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Henri Alexis Brialmont

1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

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His own service, as having undertaken the Bucharest works without the authorization of his sovereign. This was due in part to the suggestion of Austria, which power regarded the Bucharest works as a menace to herself. His services were, however, too valuable to be lost, and on his return to Belgium in 1884 he resumed his command of the Antwerp military district. He had, further, while in eastern Europe, prepared at the request of the Hellenic government, a scheme for the defence of Greece. He retired in 1886, but continued to supervise the Rumanian defences. He died on the 21st of September 1903.

In the first stage of his career as an engineer Brialmont's plans followed with but slight modification the ideas of Vauban, and his original scheme for fortifying Antwerp provided for both enceinte and forts being on a bastioned trace. But in 1859, when the great entrenched camp at Antwerp was finally taken in hand, he had already gone over to the school of polygonal fortification and the ideas of Montalembert. About twenty years later Brialmont's own types and plans began to stand out amidst the general confusion of ideas on fortification which naturally resulted from the introduction of long-range guns, and from the events of 1870-71. The extreme detached forts of the Antwerp region and the fortifications on the Meuse at Liege and Namur were constructed in accordance with Brialmont's final principles, viz. the lavish use of armour to protect the artillery inside the forts, the suppression of all artillery positions open to overhead fire, and the multiplication of intermediate batteries (see Fortification And Siegecraft). In his capacity of inspector-general Brialmont drafted and carried out the whole scheme for the defences of Belgium. He was an indefatigable writer, and produced, besides essays, reviews and other papers in the journals, twenty-three important works and forty-nine pamphlets. In 1850 he originated the Journal de l'armee Beige. His most important publications were La Fortification du temps present (Brussels, 1885); Influence du tir plongeant et des obus-torpilles sur la fortification (Brussels, 1888); Les Regions fortifiees (Brussels, 1890); La Defense des etats et la fortification a la fin du XIX' siecle (Brussels, 1895); Progres de la defense des etats et de la fortification permanente depuis Vauban (Brussels, 1898).