View source for 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]]]]
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 warship|ironclad]] [[turret ship]]s designed between 1865 and 1880.

==References==
{{reflist|refs=
<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>
}}

==See also==
*[[List of established military terms]] ([[List of established military terms#Fortification|Fortifications]])

{{Commons category|Breastworks}}

{{Fortifications}}

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

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