A caltrop is an area denial weapon made of several sharp spikes arranged so that one point always faces upward no matter how the device lands, historically scattered on the ground to injure the feet of horses, war elephants, and camels, or to puncture the tires of modern vehicles. The name comes from the Old English word for heel-trap and the Latin tribulus, and the Roman military writer Vegetius described Roman soldiers strewing caltrops across a battlefield to defend against scythed chariots and cavalry. Many cultures independently developed similar devices, including the Chinese jili and the Japanese makibishi, and modern militaries have continued to use caltrops and caltrop-like munitions, including aerial versions dropped by Germany in the Second World War and devices deployed by drones during the Russian invasion of Ukraine to disable vehicle tires.
Facts
Weapon Class
Weapon Class (category) Classification
Service Status Weapon Class Connections
Used In
Source Caltrop (Wikipedia)
Sources
1. Caltrop (Wikipedia)
Name section
A caltrop is an area denial weapon made up of usually four, but possibly more, sharp nails or spines arranged in such a manner that one of them always points upward from a stable base.
- Weapon class classified from the entity's own sourced description text.
- Weapon class (war-animal) is a pre-industrial/melee weapon type by its own nature per the entity's own sourced description text; not carried in current active military service.
Used In: World War II, Wikipedia article text
During the Second World War, large caltrop-shaped objects made from reinforced concrete were used as anti-tank devices, although it seems that these were rare.
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