Parisian defences in 14th century: A – Louvre Palace | the Louvre ; B – Palais de Roi ; C – Hôtel des Tournelles ; D – Porte Saint-Antoine ; E – Hôtel St Paul ; F – the Bastille

Despite the improved Parisian defences, Henry V of England captured Paris in 1420 and the Bastille was seized and garrisoned by the English for the next sixteen years.

A depiction of the Bastille and neighbouring Paris in 1575, showing the new bastion s, the new Porte Saint-Antoine, the Arsenal of Paris | Arsenal complex and the open countryside beyond the city defences

During the 1550s, Henry II became concerned about the threat of an English or Holy Roman Empire attack on Paris, and strengthened the defences of the Bastille in response.

These bases were prepared in advance, often by capturing an estate and augmenting its defences with surrounding ditches, ramparts and palisades.

The German defences in Serre were supposed to have been obliterated by sustained, heavy, British shelling during the preceding week ; however, as the battalion advanced it met with fierce resistance.

However, precisely because the French thought the Ardennes unsuitable for massive troop movement, particularly for tanks, they were left with only light defences which were quickly overrun by the Wehrmacht.

Repeated raids meant that defences were bolstered throughout the island during the 16th century.

After the shock of the Battle of Adrianople in 378, in which the emperor Valens with the flower of the Roman armies was destroyed by the Visigoths within a few days ' march, the city looked to its defences, and in 413 – 414, Theodosius II built the 18-meter ( 60-foot )- tall triple-wall fortifications, which were never to be breached until the coming of gunpowder.

In addition, new technologies and tactics were developed, making most defences obsolete ; this led to the construction of star forts, specifically designed to withstand artillery bombardment though these too ( along with the Martello Tower ) would find themselves rendered obsolete when explosive and armour piercing rounds made even these types of fortifications vulnerable.

After the suppression of Catharism, the descendants of Cathars were at times required to live outside towns and their defences.

Once again, the anti-tank defences were overwhelmed and about 380 New Zealanders were taken prisoner including Captain Charles Upham who gained a second Victoria Cross for his actions including destroying a German tank and several guns and vehicles with grenades despite being shot through the elbow by a machine gun bullet and having his arm broken.

The sandstone cliffs have been the subject of considerable erosion in relatively recent times: much of the Castle was lost to the sea before the present sea defences and promenade were built, and a number of cliff-top houses are in danger of disappearing around the nearby village of Fairlight.

The Norman frontiers had limited natural defences but were heavily reinforced with castles, such as Château Gaillard, at strategic points, built and maintained at considerable expense.

Huge water defences were created by damming the local streams and the resulting fortifications proved able to withstand assaults by land and water in 1266.

During this period of French rule, the defences of the fortress were strengthened by the famous siege engineer Vauban.

The defences were not coordinated and communication was poor.

The defences were first proposed by Marshal Joffre.

Very elaborate and complex schemes for town defences were developed in the Netherland and France but these belong mainly to the post-medieval periods.

On occasion the knowledge that Mohists were helping to prepare a city's defences was enough to dissuade attack.

On 1799, as French soldiers under the command of Colonel d ' Hautpoul were strengthening the defences of Fort Julien, a couple of miles north-east of the Egyptian port city of Rashid, Lieutenant Pierre-François Bouchard spotted a slab with inscriptions on one side that the soldiers had uncovered.

Moats and other water defences, whether natural or augmented, were also vital to defenders.

By the 16th century, they were an essential and regularized part of any campaigning army, or castle's defences.

Both were skilled in conducting sieges and defences themselves.

The Siege of Plevna during the Russo-Turkish War ( 1877 – 1878 ) proved that hastily-constructed field defences could resist attacks prepared without proper resources, and were a portent of the trench warfare of World War I.

This continuous action became known as the Battle of the Atlantic, as the British developed technical defences such as ASDIC and radar, and the German U-boats responded by hunting in what were called " wolfpacks " where multiple submarines would stay close together, making it easier for them to sink a specific target.

In the low-level role, which had originally been intended to be performed by the cancelled BAC TSR-2, the V Force were considered by Air Staff planners to be largely immune from interception, the Soviet air defences being assessed as having no significant interception capability below 1, 500 ft, any remaining threat coming from the SA-3 low-level surface-to-air missile, flight planners taking care to route aircraft around known SA-3 sites.

From around 700 BC the Iron age brought numerous hill forts, brochs and fortified settlements which support the image of quarrelsome tribes and petty kingdoms later recorded by the Romans, though evidence that at times occupants neglected the defences might suggest that symbolic power had as much significance as warfare.

Over the following years Alfred carried out a dramatic reorganisation of the government and defences of Wessex, building warships, organising the army into two shifts which served alternately and establishing a system of fortified burhs across the kingdom.

Most fortified cities and castles were conquered by Gustav's rebels, but the strongholds with the best defences, including Stockholm, were still under Danish control.

Under Thomas de Beauchamp, 11th Earl, the castle defences were significantly enhanced in 1330 – 60 on the north eastern side by the addition of a gatehouse, a barbican ( a form of fortified gateway ), and a tower on either side of the reconstructed wall, named Caesar's Tower and Guy's Tower.

It was an infantry-support tank intended to break through fortified defences.

There are also some units in turn-based strategy games that are capable of helping to spike on the turtle's guards, such as the MB-5 Rabbit in Nectaris and the Mech in Game Boy Wars 3 or most of the long-range artillery that is able to sweep fortified position either clear of enemies or weaken their defences before crucial assault.

In addition, there was an opportunity to assess the impact of preparatory bombardment upon heavily fortified defences.

First given earthworks in 1779 against the planned invasion that year, the high ground west of Dover, England, now called Dover Western Heights, was properly fortified in 1804 when Lieutenant-Colonel William Twiss was instructed to modernise the existing defences.

The defences were strong to the south and west ( towards Gaza ) but to the east depended heavily on a recently fortified redoubt at Tel el Saba, east of Beersheba.

As a large, disciplined and skilled force of fit men, they played a crucial role in the construction of a province's Roman military and civil infrastructure: in addition to constructing forts and fortified defences such as Hadrian's Wall, they built roads, bridges, ports, public buildings, entire new cities ( Roman colonies ) and also engaged in large-scale forest clearance and marsh drainage to expand the province's available arable land.

The Dardanelles were defended by a system of fortified and mobile artillery arranged as the " Outer ", " Intermediate " and " Inner " defences.

After the border was fortified and the Berlin Wall constructed, the number of illegal crossings fell dramatically and continued to fall as the defences were improved over the subsequent decades.

The issue was complicated by the building of fortified Renaissance towers in Italy called tenazza that were used as defences of last resort and were also named after the Italian for to hold or to keep.

First given earthworks in 1779 against the planned invasion that year, the high ground west of Dover, England, now called Dover Western Heights, was properly fortified in 1804 when Lieutenant-Colonel William Twiss was instructed to modernise the existing defences.

The Soviet forces faced massive resistance from the German defences, which were slowly knocked out by concentrated air raids and artillery strikes, along with coordinated ground assaults against fortified positions.

The keep was surrounded by a curtain wall with probably four flanking towers and a fortified gatehouse protecting a relatively small bailey ; these outer defences, rather than the keep, probably represented the main defences of the castle.

Two pioneer battalions were attached to each division to spearhead the attack and breakthrough fixed and fortified defences.

At Andújar a tower by the river was fortified and small field works constructed on the south bank to forestall an enemy crossing, but, the Guadalquivir being fordable at so many points, and open to fire from the surrounding hills, Dupont's defences did not inspire much confidence.

France's frontier defences were based on a fortified zone from Verdun to Toul and isolated fortresses such as Épinal and Belfort.

This had outflanked the defences of Irish Confederates and English Royalists, causing them to retreat behind the river Shannon into Connacht, where the held the fortified cities of Limerick and Galway.

He occupied a hill overlooking the bridge over the creek, and fortified the hill with a u-shaped abatis ( defences made of felled trees and branches ).

The island's defences were extremely strong: heavy coastal batteries on the western and southern coasts defended both the island and the Scheldt estuary, and the coastline had been strongly fortified against amphibious assaults.