Landships II

Indeed there is Paul. Glancing at just the Instructions for Anti-Tank Defence (Provisional) reveals some unexpected nuggets.

The use of the Spanish or Portuguese word parados to mean (as a noun) something like "(a) stop", being specifically the loose earth from a ditch/obstacle trench piled up on the exit (defended) side of the barrier is new to me (let alone in an official Army Stationery Services publication). Why an Hispanic word, one wonders? Something originally to do with defences against infantry/cavalry assaults on rising ground would be logical, perhaps - in which case it probably goes back to the Peninsular Wars and the layered defences of the approaches to Lisbon emplaced by Wellington's armies.  So much for the British officer class being "donkeys".

The suggestion to keep a supply of 3-in Stokes mortar bombs in upper storey/floor rooms in defended villages to drop on enemy tanks passing beneath (reflecting German defensive tactics during the battle of Cambrai) suddenly has me wondering just how safe were the fuses of those things for firing from a mortar in the first place? - not to mention huge appreciation for the great coolness of nerve required from those defenders. Also, they would, of course, be well within the lethal range of such bombs when/if they detonated on hard surfaces, with only flimsy cover - sort of like Russian roulette, yet another thing to ponder, as they must have.

Steve (or Cmub, as that girl once wrote).