blocking unit

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

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

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

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

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

     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, […]