Minefields are only one of the many obstacles that militaries have to deal with.
Probably one of the earliest modern forms of obstruction in warfare was barbed wire.
It was first used by Portuguese troops in 1895, however, it was extensively used in
World War I. Barbed wire may have been immune to machine guns, but it did have its nemesis;
Blankets.
OK, maybe not as a long term solution.
But in 1915, about one year into WWI, a French inventor came up with “la machine Boirault”.
Hey, don’t judge a book by its cover.
This machine could traverse through difficult terrain, flatten barbed wire, cross railroads,
and pass through trenches of up to 6 feet tall (1.8m).
But, its designer, Louis Boirault, forgot one thing, and that thing was kinda important.
The driver was completely exposed.
This thing wasn’t exactly fast (0.6 mph 1 kph) and had a turning radius of over 330
feet (100m).
The second version of the machine came with armor protection for the driver and the engine,
but the project was eventually abandoned, because within months, tanks entered the picture.
Allies broke through German lines on August 8, 1918 using tanks, and the barbed wire was
officially defeated.
Some of the simplest forms of obstacles were things like trenches.
Stone and logs were also used to block roads, especially for passage of larger vehicles,
although depending on the vehicle, it may or may not have been effective.
Trenches used to be dug manually back in the day, but then trench diggers really helped
facilitate the digging.
Over the years, trench diggers have continued to evolve, but a mutation created a new species
that marry men 70 years older than them … for love (ring bells) what is a gold digger?
And we are not being sexist, because men can be gold diggers too!
Minefields were yet another obstacle for the troops, both for personnel and vehicles.
The rope throwing machine that we showed at the beginning was the M1150 Assault Breacher
Vehicle or ABV.
Its chassis is based on the M1 Abrams tank.
That flying rope is a mine-clearing line charge or "MICLIC" for shorts.
MICLIC contains about 1760 lb of explosives (800kg).
The line is launched forward using rockets upwards of 100 yards (91m).
Once detonated, MICLIC can clear up a 26-ft wide (8m) by 330-ft long (100m) path from
mines, roadside bombs and improvised explosive devices, which allows for safe crossing of
troops and vehicles.
One issue with landmines is that they can remain active more than 50 years after they
are planted in the ground, which will survive the length of almost any war, being left behind
as hidden souvenirs during peacetime.
For this reason, there is a growing worldwide effort to get rid of landmines altogether.
Even as far back as the 1980s, the German Armed Forces had a fleet of mine-throwing
vehicles, which could eject mines using a propellant charge.
But these mines were special, because they could clean up after themselves!
An on-board computer was used to program and control the density of the minefield and a
timer on each mine, which could be set to anywhere from 3 to 96 hours.
Once ejected, each mine would automatically sit upright, which would unleash a trigger
wire that detonated the mine upon contact.
But mines that were not triggered within their preset timer, would automatically self-destruct.
This was a genius solution to prevent enemy troops from crossing certain areas temporarily,
and not having to clean up the minefield afterward.
What we covered so far were man-made land obstacles.
But bodies of water are quite a common natural obstacle.
Ships can take care of transportation over long distances, and bridges can span over
rivers and shorter distances.
But troops and their vehicles are not going to be using ships to cross rivers.
Building a permanent bridge for a temporary crossing is also not practical.
This is where temporary bridges come into picture.
Over a narrow river, a temporary bridge could be built and swung over.
But for the most part, pontoon bridges were the primary method for building temporary
crossings.
Also known as a floating bridge, a pontoon bridge uses floats or boats as support to
build a bridge upon.
Most pontoon bridges are temporary and are used in wartime and civil emergencies.
Pontoon bridges have been in use since ancient times, but a modern example of them was used
for the crossing of the Rhine river during World War II.
This is the actual footage of a pontoon bridge being built on the Rhine, but in 1919.
The simplicity of the pontoon bridge made it quite efficient to set up, without requiring
sophisticated machinery, as we are about to see!
An armored vehicle-launched bridge or AVLB is a combat support vehicle that is used to
cover narrow gap-type obstacles, like rivers.
This allows for rapid deployment of tanks and other armored vehicles.
Within minutes, the bridge unfolds across the obstacle.
Then the AVLB vehicle detaches from the bridge, and moves aside to allow traffic through.
It then crosses the bridge and reattaches to the bridge on the other side, and then
off to cover the next gap.
For wider rivers, an improved ribbon bridge could be used, which is essentially a modern
floating bridge.
This modular, foldable, aluminum bridge system can easily be deployed and assembled to provide
temporary crossing, then disassembled and transported on aircraft, helicopters, trucks
to where they are needed.
Next up, some German engineering!
This is a 4 by 4, a ferry, and the world’s fastest deployable amphibious bridge.
The M3 Amphibious rig works by first deploying two giant aluminum pontoons.
Each rig has 4 long ramps, which can be used to connect the rigs to one another to either
form a ferry that can transport a 60-ton battle tank, or to create a bridge.
The longest bridge constructed using this method was built in Poland, just in case,
spanning over a quarter mile (420m) and consisted of 34 M3 rigs.
At a unit cost of $7.5 million dollars per rig, that bridge cost $255 million dollars
to build, temporarily.
There are also much cheaper alternatives, made up of plastic blocks that are manually
put together with large pegs, kinda like a lego set.
This creates a floating platform that can transport an Armored Personnel Carrier across
the river.
I know what you’re thinking.
It reminds me of IKEA too.
But this is also German engineering, just simple and inexpensive .
Aside from land and water, aerial obstacles were also a thing … of the past.
A barrage balloon was a large tethered balloon used to defend ground targets.
Their function was to obstruct enemy air action at low elevations and make dive-bombing difficult.
Steel cables hanging from these balloons posed a severe collision risk to aircraft, making
their approach much more difficult.
Barrage balloons were not practical against aircraft flying at very high altitudes, due
to the weight of those long steel cables hanging from the balloons.
Of course, it’s easy to see why barrage balloons were abandoned as they drifted away
into the sunset of obsolete military obstacles.
That covers ground, water, and air obstacles.
But how about underwater obstacles?
Lucky for you, we already have a video for that right here.