Eli5: Why is Urban warfare feared as the most difficult form of warfare for a military to conduct?
In: 1719
If you’re clearing a building, you’re in a tight area, with corners, ledges and narrow corridors. In an urban environment, you’re surrounded by potential sniper nests, and there’s no way to tell exactly where the shots are going to come from.
While you can normally make a judgement call (‘okay, the snipers are hidden in the mountains, so let’s keep an obstacle between us and them’), an urban environment means that you’re surrounded by tall buildings, any one of which could house a whole bunch of snipers. Narrow, long streets mean that they can hit you from miles away just by leaning out a window, and you’ll probably *never* find them.
Sewers and subways are also nasty, because they can literally go anywhere in the city, so the enemy can hit you at random and then just disappear into the underground.
Latest Answers