Eli5: Why is Urban warfare feared as the most difficult form of warfare for a military to conduct?
In: 1719
There are way more places to hide people, traps, and weapons. You have to search every room in every building on every street. Plus, there’s the constant danger of civilians being caught in crossfire or combatants disguising themselves as civilians. Much harder than facing another uniformed group on natural terrain.
Because it’s really hard and bloody at the best of times and that is only if you really don’t care about damage to the surrounding buildings and people in them. If you do… well that it’s all those things plus almost impossible.
Look, Urban centers are a nightmare offensively. You have many buildings, all of which could be anything from empty to filled with civilians to filled with enemies to literally just wired up with explosives waiting for your soldiers to walk in. Battles stop being “The Battle of Big Field” or “The Battle of Hill XYZ” they become “battle over that random factory” or “battle of steve’s mum’s house”. An endless string of battles over every single building, every street and probably even the freaking sewer system. A relentless, grinding conflict that can stretch out for years in some cases.
Plus let’s keep in mind that cities are *densely populated by civilians* who almost never leave totally. So on top of trying to do battle with your enemy you also have a bunch of random people who most militaries would prefer not to massacre but who end up getting killed en-masse because war is a messy business. Those civilians may just do their best to not get killed, but there is also plenty of examples of civilians joining the fight. It’s not at all unthinkable that a soldier could think they are safe after clearing a house and finding only women and children in there only for one of the women to plant a kitchen knife in their back. People don’t like invaders and most will take the opportunity if presented to strike back.
Unknowns are angles and places you’re unable to clear. In an open field it’s easy to see all that is occurring. In a compound in a field it tough but more manageable. In home in a neighborhood every window, every door, behind every trash can, behind every sign and the list goes on. Inside a home is also tough for the same reasons, tons of Unknowns. Now add in that a skilled shooter will hit targets far but at close range even an unskilled shooter will hit shots on the target. Add civilians who some are armed makes it even worse. Also don’t forget the rebellious faction may dress as civilians. Also don’t forget ied (improvised explosive device). Also don’t forget trying to navigate city streets that have barricades. Also don’t forget the defending side has homefield advantage. The list really goes on and on and in an urban engagement the expected casualties are very high.
One of the most disadvantagous natural terrains a military can be in is a canyon or valley. You are surrounded on all sides by vantage points and can’t see beyond the canyon rim. Not only that but any attempt to push back an ambush would mean assaulting uphill at a massive disadvantage.
Urban centers are like sprawling artificial canyons. Essentially, any army wishing to take an urban area either needs to reduce it to rubble or go building to building and clear each one. The first choice has the potential for a massive amount of civilian death and the second one has a the potential for a massive amount of soldier’s dying.
3 dimensional + more obstacles and traps + people you don’t want to hurt in the way of people you do.
It’s just way more complex.
You’re extremely limited in options for advance and defense. Civilians are everywhere. The enemy can be anywhere. Taking tanks into cities is a very bad idea. The entire purpose of taking a city is to gain access to its resources. If you don’t want its resources, it’s easier to just take out the supply lines to and from the city. If you attack the city, you risk damaging your access to resources. Then there’s the insurgency to fight while holding the city.
Which is why the US spends so much on foreign aid. The civilians are more likely to be on your side if you have a history of feeding them.
Urban warfare is basically the worse aspects of fighting inside canyon but made infinitely worse.
you get worse sightlines,
you cant assault directly without exposing yourself
you cannot efficiency screen for your armored divisions.
to make it evne worse, urban setting means you may have civillians or worse miltias taking up arms. and htis is assuming that shelling the area is not an option(as the existence of civillian targets make htis action a warcrime at best)
Urban warfrare is a nightmare for any general.
This depends on two things. Invaders seem to have a tougher time then your own government. If you don’t want civilian casualties, the enemy could hide among the locals to ambush your soldiers. Every corner you turn could mean a mortar attack followed by enemy fire.
You can’t prepare for situations like that. The amount of focus required is superhuman. Since eids became a thing, the amount of items you can use to rig these eids is limitless. Imagine driving by a row of cars and not having scouts ahead to guide your platoon. You knowing ieds are a possibility has a psychological factor to it. You never know which vehicle is rigged and ready to blow.
Urban warfare wouldnt be as tough if say Russia just carpet bombed Ukraine. But they also know they don’t want to cross that line as they’ll be tried in international court once this is all over.
I would like to slightly disagree here…
Urban warfare may be the most famous “feared” environment but here are a few that are as dangerous if not more:
1. Thick jungle – Most people cannot even imagine how thick jungle can grow, how humid it can get and how many insects and small animals can hurt you. The Japanese at Guadalcanal basically defeated themselves by not bringing tons of medicine, mosquito nets and lots of food and clean water with sometimes as high as 50% of the troops incapable of fighting…
2. The desert – if you run out of water, you die. And you do so rather quickly. Sand gets absolutely everywhere, washing is most of the time not an option and it gets soooo hot (and cold in the night). And we are not talking Iraq like dry lands with dust but full blown desert. In the mid of the Sahara probably no army can fight.
3. Landing operations – Saving private Ryan is – as Hollywood movies usually go – overly dramatizing casualties per minute and underestimating scale but it shows very well the terror of being sitting ducks in the open while getting rocked by the sea and no quick reinforcements can save you. Horror scenario for any military.
4. Eastern European mud… if modern Russian equipment gets road bound and the Wehrmacht didn’t move at all for a month with high attrition I think it tells you all. Mud gets everywhere, rainte everything and you better are prepared to be stationary…
Now, urban warfare is of course horrendous due to a lack of visibility and constant fear of ambush as people say here but other scenarios are horrible too. Stalingrad also is not just so infamous for being urban combat but it’s urban combat with a horrendous winter and river crossings on top.
Urban warfare also neuters armored fighting vehicles by removing one of their key survival aspects: mobility. Rather than having an open battlefield to move around in, they are funneled down streets. Anti-tank teams can aim from high floors of buildings and fire down onto the roofs of vehicles, which for AFVs are thinly or weakly armored. They can also shoot up from basement windows into the weakly armored lower hulls of vehicles and damage tracks or wheels. I think in Chechnya during the 90s, the Russians found they couldn’t depress the guns of their T-80 tanks low enough to fire at basement threats.
Once a vehicle is disabled or destroyed on a street, it can causse a blockage of traffic. Knock-out a vehicle at the back also and suddenly a convoy has no where to go. I remember seeing a picture of a destroyed column of Russian vehicles in a street from the recent Ukraine conflict. You can see one of of the vehicles tried to climb over one in front of it, likely trying to keep moving and not get trapped.
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