fire step

plural fire steps · alternative firestep

1. historicalgovernmentA step or platform dug into the front side of a military trench - allowing soldiers to stand on it in order to fire over the parapet.

   We stood on the fire step with our heads over the top, peering out into No Man's Land.

   1917, Arthur Guy Empey, Over The Top

   2 more examples

   ‘One o' the men on the firestep was 'urt too, but they said it was only a nice blighty one.’

   1929, Frederic Manning, The Middle Parts of Fortune, Vintage, published 2014, page 101

   They spread the lime together, sprinkling it thickly along the firestep, throwing shovelfuls at a bad patch of wall.

   1991, Pat Barker, Regeneration (The Regeneration Trilogy), Penguin, published 2014, page 140