fougasse
fougasse
this defensive weapon is a landmine constructed by military engineers and fired by the defenders lighting a fuse. a fougasse consists of a pit, sometimes dug at an angle, with gunpowder packed into the bottom and suitably wrapped to keep it dry. the hole is then backfilled with rubble and stones, taking care not to break the fuse, creating a huge “canister shot” weapon. any enemies caught by the explosion are blown to smithereens by the blast. damp, of course, will cause the fougasse to misfire, like any other gunpowder weapon.
historically, a later and nastier, refinement used a flintlock mechanism to fire the charge. as well as making the explosion more reliable, this allowed military engineers to turn the fougasse into a booby trap. a piece of twine tied to the trigger acted as a tripwire:an unfortunate booby then stumbled and fired the device into himself and his nearby comrades.
during the 20th century, the fougasse was refined into a flamethrower by burying oil drums on top of the explosives. and at the time of writing, the fougasse remains in use, as only one of the ieds(improvised explosive device) used by insurgents against occupying forces in iraq
这种防御性武器是一种简易的原始地雷，在战前由工兵埋设并在恰当的时机点燃引信引爆。埋设地雷方法很简单：在地上挖一个与地面成一定角度的洞，把黑火药包好（防止火药受潮）放在洞底，然后把引信牵出来，拉到引爆者手里，最后用碎石块把洞填上，注意不要损坏引信，就行了。定向地雷的爆炸效果类似于特大号的霰弹：任何处于杀伤半径内的人都会被猛烈的爆炸和飞溅的碎石撕成碎片。当然，和其他火器一样，潮湿的天气经常导致地雷哑火。
后来的改进版定向地雷使用燧发装置引爆。绊索由合股细线制成，一头系在燧发装置的扳机上。只要某个呆头呆脑的倒霉蛋触动了绊索，剧烈的爆炸就会把他和他附近的同伴们掀上天。
在写这篇文章的时候，作为目前唯一仍在使用的ied（简易爆炸装置），定向地雷依然活跃在战场上。联军在伊拉克经常遭到恐怖分子埋设的ied的袭击。实际上，在伊拉克，死于ied的美军人数占总阵亡人数的40%以上，比死于战斗（32%）的还要多。
