned (detained) there and on June 21, 1919, most of them were deliberately scuttled on the orders of German Rear Admiral Ludwig von Reuther, who mistakenly believed that the truce had been violated and thus wanted to prevent the ships from being used by the British. Now Scapa Flow is a popular destination for divers who explore the wrecks that still remain at the bottom. (Reuters/Nigel Roddis)

32.

Remains of unknown soldiers in the crypt of Douamont, eastern France, February 9, 2014. The crypt contains the remains of 130 thousand unknown French and German soldiers who died in the Battle of Verdun. (Jean-Christophe Verhaegen/AFP/Getty Images)

33.

Silhouette of a war monument statue depicting a Poilu (as French front-line soldiers were called in WWI), in Cappy, Northern France, November 6, 2013. (Reuters/Pascal Rossignol)

34.

Red poppies bloom on the walls of preserved World War I trenches in Diksmuide, Belgium, June 17, 2014. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)

35.

A pair of shoes, believed to belong to a British soldier, was recovered from a WWII trench near the Belgian town of Ypres on the Western Front on November 10, 2003. Belgian archaeologists, together with British military experts, carried out significant professional research on the local battlefields, which resulted in the discovery of the remains of soldiers , as well as weapons and other objects. (Reuters/Thierry Roger)

36.

Varlet farm owner Charlotte Cardoen-Descamps shows various types of WWII-era ammunition that were discovered on her farm in just one season, in Poelkapelle, Belgium, May 4, 2007. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)

37.

The leg of a German soldier killed during a French attack, lying in a dugout at Kilian, front at Sundgau, at Lerchenberg in Carspach, near Altkirch, France, opened by employees of the Alsatian archaeological service (PAIR), October 12, 2011. The remains found there belong to German soldiers, who were buried alive after a giant Allied shell exploded above an underground passage during the attack on March 18, 1918. The men belonged to the 6th Company of the 94th Reserve Infantry Regiment and were still considered missing in action. (AP Photo/dapd/Winfried Rothermel)

38.

An aerial view of Canada's Vimy National Memorial on Vimy Ridge, northern France March 20, 2014. The scars and craters from the explosions are still visible. This memorial commemorates the members of the Canadian Expeditionary Force who died during the First World War. (Reuters/Pascal Rossignol)

39.

A cross stands on the edge of a mine crater in Lochnagar, March 28, 2014 in La Boisselle, France. The crater was created when a huge mine was blown up on the first day of the Somme Offensive during the First World War. (Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images)

* From November 1915 to July 1, 1916, trying To keep quiet, the British were building the so-called Lochnagar Mine, intended to destroy the German position known as Schvaben Hoehe, which dominated part of the low-lying area to the south. The mine was a tunnel at a depth of up to 15 meters, 270 meters long; closer to the German positions, the tunnel was divided into two branches. The left branch of the tunnel approached the German trenches 21 meters, the right branch 14 meters. British sappers placed 16.3 tons of ammonal in the left mine chamber, and 10.9 tons in the right one.

On July 1, 1916, at 7:30 a.m., the British offensive began with the explosion of two closely spaced charges.

At the KDPV there is a crater from the explosion of the Luachnogar Mine with a diameter of 67 meters and a depth of 17 meters. The ejected soil formed a ring shaft around the crater 4.5 meters high. The outer boundary of the shaft runs within a radius of 70 meters from the center of the crater.

40.

Headstones at the Chinese cemetery at Nolette, the burial site of approximately 850 Chinese workers who died during World War II, in Noyelles-sur-Mer, northern France, August 1, 2013. (Philippe Huguen/AFP/Getty Images)

41.

Aerial view of the Franco-British memorial in Thiepval, Northern France, April 12, 2014. At 45 meters high, it is the largest British war memorial in the world, with more than 72,205 names of missing soldiers from the First World War engraved on the stone pillars. (Reuters/Pascal Rossignol)

42.

A man dressed in uniform stands during the funeral of Harry Patch, outside Wells Cathedral, in western England, on August 6, 2009. Thousands of people turned out on Thursday for the funeral of "The Last Tommy", Briton Harry Patch, who was the last survivor WWI veterans and lived to be 111 years old. (Reuters/Stefan Wermuth)

43.

A member of the ONF (Office National Des Forets) - National Forestry Office - looks at unexploded shells in the forest at Vaux-devant-Damloup, near Verdun, March 24, 2014. The forest near Verdun, full of this kind of legacy of former WWII battles, attracts thieves and "black diggers", to the chagrin of the authorities and archaeologists. (Jean-Christophe Verhaegen/AFP/Getty Images)

44.

Torches are placed next to the graves of soldiers at Douaumont Cemetery, eastern France, during the annual event known as the Four Days of Verdun, a nighttime parade of veterans to commemorate the Battle of Verdun on the 98th anniversary. (Frederick Florin/AFP/Getty Images)

45.

Participants stand near the Sydney Cenotaph (tombstone) during a Remembrance Day service in Sydney, Australia, November 11, 2010. (Greg Wood/AFP/Getty Images)

In a defensive battle, one of the most important tasks of troops is to destroy the advancing enemy by fire. It is clear that losses can be inflicted on the enemy only by well-organized, well-aimed fire, which is why troops build themselves trenches that provide greater convenience for firing.
But this is still not enough. While improving the conditions of their combat work, the troops simultaneously strive to adapt (change) the terrain in such a way as to complicate the enemy’s actions, detain him under their fire and force him to suffer heavy losses. To do this, troops use various barriers and destruction.
Barrages and destruction are used not only during defense, but also during retreat, in order to delay the advancing enemy and inflict losses on him, and sometimes during the offensive, to protect one’s flanks from being bypassed.
In modern combat, it is necessary to delay the advance of not only infantry, but also armored forces, i.e., primarily tanks. Therefore, modern barriers are divided into anti-personnel and anti-tank.
Barriers must always be built in such a way that they delay enemy tanks and infantry, under actual fire from anti-tank guns and machine guns.
When constructing various barriers and destruction, troops very often have to use explosives to enhance the effect of the barriers or to carry out the necessary destruction; Therefore, first of all, it is necessary to become familiar with these substances.

Anti-tank barriers (obstacles)

Modern tanks have very high maneuverability, and attacks can be expected on almost any terrain. The only natural obstacles for tanks are dense old roadless forests, deep (more than 1 meter) marshy swamps, deep ravines and cliffs with slopes steeper than 45°, chopped forest, if the tank cannot pass between the stumps, and the height of the stumps is more than 0.5 meters. Deep (more than 1.5 meters) and wide (more than 3 meters) rivers and lakes are also a natural obstacle for all tanks except amphibious ones.
It is clear that troops, when positioned on the ground, first of all try to use all available natural obstacles in order to protect their position (or resting place) from a sudden attack by tanks. It is obvious that these obstacles will always be few: if they cover the troops, then only in some specific directions. Most of the terrain will always be accessible to tanks. In such areas they organize fire (artillery pieces) and engineering anti-tank defense, the main rule of which is the skillful combination of fire with barriers.
Artificial anti-tank barriers can be of many types. Of these, they choose those that can be done more easily and quickly in a given area, that can be better camouflaged, and that can be more reliably covered by the fire of one’s own artillery.

When setting up barriers, local obstacles can often be used. With appropriate reinforcement, these obstacles become impassable for tanks or slow down their movement, which makes it easier for our artillery to fight tanks. For example, if you cut down part of the trees in a sparse forest, leaving high stumps and knocking down the trees so that there are no passages between them, you will end up with a blockage that will be very difficult for tanks to overcome. You can also stretch a strong steel rope at the edge of the grove at a height of about 1 meter.
A shallow river or even a stream can be turned into a barrier by building a dam, thanks to which the water will rise and flood the banks. On deep rivers, in order to make them impassable also for amphibious tanks, they create rubble, underwater piers (piles), escarpment of banks, etc.
An insufficiently steep slope of a ravine or hill can be made steeper by cutting off the ground with shovels or special engineering machines - you get a so-called scarp, or counter-scarp.
In winter, an anti-tank obstacle can be made from snow banks 1.5-2 meters high and 3.5-5 meters thick.
Finally, one of the best obstacles against tanks are special anti-tank mines, a supply of which troops always carry with them. Anti-tank mines are highly explosive charges enclosed in a metal casing. The mine explodes only under the weight of the tank. Tanks can overcome some types of obstacles due to their high speed, as if flying over them with a running start. To prevent high-speed tanks from overcoming obstacles, it is necessary to build additional earthen ramparts, deeply plowed strips, etc. in front of the obstacles. Then the tank will approach the main obstacle at a lower speed and it will be more difficult for it to overcome it.
Anti-tank mines are placed on roads and the most open areas so that a tank cannot pass between them. A mine explosion breaks the tank's track and stops it.
On roads, especially on difficult-to-travel sections (a bridge over a deep ravine or river, a mountain gorge, a road in a swamp, a deep rut, a high embankment, a narrow clearing in a dense forest), various types of destruction and special barriers are also widely used. First of all, bridges are usually destroyed, since bypassing them or rebuilding them is not an easy task and can significantly delay troops in general, and tanks and other heavy military cargo in particular. Most often, bridges are blown up. Wooden bridges can sometimes be burned or their foundations cut (cut down). Bridges on floating supports (on rafts or boats) can be dismantled or sunk. They make craters on the roads, pull away the roads, make rubble (in the forest) or dig up the road with a deep and wide ditch.
One of the main conditions for constructing an anti-tank barrier is that it is difficult to detect. For example, a snow bank is directed with its flat side towards the enemy with the expectation that the tank driver will not see the obstacle and will drive into it, confusing the bank with a natural hill. As a result, at the end of the snow bank, the tank will simply “peck” its nose into the ground, thereby turning into an easy target for anti-tank artillery and even for infantrymen with hand-held anti-tank grenades. The counter-scarp also pursues the same goal.

Overcoming barriers

The troops have to not only build barriers, but also overcome them. In order to successfully overcome obstacles and not incur unnecessary losses, careful reconnaissance of them is first of all necessary. This reconnaissance must determine the exact boundaries of the barrier, the nature of its structure, how it is defended, what materials are needed for restoration work and, most importantly, which sections of the barrier are easier to overcome, whether there are convenient approaches to them and whether it is possible to bypass the barrier. Reconnaissance of barriers is carried out by photographing them from aircraft and directly inspecting and studying them on site.
For direct reconnaissance of the barriers, special parties of scouts are sent, which include sappers and chemists. The scouts mark all discovered obstacles and passages in them with conventional signs, immediately reporting the results of the reconnaissance to the commander who sent them. If. If there is an opportunity, the scouts immediately remove some of the obstacles or make passages through them (remove or detonate discovered mines and landmines, make passages in the rubble).
When overcoming obstacles in battle, tanks, motorized mechanical units and infantry in small groups try to penetrate through the passages discovered by scouts or bypass the obstacles and attack the enemy in order to facilitate further work on expanding the passages and overcoming the obstacles.
The construction of passages or the removal of obstacles is carried out by troops in various ways, depending on the type of obstacle and the situation.
Wire nets are destroyed and pulled away by tanks or destroyed by artillery, and sometimes, under favorable conditions, they are undermined by sappers using extended charges. When the enemy weakly guards his barriers, infantry can also destroy wire networks at night, in rain or snow, using wire-cutting shears.
To create a passage through an electrified obstacle, it is necessary either to completely destroy a separate section of it so that the remaining wires are not connected to each other anywhere, or to divert the current into the ground. Tanks can destroy wire fences by moving not only across, but also along the obstacles. The final clearing of the passage is carried out by sappers in special suits made of copper mesh. A fighter in such a suit can freely touch the electrified wire, since the current through the mesh will go into the ground and not through the body. In order to divert the current into the ground, the same fighters in suits throw or attach a thick wire to the fence, the other end of which is reliably grounded (the remaining coil of wire is buried deeper). When the current is diverted into the ground, the obstacle is removed in the usual manner, that is, it is pulled away by tanks, destroyed by artillery, or blown up.
Anti-tank mines and land mines are dug up or detonated. Self-explosive landmines and traps are neutralized by sappers after careful familiarization with the technology of their construction.
The rubble is cleared away with the help of tanks or trees are cut up and rolled away piece by piece. If it is possible to safely bring tractors, then the rubble is removed with their help. Small rubble can be successfully exploded with strong elongated charges.
Areas contaminated with chemical agents (UZ) are overcome with the help of military means of chemical warfare or the forces of chemists.
Overcoming obstacles when attacking the enemy's defensive zone, and especially inside it, requires the united work of all branches of the military.

Types of anti-tank barriers

1. ANTI-TANK HEDGEHOG

The anti-tank hedgehog is the simplest anti-tank barrier, which consists of three-dimensional six-pointed stars. Hedgehogs are less effective than mines and other obstacles, but they can be made in large quantities from scrap materials without the use of high technology.
The hedgehog is made from three pieces of rolled steel (usually an I-beam - a rail, angle, etc. are less strong) so that the ends of the beams form an octahedron. The beams are connected with rivets on gussets (the structure must withstand the weight of the tank - up to 60 tons). On industrially produced hedgehogs, holes are left for barbed wire, and one of the beams is made removable. To make the work of enemy sappers more difficult, hedgehogs can be connected with chains or cables, mined in the area around them, etc.
Hedgehogs are installed on hard ground (asphalt street surfaces are best suited). Concrete is not suitable - the hedgehog will slide on concrete. On soft soils, hedgehogs are of little use, since the tank presses them into the ground and easily passes over them. If the tanker tries to push the hedgehog away, it will roll under the bottom and the tank will be raised. The tracks lose traction with the ground, the tank begins to slip and is often unable to move off the hedgehog. The defending forces can only destroy the stopped tanks and prevent the tankers from pulling the hedgehogs away with tow ropes. And if the enemy took the tanks in a different direction, the anti-tank defense even more so fulfilled its task.
The hedgehogs are about 1 m in height - more than the ground clearance of the tank, but lower than its front plate. It is not advisable to make larger hedgehogs - a hedgehog that is higher than the front sheet will be easily moved by the tank. Hedgehogs exceeding these dimensions must be strengthened in the ground (piles driven into the ground) or tied together with 6mm wire of at least three threads.

2. ANTI-TANK DIT

Moats can be of different profiles - in the form of a regular and irregular trapezoid or an equilateral and non-equilateral triangle.
The disadvantage of moats in the form of an unequal triangle and an irregular trapezoid is that enemy infantry can accumulate in them, use them as cover and tanks can enter it. But the amount of work is much less than when building equilateral and trapezoidal ditches.
Moats in the form of an equilateral triangle can be built in dry sand.
All these obstacles require good flanking, since they are not covered by either frontal or oblique fire.
Ditches are used in flat areas with low groundwater levels, where it is impossible to build other, less labor-intensive obstacles.

3. ANTI-TANK SCARPE AND COUNTER SCARPE

Scarps and counter-scarps are built on hilly terrain, with steep slopes, or along river banks. Counter-scarps in the form of a ditch can also be erected on slightly rough terrain, if it gradually rises in our direction. Scarps and counter-scarps are less labor-intensive than ditches, and therefore during reconnaissance it is necessary to make full use of all the natural slopes of the terrain.
Scarps have the disadvantage that the enemy, under certain conditions, can use them as protection from our fire during accumulation. Counter-scarps do not have this drawback, since the approaches to them are open and are covered by all types of fire. In addition, the counter scarp is not visible to the enemy, which is an important advantage, although it is easier to overcome with the help of various devices. Practice has shown that at high speed, a tank, overcoming the counter scarp, buries itself so much when falling into the ground that it becomes completely helpless and requires several hours of removal by a special team. The counter-scarp, in view of the possibility of observation and shelling of all approaches to it, is a better obstacle than the scarp.

4. “TRENCHES” and “GRAVES”

In areas with high groundwater levels, a system of “trenches” or “graves” can be erected. Due to the different directions of the graves, the tank, if it goes through them, will sit on its belly on the pillars between the graves. Although the volume of the “graves” excerpt is large, the work is easier because the depth is shallow. The disadvantage of this system is that enemy infantry can use the “graves” as cover, so you need to tear them off so that there is 25-50 cm of water at the bottom, intertwine them with wire and reinforce them with anti-tank and anti-personnel mines. The “grave” system can be fired from both flank and frontal fire.

5. ANTI-TANK BUGS

Obstacles made of wood or iron - gouges. Wooden gouges have the disadvantage that, being pierced by bullets or shells, they easily break under the weight of a moving tank; therefore, they should be used in combination with ditches, at least of reduced profiles.
Metal hedgehogs and gouges in field lines can be used to close certain, small areas along the front, mainly on roads and bridgeheads.

6. ANTI-TANK EARTH AND SNOW BARS

In some cases, in areas with high groundwater levels, ditches with high embankments and earthen ramparts can be used.
Ditches with high embankments can be used provided that the filling will not block frontal fire, that is, if the terrain in our direction rises somewhat and makes it possible to conduct frontal fire.
Shafts are used to block narrow valleys that are well covered by flanking and oblique fire from surrounding heights. The soil for the rampart is taken from a wide ditch, dug 25 centimeters below the groundwater level, next to the rampart.
Snow ramparts are used in winter when it is impossible to quickly build an earthen rampart or other anti-tank obstacles associated with excavation work.

7. FIELD OF FUNELS AS AN ANTI-TANK OBSTACLE

If there is a lack of labor, short construction times and if there is a sufficient number of explosives, it is possible to create a field of craters. With an ammonal charge of 20-30 kg. and a laying depth of 2.5 m, the funnel will be 6-7 m in diameter and quite deep (depending on the soil). Such a field of craters, although not an insurmountable obstacle, delays the advance of tanks so much that they can be easily shot with artillery and anti-tank rifles.

Literature/useful materials:

• Brochure - Brigengineer ShPERK V.F. “FLANKING ANTI-TANK OBSTACLES” (MILITARY PUBLISHING HOUSE OF THE PEOPLE'S DEFENSE COMMISSARIAT OF THE USSR UNION. MOSCOW -1942)
• Military engineering STATE MILITARY PUBLISHING HOUSE OF THE PEOPLE'S COMMITTEE FOR DEFENSE OF THE UNION SSR Moscow - 1931

This year marks a century since the end of the First World War, writes The Atlantic.

During this time, the shell-pocked landscapes of the Western Front have been reclaimed by nature or turned into farmland, and the scars of war are healing. Some sites are still toxic a century later, and some are still littered with unexploded shells and closed to the public.

But in France and Belgium, the most significant battlefields have been preserved as memorials, and some have become huge cemeteries. In these places, physical signs of battle still serve as reminders of the destruction and fierce fighting that once claimed so many lives.

1. The battlefield in Beaumont-Hamel, France, preserved as a monument, June 10, 2016. Here the Royal Newfoundland Regiment launched an unsuccessful offensive on July 1, 1916, the first day of the Battle of the Somme.

2. Sheep graze among the craters of the First World War at the site of the Battle of Vimy.

3. Overgrown German fortification in the Argonne Forest, France, May 1998. From here began the Meuse-Argonne Offensive, in which 117,000 Americans, 70,000 French and 100,000 Germans died.

4. A piece of barbed wire from the First World War on the site of the former village of Bezonvaux near Verdun, France, August 27, 2014. Bezonvaux, like many other surrounding villages, was destroyed during the Battle of Verdun in 1916.

5. Stone crosses on the graves of German soldiers, German War Cemetery, Hoglede, Belgium, August 4, 2014.

6. German bunker in the Spenkur forest near Verdun, France, August 27, 2014.

7. Fragment of Fort Douaumont near Verdun, France, May 17, 2016.

8. The remains of the destroyed Chateau Soupir near the famous "Chemin des Dames" (Ladies' Road), where the battles of the First World War took place, March 25, 2017.

9. Cemetery of American soldiers in Aisne-Marne near Chateau-Thierry (France) on the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Belleau Wood, May 27, 2018. About 10,000 American soldiers died in the month-long battle.

10. Wild poppies in a Flemish field near the Tyne Cot military cemetery near Passchendaele, Belgium, August 4, 2014.

11. Remains of the Chateau de la Hutte in Ploegsteert, Belgium, November 21, 2014. Due to its high position, the chateau served as a British artillery position, but was soon destroyed by German shelling.

12. Remains of trenches at the Newfoundland Memorial Park in Beaumont-Hamel near Albert, France, May 17, 2016.

13. Dilapidated German fortification in the Argonne Forest, France, May 1998.

14. A tree grew in a trench, Douaumont, near Verdun, France, March 30, 2014.

15. Wild poppies in the "Death Trench", a preserved network of Belgian trenches, Diksmuide, Belgium, July 14, 2017.

16. German bunker in the Spenkur forest near Verdun, France, August 27, 2014.

17. Passage at Fort Douaumont, France, September 3, 2013. Fort Douaumont, built 1885–1913, was the largest and tallest of the 19 defensive forts that defended the city of Verdun in the First World War.

18. The California plateau near Craon (France) is still dotted with craters and trenches, March 25, 2017.

19. An unexploded World War I shell in a field near Ochonville, France, November 2013.

20. The sun illuminates the craters left by artillery shells fired during the fierce Battle of Les Eparges near Verdun, France, on August 26, 2014. This battle between the German and French armies for a strategically important height took place in 1915 and preceded the Battle of Verdun in 1916.

21. A German bunker, nicknamed the "Devil's Bunker", on a hill in Cuisy, France, March 24, 2017.

22. A barbed wire fence removed from a firing position in a World War I bunker, Belgium, February 28, 2014.

23. Remains of craters and German trenches in Beaumont-Hamel, France.

24. Bunker ruins in Plogstiert forest, Plogstiert, Belgium, April 14, 2006.

25. The moon over the Newfoundland Memorial, built in honor of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment, near Beaumont-Hamel, France, March 12, 2014.

26. Dawn over Tyne Cot Cemetery, Passchendaele, Belgium, March 25, 2014. It is the largest war cemetery in the Commonwealth; 11,956 World War I servicemen are buried here.

27. Craters among re-grown forests at the site of the Battle of Vimy, France.

28. The remains of a church on the site of the former village of Orne near Verdun, France, August 27, 2014. Orne is another village completely destroyed at the Battle of Verdun in 1916.

29. A steel machine gun turret at Fort Douaumont above the Voivre Plain near Verdun, France, August 27, 2014.

30. Basalt cross on the site of former bunkers, Langemark German cemetery, Poelkapelle, Belgium, March 26, 2014.

31. Sunset at Newfoundland Memorial Park near Beaumont-Hamel, France, March 12, 2014.

32. "The Pensive Soldier" - a monument in honor of the participation of the 1st Canadian Division in the Second Battle of Ypres, Saint-Julien, Belgium, August 2, 2014.

Do you know the history of the First World War?