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. 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 underground 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. The US 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, , the US 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 US 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 and the Battle of Bexar in 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, 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. 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. The German tactics in the battle of Berlin were dictated by three considerations: 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.
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.
They also put men armed with panzerfausts in cellar windows to ambush tanks as they moved down the streets. To counter these tactics, Soviet sub-machine gunners rode the tanks and sprayed every doorway and window, but this meant the tank could not traverse its turret quickly. 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.
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Withoutabox Submit to Film Festivals. The platoon should be capable of making a rooftop landing. Based on the brigade commander's general concept and guidance, there is no need to change the task organization, and the brigade remains task organized as follows: Report the crossing of each phase line and the securing of assigned objectives. Do not initiate a systematic clearance of the foothold areas until objective HAWK is secured. Artillery fires will be lifted at the discretion of the lead task forces. Lead elements should attempt to close within meters of enemy positions prior to lifting smoke in order to reduce the effectiveness of enemy antitank weapons.
Caution will be exercised in the use of HE artillery to avoid unnecessary rubbling, particularly along routes of advance. The requesting task force must provide a guide and security for these sections if employed. Non-persistent irritating munitions may be used to assist in clearing buildings; however, artillery or mortar chemical rounds will not be used without prior approval from my CP. Six tac air sorties have been allocated to the brigade for the attack. The aircraft are prepared to deliver precision munitions on call.
Remember that collateral damage must be minimized. Task forces are not to fire across common boundaries to the rear of phase line Dragon without prior coordination. Once lead elements have passed forward of phase line Dragon, the rear task forces may not engage targets forward of phase line Dragon without prior clearance. The platoon will be prepared to conduct airmobile operations throughout the zone, and contingencies for the platoon will include rooftop landings.
Task forces occupying positions in the foothold will be prepared to release a company team to reinforce the lead task force securing objective HAWK. Brigade supply route is Highway Once the foothold is secured, retransmission sites should be established in elevated positions to reduce FM communication difficulties anticipated within the built-up area on brigade command and control nets. Try to use wire communications within the town.
Intact civilian communication systems may also be available to supplement tactical systems. Engineers will also be positioned well forward to clear enemy mines and obstacles. TF will establish a jump TOC with the brigade headquarters to insure close coordination. TF liaison personnel will collocate with the brigade main CP initially.
Task Force Attack to Secure Foothold Task force has just closed on hill against light enemy resistance. Only a few casualties have been sustained. The task force commander has been alerted to conduct a hasty attack against the town of Letz to establish a foothold. He has, in turn, alerted his company team commanders. His present task organization consists of three mech-heavy company teams. Enemy forces within Letz in the TF zone are estimated to consist of reinforced platoon or a company minus.
Intelligence reports indicate that defenders are well armed with antitank weapons. The types of antitank weapons which the enemy has available are believed to include wire-guided missiles, RPG-7s, SPG-9s, and possibly T12s. Their wire-guided missiles require a minimum of meters for the enemy gunners to gain control of the missiles once they have been fired.
Friendly forces should expect the enemy to employ the antitank weapons from inside buildings and from other well-concealed positions. The defenders are also reported to have tanks which they will use in the defense. The terrain between TF and the outskirts of town is slightly rolling. There is sufficient relief in the terrain to provide some cover and concealment from positions in the town; and lightly wooded areas will provide some additional concealment from direct observation.
Once the initial penetration of the town is made, attacking forces will be able to take advantage of the cover and concealment provided by buildings. The area within the TF zone in the town is primarily residential. Many houses have yards and gardens. The houses are spaced far enough apart to allow for sufficient maneuver room for attacking elements throughout most of the zone.
The civilian population has reportedly moved out of the area into the central part of the city. Commander's Actions The task force commander makes an assessment of the situation and briefs his staff on his general concept of the operation: After HAWK has been secured, we will then begin a systematic clearance of our assigned zone. An armor-heavy company team will provide overwatching direct fire support until advancing elements have closed on the initial enemy positions.
The scout platoon will screen the TF's southern flank during the attack and while in position in the foothold. If substantial resistance is encountered to the point that the lead elements become decisively engaged, follow-on elements will deploy laterally and maintain the momentum of the attack on alternate attack routes, if necessary, bypassing enemy pockets of resistance. Unit boundaries are established within the foothold area. During the advance, expect all elements to make maximum use of available cover and concealment, and, at the same time, the advance must be conducted swiftly to reduce exposure time to enemy defenders.
It is, therefore, of greatest importance, once the attack is started, that elements advance on the town as rapidly as possible. Smoke should then be shifted and maintained at no more than meters ahead of lead elements as they advance toward their objectives. Although civilians are not supposed to be in the area, care must be exercised when engaging targets. Yet, there should be no hesitation when engaging known or suspected enemy positions.
Once an area has been cleared of enemy forces, however, I expect absolute respect for the integrity of civilians and their property. FOs will be cautioned about unnecessary rubbling, especially along routes of advance. If TF is passed through us, no targets will be engaged forward of our positions without prior coordination, once their lead elements have passed ours.
Direct coordination is authorized. I want our signal people to establish a retransmission site in an elevated position within the foothold area as soon as possible. Maximum use will be made of wire once we are within the town. We may later be able to use the civilian communications system to supplement our own. Our liaison officer will collocate with brigade. Task Force Secures Critical Objective Task force had just closed on its initial objective in the vicinity of hill when the TF commander received the order from brigade for the attack on the town of Letz.
In analyzing his mission, he determined that he would be required to follow TF into the foothold area and that he would then have to be prepared to assume positions in the foothold or pass through the foothold to secure objective HAWK. Commander's Actions Based on the general situation see situation 4 and after analyzing courses of action available to him, the TF commander developed the following general concept which he outlined to his staff: I want the task force organized for maximum speed and flexibility.
In the event that we are ordered to maintain positions in the foothold, I want the order and manner in which we will deploy clearly defined. If we are ordered to pass through the foothold, the momentum and flexibility of the attack must be maintained. Enemy pockets of resistance are to be bypassed. We can police them up after objective HAWK has been secured. I want to insure that alternate routes of advance to objective HAWK are identified. This would put us in a better position to respond to the various contingencies that we must plan for.
Have the scout platoon screen forward along both routes and maintain contact with the brigade lead task forces. Objective boundaries will serve as fire coordination lines. The priority of fires is shifted to TF He tells the brigade 53 to have the reserve platoon prepared to load the aircraft for an air assault into the town on 2-minute notice.
All elements are to report progress by phase lines and are to report any changes in routes of advance. The scout platoon is to screen the southern flank. As the task force continues the attack, lead elements find that enemy forces have rubbled buildings along route GREEN and that the route is impassable to tracked vehicles.
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Enemy defenders are occupying the hotel and city hall to the southeast of the rail yards. The brigade commander concurs and authorizes the commitment of the brigade reserve platoon. Enemy forces within the building readily surrender. Task force elements then proceed to secure their assigned objectives. The brigade S3 asks the division G3 if any additional units will be available to the 3d Brigade to assist with clearing operations. The division G3 replies that 1st and 2d Brigade elements have just been able to link up to the north of Lets, and they will not be available for clearing operations in the town.
The division G3 also advises the 3d Brigade that a civil affairs team and the personnel from the division G5 office will be reporting to the 3d Brigade CP to advise the brigade commander on matters pertaining to the civilian population and the local civilian government.
Intelligence reports indicate that several pockets of enemy resistance remain even though enemy forces are attempting to withdraw completely from the town. It is not expected that they have sufficient force to attempt a breakthrough operation. Civilians in the area have reported that enemy forces have planted mines and boobytraps throughout the area.
Generally speaking, the civilian population has been extremely cooperative with friendly forces, but they have expressed considerable concern about the destruction within the town resulting from military operations and have requested that every effort be made to avoid further destruction. The brigade commander assigns each task force a sector of the town to clear. Figure Task Force Clearance Zones The brigade commander calls his task force commanders together to brief them on how the clearing operations are to be conducted.
All prisoners of war are to be immediately evacuated to the facility. During the conduct of the clearing operations, indiscriminate and random firing is to be avoided. The integrity of civilians and their property is to be respected. Heavy direct fire weapons should only be used as a last resort. Tear agents may be used against known or suspected enemy positions. They should constantly be alert for these hazards. When feasible, these items are to be marked and bypassed, initially. If they cannot be bypassed, engineers will assist in disposing of them. Caution your troops about the hazards of booby traps and unexpended munitions.
They cannot afford to assume that the enemy is not there. My CP will be located in the vicinity of the rail yards. I expect my CP to be kept closely informed concerning your progress during the clearing operations. This section has provided examples of how units from corps through battalion task force may attack on the urbanized battlefield. It focused on the factors the commander must consider in developing his offensive plan in this environment. Details pertaining to the conduct of the company team battle within the built-up areas of the urbanized battlefield are provided in the appendices to this manual.
SUMMARY Know the characteristics of urbanized terrain and the advantages and disadvantages it offers both the attacker and the defender. Bypass built-up areas when possible in order to maintain attack momentum and lessen casualties. Attack a built-up area only as the last resort, and only when major advantage accrues through its seizure or control.
Attack where the enemy is weak--hit his flanks and rear simultaneously. Rapid, detailed planning by participating commanders is required to allow decentralized execution and limit command and control problems during the battle. Employ the combined arms team to provide a mutual shielding of vulnerabilities. Dissipate the enemy's strength by causing him to react to demonstrations, feints, or ruses.
Concentrate overwhelming combat power to force a quick and violent disruption of the defenses, envelop the built-up area, and move rapidly to the enemy's rear. Maneuver over approaches to a built-up area must be obscured by smoke and protected by overwatching fires. Where possible, reduce strongpoints with fires only, keep moving, and secure them with follow-on forces.
Cut lines of communications and defeat the enemy through isolation. Attack at night to gain surprise or to take objectives whose assault during daylight would be too costly. Once momentum has been gained, the attack must be continuous until defenses have been splintered. Defense Defensive operations on urbanized terrain are conducted in accordance with the fundamentals and principles contained in FM , Operations, and the How-to-Fight series of manuals. The general characteristics of the urban environment described in chapter 1 and appendix A influence the conduct of the defense at each command level.
This chapter supplements other doctrinal manuals by describing how the enemy may attack on urbanized terrain and how the defense is planned, organized, and conducted. It also discusses his organization for combat and use of the combined arms team in this environment. Threat force structure and offensive tactics incorporate the concepts of mass, maneuver, and speed.
Daily offensive rates of advance of kilometers are expected during nuclear operations, and kilometers under conventional conditions. To achieve these significant rates, to maintain offensive momentum, and to avoid presenting lucrative targets for nuclear weapons, speed and bypass operations are emphasized in overcoming natural and manmade obstacles. When it is necessary to attack a built-up area, the following basic concepts govern the deployment of forces at division level: A surprise attack from the line of march, based on detailed advanced reconnaissance, is the preferred form of attack.
Secure political, industrial, logistical and communications facilities. A surprise attack envisions a rapid, bold movement from the line of march by a strong advance detachment to secure an undefended or lightly defended built-up area. It seeks to avoid a costly, protracted street-by-street, house-to-house battle and permit attacking forces to continue beyond the area without reducing offensive momentum. The surprise attack seeks to preserve vital facilities such as bridges, railroads, airfields, key industrial complexes, and utilities. The following figure illustrates how a motorized rifle division MRD might conduct a surprise attack with a reinforced M battalion MRB in the role of the advance detachment.
The size of an advance detachment is determined by the size of the built-up area and expected resistance. The advance detachment moves rapidly and attempts to avoid contact with defensive forces on the approaches to the objective. If little or no resistance is encountered, the advance detachment seizes the most important objectives buildings and key streets, splitting the area into isolated pockets of resistance, and destroys them piecemeal. Hasty defenses are organized to defeat counterattacks by the defending forces or to destroy defenders attempting to escape through the built-up area.
Airborne or helicopter-landed forces may support the advance detachment by sealing off flanks or the rear of the objective. These forces may also be employed as the advance detachment around or in the built-up area. An advance detachment operating outside the range of forward artillery receives intensified reconnaissance and close air support from high-performance aircraft and helicopter forces.
If the surprise attack fails, the advanced detachment is normally directed to seize a foothold in the outskirts or to seize an adjacent key terrain feature and wait for the main body to arrive. This attack involves larger forces, requires more detailed planning, and has a greater weight of artillery, mortar, and rocket fires than a surprise attack. The deliberate attack is characterized by: Isolation of the objective. Advanced reconnaissance activities include the study of large-scale maps, aerial photographs, and background intelligence reports.
These data are updated by tactical intelligence from long-range reconnaissance patrols, agent reports, and electronic intelligence. Heliborne and airborne units may supplement ground reconnaissance and are normally targeted against specific key points in the urban area. Reconnaissance functions are also frequently conducted by infiltrators disguised as refugees. Infiltrators or reconnaissance detachments may operate in the objective area for several days before an assault. Active reconnaissance may include the use of local residents to provide current essential information of the defender's activities.
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Raids by reconnaissance teams may be mounted for the purpose of capturing prisoners and documents. Reconnaissance tasks include the determination of: Defensive dispositions on approaches to objectives. Occasionally, an intentional exit may be permitted to entice defenders into open terrain where they can be attacked. After isolating the area, second-echelon forces may conduct a siege operation while first-echelon forces break contact and continue their advance. If the attacker's timetable permits, siege operations are preferred to avoid a costly direct assault and destruction of facilities needed to support future operations.
Bombardment The deliberate attack is normally preceded by howitzer, mortar, rocket, and air bombardment. The intensity of the preparation is determined by the strength of defensive forces, the type building construction, and the density of fires required to suppress observation and fires. First priority of fires is allocated to the main attack to destroy AT weapon positions and strongpoints on the area's edge.
Artillery attached to assaulting units normally does not participate in the bombardment, but is reserved for direct fire employment against strongpoints on the outskirts and for support within the built-up area. Other goals of the bombardment are to destroy or disrupt: Smoke will normally be employed during artillery preparations to suppress the defenders while threat forces negotiate obstacles on the approaches and within the built-up area.
Assault Habitually, simultaneous attacks are made on the flanks and rear to capture specific objectives and to splinter defenses. Frontal assaults are avoided and will be conducted only when an objective cannot be isolated or flanked. During or immediately after preparatory fires, engineers move forward under the cover of smoke and high explosives to neutralize barriers and breach minefields on routes into the city. First-echelon assault groups attack to secure a foothold blocks in depth.
After securing the initial foothold and rupturing the outer defenses, the first echelon may continue to attack, or the second echelon is passed through the foothold and attacks along designated routes from one objective to another. The attack within the built-up area is characterized by bold, rapid movements to secure assigned objectives.
Buildings along the route are not routinely searched or secured unless resistance is strong. Bypassed defenders are left for elimination by following echelons or the reserve. If the leading echelon is stopped or slowed, the following echelons or reserve may be committed around engaged forces and continue to the objective.
Infantry mounted on tanks, in BMPs, or trucks fire while moving rapidly along streets to assigned objectives. Tactical doctrine stresses the use of underground routes in the attack. Such routes that cannot be used are blocked or mined to prevent infiltration into the attacking force's rear. In the assault of an objective, Threat forces isolate the position by fire or by securing adjacent buildings. Isolation is stressed to prevent defenders from escaping to a rearward position and to deny reinforcement.
Attached artillery and tanks are habitually used to suppress defensive fires and to breach walls to provide entrances for assaulting infantry. Assaulting infantry avoid advancing along streets where they would be exposed to effective defensive fire. They seek surprise by attacking the objective from the flank or rear. Routes to the objective may consist of available underground passages such as subways, tunnels, and sewers, or passages blasted through intervening building walls. Once the assault of an objective begins, supporting fires shift to upper stories and to adjacent buildings. Assaulting infantry aggressively clear, in sequence, ground floor, basement, stairways, and each ascending floor.
Once secured, the position is immediately prepared to repel counterattacks. Round-the-clock operations are stressed to maintain uninterrupted momentum of the attack and to reduce casualties. Night operations against built-up areas are conducted to: Bypass outlying villages being used as battle positions. Direct support artillery and mortars seal off the objective area to prevent defenders from withdrawing or being reinforced.
Illumination is fired to guide forces, illuminate objectives, and to dazzle the defender's night vision devices. After securing assigned objectives and eliminating significant defensive opposition, assault groups normally establish defensive positions beyond the built-up area and prepare to continue the attack. Detailed clearance operations are normally passed to following units or to security formations. Attacking forces are not evenly distributed around the built-up area, but are employed over the most favorable avenues of approach.
Generalized attack zones for motorized rifle units are: Division 4 to 6 kilometers Regiment 2 to 3 kilometers Battalion to meters Company to meters. The figure below depicts the second-echelon motorized rifle regiments of a motorized rifle division conducting a deliberate attack. This formation is normally employed when defenses are organized in depth or when the city is configured in an elongated pattern.
Thi formation is normally employed when defenses are organized on the city's edge or when attacking a shallow built-up area. The above figure illustrates a type first-echelon MRB assault detachment designated as the main attack force. The battalion is reinforced by attaching a tank company, a battery of SP artillery for direct fire, one company of engineers, and one NBC reconnaissance section.
An additional artillery battalion is normally placed in direct support for indirect fire missions in the battalion's zone. Missions normally assigned to a MRB making the main attack in the first echelon include: Seize intermediate objective s on city's edge. Missions normally assigned a second-echelon MRB include: Reserve MRBs are prepared to: Pass through either echelon and attack to take advantage of a defensive weakness.
Attachments to the MR company are further attached to platoons, providing each platoon with at least one tank or artillery weapon and a share of engineers. Frequently, these attachments may be made down to squad level. Tanks Tanks supporting MR companies may be employed as a platoon, in sections, or singly with an MR squad.
Generally, a rifle squad provides close-in security for each tank, relying on the tank for protection and fire support. Tanks also support the attack by firing on suspected positions, smashing barricades, and engaging opposing armor. Artillery The difficulty of centralized fire control and the decreased effectiveness of indirect fires within built-up areas is recognized.
For these reasons, over 50 percent of the available artillery may be attached and employed in a direct fire role to create breaches in buildings, walls, and barricades. The artillery commander normally collocates with the MRB commander. Mortars Mortars cover avenues of enemy troop movements, such as street intersections and alleys.
Mortar firing positions are placed behind walls or inside buildings close to their targets. Engineers Engineers are attached to MR platoons and squads with the following missions: Breach obstacles on approaches to the city. Massed fire from heavy batteries of the division and regimental artillery groups is used against large buildings, strong enemy fortified positions, and in a counterfire role. Other missions for these groups include interdiction and destruction of enemy supply installations, headquarters, and communication centers. Built-up areas not essential to overall success of offensive operations will be bypassed and isolated if possible.
When an attack is required, Threat forces will attempt to secure key built-up areas by a surprise attack from the march before defenses have been established. The deliberate attack is characterized by isolating the objective area, conducting an intense pre-assault air and artillery bombardment, and by multiple assaults on the flanks and rear of the area to be secured.
Combined arms assault groups orient on securing objectives and will bypass and isolate centers of resistance. Detailed clearance of each building is normally assigned to follow-on units. MR companies are reinforced with tanks, artillery, antitank guns, and engineers. MR companies are expected to operate independently.
The majority of organic artillery is attached to assaulting units and employed in a direct fire role. Underground systems are considered to be key avenues of approach. Tall structures that are likely observation posts are high-priority artillery targets. The enemy will accept isolation of attacking units and heavy losses to secure assigned objectives and to maintain attack momentum.
Readers must be familiar with defensive planning as outlined in organizational How-to-Fight manuals and understand how the enemy attacks. In some cases, commanders may be directed to defend a built-up area, a line of communications, or an industrial complex whose retention provides significant advantage within the framework of the defensive plan of a higher level commander.
The decision to defend such an area may also be made because of specific tactical advantages accruing to the defender assigned responsibility for an area. In all cases, the elements of urban sprawl must be analyzed in conjunction with natural terrain in order to determine how to enhance weapons effectiveness to slow, block, canalize, and destroy the enemy. Built-up areas, like forests, hills, or other terrain features, may be incorporated in the plan for the defense of an urban area in order to: Control avenues of approach. Avenues of approach in urban areas are frequently interrupted by built-up areas scattered across the terrain.
These built-up areas may provide a portion of the defensive grid for the combined arms team. In some cases, the location of a built-up area on the urban terrain complex may effectively deny bypass to major elements of an attacking force. At lower levels of command, this may favor the use of villages or small towns as strong-points. At the other extreme, major urban complexes may be so large that they cannot be totally avoided.
Sufficient combat strength is not available for defense. To apply them, commanders must understand the characteristics and components of urban sprawl, the advantages and disadvantages they offer, and how they impact on the capabilities of units and weapons during the conduct of the defense. Understand the Enemy The first part of this chapter supplements Threat data provided in other source documents by describing how the enemy may attack on urbanized terrain.
When planning an urban defense, commanders at each level must place themselves in the enemy's position, view the battlefield from his perspective, and fit his concepts, formations, and weapons to the terrain. This estimate enables the defender to narrow the list of tactical options available to the attacker and identify his most probable courses of action. Once the commander has organized the defense to counter the variety of attack options available to the enemy, he must aggressively seek to learn where the enemy is, how he is organized, which way he is going, and in what strength.
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Although the characteristics of urbanized terrain may complicate the intelligence collection effort, the advantage lies initially with the defender. Commanders at all levels must know the terrain over which they will conduct the defense. Reconnaissance, surveillance, and target-acquisition resources must be applied as far forward as possible along likely avenues of approach to provide data to higher commanders.
Security forces operating from covered and concealed positions in depth complement electronic warfare support measures and tactical imagery activities by limiting the enemy's ground reconnaissance and infiltration capabilities. On the urban battlefield, the attacker must forfeit, at least in part, the advantages of cover and concealment in order to move and mass; his routes of advance are limited and more clearly defined, enhancing the defender's target-surveillance capability; and he must use increased communications to coordinate the concentration of his forces, which reduces his ability to achieve surprise.
The defender must use his knowledge of the terrain and enemy to see the battlefield more accurately than the enemy, to prevent surprise, and to maximize reaction time for maneuver forces. Concentrate at the Critical Times and Places The ability of the defender to concentrate rapidly throughout the battle area may be limited by restrictive terrain. In order to maintain a favorable mobility differential over the attacker, the commander must use his knowledge of the terrain.
Routes must be selected, reconnoitered, and prepared for the forward and lateral movement of forces to be concentrated. The obstacle value of the urban terrain complex must be reinforced to slow the attacker. Detailed movement data and explicit traffic control plans are essential. Lines of communication which are dependent on bridges, overpasses, or tunnels should not be used unless suitable bypasses are available.
FM 90-10 Military Operations On Urban Terrain (MOUT)
Weather or land usage patterns, as well as other manmade features, may limit the mobility of armored and mechanized forces. Greater reliance must be placed on an initial positioning of forces which accepts risk zones along the least probable avenues of approach. These zones may be covered primarily by air or ground screening forces and fires. On urbanized terrain, it is more difficult to recover from an erroneous decision which concentrates maneuver elements too early or at the wrong place.
In this maneuver-restrictive envirOnment, increased emphasis on the use of artillery and attack helicopters as the first increments of concentration is required. As the battle progresses, the commander's intimate knowledge of the terrain is used to maintain the mobility advantage.
Fight as a Combined Arms Team A detailed analysis of the urban-terrain complex provides the basis for allocating and organizing available forces to accomplish the defensive mission. Cross-reinforcement of maneuver elements will normally be required in order to match unit capabilities to the terrain mix. In the more open portions of the urban environment, armored and mechanized forces may play the dominant role.
As the density of manmade features increases, the employment of mechanized or dismounted infantry, supported by armor and engineers, becomes increasingly important. If it is necessary to fight within a built-up area, the role of infantry supported by other arms becomes dominant. Field and air defense artillery, air cavalry, and attack helicopters are employed throughout the battle area to maximize the combined arms team's effectiveness, multiply its combat power, and enhance its survivability.
Exploit the Advantages of the Defender The already significant advantages of the defender become more pronounced on the urbanized battlefield. A common threat running through the discussion of the application of these fundamentals is the defender's familiarity with the terrain. Every action by the attacker is made more difficult because he must feel his way through this complex of manmade and natural terrain features. The defender can prepare the ground in advance, build and reinforce obstacles, and select firing positions and observation posts, many of which require improvement only.