Dugout is a field shelter that serves to protect the military from the damaging factors of enemy weapons, as well as a safe place to rest and sleep. It is made in the form of a recess in the ground. The floor, walls and ceiling are made of wooden flat boards or logs. But if there are no trees nearby, then the dugout is laid out of stone. From above, the structure is sheathed with a protective metal flooring, which is able to withstand a direct hit by a projectile and save soldiers from inevitable death. This whole structure is covered with a layer of turf for masking.
Furniture in the dugout consists mainly of bunk beds, a large table and long benches built from the same boards used to build the shelter.
The dugout can be supplied with electricity, ventilation and a heating device. But any attempt to make it more comfortable for soldiers to live reduces the percentage of protection, for example, from radioactive fallout after an explosion. And the stove flooded in winter for heating the underground premises with treacherous black smoke against the background of white snow will tell the enemy about the location of the soldiers' shelter. The more airtightdugout, the more reliable its protection from the consequences of the explosion, so it has no windows or doors. It cannot be fired upon or used for military operations, it can only take cover.
Material
Typically, a military dugout is a hastily built shelter that uses material available near military operations. Modern dugouts are made from ready-made materials, such as arc-shaped steel sheets, which, when assembled, represent a circle. It is psychologically difficult to be in a metal shelter: there is a feeling of a sealed pit sealed on all sides.
Depending on the number of people involved in the construction, it can take from two to four days to create it.
The flooring that performs the function of protection is made of steel or any durable material that can withstand a powerful blast wave.
Capacity
Maximum capacity is usually up to eight people per dugout. These are very small structures that are built 20-30 pieces on the line of contact with the enemy. The distance from one dugout to another is several meters. They are not united with each other, and the exit from each dugout is located on the side most protected from the enemy.
Origin of the word
The meaning of the word blindage is rooted in France. Translated from French, it means "to cover with barriers." Dugouts have always been used in military conflicts on both sides of hostilities. Themwere built not only to shelter the fighting soldiers, but also located in them field hospitals, military headquarters, warehouses with ammunition and food.
By the type of construction dugouts are of two types: hidden in the ground and half buried. Basically, they built the first option so that the enemy would not find shelter, the location of which was considered a military secret for the opposing side. The enemy should not have known where the dugouts were located in order to eliminate the risk of targeted bombing.
The dugouts in which ammunition was stored were built away from shelters for soldiers to rest.
Finds of treasure hunters
Until now, in the dense forests, you can find a shelter that has been preserved since the Second World War, in which there are objects of that time. The German dugout was built from more durable materials, and sometimes from double reinforced concrete decking, so such shelters have been perfectly preserved in their original form, despite the decades.
Metal detectors of treasure lovers often react to iron spoons, thermoses, bullets and orders buried in the dugouts of German soldiers. To this day, they find the remains of warehouses - former dugouts with ammunition, where sappers immediately begin to work.
The Russian dugout is a less durable structure, unlike the German one, because it was built in 2-3 days, and often already in the process of fighting.
