Fortress : A History of Military Defense

by Ian V. Hogg

fortification is the oldest military science, and the this splendidly illustrated book tells the story of fortification from the days when prehistoric men tool cover behind ramparts of earth, to the days when the allied air forces blasted rocket-propelled bombs into hitler's submarine pens and the concrete defences of the atlantic wall

Genres: History, Military History, Nonfiction, Military Fiction

160 pages, Hardcover

First published December 9, 1975

About the author

Ian V. Hogg enlisted in the Royal Artillery of the British Army in April 1945. During World War II he served in Europe and in eastern Asia. After the war he remained in the military. In the early 1950s, he served in the Korean War. Altogether he served in the military for 27 years. Upon retiring in 1972, he held the appointment of Master Gunner at the Royal Military College of Science, where he taught on the subjects of firearms, artillery, and their ammunition and use. Hogg also had an interest in the subject of fortification and was one of the founding members of the Fortress Study Group in 1975.

His first books were published in the late 1960s while he was still an instructor. After retiring from the military, he pursued the career of military author and historian. He was editor of Jane's Infantry Weapons from 1972 to 1994. He worked with a skilled artist, John Batchelor, to ensure that his books were well illustrated with cutaway diagrams. He contributed articles to a variety of journals, and his books have been translated into a dozen languages .
Hogg has been described by publishing people who worked with him as "an unassuming man, with a gift to pass on [his] knowledge at any level, and often with a dry humour". He was also respected for his professionalism as an author. He was described as "a consummate professional who (unlike most of his peers) usually submitted manuscripts on time, within agreed parameters, and accompanied by all the illustrations."

Hogg was a frequent guest on the History Channel's Tales of the Gun, as well as other military-related television programs.

-Wikipedia

Reviews

[Checkman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Classic Ian Hogg. Up to his usual excellent standards. The subject matter is massive and somehow Mr. Hogg covers a couple thousand years (approximately) of fortress designs and the operation of fortresses in warfare in just 160 pages. Very impressive. At times the information does come at a furious pace and there are times I found myself a bit loss keeping all the engineering terms straight, but overall, an excellent and enjoyable book.

[Fredrick Danysh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Forts, castles, and other strong points have been used throughout history to defend important points and to blunt enemy attacks.

[Michael Burnam-Fink · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bought with Hogg's Artillery as part of a pair, Fortress is a far further ranging book, covering the history of defensible spaces from the Iron Age to the 1970s. Hogg synthesizes for a popular audience a diverse topic. This book is euro centric. The Iron Age is treated stylistically between Celtic earthworks and the Roman limnes. Castles get chapters on Norman, Spanish, German, and Crusader forms. Hogg really leaps into his own with the transistion to gunpowder weapons, and the rise of the European star fort from the trace italienne to Vauban's forts. Hogg has a keen eye for the difference between the idealized perfect geometries of interlocking enfilading fire prescribed by various systems, and the practical matter of sticking some bastions on a hill and calling it good. Post 1850, things get rather interesting with the return of masonry structures of various sorts, which command fire superiority through hardened gun emplacements, culminating in the technological masterpiece of the Maginot line. Of course, most fortifications are field fortifications, from the the trenches of WW1 to the firebases of Vietnam.

The art in this book is a treat, with photos of forts supplemented by drawings. A smidge less good than the other book I read, but still a great general history.