Blockhouse facts for kids
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In military science, a blockhouse is a small fortification. It usually has one or more rooms with loopholes, allowing its defenders to fire rifles or handguns in various directions. It usually refers to an isolated fort in the form of a single building. It serves as a defensive strong point against any enemy that does not possess siege equipment or, in modern times, artillery. A fortification intended to resist these weapons is more likely to qualify as a fortress or a redoubt.
In modern times, it may be a pillbox, a small underground bunker. However, a blockhouse may also refer to a room within a larger fortification, usually a battery or redoubt. The term "blockhouse" is of uncertain origin, perhaps related to Middle Dutch blokhus and 18th-century French blocus (blockade).
Images for kids
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Completed in 1750, Fort Edward in Nova Scotia, Canada is the oldest remaining military blockhouse in North America.
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Reconstructed European wooden keep at Saint-Sylvain-d'Anjou, France, has a strong resemblance to a North American western frontier log blockhouse
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The Henrican blockhouse at Mount Edgcumbe near Plymouth, Devon, which is believed to date from circa 1545
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A 19th-century-era block house in Fort York, Toronto
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Sentinel Blockhouse in Burgersdorp
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The Admiralty Citadel, St James' Park, London, in 2008
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A German-built Flakturm (Flak tower) in the Augarten Vienna, Austria
See also
In Spanish: Blocao para niños
