Intermodel Container Fortress

[kalos72]

Some of my players have had ideas of using containers as walls to quickly and easily build fortresses for smaller units. These forts would be bases to patrol from through out an area that either is not yet completely secured or one thats security needs to be higher then most for some reason.

They were thinking of taking 10+ containers, filling them with stripped cars or rubble, and building an outer wall. Then filling in the middle with rocks or dirt to create a flat area and then use another row of containers to form an inner wall of a smaller diameter.

There would be walking, possibly driving room along the outer edge of the inner wall.

They are assuming that they will not have to contend with artillery or heavy weapons and mostly the lose marauder band or rioting civilian group.

Sounds feasible to me considering the thousands of shipping containers the NYC area has but are they strong enough to be used as a fortification like that?

[pmulcahy11b]

That sound kind of like a stronger version of a house I saw on the Science Channel yesterday -- the walls are made of wood forms with highly-compacted dirt in them, and dirt's so compacted it's waterproof. Great for climate control within.

While you're at it, if you have enough containers, live in them.

I would guess they're pretty strong -- they have to stand up to being shipped all over the world filled with god knows what at whatever weight. Some are probably stronger than others, though.

[Legbreaker]

If there's no heavy weapons to contend with, why bother going up two levels and have to fill the interior?
Line the outer top edge of the containers with barbed wire with a wall of sandbags just inside the wire. That should leave a space for a walkway/crawlway. A few ladders scattered about and you've got access.

Another line of two of barbed wire outside should slow any attackers down enough for the oversized crossbows and heavy flamethrowers to deal with! (sorry, had a Mad Max 2 moment there...)

[kalos72]

They were concerned with the containers for a couple of reasons.

1 - Are the walls themselves thick enough to stop common rounds with perhaps a row of sandbags or rubble? I suggested a stripped dead vehicle inside to add both weight and mass...

2 - Could the containers be rammed by a vehicle and force the perimeter to collapse?

3 - Or even could they be pulled out of alignment and force the perimeter to collapse?

[Legbreaker]

A couple of rows of sandbags inside should both provide the necessary protection and anchor them to the ground. As a rough rule of thumb, one cubic metre of dirt is approximately a tonne of weight (depends a lot on soil composition, moisture content, etc).
If they're truely worried about the containers being rammed and shifted, there's nothing wrong with driving some posts into the ground behind them, even inside them to pin them to the ground. Might take a little effort, but still less than shifting litterally hundreds of tonnes of dirt.

If resources were available, plating the outer side of the containers with sheet steel might be a good idea too. Leaves the inside available for storage/living quarters. Piling dirt up against the outside would have the same effect and with barbed wire strewn over it, interspersed with mines and various other explosive goodness, climbers shouldn't be too much of an issue. The advantage of this is that the dirt has to come from somewhere - moat with antivehicular obstacles anyone?

[HorseSoldier]

I don't think a standard shipping container's walls will stop much of anything that's ballistically energetic, but agree that a double layer of sand bags inside would do the trick for a threat environment where you're 99% concerned with small arms fire.

A vehicle ramming the wall composed of a CONEX with double sand bags inside would likely be sufficient to knock a hole in the container. I'd suggest that's not a show stopper, just that phase 2 of the fortification plan is an effective anti-vehicle ditch or other obstacles. If you're just worried about civilian wheeled vehicles it need not be too involved, certainly not on the same level as a true anti-tank ditch. Depending on your manpower involved in setting up the position and equipment available, you could probably have your trench put in concurrently with siting the containers, and use the fill from the trench to do your sand bags.