Periodic Table of the Defenses

[adciv]

Originally Posted by Bob Steele

French: Cheval de frise literally means "Frisian horse" The Frisians, having few cavalry, relied heavily on such anti-cavalry obstacles in warfare. (wikipedia)

Back when I did Revolutionary War re-enacting we saw these on battlefields.
If you ever go to Yorktown you will see reproductions of them Quite effective and until barbed wire came along they were used to repel cavalry. Of course the originals did not rotate like these. They were rigid and came to points. Below is a picture from the actual Petersburg battlefield (Civil War) (courtesy wikipedia)


my first language is
German my family came from Alsace-Lorraine... annexed by French after WWI.....

Heh, I remember seeing these in photos/movies from D-Day. I think they're still in use today as part of anti-ship countermeasures near shore lines.

[dubiousSwain]

Originally Posted by adciv

Heh, I remember seeing these in photos/movies from D-Day. I think they're still in use today as part of anti-ship countermeasures near shore lines.

I think you're thinking of Czech Hedgehogs.

EDIT: Original image was huge