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PARALLELS

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Originally appearing in Volume V20, Page 762 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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PARALLELS , in siegecraft, a See also:

term used to See also:express the trenches See also:drawn by besiegers in a generally parallel direction to the front of a fortress chosen for attack. Parallels are employed along with " zigzag approaches " in the " formal attack " or See also:siege proper. They are traced in See also:short zigzag lengths (the prolongation of each length falling clear of the hostile See also:works), in See also:order to avoid See also:enfilade; but their obliquity is of course made as slight as is consistent with due See also:protection in order to See also:save See also:time and labour. The " first parallel " is opened at a convenient distance from the fortress, by numerous working parties, who dig (under See also:cover of See also:night) a continuous See also:line of entrenchments facing the point or points of attack. Zigzags are next dug to the See also:rear (when necessary) to give sheltered See also:access to the parallel, and from this new zigzags are pushed out towards the defenders, to be connected by a " second parallel," and so on until finally a parallel is made sufficiently See also:close to the fortress to permit of an See also:assault- over the open, the parallels becoming stronger and more solid as they approach to closer range. This See also:system of parallels provides, within range of the defenders' weapons, shelter in which the besieger can safely See also:mass men and material for the See also:prosecution of the attack. Parallels and approaches are constructed either by See also:ordinary " See also:trench See also:work," executed simultaneously by a large number of men strung out along the intended line, or by " sapping " in which one trained " sapper," as it were, burrows a trench in the required direction, others following him to widen and improve the work.

End of Article: PARALLELS

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