blocking unit

plural blocking units

1. A unit of barrier troops; a military unit deployed behind or at the front line to shoot or otherwise prevent members of that military who attempt to desert.

   The blocking unit of the 62nd Army contained the retreat of these units and restored the position.

   2015 April 28, Jochen Hellbeck, Stalingrad: The City that Defeated the Third Reich, PublicAffairs, →ISBN, page 58

   2 more examples

   There were 87 recorded instances of blocking unit deployment in 483 pre–World War I observations[…]

   2017 November 9, Dan Reiter, The Sword's Other Edge: Trade-offs in the Pursuit of Military Effectiveness, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 92

   Dug in near Smolensk, he was a member of an NKVD blocking unit that marched behind the front lines. It was an innovation of the Soviet secret police designed to deter potential deserters,[…]

   2020, Alex Halberstadt, Young Heroes of the Soviet Union: A Memoir and a Reckoning, Random House, →ISBN, page 51