The chevaux de frise — literally "Frisian horses," named for the Dutch province where they were first improvised — was the eighteenth-century commander's tool for slowing or breaking an enemy advance. A heavy timber beam set with crossing rows of sharpened stakes radiating outward, it was used to plug breaches in fortifications, block road defiles, defend gaps between earthworks, and present a fixed obstacle that infantry had to either lift or skirt — the latter sending them across the defenders' clear fields of fire. Continental engineers built massive submerged versions in the Delaware River channel during the autumn of 1777 to puncture British ship hulls below the waterline, and the same pattern in field-portable form appeared at Saratoga, the redoubts at Brooklyn Heights, and the Yorktown siege lines. This 2-piece W. Britain set works as a defensive line for the Continental Line standing defending figure or the hunting-shirt charging Continental crossing the obstacle, and serves as a Delaware-campaign reference paired with the Regal Enterprises Pennsylvania State Marines who defended Fort Mercer behind exactly these obstacles in October 1777.

Set Number: 51013 / W. Britain Scenic / 1/30 (60mm) scale / matte finish / 2-piece set / 4.5"L x 2"D x 2"H