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{{Short description|Warfare in urban areas}}
{{history of war}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=April 2024}}
'''Urban warfare''' is ] conducted in populated ]s such as ]s and ]. The ] term is '''MOUT''', or (Military Operations on Urban Terrain). The ] term is '''FIBUA''' (Fighting in Built-Up Areas), although it has been called OBUA (Operations in Built-Up Areas) and FISH (Fighting in Someones House) in the past. The term '''FOFO''' (Fighting in Fortified Objectives) is used when soldiers are involved in clearing enemy personnel from narrow and entrenched places like bunkers, trenches and strongholds, though FOFO also meant the dismantling of mines and wires, not to mention to secure footholds in enemy areas.
] ] during the 1989 ]]]
{{War}}
'''Urban warfare''' is warfare in urban areas such as towns and cities. Urban combat differs from combat in the open at both ] and the ] levels. Complicating factors in urban warfare include the presence of civilians and the complexity of the ]. Urban combat operations may be conducted to capitalize on strategic or tactical advantages associated with the possession or the control of a particular urban area or to deny these advantages to the enemy.{{sfn|Pike|2002}} It is considered to be arguably the most difficult form of warfare.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Spencer |first=John |date=March 4, 2020 |title=The City Is Not Neutral: Why Urban Warfare Is So Hard |url=https://mwi.westpoint.edu/city-not-neutral-urban-warfare-hard/ |access-date=2024-02-24 |website=Modern War Institute |language=en-US}}</ref><ref name=":0" />


Fighting in urban areas negates the advantages that one side may have over the other in armor, heavy artillery, or air support. Ambushes laid down by small groups of soldiers with handheld anti-tank weapons can destroy entire columns of modern armor (as in the ]), while artillery and air support can be severely reduced if the "superior" party wants to limit civilian casualties as much as possible, but the defending party does not (or even uses civilians as ]s).
Warfare inside a city is very different from a traditional open-field battle against a conventional army. A complicating factor of urban warfare is the presence of ]s, sometimes as combatants of various sorts, ranging from armed ]s and ] to people defending their homes against all comers, usually with many innocent non-combatants trying to stay out of the way of the battling forces. The military operations are also complicated by limited ] and fire because of buildings, large amounts of concealment and cover for defenders and the ease of placement of ]s and ]s. This brought a new force into military tactics.


Some civilians may be difficult to distinguish from such combatants as armed militias and gangs, and particularly individuals who are simply trying to protect their homes from attackers. Tactics are complicated by a three-dimensional environment, limited ] and ] because of buildings, enhanced concealment and cover for defenders, below-ground infrastructure, and the ease of placement of ]s and snipers.<ref>War in the Streets. The Story of Urban Combat from Calais to Khafji. by Colonel Michael. Dewar Hardcover – January 1, 1992 ({{ISBN|978-0-7153-9477-9}})</ref>
== Tactics ==


==Military terminology==
Traditional ] military operations often relied on large quantities of ] fire, which many modern armies will try to avoid as a way of reducing ]. A notable exception to this was the ]n attack on ] in which large amounts of artillery fire were used. The ] handled the issue of civilian casualities by warning that the city would be levelled and that any civilian should leave the city before the attack began.
]
Historically, the ] has referred to urban warfare as ''UO'' (urban operations),<ref>{{Cite book|last=Wahlman|first=Alec|title=Storming the City: U.S. Military Performance in Urban Warfare from World War II to Vietnam|publisher=University of North Texas Press|year=2015|page=99}}</ref> but this term has been largely replaced with ''MOUT'' (military operations in urban terrain).<ref>{{Cite book|last=Bowyer|first=Richard|title=Dictionary of Military Terms|publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing|year=2004|edition=3|page=162}}</ref>


The ] terms are ''OBUA'' (operations in built-up areas), ''FIBUA'' (fighting in built-up areas), or sometimes (colloquially) ''FISH'' (fighting in someone's house),<ref>{{cite news | title=The final battle for Basra is near, says Iraqi general | work=The Independent | date=March 24, 2008 | url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/the-final-battle-for-basra-is-near-says-iraqi-general-798409.html | access-date=2008-04-11 | location=London | first=Kim | last=Sengupta}}</ref> or ''FISH and CHIPS'' (fighting in someone's house and causing havoc in people's streets/public spaces).<ref>{{Citation |first=Chris |last=Hunter |year=2009 |orig-year=2007 |title=Eight Lives Down: The Most Dangerous Job in the World in the Most Dangerous Place in the World |edition=Delta Trade Paperback |publisher=] |isbn=978-0-553-38528-1 |page=204}}</ref>
Fighting in an urban landscape can offer some advantages to the weaker faction in a war against a stronger foe. This is due to several reasons:
#A populated city is much harder to conquer than an open field. This is because an invading force must expend massive amounts of manpower to secure a myriad of structures without indiscriminately bombing them.
#The urbanized city is much easier to defend because it has many tall buildings, narrow alleys and ] tunnels. The buildings can provide excellent sniping posts while the alleys are ideal for planting booby traps.
#] prohibits the use of heavy firepower and indiscriminate bombing in civilian-populated settings. Thus, the party barricading in a city will not have to face warplanes, ] and massive ] assault if it faces an army that cares to operate in a legal manner.


The term ''FOFO'' (fighting in fortified objectives) refers to clearing enemy personnel from narrow and entrenched places like bunkers, trenches and strongholds; the dismantling of mines and wires; and the securing of footholds in enemy areas.<ref> {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160207194756/http://www.specialoperations.com/Foreign/Singapore/Guards/Training/FOFO.htm |date=February 7, 2016 }} Retrieved December 7, 2007.</ref>
Nevertheless few would deliberately "choose" urban warfare: after all, the purpose of having an army is to prevent damages to one's own civilian population and infrastructure. It is always forced upon the weaker side of a conflict, and the best it can hope for is to make a virtue out of a necessity.


] calls urban warfare לש"ב (pronounced ''LASHAB''), a ] acronym for ''warfare on urban terrain''. LASHAB in the IDF includes large-scale tactics (such as use of heavy ]s, ]s, ]s for intelligence, etc.), ] training for fighting forces (how a small team of infantry soldiers should fight in close and built-up spaces). IDF's LASHAB was developed mainly in recent decades, after the ] included urban warfare in ] and Lebanese villages, and was further developed during the ] (2000–2005) in which IDF soldiers entered and fought in ] cities, villages and refugee camps. The IDF has a special large and advanced facility for training soldiers and units in urban warfare.<ref>{{cite web |title=Urban Warfare Training Center – Simulating the Modern Battle-Field |url=https://www.idf.il/en/minisites/training-and-preparation/urban-warfare-training-center-simulating-the-modern-battle-field/ |website=idf.il |date=October 26, 2011}}</ref>
] soldiers assault a fortified house in ] ] during the ] of ]]]
Since the ] most US casualties there have been in urban or sub-urban settings, despite the fact that the U.S. forces suffered very few casualties during the initial invasion. This demonstrates the difficulty even the best-equipped armies can face when forced to fight in close quarters.


== Urban operations ==
The ] developed special tactics of MOUT, resulting in very low casualties to the occupying force (about 250 soldiers in 4 years of fighting). These tactics include:
{{Further|Urban camouflage}}
* Non linear advance of forces, swarming the AO (area of operations) from all directions.
* Use of ]s and heavily-protected ] to ] troops and protect them from enemy's fire.
* Use of ] to:
*# clear path to friendly forces: both vehicles and infantry.
*# safely detonate ]s and ]s.
*# to battle gunmen barricading in rigged buildings.
*# destroy or create ground obstacles.
* Use of superior ] (CQB) technologies such as advanced ] sights, ] devices, ] and advanced ] systems.
* Use of ]s to provide intelligence and full battle picture.
* Use of ]s to target specific threats such as ]s and ] squads.
* Razing of large swaths of urban areas, thus levelling the battlefield
* Use of deathsquads to eliminate terrorist leaders and sympathisers before they can engage in urban warfare


] during the 1918 ] was the largest urban warfare in the ] war at the time, measured by the number of troops involved.<ref> (in Finnish)</ref> The picture shows the ruins of the city of ] after the battle.]]
==CQB==
] fight in the city of ] during ] in November 2004.]]
{{main|CQB}}


Urban military operations in ] often relied on large quantities of ] ] and ] varying from ] to ]. In the ], roughly 40% of battles took place in urban areas.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Kitfield |first=James C. |date=December 1, 1998 |title=War in the Urban Jungles |url=https://www.airandspaceforces.com/article/1298urban/ |access-date=2024-02-24 |website=Air & Space Forces Magazine |language=en-US}}</ref> In some particularly vicious urban warfare battles such as ] and ], all weapons were used irrespective of their consequences.{{Citation needed|date=December 2011}}
'''CQB''', and '''CQC''', are acronyms for '''Close Quarters Battle''' and '''Close Quarters Combat''' respectively, and refers to fighting methods within buildings, streets, narrow alleys and other places where visibility and maneuverability are limited.


Military historian ] noted the lethality of urban warfare in the Second World War, "When civilian met soldier in the confined landscapes, the death toll spiked, and it was no surprise that the greatest carnage of World War II—at ] and Stalingrad—was the result of efforts to storm municipal fortresses".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Hanson |first=Victor Davis |author-link=Victor Davis Hanson |title=The Second World Wars: How the First Global Conflict Was Fought and Won |publisher=Basic Books |year=2020 |isbn=978-1541674103 |edition=Reprint |location=New York |pages=210 |language=en}}</ref>
Both CQB and MOUT are related to ], but while MOUT refers mainly to the ] factor (i.e. sending troops, using of heavy ]s, battle management), CQB refers to the ] factor&mdash;namely: how a small squad of infantry troops should fight in urban environments and/or inside buildings in order to achieve its goals with minimal casualties.


However, when liberating occupied territory some restraint was often applied, particularly in urban settings. For example, ] in both ] and ] avoided the use of artillery altogether to spare civilians and buildings,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.canadiansoldiers.com/mediawiki-1.5.5/index.php?title=Ortona |publisher=canadiansoldiers.com |title= Ortona |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080109192120/http://www.canadiansoldiers.com/mediawiki-1.5.5/index.php?title=Ortona |archive-date=2008-01-09}}</ref><ref>"In spite of the severe fighting ... great crowds of (Dutch) civilians thronged the streets (of Groningen) — apparently more excited than frightened by the sound of nearby rifle and machine-gun fire. Out of regard for these civilians, the Canadians did not shell or bomb the city, thereby accepting the possibility of delay and additional casualties" {{harv|Stacey|1966|loc=Chapter XX: The Rhine Crossing and the 2nd Corps' Advance to the North Sea March 23-April 22, 1945}}</ref> and during the ] in 1945, ] initially placed a ban on artillery and air strikes to save civilian lives.
As a doctrine, '''CQB''' concerns topics such as:
:* ] and ] most suitable for the mission
:* Extra gear, such as ]s and ]
:* Accurate ]s
:* Routines and drills for engaging the enemy, securing a perimeter, clearing a room, etc.
:* Team maneuvers
:* Methods and ]


Military forces are bound by the ] governing ] to the amount of force which can be applied when attacking an area where there are known to be civilians. Until the 1970s, this was covered by the ] ''IV – The Laws and Customs of War on Land'' which specifically includes articles 25–27. This has since been supplemented by the ''Additional Protocols to the Geneva Conventions of August 12, 1949, and relating to the Protection of Victims of ] and ] Armed Conflicts''.
It should be noted that military CQB doctrine is different from police CQB doctrine, mainly because the military usually operates in hostile areas while the police operates within friendly populations.
]]]


Sometimes ] and ], as in the case of the Canadians in ], causes the attacking force to restrain from using all the force they could when attacking a city. In other cases, such as the ] and the ], both military forces considered evacuating civilians only to find it impractical.{{sfn|Beevor|2002|p=318}}
Armies that often engage in ] operation may train most of their infantry in CQB doctrine.


When Russian forces ] in 1999, they conducted a massive artillery and air bombardment campaign in an attempt to smash the city into submission. The ] handled the issue of civilian casualties by issuing an ultimatum urging citizens to leave or be destroyed without mercy.<ref name="apgrozny">{{Cite web |last=Bagrov |first=Yuri |title=Russia Warns Civilians in Chechnya |url=https://apnews.com/article/02b63bc318b64ac6893a700769d75158 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220302220409/https://apnews.com/article/02b63bc318b64ac6893a700769d75158 |archive-date=March 2, 2022 |website=Associated Press}}</ref> Leaflets dropped on the city read: '''You are surrounded, all roads to Grozny are blocked...Persons who stay in the city will be considered terrorists and bandits and will be destroyed by artillery and aviation. There will be no further negotiations. Everyone who does not leave the city will be destroyed'' '.{{sfn|BBC staff|1999|loc=Russia will pay for Chechnya}}<ref name="apgrozny"></ref>
== Famous urban battles in modern times ==
<!-- Add links to specific battles when available -->
* ], ] (]) (1942-1943)
* ], ] (] 1939, ] 1943, ] 1944)
* ], ] (1944)
* ], ] (1945). After a 14-week ] the city fell to Soviet troops. Almost 70% of ] was destroyed.
* ], ] (1945)
* ], ] (1950-1951)
* ] (1956-1962)
* ], ] (1968)
* ], ] (1980s) see: ]
* ], ] (1989)
* ], ] (1992-1995)
* ], ] (1996, 1999 and even today)
* ], ] (1992-1993)
* ], the ] (April 2002)
* ], ], (2004)(] and ])


], the capital of the Philippines, devastated during the Battle of Manila in 1945]]
== See also ==
Fighting in an ] can offer some advantages to a weaker defending force or to ] fighters through ambush-induced attrition losses. The attacking army must account for three dimensions more often,<ref>{{cite web | last = Staten | first = C.L. | date = March 29, 2003 | url = http://www.emergency.com/2003/urban_warfare_considerations.htm | title = Urban Warfare Considerations; Understanding and Combating Irregular and Guerrilla Forces During A "Conventional War" In Iraq | publisher = Emergency Response and Research Institute | access-date = 2006-07-22 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20060613032538/http://www.emergency.com/2003/urban_warfare_considerations.htm <!-- Bot retrieved archive --> |archive-date = 2006-06-13}}</ref> and consequently expend greater amounts of manpower to secure a myriad of structures, and mountains of rubble.
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ] (tactic)


] structures will be ruined by heavy bombardment, but it is very difficult to demolish such a building totally when it is well defended. ] had to fight room by room while defending the ] during the ], and in 1945, during the ] to ], despite heavy bombardment with artillery at point blank range (including ]).{{sfn|Beevor|2002|p=354,355}}
== External links ==
{{commons|Urban warfare}}
*
*
*


It is also difficult to destroy underground or heavily fortified structures such as ]s and utility tunnels; during the ] in 1944 fighting broke out in the sewers, as both Axis and Soviet troops used them for troop movements.<ref>{{Cite web |last= |date=June 12, 2006 |title=World War II: Siege of Budapest |url=https://www.historynet.com/world-war-ii-siege-of-budapest/ |access-date=2024-04-04 |website=HistoryNet |language=en-US}}</ref>
]


Analysts debate the scope and size of urban battles in the modern day, as they are unlikely to match the scale of battles in the Second World War. For example, professor Michael C. Desch states that while "enormous forces engaged on both sides in those battles may never be seen in high-intensity urban battles again", that "the large numbers of killed and wounded underline the basic fact that such conflict is extremely lethal", referencing the battles of Stalingrad and Berlin.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Desch |first=Michael |date=October 1, 2001 |title=Soldiers in Cities: Military Operations on Urban Terrain |url=https://press.armywarcollege.edu/monographs/52 |journal=Monographs, Collaborative Studies, & IRPs |publisher=US Army War College Press}}</ref> An article by the ] states that while lessons may be taken from Stalingrad, ultimately "Stalingrad took place in a theater with a large number of army groups with a total of a million soldiers involved on each side; modern armies are unlikely to fight with these numbers."<ref name=":3">{{Cite web |last1=Spencer |first1=John |last2=Geroux |first2=Jayson |date=June 28, 2021 |title=Urban Warfare Project Case Study #1: Battle of Stalingrad |url=https://mwi.westpoint.edu/urban-warfare-project-case-study-1-battle-of-stalingrad/ |access-date=2024-02-27 |website=Modern War Institute |language=en-US}}</ref>
{{Link FA|no}}


Many analysts, such as former American army general and ], ], and retired military officer and chairman of the urban warfare studies at the Modern War Institute, ] have predicted urban warfare to become the norm in wars.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Spencer |first=John |date=July 19, 2017 |title=The City Is the Battlefield of the Future |url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-city-is-the-battlefield-of-the-future-1500500905?mod=e2two |access-date=2024-02-28 |work=WSJ |language=en-US}}</ref><ref name=":1" /> Spencer confirmed this to be true in an article in 2024, providing a list of numerous urban battles in the recent decades of the 21st century alone, those being ], ], ], ], ], and now ], ], and ] in the 2020s.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |last=Spencer |first=John |date=February 9, 2024 |title=War Books: The Urban Battlefield of the Future |url=https://mwi.westpoint.edu/war-books-the-urban-battlefield-of-the-future/ |access-date=2024-02-21 |website=Modern War Institute |language=en-US}}</ref> In 2023, analyst Mikael Weissmann claimed that it is widely agreed upon that urban warfare will be the "battlefields of tomorrow".<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last=Weissmann |first=Mikael |date=2023 |title=Urban Warfare: Challenges of Military Operations on Tomorrow's Battlefield |url=https://academic.oup.com/book/45784/chapter/400599318 |access-date=2024-02-21 |website=academic.oup.com|doi=10.1093/oso/9780192857422.003.0007 |isbn=978-0-19-285742-2 }}</ref>
]

]
==Urban warfare tactics==
]

]
].]]
]

]
The characteristics of an average city include tall buildings, narrow alleys, ] tunnels and possibly a ] system. Defenders may have the advantage of detailed local knowledge of the area, right down to the layout inside of buildings and means of travel not shown on maps.{{Citation needed|date=December 2011}}{{See also|Tunnel warfare}}

The buildings can provide excellent ] posts while alleys and rubble-filled streets are ideal for planting ]s. Defenders can move from one part of the city to another undetected using tunnels and spring ]es.<ref>{{Cite web |last1=Spencer |first1=John |last2=Geroux |first2=Jayson |date=February 14, 2022 |title=Defending the City: An Overview of Defensive Tactics from the Modern History of Urban Warfare |url=https://mwi.westpoint.edu/defending-the-city-an-overview-of-defensive-tactics-from-the-modern-history-of-urban-warfare/ |access-date=2024-04-01 |website=Modern War Institute |language=en-US}}</ref>

Meanwhile, the attackers tend to become more exposed than the defender as they must use the open streets more often, unfamiliar with the defenders' secret and hidden routes. During a house to house search the attacker is often also exposed on the streets.{{Citation needed|date=December 2011}}

<gallery mode="packed">
File:Lokajski 002.jpg|] soldiers assault a fortified house in downtown ] during the ] of 1944
File:La Libération de Paris, 1944.ogv|Film ''"]"'' shot by the French Resistance of ], August 1944
File:1941. Бой на улицах Сталино.jpg|] street fighting in ], October 1941
</gallery>

===Battle of Monterrey, Mexico===

The ] was the U.S. Army's first major encounter with urban warfare. It occurred in September 1846 when the U.S. Army under ] invaded the town. The U.S. Army had no prior training in urban warfare and the Mexican defenders hid on rooftops, shot through loopholes, and stationed cannons in the middle of the city's streets. The houses at Monterrey were made of thick ], with strong double doors and few windows. The rooftops were lined with a two-foot-tall wall that acted as a parapet for the defending soldiers. Each home was a fort unto itself.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Glenn |first=Russell W. |date=March 6, 2023 |title=Monterrey, 1846: Still Offering Urban Combat Lessons after all these Years |url=https://smallwarsjournal.com/jrnl/art/monterrey-1846-still-offering-urban-combat-lessons-after-all-these-years |access-date=2024-04-01 |website=smallwarsjournal.com |language=en}}</ref>

On September 21, 1846, the U.S. Army which included some of its best soldiers, recent ] graduates, marched down the city's streets and were cut down by the Mexican defenders. They could not see the men hidden behind walls, loopholes, or rooftops. They tried to march straight down the street until the intense fire drove them to hide in adjacent buildings. Taylor tried to move artillery into the city but it could not hit the well-hidden defenders any better than the U.S. soldiers could. Two days later the US again assaulted the city from two sides and this time they fought differently.<ref>Urban Warfare – {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110707214318/http://www.battleofmonterrey.com/urbanwarfare.html |date=July 7, 2011 }}</ref>

Not wanting to repeat the mistakes of the 21st, General William Jenkins Worth listened to his Texan advisers. These men had fought in Mexican cities before at the ] in 1842 and the ] in 1835. They understood that the army needed to "]" through each house and root out the defenders in close combat.{{sfn|Dishman|2009|p={{Page needed|date=February 2012}}}}<ref name="ReferenceA">{{harvnb|Dishman|2010|p={{Page needed|date=February 2012}}}}</ref>

Worth's men used pick axes to chip holes in the adobe walls of the homes, in the roof of the house from where the soldiers could drop in, or used ladders to climb to the top of a rooftop and assault the Mexican defenders in hand-to-hand combat. The typical assault on a home would include one man who would run to the door of the house and chip the door away with a pick axe under covering fire. Once the door showed signs of weakening, 3–4 other soldiers would run to the door and barge in with revolvers blazing. Worth lost few men on the 23rd using these new urban warfare techniques.<ref name="ReferenceA"/>

===Battle of Stalingrad===
The ] is largely seen as the defining battle of urban warfare, with the battle commonly studied and referenced in studies of urban warfare. The battle was the single largest and costliest urban battle ever, with it being seen as the worst and most extreme case of urban warfare.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Intrec Inc |date=1974 |title=Weapons Effects in Cities. Volume 1 |url=https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/citations/ADB001990 |journal=Technical Report |via=DTIC}}</ref><ref name=":3" /> The Battle of Stalingrad saw all types of ''MOUT'' combat techniques.<ref name=":202">{{Cite journal |last1=McLaurin |first1=R. D. |last2=Jureidini |first2=Paul A. |last3=McDonald |first3=David S. |last4=Sellers |first4=Kurt J. |date=1987 |title=Modern Experience in City Combat |url=https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/citations/ADA180999 |journal=Technical Memorandum |via=DTIC}}</ref> Historian Iain MacGregor states that the "evolution of urban, house-to-house fighting and defending these buildings and built-up areas was seemingly born in Stalingrad in the winter of 1942".<ref name=":2">{{Cite book |last=MacGregor |first=Iain |title=The Lighthouse of Stalingrad: The Hidden Truth at the Centre of WWII's Greatest Battle |publisher=Scribner |year=2022 |isbn=978-1-9821-6358-7 |location=New York |pages=173 |language=en}}</ref> The battle "occupies a famous, notorious place in the history of war, particularly urban warfare. It seems to encapsulate and personify it, to provide an instinctive yardstick by which urban warfare can be examined, understood, defined, and assessed" according to military historian Stephen Walsh.<ref name=":12">{{Cite book |last=Walsh |first=Stephen |title=A History of Modern Urban Operations |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |year=2020 |isbn=978-3-030-27088-9 |editor-last=Fremont-Barnes |editor-first=Gregory |pages=55 |language=en |chapter=The Battle of Stalingrad, September–November 1942}}</ref>

The Soviets used the great amount of destruction to their advantage by adding man-made defenses such as barbed wire, minefields, trenches, and bunkers to the rubble, while large factories even housed tanks and large-caliber guns within.<ref name=":3" /> In addition, Soviet urban warfare relied on 20-to-50-man-assault groups, armed with machine guns, grenades and satchel charges, and buildings fortified as strongpoints with clear fields of fire.

===Battle of Berlin===
{{Main|Battle in Berlin}}

] after its capture in 1945]]

A Soviet combat group was a mixed arms unit of about eighty men, divided into ]s of six to eight men, closely supported by field artillery. These were tactical units which were able to apply the tactics of house to house fighting that the Soviets had been forced to develop and refine at each ''Festungsstadt'' (fortress city) they had encountered from Stalingrad to Berlin.{{sfn|Beevor|2002|p=317}}

]
The German tactics in the battle of Berlin were dictated by three considerations: the experience that the Germans had gained during five years of war; the physical characteristics of Berlin; and the tactics used by the Soviets.

Most of the central districts of Berlin consisted of city blocks with straight wide roads, intersected by several waterways, parks and large railway marshalling yards. The terrain was predominantly flat but there were some low hills like that of ] that is {{convert|66|m|ft}} above sea level.{{sfn|Prakash|Kruse|2008|pp=44–46}}<ref>"A Prussian law of 1875, enacted to cover the streets of Berlin, prescribed that the main streets should be 95 feet or more in width, secondary thoroughfares from 65 to 95 feet and the local streets from 40 to 65 feet." {{harv|McDonnald|1951|p=720}}</ref><ref>"The Berlin streets are for the most part very broad and straight. They are surprisingly even; there is not a hill worthy of the name in the whole of the city" {{harv|Siepen|2011|p=7}}.</ref><ref>"The highest hill in the ridge was the Kreuzberg, which stood at 217 feet (66 m). It became the site of a from the ] erected in 1821 and gave its name to the most famous of Berlin's districts" {{harv|Urban Land Institute|2006|p=88}}.</ref>

Much of the housing stock consisted of apartment blocks built in the second half of the 19th century. Most of those, thanks to housing regulations and few elevators, were five stories high, built around a courtyard which could be reached from the street through a corridor large enough to take a horse and cart or small trucks used to deliver coal. In many places these apartment blocks were built around several courtyards, one behind the other, each one reached through the outer courtyards by a ground-level tunnel similar to that between the first courtyard and the road. The larger, more expensive ]s faced the street and the smaller, less expensive ones were found around the inner courtyards.{{sfn|Ladd|1998|pp=99–102}}<ref group=nb>The poorer tenement blocks were known as "]" (''Mietskasernen'')</ref>

Just as the Soviets had learned a lot about urban warfare, so had the Germans. The '']'' did not use the makeshift barricades erected close to street corners, because these could be raked by artillery fire from guns firing over open sights further along the straight streets.{{sfn|Beevor|2002|pp=316–319}} Instead, they put snipers and machine guns on the upper floors and the roofs – a safer deployment as the Soviet tanks could not elevate their guns that high. They also put men armed with '']s'' in cellar windows to ambush tanks as they moved down the streets. These tactics were quickly adopted by the ] and the ] '']'' veterans.{{sfn|Beevor|2002|pp=316–319}}

To counter these tactics, Soviet submachine gunners ] and sprayed every doorway and window, but this meant the tank could not traverse its turret quickly. The other solution was to rely on heavy howitzers (152&nbsp;mm and 203&nbsp;mm) firing over open sights to blast defended buildings and to use anti-aircraft guns against defenders posted on the higher floors.{{sfn|Beevor|2002|pp=316–319}}

Soviet combat groups started to move from house to house instead of directly down the streets. They moved through the apartments and cellars ] of adjacent buildings (for which the Soviets found abandoned German ''panzerfausts'' were very effective), while others fought across the roof tops and through the attics.{{sfn|Beevor|2002|pp=316–319}}

These tactics took the Germans lying in ambush for tanks in the flanks. ]s and grenades were very effective, but as the Berlin civilian population had not been evacuated these tactics inevitably killed many civilians.{{sfn|Beevor|2002|pp=316–319}}

===First Chechen War===
{{See also|Battle of Grozny (1994–95)}}
], January 1995]]

During the ] most of the Chechen fighters had been trained in the Soviet armed forces. They were divided into combat groups consisting of 15 to 20 personnel, subdivided into three or four-man ]s. A fire team consisted of an antitank gunner, usually armed with a Russian made ]s or ]s, a machine gunner and a sniper. The team would be supported by ammunition runners and assistant gunners. To destroy Russian armoured vehicles in ], five or six hunter-killer fire teams deployed at ground level, in second and third stories, and in basements. The snipers and machine gunners would pin down the supporting infantry while the antitank gunners would engage the armoured vehicle aiming at the top, rear and sides of vehicles.<ref name=LG>{{harvnb|Grau|1997|lc="Chechen Anti-armor Techniques"}}</ref>

Initially, the Russians were taken by surprise. Their armoured columns that were supposed to take the city without difficulty as Soviet forces had taken ] were decimated in fighting more reminiscent of the ] in late 1944. As in the Soviet assault on Berlin, as a short term measure, they deployed ]s (] and ]) to engage the Chechen combat groups, as their tank's main gun did not have the elevation and depression to engage the fire teams and an armoured vehicle's machine gun could not suppress the fire of half a dozen different fire teams simultaneously.<ref name=LG/>

In the long term, the Russians brought in more infantry and began a systematic advance through the city, house by house and block by block, with dismounted Russian infantry moving in support of armour. In proactive moves, the Russians started to set up ambush points of their own and then move armour towards them to lure the Chechen combat groups into ambushes.<ref name=LG/>

As with the Soviet tank crews in Berlin in 1945, who attached bedsprings to the outside of their turrets to reduce the damage done by German ''panzerfausts'', some of the Russian armour was fitted quickly with a cage of wire mesh mounted some 25–30 centimetres away from the hull armour to defeat the shaped charges of the Chechen RPGs.<ref name=LG/><ref>"Then, they went in again for festooning their vehicles with bedsprings and other metal to make the ''panzerfausts'' explode prematurely" {{harv|Beevor|2002|p=317}}</ref>

=== Operation Defensive Shield ===
] during an exercise simulating the takeover of a hostile urban area]]
''']''' was a ] military operation conducted by the ] in April 2002 as a response to a wave of ] by ] which claimed the lives of hundreds of Israeli civilians. It was in part characterized by alleged ] by both IDF and Palestinian militants.<ref name="ejpress.org">. {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141231235450/http://ejpress.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=49892|date=December 31, 2014}}, '']'', July 22, 2014.</ref><ref name="European Union 2014">. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150405055122/http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/.premium-1.606703|date=April 5, 2015}}, '']'', July 22, 2014.</ref>

The two major battles were held in ] and ].

{{See also|Battle of Nablus}}
In Nablus, the ] and the ], backed by reservist ] and ] with ] ]s, entered to Nablus, killing 70 militants and arresting hundreds, while sustaining only one fatality. The forces deployed many small teams, advancing in non-linear manner from many directions, using ]s and air support. The battle ended quickly with a decisive Israeli victory.{{citation needed|date=July 2017}}

{{See also|Battle of Jenin (2002)}}
]L ]]]
In ] the battle was much harder and fierce. Unlike in Nablus, the forces who fought in Jenin were mainly reserve forces. The Palestinian militants ] the city and the refugee camp with thousands of explosive charges, some were very large and most were concealed in houses and on the streets.{{Citation needed|date=April 2012}} After 13 Israeli soldiers were killed in an ] combined with booby traps, snipers and ]s, the IDF changed its tactics from slow advancing ] soldiers backed by ]s to a heavy use of armoured bulldozers. The heavily armoured bulldozers began by clearing booby traps and ended with razing many houses, mainly in the center of the refugee camp. The armoured bulldozers were unstoppable and impervious to Palestinian attacks and by razing booby-trapped houses and buildings which used as gun posts they forced the militants in Jenin to surrender. In total, 56 Palestinians and 23 Israeli soldiers were killed in the battle of Jenin.{{citation needed|date=July 2017}}

==Close-quarters battle==

]]]
{{Main|Close combat|Close-quarters combat}}

The term close-quarter battle refers to fighting methods within buildings, streets, narrow alleys and other places where visibility and manoeuvrability are limited.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.military.com/video/forces/seal-teams/seal-close-quarter-battle-cqb/662512654001|title=Navy SEAL Close Quarter Battle (CQB)|last=Military.com|website=Military.com|language=en|access-date=2016-09-28}}</ref>

Both ''close-quarters-battle'' (CQB) and ''urban operations'' (UO) are related to urban warfare, but while UO refers mainly to the ] factor (i.e. sending troops, using of heavy ]s, battle management), CQB refers to the ] factor—namely: how a small squad of infantry troops should fight in urban environments and/or inside buildings in order to achieve its goals with minimal casualties.{{Citation needed|date=December 2011}}

As a doctrine, CQB concerns topics such as:
:* ] and ] most suitable for the mission{{Citation needed|date=December 2011}}
:* Extra gear, such as ]s and ]{{Citation needed|date=December 2011}}
:* Accurate ]s{{Citation needed|date=December 2011}}
:* Routines and drills for engaging the enemy, securing a perimeter, clearing a room, etc.{{Citation needed|date=December 2011}}
:* Team maneuvers{{Citation needed|date=December 2011}}
:* Methods and ]{{Citation needed|date=December 2011}}

Military CQB doctrine is different from police CQB doctrine, mainly because the military usually operates in hostile areas while the police operates within docile populations.{{Citation needed|date=December 2011}}

Armies that often engage in urban warfare operations may train most of their infantry in CQB doctrine. While training will vary, it generally will focus on what proficiencies each unit possess. This is in opposition to what units may lack in either strength or weapons capabilities.
The fundamentals of muzzle awareness and weapons safety are of the utmost importance given the propensity for fratricide due to the confined spaces, as well as the limited avenues of approach.<ref>FM 90-10 Military Operations on Urbanized Terrain (MOUT)</ref>

==Urban warfare training==
], United States]]
Armed forces seek to train their units for those circumstances in which they are to fight: built up, urban areas are no exception. Several countries have created simulated urban training zones. The British Army has established an "Afghan village" within its ] and the French Army has built several urban training areas in its ] facility.

During World War II, as preparation for the ] ], the population of the English village of ] was evacuated compulsorily to provide an urban training area for United States forces. The facility has been retained, despite efforts by the displaced people to recover their homes, and was used for British Army training for counter-insurgency operations in Northern Ireland. A newer purpose-built training area has been created at ], some 3 miles from Imber.

==See also==
]
* '']'' (documentary TV series)
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]

== Notes ==
{{Reflist|group=nb}}

==Citations==
{{Reflist}}

==References==
* {{cite news|author=BBC staff |date=December 7, 1999 |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/553304.stm |title=Russia will pay for Chechnya |publisher=BBC}}
* {{cite book|last=Beevor |first=Antony |author-link=Antony Beevor |title=Berlin: The Downfall 1945 |location=London; New York |publisher=Viking-Penguin Books. |year=2002 |isbn=0-670-03041-4 |pages=316–319|title-link=Berlin: The Downfall 1945 }}
* {{cite journal|last=Dishman |first=Chris |date=August 2009 |title=Street Fight in Monterrey |journal=Military Heritage Magazine}}
* {{cite book|last=Dishman |first=Christopher |year=2010 |title=A Perfect Gibraltar: The Battle for Monterrey, Mexico |publisher=University of Oklahoma Press |isbn=978-0-8061-4140-4}}
* {{cite book |last=Grau |first=Lester W. |date=January 1997 |chapter-url=http://fmso.leavenworth.army.mil/documents/rusav/rusav.htm |title=Russian-Manufactured Armoured Vehicle Vulnerability in Urban Combat: The Chechnya Experience |publisher=Red Thrust Star |chapter=Chechen Anti-armor Techniques |access-date=2010-06-16 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100430184415/http://fmso.leavenworth.army.mil/documents/rusav/rusav.htm |archive-date=2010-04-30 |url-status=dead }}
* {{Cite book |last=Ladd |first=Brian |year=1998 |title=The Ghosts of Berlin: Confronting German History in the Urban Landscape |edition=illustrated |publisher=University of Chicago Press |isbn=978-0-226-46762-7 |page=–102}}
* {{Cite encyclopaedia |editor-last=McDonnald |editor-first=Alexander Hopkins |year=1951 |encyclopedia=The Encyclopedia Americana |volume=6 |publisher=Americana Corporationn |page=720}}
* {{cite web |last=Pike |first=John |title=Military Operations on Urban Terrain &#91;MOUT&#93; |website=GlobalSecurity.org |date=September 16, 2002 |url=http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/ops/mout.htm |access-date=July 14, 2017}}
* {{Cite book|last1=Prakash |first1=Gyan |last2=Kruse |first2=Kevin Michael |year=2008 |title=The spaces of the modern city: imaginaries, politics, and everyday life |edition=illustrated |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=978-0-691-13343-0 |pages=–46}}
* {{Cite book |last=Siepen |first=Edith |year=2011 |title=Peeps at Great Cities – Berlin |publisher=BoD – Books on Demand |isbn=978-3-86403-134-2 |page=}}
* {{cite book|last=Stacey |first=C.P. |year=1966 |series=Official History of the Canadian Army in the Second World War|title=Volume III: The Victory Campaign: The Operations in North West Europe 1944–1945 |url=http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/UN/Canada/CA/Victory/index.html }}
* {{Cite journal|author=Urban Land Institute |year=2006 |journal=Urban Land |volume= 65 |issue=9–12 |publisher=Urban Land Institute |page=88}}

== External links ==
* , Marine Corps Warfighting Publication (MCWP) 3–35.3 – US Marine Corps guidance on urban warfare
*
* – Urban operations, reading guide.
*
{{Commons|Urban warfare}}
{{Wikiquote}}
{{Authority control}}

]
]

Latest revision as of 17:02, 8 January 2025

Warfare in urban areas

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Urban warfare is warfare in urban areas such as towns and cities. Urban combat differs from combat in the open at both operational and the tactical levels. Complicating factors in urban warfare include the presence of civilians and the complexity of the urban terrain. Urban combat operations may be conducted to capitalize on strategic or tactical advantages associated with the possession or the control of a particular urban area or to deny these advantages to the enemy. It is considered to be arguably the most difficult form of warfare.

Fighting in urban areas negates the advantages that one side may have over the other in armor, heavy artillery, or air support. Ambushes laid down by small groups of soldiers with handheld anti-tank weapons can destroy entire columns of modern armor (as in the First Battle of Grozny), while artillery and air support can be severely reduced if the "superior" party wants to limit civilian casualties as much as possible, but the defending party does not (or even uses civilians as human shields).

Some civilians may be difficult to distinguish from such combatants as armed militias and gangs, and particularly individuals who are simply trying to protect their homes from attackers. Tactics are complicated by a three-dimensional environment, limited fields of view and fire because of buildings, enhanced concealment and cover for defenders, below-ground infrastructure, and the ease of placement of booby traps and snipers.

Military terminology

JGSDF soldiers practice MOUT tactics in the Ojojibara Maneuver Area of Sendai, Japan during an exercise in 2004

Historically, the United States Armed Forces has referred to urban warfare as UO (urban operations), but this term has been largely replaced with MOUT (military operations in urban terrain).

The British armed forces terms are OBUA (operations in built-up areas), FIBUA (fighting in built-up areas), or sometimes (colloquially) FISH (fighting in someone's house), or FISH and CHIPS (fighting in someone's house and causing havoc in people's streets/public spaces).

The term FOFO (fighting in fortified objectives) refers to clearing enemy personnel from narrow and entrenched places like bunkers, trenches and strongholds; the dismantling of mines and wires; and the securing of footholds in enemy areas.

Israel Defense Forces calls urban warfare לש"ב (pronounced LASHAB), a Hebrew acronym for warfare on urban terrain. LASHAB in the IDF includes large-scale tactics (such as use of heavy armoured personnel carriers, armoured bulldozers, UAVs for intelligence, etc.), close-quarters battle training for fighting forces (how a small team of infantry soldiers should fight in close and built-up spaces). IDF's LASHAB was developed mainly in recent decades, after the 1982 Lebanon War included urban warfare in Beirut and Lebanese villages, and was further developed during the Second Intifada (2000–2005) in which IDF soldiers entered and fought in Palestinian cities, villages and refugee camps. The IDF has a special large and advanced facility for training soldiers and units in urban warfare.

Urban operations

Further information: Urban camouflage
The Battle of Tampere during the 1918 Finnish Civil War was the largest urban warfare in the Nordic war at the time, measured by the number of troops involved. The picture shows the ruins of the city of Tampere after the battle.

Urban military operations in World War II often relied on large quantities of artillery bombardment and air support varying from ground attack fighters to heavy bombers. In the European theatre of war, roughly 40% of battles took place in urban areas. In some particularly vicious urban warfare battles such as Stalingrad and Warsaw, all weapons were used irrespective of their consequences.

Military historian Victor Davis Hanson noted the lethality of urban warfare in the Second World War, "When civilian met soldier in the confined landscapes, the death toll spiked, and it was no surprise that the greatest carnage of World War II—at Leningrad and Stalingrad—was the result of efforts to storm municipal fortresses".

However, when liberating occupied territory some restraint was often applied, particularly in urban settings. For example, Canadian operations in both Ortona and Groningen avoided the use of artillery altogether to spare civilians and buildings, and during the Battle of Manila in 1945, General MacArthur initially placed a ban on artillery and air strikes to save civilian lives.

Military forces are bound by the laws of war governing military necessity to the amount of force which can be applied when attacking an area where there are known to be civilians. Until the 1970s, this was covered by the 1907 Hague Convention IV – The Laws and Customs of War on Land which specifically includes articles 25–27. This has since been supplemented by the Additional Protocols to the Geneva Conventions of August 12, 1949, and relating to the Protection of Victims of International and Non-International Armed Conflicts.

Japanese troops in the ruins of Shanghai during the Second Sino-Japanese War

Sometimes distinction and proportionality, as in the case of the Canadians in Ortona, causes the attacking force to restrain from using all the force they could when attacking a city. In other cases, such as the Battle of Stalingrad and the Battle of Berlin, both military forces considered evacuating civilians only to find it impractical.

When Russian forces attacked Grozny in 1999, they conducted a massive artillery and air bombardment campaign in an attempt to smash the city into submission. The Russian Army handled the issue of civilian casualties by issuing an ultimatum urging citizens to leave or be destroyed without mercy. Leaflets dropped on the city read: 'You are surrounded, all roads to Grozny are blocked...Persons who stay in the city will be considered terrorists and bandits and will be destroyed by artillery and aviation. There will be no further negotiations. Everyone who does not leave the city will be destroyed '.

Manila, the capital of the Philippines, devastated during the Battle of Manila in 1945

Fighting in an urban environment can offer some advantages to a weaker defending force or to guerrilla fighters through ambush-induced attrition losses. The attacking army must account for three dimensions more often, and consequently expend greater amounts of manpower to secure a myriad of structures, and mountains of rubble.

Ferroconcrete structures will be ruined by heavy bombardment, but it is very difficult to demolish such a building totally when it is well defended. Soviet forces had to fight room by room while defending the Red October Steel Factory during the Battle of Stalingrad, and in 1945, during the race to capture the Reichstag, despite heavy bombardment with artillery at point blank range (including 203 mm howitzers).

It is also difficult to destroy underground or heavily fortified structures such as bunkers and utility tunnels; during the Siege of Budapest in 1944 fighting broke out in the sewers, as both Axis and Soviet troops used them for troop movements.

Analysts debate the scope and size of urban battles in the modern day, as they are unlikely to match the scale of battles in the Second World War. For example, professor Michael C. Desch states that while "enormous forces engaged on both sides in those battles may never be seen in high-intensity urban battles again", that "the large numbers of killed and wounded underline the basic fact that such conflict is extremely lethal", referencing the battles of Stalingrad and Berlin. An article by the Modern War Institute states that while lessons may be taken from Stalingrad, ultimately "Stalingrad took place in a theater with a large number of army groups with a total of a million soldiers involved on each side; modern armies are unlikely to fight with these numbers."

Many analysts, such as former American army general and Commandant of the United States Marine Corps, Charles C. Krulak, and retired military officer and chairman of the urban warfare studies at the Modern War Institute, John Spencer have predicted urban warfare to become the norm in wars. Spencer confirmed this to be true in an article in 2024, providing a list of numerous urban battles in the recent decades of the 21st century alone, those being Fallujah, Sadr City, Mosul, Raqqa, Marawi, and now Bakhmut, Mariupol, and Khan Yunis in the 2020s. In 2023, analyst Mikael Weissmann claimed that it is widely agreed upon that urban warfare will be the "battlefields of tomorrow".

Urban warfare tactics

Urban warfare is fought within the constraints of the urban terrain.

The characteristics of an average city include tall buildings, narrow alleys, sewage tunnels and possibly a subway system. Defenders may have the advantage of detailed local knowledge of the area, right down to the layout inside of buildings and means of travel not shown on maps.

See also: Tunnel warfare

The buildings can provide excellent sniping posts while alleys and rubble-filled streets are ideal for planting booby traps. Defenders can move from one part of the city to another undetected using tunnels and spring ambushes.

Meanwhile, the attackers tend to become more exposed than the defender as they must use the open streets more often, unfamiliar with the defenders' secret and hidden routes. During a house to house search the attacker is often also exposed on the streets.

Battle of Monterrey, Mexico

The Battle of Monterrey was the U.S. Army's first major encounter with urban warfare. It occurred in September 1846 when the U.S. Army under Zachary Taylor invaded the town. The U.S. Army had no prior training in urban warfare and the Mexican defenders hid on rooftops, shot through loopholes, and stationed cannons in the middle of the city's streets. The houses at Monterrey were made of thick adobe, with strong double doors and few windows. The rooftops were lined with a two-foot-tall wall that acted as a parapet for the defending soldiers. Each home was a fort unto itself.

On September 21, 1846, the U.S. Army which included some of its best soldiers, recent West Point graduates, marched down the city's streets and were cut down by the Mexican defenders. They could not see the men hidden behind walls, loopholes, or rooftops. They tried to march straight down the street until the intense fire drove them to hide in adjacent buildings. Taylor tried to move artillery into the city but it could not hit the well-hidden defenders any better than the U.S. soldiers could. Two days later the US again assaulted the city from two sides and this time they fought differently.

Not wanting to repeat the mistakes of the 21st, General William Jenkins Worth listened to his Texan advisers. These men had fought in Mexican cities before at the Battle of Mier in 1842 and the Battle of Bexar in 1835. They understood that the army needed to "mouse hole" through each house and root out the defenders in close combat.

Worth's men used pick axes to chip holes in the adobe walls of the homes, in the roof of the house from where the soldiers could drop in, or used ladders to climb to the top of a rooftop and assault the Mexican defenders in hand-to-hand combat. The typical assault on a home would include one man who would run to the door of the house and chip the door away with a pick axe under covering fire. Once the door showed signs of weakening, 3–4 other soldiers would run to the door and barge in with revolvers blazing. Worth lost few men on the 23rd using these new urban warfare techniques.

Battle of Stalingrad

The Battle of Stalingrad is largely seen as the defining battle of urban warfare, with the battle commonly studied and referenced in studies of urban warfare. The battle was the single largest and costliest urban battle ever, with it being seen as the worst and most extreme case of urban warfare. The Battle of Stalingrad saw all types of MOUT combat techniques. Historian Iain MacGregor states that the "evolution of urban, house-to-house fighting and defending these buildings and built-up areas was seemingly born in Stalingrad in the winter of 1942". The battle "occupies a famous, notorious place in the history of war, particularly urban warfare. It seems to encapsulate and personify it, to provide an instinctive yardstick by which urban warfare can be examined, understood, defined, and assessed" according to military historian Stephen Walsh.

The Soviets used the great amount of destruction to their advantage by adding man-made defenses such as barbed wire, minefields, trenches, and bunkers to the rubble, while large factories even housed tanks and large-caliber guns within. In addition, Soviet urban warfare relied on 20-to-50-man-assault groups, armed with machine guns, grenades and satchel charges, and buildings fortified as strongpoints with clear fields of fire.

Battle of Berlin

Main article: Battle in Berlin
The Reichstag after its capture in 1945

A Soviet combat group was a mixed arms unit of about eighty men, divided into assault groups of six to eight men, closely supported by field artillery. These were tactical units which were able to apply the tactics of house to house fighting that the Soviets had been forced to develop and refine at each Festungsstadt (fortress city) they had encountered from Stalingrad to Berlin.

A devastated street in Berlin's city centre on July 3, 1945

The German tactics in the battle of Berlin were dictated by three considerations: the experience that the Germans had gained during five years of war; the physical characteristics of Berlin; and the tactics used by the Soviets.

Most of the central districts of Berlin consisted of city blocks with straight wide roads, intersected by several waterways, parks and large railway marshalling yards. The terrain was predominantly flat but there were some low hills like that of Kreuzberg that is 66 metres (217 ft) above sea level.

Much of the housing stock consisted of apartment blocks built in the second half of the 19th century. Most of those, thanks to housing regulations and few elevators, were five stories high, built around a courtyard which could be reached from the street through a corridor large enough to take a horse and cart or small trucks used to deliver coal. In many places these apartment blocks were built around several courtyards, one behind the other, each one reached through the outer courtyards by a ground-level tunnel similar to that between the first courtyard and the road. The larger, more expensive flats faced the street and the smaller, less expensive ones were found around the inner courtyards.

Just as the Soviets had learned a lot about urban warfare, so had the Germans. The Waffen-SS did not use the makeshift barricades erected close to street corners, because these could be raked by artillery fire from guns firing over open sights further along the straight streets. Instead, they put snipers and machine guns on the upper floors and the roofs – a safer deployment as the Soviet tanks could not elevate their guns that high. They also put men armed with panzerfausts in cellar windows to ambush tanks as they moved down the streets. These tactics were quickly adopted by the Hitler Youth and the First World War Volkssturm veterans.

To counter these tactics, Soviet submachine gunners rode the tanks and sprayed every doorway and window, but this meant the tank could not traverse its turret quickly. The other solution was to rely on heavy howitzers (152 mm and 203 mm) firing over open sights to blast defended buildings and to use anti-aircraft guns against defenders posted on the higher floors.

Soviet combat groups started to move from house to house instead of directly down the streets. They moved through the apartments and cellars blasting holes through the walls of adjacent buildings (for which the Soviets found abandoned German panzerfausts were very effective), while others fought across the roof tops and through the attics.

These tactics took the Germans lying in ambush for tanks in the flanks. Flamethrowers and grenades were very effective, but as the Berlin civilian population had not been evacuated these tactics inevitably killed many civilians.

First Chechen War

See also: Battle of Grozny (1994–95)
A Chechen separatist near the Presidential Palace in Grozny, January 1995

During the First Chechen War most of the Chechen fighters had been trained in the Soviet armed forces. They were divided into combat groups consisting of 15 to 20 personnel, subdivided into three or four-man fire teams. A fire team consisted of an antitank gunner, usually armed with a Russian made RPG-7s or RPG-18s, a machine gunner and a sniper. The team would be supported by ammunition runners and assistant gunners. To destroy Russian armoured vehicles in Grozny, five or six hunter-killer fire teams deployed at ground level, in second and third stories, and in basements. The snipers and machine gunners would pin down the supporting infantry while the antitank gunners would engage the armoured vehicle aiming at the top, rear and sides of vehicles.

Initially, the Russians were taken by surprise. Their armoured columns that were supposed to take the city without difficulty as Soviet forces had taken Budapest in 1956 were decimated in fighting more reminiscent of the Battle of Budapest in late 1944. As in the Soviet assault on Berlin, as a short term measure, they deployed self-propelled anti-aircraft guns (ZSU-23-4 and 2K22M) to engage the Chechen combat groups, as their tank's main gun did not have the elevation and depression to engage the fire teams and an armoured vehicle's machine gun could not suppress the fire of half a dozen different fire teams simultaneously.

In the long term, the Russians brought in more infantry and began a systematic advance through the city, house by house and block by block, with dismounted Russian infantry moving in support of armour. In proactive moves, the Russians started to set up ambush points of their own and then move armour towards them to lure the Chechen combat groups into ambushes.

As with the Soviet tank crews in Berlin in 1945, who attached bedsprings to the outside of their turrets to reduce the damage done by German panzerfausts, some of the Russian armour was fitted quickly with a cage of wire mesh mounted some 25–30 centimetres away from the hull armour to defeat the shaped charges of the Chechen RPGs.

Operation Defensive Shield

Israeli soldiers of the Kfir Brigade during an exercise simulating the takeover of a hostile urban area

Operation Defensive Shield was a counter-terrorism military operation conducted by the Israel Defense Forces in April 2002 as a response to a wave of suicide bombings by Palestinian factions which claimed the lives of hundreds of Israeli civilians. It was in part characterized by alleged usage of human shields by both IDF and Palestinian militants.

The two major battles were held in Nablus and Jenin.

See also: Battle of Nablus

In Nablus, the Paratroopers Brigade and the Golani Brigade, backed by reservist armour force and combat engineers with armoured Caterpillar D9 bulldozers, entered to Nablus, killing 70 militants and arresting hundreds, while sustaining only one fatality. The forces deployed many small teams, advancing in non-linear manner from many directions, using snipers and air support. The battle ended quickly with a decisive Israeli victory.

See also: Battle of Jenin (2002)
An IDF Caterpillar D9L armoured bulldozer

In Jenin the battle was much harder and fierce. Unlike in Nablus, the forces who fought in Jenin were mainly reserve forces. The Palestinian militants booby-trapped the city and the refugee camp with thousands of explosive charges, some were very large and most were concealed in houses and on the streets. After 13 Israeli soldiers were killed in an ambush combined with booby traps, snipers and suicide bombers, the IDF changed its tactics from slow advancing infantry soldiers backed by attack helicopters to a heavy use of armoured bulldozers. The heavily armoured bulldozers began by clearing booby traps and ended with razing many houses, mainly in the center of the refugee camp. The armoured bulldozers were unstoppable and impervious to Palestinian attacks and by razing booby-trapped houses and buildings which used as gun posts they forced the militants in Jenin to surrender. In total, 56 Palestinians and 23 Israeli soldiers were killed in the battle of Jenin.

Close-quarters battle

Simulated city used for training on San Clemente Island
Main articles: Close combat and Close-quarters combat

The term close-quarter battle refers to fighting methods within buildings, streets, narrow alleys and other places where visibility and manoeuvrability are limited.

Both close-quarters-battle (CQB) and urban operations (UO) are related to urban warfare, but while UO refers mainly to the macromanagement factor (i.e. sending troops, using of heavy armoured fighting vehicles, battle management), CQB refers to the micromanagement factor—namely: how a small squad of infantry troops should fight in urban environments and/or inside buildings in order to achieve its goals with minimal casualties.

As a doctrine, CQB concerns topics such as:

Military CQB doctrine is different from police CQB doctrine, mainly because the military usually operates in hostile areas while the police operates within docile populations.

Armies that often engage in urban warfare operations may train most of their infantry in CQB doctrine. While training will vary, it generally will focus on what proficiencies each unit possess. This is in opposition to what units may lack in either strength or weapons capabilities. The fundamentals of muzzle awareness and weapons safety are of the utmost importance given the propensity for fratricide due to the confined spaces, as well as the limited avenues of approach.

Urban warfare training

Zambraniyah Training Village in Orogrande, New Mexico, United States

Armed forces seek to train their units for those circumstances in which they are to fight: built up, urban areas are no exception. Several countries have created simulated urban training zones. The British Army has established an "Afghan village" within its Stanford Battle Area and the French Army has built several urban training areas in its CENZUB facility.

During World War II, as preparation for the Allied invasion of Normandy, the population of the English village of Imber was evacuated compulsorily to provide an urban training area for United States forces. The facility has been retained, despite efforts by the displaced people to recover their homes, and was used for British Army training for counter-insurgency operations in Northern Ireland. A newer purpose-built training area has been created at Copehill Down, some 3 miles from Imber.

See also

A Brazilian soldier moves down an escape corridor

Notes

  1. The poorer tenement blocks were known as "Rent-barracks" (Mietskasernen)

Citations

  1. Pike 2002.
  2. Spencer, John (March 4, 2020). "The City Is Not Neutral: Why Urban Warfare Is So Hard". Modern War Institute. Retrieved February 24, 2024.
  3. ^ Weissmann, Mikael (2023). "Urban Warfare: Challenges of Military Operations on Tomorrow's Battlefield". academic.oup.com. doi:10.1093/oso/9780192857422.003.0007. ISBN 978-0-19-285742-2. Retrieved February 21, 2024.
  4. War in the Streets. The Story of Urban Combat from Calais to Khafji. by Colonel Michael. Dewar Hardcover – January 1, 1992 (ISBN 978-0-7153-9477-9)
  5. Wahlman, Alec (2015). Storming the City: U.S. Military Performance in Urban Warfare from World War II to Vietnam. University of North Texas Press. p. 99.
  6. Bowyer, Richard (2004). Dictionary of Military Terms (3 ed.). Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 162.
  7. Sengupta, Kim (March 24, 2008). "The final battle for Basra is near, says Iraqi general". The Independent. London. Retrieved April 11, 2008.
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  15. "In spite of the severe fighting ... great crowds of (Dutch) civilians thronged the streets (of Groningen) — apparently more excited than frightened by the sound of nearby rifle and machine-gun fire. Out of regard for these civilians, the Canadians did not shell or bomb the city, thereby accepting the possibility of delay and additional casualties" (Stacey 1966, Chapter XX: The Rhine Crossing and the 2nd Corps' Advance to the North Sea March 23-April 22, 1945)
  16. Beevor 2002, p. 318.
  17. ^ Bagrov, Yuri. "Russia Warns Civilians in Chechnya". Associated Press. Archived from the original on March 2, 2022.
  18. BBC staff 1999, Russia will pay for Chechnya.
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  20. Beevor 2002, p. 354,355.
  21. "World War II: Siege of Budapest". HistoryNet. June 12, 2006. Retrieved April 4, 2024.
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  23. ^ Spencer, John; Geroux, Jayson (June 28, 2021). "Urban Warfare Project Case Study #1: Battle of Stalingrad". Modern War Institute. Retrieved February 27, 2024.
  24. Spencer, John (July 19, 2017). "The City Is the Battlefield of the Future". WSJ. Retrieved February 28, 2024.
  25. ^ Spencer, John (February 9, 2024). "War Books: The Urban Battlefield of the Future". Modern War Institute. Retrieved February 21, 2024.
  26. Spencer, John; Geroux, Jayson (February 14, 2022). "Defending the City: An Overview of Defensive Tactics from the Modern History of Urban Warfare". Modern War Institute. Retrieved April 1, 2024.
  27. Glenn, Russell W. (March 6, 2023). "Monterrey, 1846: Still Offering Urban Combat Lessons after all these Years". smallwarsjournal.com. Retrieved April 1, 2024.
  28. Urban Warfare – Battle of Monterrey.com Archived July 7, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
  29. Dishman 2009, p. .
  30. ^ Dishman 2010, p. 
  31. Intrec Inc (1974). "Weapons Effects in Cities. Volume 1". Technical Report – via DTIC.
  32. McLaurin, R. D.; Jureidini, Paul A.; McDonald, David S.; Sellers, Kurt J. (1987). "Modern Experience in City Combat". Technical Memorandum – via DTIC.
  33. MacGregor, Iain (2022). The Lighthouse of Stalingrad: The Hidden Truth at the Centre of WWII's Greatest Battle. New York: Scribner. p. 173. ISBN 978-1-9821-6358-7.
  34. Walsh, Stephen (2020). "The Battle of Stalingrad, September–November 1942". In Fremont-Barnes, Gregory (ed.). A History of Modern Urban Operations. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 55. ISBN 978-3-030-27088-9.
  35. Beevor 2002, p. 317.
  36. Prakash & Kruse 2008, pp. 44–46.
  37. "A Prussian law of 1875, enacted to cover the streets of Berlin, prescribed that the main streets should be 95 feet or more in width, secondary thoroughfares from 65 to 95 feet and the local streets from 40 to 65 feet." (McDonnald 1951, p. 720)
  38. "The Berlin streets are for the most part very broad and straight. They are surprisingly even; there is not a hill worthy of the name in the whole of the city" (Siepen 2011, p. 7).
  39. "The highest hill in the ridge was the Kreuzberg, which stood at 217 feet (66 m). It became the site of a from the Schinkel-designed monument erected in 1821 and gave its name to the most famous of Berlin's districts" (Urban Land Institute 2006, p. 88).
  40. Ladd 1998, pp. 99–102.
  41. ^ Beevor 2002, pp. 316–319.
  42. ^ Grau 1997
  43. "Then, they went in again for festooning their vehicles with bedsprings and other metal to make the panzerfausts explode prematurely" (Beevor 2002, p. 317)
  44. "EU strongly condemns indiscriminate Hamas rockets on Israel and use of Palestinian population as human shields, 'terrorist groups in Gaza must disarm', calls for 'immediate ceasefire'". Archived December 31, 2014, at the Wayback Machine, European Jewish Press, July 22, 2014.
  45. "European Union: Hamas, other Gaza terror groups must disarm". Archived April 5, 2015, at the Wayback Machine, Haaretz, July 22, 2014.
  46. Military.com. "Navy SEAL Close Quarter Battle (CQB)". Military.com. Retrieved September 28, 2016.
  47. FM 90-10 Military Operations on Urbanized Terrain (MOUT)

References

External links

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