Description

Concertina Wire

Concertina wire is a type of barbed wire or razor wire that is formed in large coils which can be expanded like a concertina. In conjunction with plain barbed wire and steel pickets, it is used to form military wire obstacles.

 Concertina wire packs flat for ease of transport, but can then be deployed as an obstacle much more quickly than ordinary barbed wire.Today, concertina wire is factory made and is available in forms that can be deployed very rapidly from the back of a vehicle or trailer.

Concertina wire is sometimes mistakenly called constantine wire. "Constantine" probably came from corruption/misunderstanding of "Concertina" and led to confusion with the Roman Emperor Constantine. This in turn has led to some people trying to differentiate between concertina wire and "constantine" wire by assigning the latter term to what is commonly known as razor wire. In contrast to the double-helical construction of concertina wire, as shown being deployed by soldiers in the image, razor wire, or less commonly "constantine wire", consists of a single wire with projecting teeth periodically along its length.