Breastwork (fortification)

{{Short description|Fortification}} {{More citations needed|date=February 2024}} [[File:Breastwork trench at Armentieres 1916.jpg|thumb|Breastwork at Armentières in 1916, during World War I]] [[File:The New Zealand Expeditionary Force on the Western Front, 1916-1918 - IWM Q 666.jpg|thumb|New Zealand troops of the 9th (Wellington East Coast Rifles) Regiment holding a well-constructed breastwork near Fleurbaix, June 1916. Note one of the troops using a periscope rifle.]] A '''breastwork''' is a temporary fortification, often an earthwork thrown up to breast or shoulder height to provide protection to defenders firing over it from a standing position.<ref name="linedecker"/><ref name="darvill"/> A more permanent structure, normally in stone, would be described as a parapet or the battlement of a castle wall.

In warships, a breastwork is the armored superstructure in the ship that did not extend all the way out to the sides of the ship. It was generally only used in ironclad turret ships designed between 1865 and 1880.

==References== <references> <ref name="linedecker">{{cite book |last1=Linedecker |first1=Clifford L. |title=Civil War, A to Z: The Complete Handbook of America's Bloodiest Conflict |date=18 December 2007 |publisher=Random House Publishing Group |isbn=978-0-307-41477-9 |language=en}}</ref> <ref name="darvill">{{cite book |last1=Darvill |first1=Timothy |title=The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology |date=2002 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-211649-9 |language=en}}</ref> </references>

==See also== *List of established military terms (Fortifications)

{{Commons category|Breastworks}}

{{Fortifications}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Breastwork (Fortification)}} Category:Fortifications by type

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