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.

A long-standing plan of the French had been the concept of an invasion of Great Britain which they hoped would lead to a swift end to the war if it was successful: in 1779 Spain entered the war on the side of France, and the increasingly depleted state of British home forces made an invasion more appealing and Amherst organised Britain's land defences in anticipation of the invasion which never materialised.

They were part of defences which included land-based forts all around the city but as they were never used in action, they became known as Palmerston ’ s Folly, after the Prime Minister who initiated them.

Built in 1744 to contribute to the town's defences, there was never any occasion for it to be used.

Although never attacked, Citadel Hill's various fortifications were garrisoned by the British Army until 1906 and afterward by the Canadian Army throughout the First and Second World Wars ; Fort George having been used as temporary barracks during 1939-1940 and as the coordinating point for the city's anti-aircraft defences.

To the west, a further ditch separated the spur forming a stone-revetted western island ; the defences of which appear never to have been completed.

Although never needed for their original purpose they were later used to combat smuggling and also as signalling stations and coastal defences during the two World Wars.

* Auckland is alleged to dominate the National Provincial Championship in rugby union in the 1980s and 90s, when Auckland won the championship in 15 out of 30 years and never lost in a final, holding the prestigious Ranfurly Shield trophy for a record 61 successful defences over 8 years.

The Treaty of Turin specified that the Venetians would destroy all the island's " castles, walls, defences, houses and habitations from top to bottom ' in such fashion that the place can never be rebuilt or reinhabited ".

In the event, these defences were never tested.

Yet Wei never succeeded in breaking through the line of river defences erected by Wu, including the formidable Ruxu forts.

The 1859 Royal Commission on the Defence of the United Kingdom report on Britain's defences believed that London was practically undefendable ; they proposed a fort at Shooters Hill to defend the Royal Arsenal at Woolwich, but it was never acted upon.

The design of each site varied, but they were never very elaborate, just a magazine and storehouses for the mobilisation of troops, with limited defences.

As a result, opposing defences could never relax when he had the ball.

To their credit, few of the Seahorses ' losses were blowouts: 0-1 here, 1-2 there, but in each game their strikers never quite seemed to breach the opposition defences, or show enough sharpness in front of goal.

The area and defences were never used against the Third Reich as the town and region had to be surrendered to the Third Reich following the Munich Agreement.

in 1216 the castle's defences were put to the test in the First Barons War, when the forces of the future King of France, Louis VIII, besieged the town in December.

The defences of tower houses were primarily aimed to provide protection against smaller raiding parties and were not intended to put up significant opposition to an organised military assault, leading historian Stuart Reid to characterise them as " defensible rather than defensive ".

Just after the Romans leave, the archbishop of London is put forward by the representatives of Britain to organise the island's defences.

A scheme of new defences was proposed by Theodore Dury, although this was criticised by one Captain Obryan, who put forward his own, much more expensive, scheme.

During an air raid of World War II on 4 / 5 May 1942, the local defences had been fortuitously augmented by the Polish destroyer Blyskawica ( itself built by White's in East Cowes ), which put up such a determined defence that, in 2002, the crew's courage was honoured by a local commemoration lasting several days to mark the 60th anniversary of the event.

In England, motte-and-bailey earthworks were put to various uses over later years ; in some cases, mottes were turned into garden features in the 18th century, or reused as military defences during the Second World War.

This tight exchange put Jairzinho through for a goal, and illustrates how three strikers can work together to blow open the tightest defences.

During the air raid, the local defences had been fortuitously augmented by the Polish destroyer Blyskawica ( itself built by White's ), which put up such a determined defence that, in 2002, the crew's courage was honoured by a local commemoration lasting several days to mark the 60th anniversary of the event.

The arrival of these experienced anti-road protest veterans gave impetus to the campaign and introduced skills which would be put into practice in the construction of " defences ".

In the remaining fixtures the Shoguns started to open up defences and put the points on the board, including 47 against Sale Sharks, 40 against Gloucester and 38 against recently crowned champions Leicester Tigers.

This is to counter repeated defences of " innocent dealing " as may be put forward by dishonest pawnbrokers.

Moving forward at speed up the flank with the ball, Barton was a constant threat to defences because, given the chance to put the ball into the box, his accuracy was unerring.

This put him in responsibility of the defences there ( Sandown, Carisbrooke and Yarmouth Castles ), but also gave him access to the very lucrative vice-admiralty of the Isle of Wight, Newport and Hampshire, with two-thirds of the value of all prizes taken there due to him.

Since then, sea defences have been put in place and many precautions have been made to avoid flooding.

Waffen SS General Karl Pfeffer-Wildenbruch, the commander of the IX Waffen SS Alpine Corps, was put in charge of the city's defences.