Weapons
Battering Ram [Go to Contents]
A battering ram is a weapon originating in ancient times to break open fortification walls or doors.
In its simplest form, a battering ram is just a large, heavy log carried by several people and propelled with force against an obstacle, the momentum of the ram being sufficient to damage the target.
Replica battering ram at Château des Baux, France
In a more sophisticed design, a battering ram was slung from a wheeled support frame by ropes or chains so that it could be much more massive and also more easily swung against its target. Sometimes the ram's attacking point would be reinforced with a metal head and vulnerable parts of the ram might be bound with metal bands. Many battering rams had protective roofs and side-screens covered in leather or other materials to prevent the ram being set on fire.
Some battering rams were not slung from ropes or chains but were instead supported by rollers. This gave the ram much greater travel so that it could achieve a greater speed before striking its target and was therefore more destructive. Such a ram, used by Alexander the Great, is described by the writer Vitruvius.
In castles, defenders attempted to foil battering rams by dropping obstacles in front of the ram just before it hit a wall, using grappling hooks to immobilize the log, setting the ram on fire, or sallying to attack the ram.
Variations on the battering ram included the drill, the mouse, and the pick. These were smaller than a ram and could be used in more limited spaces.
Legendary battering ram usage:
- Destruction of Jerusalem
- Used throughout the Crusades
- The fall of Rome
There exists a popular myth in Gloucester that the famous children's rhyme, Humpty Dumpty, is about a battering ram used in the siege of Gloucester in 1643, during the English Civil War. However the story is almost certainly untrue; during the siege, which lasted only one month, no battering rams were used, although numbers of cannon were. The idea seems to have originated in a spoof history essay by Professor David Daube written for The Oxford Magazine in 1956, which was widely believed despite obvious improbabilities (e.g. planning to cross River Severn by running the ram down a hill at speed, although the river is naturally about 30 m (100 feet) wide at this point).
Ballista [Go to Contents]
The ballista is a powerful weapon resembling a giant crossbow, to eject heavy darts singly or in groups. It is also sometimes referred to as a bolt thrower.
A Ballista
Roman ballistae fired large stones, rather than bolts. Ballistae in the Middle Ages launched bolts, and were thought to have inspired the European crossbow, though 5th century Chinese crossbows may have also been a factor in the development of these weapons and bolt-throwing ballista.
A ballista's arms are wood, each supported by being spun into the middle of a large rope. The ropes (one per arm) are the springs of the ballista. The ropes are made of animal sinew. When the bow-arms are pulled back, they twist the ropes. Winches pull the bowstring back.
The ballista was a very accurate weapon, but it had to compromise its accuracy for range. The lightweight bolts could not gain the high momentum of the stones thrown by onagers, trebuchets, or catapults — these could be as heavy as 200–300 pounds (90–135 kg).
The precise design of ballistae was a triumph of ancient engineering and mathematics. The surviving manuals provide exact measurements and calculations for building ballistae of any size.
The first known appearance was in Syracuse, Italy, around 400 BC.
Its wider development was in the Middle Ages. The catapult was an evolution of the ballista.
A relatively small-scale ballista (nine feet long). Note that the torsion springs are shorter than would be historically accurate.
Catapult [Go to Contents]
Catapults are siege engines using an arm to hurl a projectile a great distance. Any machine that hurls an object can be considered a catapult, but the term is generally understood to mean medieval siege weapons.
Replica catapult at Château des Baux, France
The name is derived from the Greek κατα (against) and παλλειγ(to hurl (a missile)). Originally, "catapult" referred to a dart-thrower, while "ballista" referred to a stone-thrower, but over the years, the two terms have swapped meaning.
Catapults were usually assembled at the site of a siege, and an army carried few or no pieces of it with them because wood was easily available on site.
Types
Catapults can be classified according to the physical concept used to store and release the energy required to propel the projectile.
The first catapults were tensional catapults, developed from the Roman ballista. A member under tension propels the throwing arm, very much like a giant crossbow. A small simple version is used as a toy.
Subsequently, torsional catapults were developed, such as the mangonel and the onagerr. Mangonels have an arm with a bucket, cup, or most often a sling to hold the projectile at one end. The bottom end of the throwing arm is inserted in rope or fibers that are twisted, providing the force to propel the arm.
Finally, the last type of catapult is a trebuchet, which uses gravity rather than tension or torsion to propel the throwing arm. A falling counterweight pulls down the bottom end of the arm and the projectile is thrown from a bucket attached to a rope hanging from the top end of the arm, essentially like a sling attached to a giant see-saw. The counterweight is much heavier than the projectile.
History
In Europe, the first catapults appeared in later Greek times (400 BC-300 BC), early adopters being Dionysius of Syracuse and Onomarchus of Phocis. Alexander the Great introduced the idea of using them to provide cover on the battlefield in addition to using them during sieges.
Catapults were more fully developed in Roman and Medieval times, with the trebuchet being introduced a relatively short time before the advent of gunpowder, which made the catapult obsolete.
During medieval times, catapults and related siege machines were the first weapons used for biological warfare. The carcasses of diseased animals and those who had perished from the Black Death or other diseases were loaded up and then thrown over the castle's walls to infect those barricaded inside. There have even been recorded instances of beehives catapulted over castle walls.
Siege Tower [Go to Contents]
A siege tower is a specialized siege engine, constructed to protect assailants and ladders whilst approaching the defensive walls of a fortification. The tower was often rectangular with four wheels and a height roughly equal to that of the wall or sometimes higher to allow archers to stand on top of the tower and fire into the fortification.
The Helepolis was a particularly large type of siege tower.
Used throughout antiquity in both the Far East and Europe, siege towers were of unwieldy dimensions and therefore mostly constructed on site of the siege. The target of the siege would usually not see the siege tower approaching and would be caught off guard. Taking a lot of time to construct, siege towers were mainly constructed if the defense of the opposing fortification could not be overcome by ladder assault, by sapping or by breaking walls or gates.
The siege tower sometimes housed knights, or crossbowmen who shot arrows at the defenders. Because of the size of the tower it would often be the first target of cannons or any other heavy projectiles, but it had its own projectiles to fight back with.
Siege towers were sometimes used to enable millitary troops to enter enemy fortifications. When a siege tower was near a wall, it would drop a gangplank between it and the wall. Troops could then rush onto the walls and into the castle or city.
Trebuchet [Go to Contents]
A trebuchet is a medieval siege engine, a weapon employed either to batter masonry or to throw projectiles over walls. The name engine was derived from the Latin word ingenium meaning ingenious device.
Trebuchet at Château des Baux, France
The trebuchet was a development of the Chinese traction trebuchet. In the traction trebuchet a large crew of men pulled down on ropes to propel the missile. In the European trebuchet these men were replaced with a large fixed or pivoting counterbalance weight.
Trebuchets are often referred to as a variety of catapult, though it would be more correct to describe them as a scaled-up sling.
Action of the trebuchet
Three-quarter view of a trebuchet
A trebuchet is moved by a counterweight. The axle of the arm is near the top of a high strutted vertical frame. The shorter arm of the balance carries the counterweight and the longer arm the sling that carries the shot. The sling is usually braided from rope, and has a captive end attached to the arm, and a free end whose loop slips from a hook. A trigger, usually a toggle in a chain, holds the arm down after the trebuchet is cocked. Cocking is often performed with windlasses. The cocking sometimes was assisted by removing some or all of the stones or sand that acted as the counterweight. Because of the long winding time, a trebuchet's rate of fire was extremely slow, often not more than a couple of shots an hour. Yet some of the smaller types of trebuchets could fire a couple times a minute.
In operation the long, nonweighted end is pulled toward the ground, and held by a trigger. When the trigger is released, the arm pulls the sling out of a channel in the base of the frame. When the ball moves close to the top of its arc, the free end of the sling slips from the hook, and the missile flies free. The trebuchet's arm and frame then oscillate for several cycles.
Side view of a trebuchet
The efficiency of a trebuchet can be improved by helping the weight to fall more nearly straight down. One method is to place the weight in a swinging or jointed bucket. The sand or stones in the bucket can also be less expensive than fixed metal weights, as well as being easier to gain access to on site. Another trick is to place the supporting frame of the trebuchet on wheels. These improvements may improve overall throwing distance.
Aiming a trebuchet is best practiced with a scale model. Usually small adjustments in elevation can be made by changing the angle of the hook holding the free end of the sling, a process which requires a heated forge on a full-scale engine. For larger, quicker adjustments, the length of the sling can be altered. The perfect release angle is when the missile will fly at roughly 45 degrees, because this optimizes range. After the desired range is achieved, the trebuchet can be moved toward or away from the target. Small adjustments from side-to-side can be made by moving the channel in which the missile and sling slide in the base of the frame.
Trebuchets were formidably powerful weapons, but relatively short-ranged compared to later gunpowder artillery, with a range of up to about 200 yards. Castle designers often built their fortifications with trebuchets in mind; for instance, Caerphilly Castle in Wales was surrounded by artificial lakes to keep besiegers and their siege weapons at a distance. The range of most trebuchets was in fact shorter than that of an English longbow in skilled hands, making it somewhat dangerous to be a trebuchet operator during a siege. This meant that sieges could be long drawn-out affairs, sometimes lasting for years at a time.
The payload of a trebuchet was usually a large rounded stone, although other projectiles were occasionally used: dead animals, the severed heads of captured enemies, barrels of burning tar or oil, or even unsuccessful negotiators catapulted alive.
The largest trebuchets could weigh dozens of tons. Not surprisingly, they were not readily transportable and instead had to be built on the spot where they were to be used.
Usage of the trebuchet
The trebuchet is thought to have been invented in China between the 5th and 3rd centuries BC, and reached Europe around 500 AD .
Trebuchets were first used in Italy at the end of the 12th century, and were introduced to England in 1216 during the Siege of Dover.
Due to the increasing popularity of gunpowder, the trebuchet lost its place as the siege engine of choice to the cannon. The last historically recorded military use was by Hernán Cortés, whose gunpowder was in short supply, at the 1521 siege of the Aztec capital Tenochtitlán. This trebuchet was shot once, due to a severe miscalculation. According to popular myth, the trebuchet's first projectile landed right on the device, destroying it. It is also somewhat unclear from the sources as to what kind of contraption was actually built. Whether it was an actual trebuchet or merely a catapult is unclear.
Trebuchets in contemporary culture
A simulation of trebuchets in action can be seen on TV and in movies. Northern Exposure aired an episode in their 3rd season entitled "Burning Down the House" (Original Air Date: February 3, 1992) - and again in their 4th season, called "Heroes" (Original Air Date: October 19, 1992) - in which they fling a piano and a coffin, respectively.
In the 1999 French film The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc (Jeanne d'Arc) by Luc Besson, a trebuchet was built and put into action for several war scenes, related to the seat of the city of Orléans by English invaders during the Hundred Years' War.
In the 2003 film The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, the defenders of Minas Tirith fired their trebuchets from the top of the city's walls. Trebuchets were in fact used in this way as their recoil is less than that of a comparably sized torsion weapon.
Another recent cinematic depiction of trebuchets can be seen in the 2005 movie, Kingdom of Heaven.
In the computer game "Age of Empires II: Age of Kings" (Developed by Ensemble Studios), a trebuchet is the ultimate siege unit and is produced only from castles.
Today, people still build and use trebuchets as a hobby. For example, the Punkin Chunkin competition, an annual competition to throw pumpkins for distance, has a trebuchet category. Modern hobbyist trebuchets sometimes replace the counterweight with banks of springs.
The United States organization, Science Olympiad, hosts a "Storm the Castle" event for middle and high school students involving the trebuchet. The competitors build a small trebuchet (maximum one meter square footprint, 75cm high) and fire projectiles at targets of varying distances. In the 2005 Science Olympiad season, the middle school team from Solon, Ohio won first place for Division B.
On the ABC hit television drama, Lost, the first-season episode "Deus Ex Machina" features a lesson about the construction and use of the trebuchet, as the plane crash survivors build one in an attempt to gain entry into a mysterious hatch in the soil of the island where they are stranded.
Variants
If instead of using a counterweight, the spoke is pulled by 2 or more people, the trebuchet is called a traction trebuchet or perrier.
A very recent development is
the floating arm trebuchet, where the counterweight drops down
vertically.
Another is the so-called F2K trebuchet, in which the counterweight
drops vertically and the arm has an extra set of rollers for smoother
transition of energy from the counterweight to the arm. Both of these types
of trebuchet are more efficient than the standard Fixed-Axle trebuchet.
Greek Fire [Go to Contents]
Greek Fire (also called Byzantine Fire, wildfire and liquid fire) was a weapon used by the Byzantine Empire, said to have been invented by a Syrian Christian refugee named Kallinikos (Callinicus) of Heliopolis (Syria), probably about 673. Some people believe that he acquired this knowledge from the chemists of Alexandria. It was capable of discharging a stream of burning fluid, and was very effective both on sea and land, but it was used primarily at sea. It is rumored that the key to Greek Fire's effectiveness was that it would continue burning under almost any conditions, even under water. Enemy ships were often afraid to come too near the Byzantine fleet because, once within range, the fire gave the Byzantines a strong advantage.
Depiction of Greek Fire in the Madrid Skylitzes manuscript
Byzantine fire was largely responsible for many Byzantine military victories, and partly the reason for the Empire surviving as long as it did, particularly near the end of the Empire when there were not enough inhabitants of the empire to effectively defend it. It was first used to repel the Arab siege of Constantinople in 674-677 (battle of Syllaeum), and 717-718, against the Varangians (Vikings) in 941 and against the Venetians during the Fourth Crusade. It quickly became one of the most fearsome weapons of the medieval world; the mere sight of any sort of siphon, whether it was used for Greek Fire or not, was often enough to defeat an enemy. It was, however, hard to control, often accidentally setting Byzantine ships on fire as well.
Manufacture
The ingredients, process of manufacture and usage were a very carefully guarded military secret, so secret it remains a source of speculation to this day. It may have been a mixture of sulfur, quicklime, and liquid petroleum. It is not clear if it was ignited by a flame as the mixture emerged from the syringe, or if it ignited spontaneously when it came into contact with water. If the latter is the case, it is possible that the active ingredient was calcium phosphide, made by heating lime, bones and charcoal. On contact with water, calcium phosphide releases phosphine, which ignites spontaneously.
These materials were apparently heated in a cauldron, and then pumped out through a siphon or large syringe, known as a siphonarios mounted on the bow of the ship. It could also be used in hand grenades, made of earthenware vessels.
Testimony
The Memoirs of Jean de Joinville, a thirteenth century French nobleman, include these observations of Greek Fire during the Seventh Crusade:
"It happened one night, whilst we were keeping night-watch over the tortoise-towers, that they brought up against us an engine called a perronel, (which they had not done before) and filled the sling of the engine with Greek fire. When that good knight, Lord Walter of Cureil, who was with me, saw this, he spoke to us as follows: "Sirs, we are in the greatest peril that we have ever yet been in. For, if they set fire to our turrets and shelters, we are lost and burnt; and if, again, we desert our defences which have been entrusted to us, we are disgraced; so none can deliver us from this peril save God alone. My opinion and advice therefor is: that every time they hurl the fire at us, we go down on our elbows and knees, and beseech Our Lord to save us from this danger."
"So soon as they flung the first shot, we went down on our elbows and knees, as he had instructed us; and their first shot passed between the two turrets, and lodged just in front of us, where they had been raising the dam. Our firemen were all ready to put out the fire; and the Saracens, not being able to aim straight at them, on account of the two pent-house wings which the King had made, shot straight up into the clouds, so that the fire-darts fell right on top of them."
"This was the fashion of the Greek fire: it came on as broad in front as a vinegar cask, and the tail of fire that trailed behind it was as big as a great spear; and it made such a noise as it came, that it sounded like the thunder of heaven. It looked like a dragon flying through the air. Such a bright light did it cast, that one could see all over the camp as though it were day, by reason of the great mass of fire, and the brilliance of the light that it shed."
"Thrice that night they hurled the Greek fire at us, and four times shot it from the tourniquet cross-bow."