Bridgehead

Bridgeheads were vital wherever a front ran along rivers. In 1914 the Russians held bridgeheads on the left bank of the Vistula at Dęblin and Kozienice, and in the following years there was fighting for bridgeheads on the Dniester, the Isonzo, the Piave and the Siret. The Austrians also defended permanent fortified bridgeheads, such as Tolmin on the Isonzo. A bridgehead gave an attacker room to build bridges and bring larger forces across, and a defender the chance to counter-attack over the river.

The word was also used for narrow strips of coast taken in a landing, as on the Gallipoli peninsula in 1915. After the Armistice of 1918 the Allies occupied bridgeheads on the right bank of the Rhine around Cologne, Koblenz and Mainz.