The Art of the Siege
GRUBER, RUTH ELLEN
LETTER FROM PARIS The Art of the Siege By Ruth Ellen Gruber Paris Perhaps it is because I lived in Belgrade during the late 1970s, and spent much time there and elsewhere in the former...
...Within 100 years the landscape of many European cities was radically transformed...
...The use of the term "air strikes" to describe what amounts to siege warfare emphasizes the pilots' and generals' remoteness: I somehow want them to smell what passes today for cordite...
...The long, recently revampedgallery houses two dozen extraordinary scale models of French towns and cities that were used by military strategists to devise and improve fortifications against siege attacks...
...trees and bushes on city streets...
...Eventually, the collection encompassed four main frontier areas exposed to various enemy forces...
...But events in Yugoslavia inevitably changed my focus, not least because amid the exhibits war takes on an immediacy that is totally lacking in computer generated air strikes...
...Then technological innovations radically altered the face of battle and made immense antisiege defenses obsolete...
...It all began with a model of Dunkirk, ordered in 1668 by Louis XIV's Minister of War, the Marquis de Louvois...
...In some instances the surrounding countryside, too, is shown in exquisite detail...
...Viewing the reproductions of the cities and of the attack plans, one is unavoidably struck by the close quarters of battle...
...The reliefs were created by generations of French military engineers from the mid-17th until the latter part of the 19th century...
...The models I described above of the successful siege attack seem especially relevant to the war now being waged in Yugoslavia...
...Yet the long-distance technology in use against the remnants of Yugoslavia is, in fact, simply the latest stage of centuries of military development...
...cobblestones and roof slates...
...A third covered coastal towns along the English Channel that defended France from Britain and Holland, and embraced such sites as Mont-SaintMichel and the forts of La Conchee and Cavagnac...
...Successive models show how the attackers countered new fortifications and initiated a system of protective trenches to carry out their assault...
...They show that even when the long guns did their intended damage and breached the bastions of the fortified city, real combat by soldiers facing soldiers was necessary to resolve the situation...
...Huge tracts of land around the fortifications were cleared of man-made structures and natural features, especially forests, to give defenders a clear view and line of fire for their defensive batteries...
...Built by armies of trained technicians and military engineers, they enabled French strategists to rehearse defense against all possible avenues of penetration, much as modern military planners use computer scenarios and virtual realities to anticipate and plan for every conceivable military contingency...
...LETTER FROM PARIS The Art of the Siege By Ruth Ellen Gruber Paris Perhaps it is because I lived in Belgrade during the late 1970s, and spent much time there and elsewhere in the former Yugoslavia throughout the '80s, that I find the NATO attackers' lack of intimacy with their targets disturbing...
...A 1749 drawing by Vigneaux shows a group of bewigged, bestockinged military planners examining a map of a fortified town in front of five reliefs in the ornate Grand Gallery...
...Some of the interiors, seen through open windows and doors, are also reproduced in fall...
...Those tactics foreshadowed the brutally static trench warfare that characterized the American Civil War and World War I. The two dozen models now on display at the Musée des PlansReliefs represent merely a small fraction of the scores that were constructed over the centuries, and only a quarter of its total holdings...
...The meticulous, breathtaking painted detail captures every facet of architectural construction and decoration: window frames and individual brickwork...
...One of them is a huge, elaborate model of a town and its fortifications in a dramatic, fully realized, mountain landscape...
...These exactingly detailed three-dimensional scale reproductions, embodying the height of contemporary military reconnaissance capabilities, were designed to make up for the shortcomings of traditional cartography...
...One was constructed in the late 17th century and consisted of sites along the vulnerable French-Spanish border in the Pyrenees, including Perpignan, Fort Lagarde and Fort les Bains...
...The models capture in wood, sand, silk, and paper both the dense urban core of the medieval towns and the massive, spreading, often star-shaped polygonal fortifications that increasingly ringed the old centers, reflecting the ever changing technology of war...
...Finally, there were the great commercial cities and ports of the Mediterranean—Antibes, for example, and Toulon, with its protective Fort Lamalgue and Fort Pomets...
...A little known Paris institution, the Musée des Plans-Reliefs, or Relief Plan Museum, puts the art of modern siege warfare into perspective...
...Initially, I was primarily interested in viewing the models for what they might reveal about shifting concepts of urban design and landscape setting...
...Until 1700 the models were all housed on the ground floor of the Tuileries palace, where they were maintained as classified exhibits for the eyes of the King and his top advisers alone...
...In 1777 the models were transferred to the Invalides, and in 1927 those that had survived all the moves and changing regimes were declared national historic monuments...
...At the beginning of the 18th century they were moved to the Grand Gallery of the Louvre, where they were mounted as marvels of military science for foreign dignitaries and strategists on visits authorized by the King...
...One of the most remarkable exhibitions at the museum demonstrates the different stages of an effective siege...
...Advances in artillery forced constant modifications and improvements in defenses, which in turn spurred development of stronger, more accurate guns...
...Ruth Ellen Gruber is a correspondent for THE NEW LEADER, based in Italy...
...Another took in the Atlantic coast, with sites such as Bayonne and Blaye, the citadel of Belle-Ile, and the small island fortresses of Re, Oleron and Aix...
...The model of Mont-SaintMichel even includes an elaborate miniature of an abbey altarpiece that no longer exists...
...Founded during World War II, in 1943, it occupies a floor above more grandly dramatic displays on Napoleon at the Hôtel des Invalides...
...each fence, hillock and row of corn in the surrounding countryside...
...One feels that both attacker and defender understood the natural terrain—and the damage that war would inflict...
...I learned about the museum somewhat by chance when I met its director at a conference here on cultural heritage preservation...
...The fine detail not only makes the models seem real but establishes a level of physical connectedness that is alarmingly absent in today's dry and distant reconnaissance reports...
Vol. 82 • May 1999 • No. 6
