Czech hedgehog
Encyclopedia
The Czech hedgehog or ježek, was a static anti-tank
Tank
A tank is a tracked, armoured fighting vehicle designed for front-line combat which combines operational mobility, tactical offensive, and defensive capabilities...

 obstacle defence made of angled iron
Iron
Iron is a chemical element with the symbol Fe and atomic number 26. It is a metal in the first transition series. It is the most common element forming the planet Earth as a whole, forming much of Earth's outer and inner core. It is the fourth most common element in the Earth's crust...

 (that is, lengths with an L- or H- shaped cross section) deployed during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

 by various combatants.

The hedgehog is very effective in keeping tanks from getting through a line of defence. It maintains its function even when tipped over by a nearby explosion. Although it may provide some scant cover for infantry
Infantry
Infantrymen are soldiers who are specifically trained for the role of fighting on foot to engage the enemy face to face and have historically borne the brunt of the casualties of combat in wars. As the oldest branch of combat arms, they are the backbone of armies...

, infantry forces are generally much less effective against fortified defensive positions than mechanized units.

History

The Czech hedgehog's name refers to its origin in what is now the Czech Republic
Czech Republic
The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....

. The hedgehogs were originally used on the Czech-German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 border by the Czechoslovak border fortifications
Czechoslovak border fortifications
The Czechoslovak government built a system of border fortifications from 1935 to 1938 as a defensive countermeasure against the rising threat of Nazi Germany that later materialized in the German offensive plan called Fall Grün...

 - a massive but never-completed fortification
Fortification
Fortifications are military constructions and buildings designed for defence in warfare and military bases. Humans have constructed defensive works for many thousands of years, in a variety of increasingly complex designs...

 system built on the eve of World War II by Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...

. The fortification system fell to Germany in 1938 after the occupation of the Sudetenland
Sudetenland
Sudetenland is the German name used in English in the first half of the 20th century for the northern, southwest and western regions of Czechoslovakia inhabited mostly by ethnic Germans, specifically the border areas of Bohemia, Moravia, and those parts of Silesia being within Czechoslovakia.The...

 as a consequence of the Munich Agreement
Munich Agreement
The Munich Pact was an agreement permitting the Nazi German annexation of Czechoslovakia's Sudetenland. The Sudetenland were areas along Czech borders, mainly inhabited by ethnic Germans. The agreement was negotiated at a conference held in Munich, Germany, among the major powers of Europe without...

.

Czech hedgehogs were widely used during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

 by the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

 in anti-tank defence. They were produced from any sturdy piece of metal and sometimes even wood, including railroad ties. Czech hedgehogs were especially effective in urban combat, where a single hedgehog could block an entire street. Czech hedgehogs thus became a symbol of "defence at all cost" in the Soviet Union; hence the memorial to Moscow defenders, built alongside M-10 in 1966, is composed of three giant Czech hedgehogs.

However, in some forms of warfare, Czech hedgehogs proved to be less effective. They were often made larger than they should have been, and although they were quite useful in urban warfare, there was little use of German armour in urban warfare in Russia.

Czech hedgehogs were part of the defences of the Atlantic Wall
Atlantic Wall
The Atlantic Wall was an extensive system of coastal fortifications built by Nazi Germany between 1942 and 1944 along the western coast of Europe as a defense against an anticipated Allied invasion of the mainland continent from Great Britain.-History:On March 23, 1942 Führer Directive Number 40...

 and are visible in many images of the Normandy invasion.

Technical details

Technically, a Czech hedgehog made to specifications could be constructed from any material capable of withstanding at least 60 tonne-forces (588.4 kN), while being at most 1.4 metre high. However, such parameters were hard to achieve in makeshift hedgehogs, reducing their usefulness.

The hedgehog is not supposed to be an immovable obstacle because of its size or weight. The proper size is to be slightly larger than the clearance under the enemy tank, so that a tank that attempts to move the hedgehog would instead roll on top of the hedgehog and get stuck.
Industrially manufactured Czech hedgehogs were made of three L-shaped metal brackets (L 140/140/13 mm, length 1.8 metre, weight 198 kilograms (436.5 lb); later versions: length 2.1 metre, weight 240 kilograms (529.1 lb)) joined by sheet metal
Sheet metal
Sheet metal is simply metal formed into thin and flat pieces. It is one of the fundamental forms used in metalworking, and can be cut and bent into a variety of different shapes. Countless everyday objects are constructed of the material...

, rivet
Rivet
A rivet is a permanent mechanical fastener. Before being installed a rivet consists of a smooth cylindrical shaft with a head on one end. The end opposite the head is called the buck-tail. On installation the rivet is placed in a punched or pre-drilled hole, and the tail is upset, or bucked A rivet...

s and bolts (or, later in the war, welded
Welding
Welding is a fabrication or sculptural process that joins materials, usually metals or thermoplastics, by causing coalescence. This is often done by melting the workpieces and adding a filler material to form a pool of molten material that cools to become a strong joint, with pressure sometimes...

 together) into a characteristic spatial three-armed cross. (This pattern forms the axes of an octahedron
Octahedron
In geometry, an octahedron is a polyhedron with eight faces. A regular octahedron is a Platonic solid composed of eight equilateral triangles, four of which meet at each vertex....

.) Two arms of the hedgehog were connected in the factory, while the third arm was connected on-site by an M20 bolt. The arms were equipped with square "feet" to prevent sinking into the ground, as well as a notch for attaching barbed wire
Barbed wire
Barbed wire, also known as barb wire , is a type of fencing wire constructed with sharp edges or points arranged at intervals along the strand. It is used to construct inexpensive fences and is used atop walls surrounding secured property...

.

During the Normandy Invasion the allies cut up several hedgehogs and welded them to the front of M4 Sherman tanks and M5 Stuart tanks. Known as the Rhino tank
Rhino Tank
The Rhino tank was the American nickname for Allied tanks fitted with bocage breaching "tusks" during the Second World War Battle of Normandy, which took place during the Liberation of France in the summer of 1944...

 it proved very useful for clearing the hedgerows that made up the bocage
Bocage
Bocage is a Norman word which has entered both the French and English languages. It may refer to a small forest, a decorative element of leaves, a terrain of mixed woodland and pasture, or a type of rubble-work, comparable with the English use of 'rustic' in relation to garden...

s across Normandy
Normandy
Normandy is a geographical region corresponding to the former Duchy of Normandy. It is in France.The continental territory covers 30,627 km² and forms the preponderant part of Normandy and roughly 5% of the territory of France. It is divided for administrative purposes into two régions:...

.
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