Eli5: Why is Urban warfare feared as the most difficult form of warfare for a military to conduct?
In: 1719
a) 3D. In most terrain hard cover (cover that’s thick enough to resist gunfire) is limited to a plane, a surface. In a city every building using concrete or double-bricked walls is hard cover against small arms (anything from pistols to light machineguns). That’s a lot of positions to attack you from. Also, there could be tunnels below you anywhere (formed from cellars, service tunnels and in older cities sewerlines and catacombs).
b) Any concrete or brick building can be turned into (with the help of explosives or even just musclepower and handtools) a ratnest of connecting fortified fighting positions. Unpredictable and allowing the defender to move from position to position while protected while preventing the attacker from doing the same.
c) Chokepoints everywhere. It’s very easy to get cut off in a street if the buildings form a continous facade, like they do in many european cities as doors can be blocked (which often can be done covertly by filling up the space behind doors with rubble/concrete or boobytrapping doors). Frequently the whole first floors of all buildings will be filled up with rubble or booby traps to make it harder for an attacker to get around (forcing an attacker to get above street level to move inside buildings.
d) Adding the risk of collapsing structures. Earth is solid and reliable. Buildings are not, not when people are using explosives, bombs and big guns capable of collapsing floors and compromising structural integrity.
e) Fights will frequently be very close-quarters, the deadliest and most unpredictable form of combat as things can change very quickly, automatic fire is comparitively effective and it’s impossible to get a good overview.
Some of this can be bypassed by mouse-holing (a urban warfare tactic where you avoid the street and just blast your own way using breaching charges), but that’s an art in itself and very resource intensive.
Latest Answers