Fascine

A fascine (pronounced /fəˈsiːn/) is a rough bundle of brushwood or other material used for strengthening an earthen structure, or making a path across uneven or wet terrain.

Typical uses are protecting the banks of streams from erosion (a fascine mattress), covering marshland, or providing ground improvement in a manner similar to that of modern geotextiles.

In war they have often been used to help armies – in modern times, especially tanks and other vehicles – cross trenches, valleys, marshes, muddy or uneven terrain, etc.

Fascine bundles were used defensively for revetting (shoring up) trenches or ramparts, especially around artillery batteries, or offensively to fill in ditches and to cross obstacles on a battlefield.

[citation needed] Fascine bridges, a regularly attested feature of Roman military engineering, would have been widespread in the ancient world due to their usefulness and ease of construction.

In the Battle of Zela in 47 BCE, Caesar's legions worked overnight filling in whole valleys with "a great quantity of fascines" to quickly gain an advantageous position over the army of Pharnaces II of Pontus, removing them afterwards to protect their own camp.

[2] Subsequently, the use of fascines by military engineers continued almost wherever armies were deployed and could be an incredibly cheap and effective "weapon" during a siege, both for attackers and for defenders.

[citation needed] The pipe fascine was further developed in the British Army in the early 1980s to meet the challenges of assuring the mobility of movement in West Germany in the event of a NATO conflict with the Warsaw Pact.

[citation needed] The Royal Engineers Experimental Establishment at Christchurch did initial tests on the possible use of 23-centimetre (9 in) high-density plastic pipes held together with chains.