(WWI ROUTE APP)

FORTIFICATION BUILDING OF THE FIRST WORLD WAR: GERMAN ARMY'S NORTH AND SOUTH ARTILLERY GUNS AND BATTERIES OF THE GERMAN ARMY

Artillery played an important role in the German defense system. At least 4 batteries were deployed on the Tilžė-Bartkoviščizna section , and the long-range firing battery was stationed in the Lipniškiu Manor. The positions here are casemate batteries that survived along with a complex of auxiliary buildings. Such a battery had two covered casemates for the guns and a safe room for the crew and ammunition. Casemate batteries made it possible to protect the guns not only from enemy fire, but also made them invisible to air reconnaissance.

A battery is an artillery or rocket fire and tactical combat unit, similar to a company in other types of military, usually armed with a single type of gun. A battery consists of 2-3 fire platoons and a command platoon or section. The batteries may have had a reconnaissance section. A battery often referred to a fortification occupied solely by artillery. It could be a part of a bastion or other fortification structure, a prepared position in ground field fortifications, etc.

Communication was critical to adjusting artillery fire. Wires were used first, they were routed between all units. Telephone communication was very vulnerable, especially in the shelling zone, so communication was 25-75 percent. Well- fortified lookouts appeared throughout this system . The "eyes" of artillery adjusters were especially important, the effectiveness of shooting depended on their ability. One such sight is the bunker of the First World War German Army's Kimbartiškė Artillery Position Tracking and Covering Post located on the hill nearby .

The northern and southern batteries of the artillery guns of the Kimbartiškė artillery position and the observatory on the hill are dated 1915-1918. Part of the positional front system of the German-Russian armies of the First World War. These fortification structures are included in the Register of Cultural Values.

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