Urban combat is one beast of warfare that’s always chaotic. Fictional media always made the image of zipping through buildings/streets, street firefights, or forces leveling whole complexes to total each other exciting as a fictional setting (notably Call of Duty with Modern Warfare, or different battles seen in Star Wars). But when you get to more realistic portrayals of urban warfare in movies or to actual cases of it in the real world, a lot of that excitement goes away due to the tension of fighting in various small quarters, civilian casualties and the image of great cities being reduced to rubble and to a shell of themselves.
In one of Athur Rehi’s videos, he stated that the Ukrainian troops have reported that it could take 24 hours of non-stop combat to secure one building, and 5 hours of combat just to secure one floor. Urban warfare is absolutely brutal and terrifying.
Watch Battlestate's Escape From Tarkov: Raid Series. urban conflict is so fucking savage in that show, you're gonna be locked in a trance whether they're fighting off scavs or pmcs.
Urban warfare in some way is "back to the stone age". Kill the enemy (often within arm's reach) while looking him in the eye. Each encounter gives you a good chance of getting killed yourself. That can add up to your almost certain death. Even if you survive these fights, after so many nightmarish encounters, you are lucky to get out mentally healthy.
@@SusCalvineven with shelling cities have so much underground infrastructure that defenders will still use the rubble to tear into you, big ones like new york would be utterly immune to shelling and bombardment, you'd just suffer a political defeat internationally due to the civilian casualties, it would achieve nothing. Shelling only really works with small peripheral cities that don't have much infrastructure and even then it depends on the geography, shelling vicenza(italy) would be an exercise in futility even without much underground infrastructure simply because of the geography. Shelling is a good opener but it's rarely useful, it looks better than it is because Ukrainian cities are particularly vulnerable to it. Artillery is king yes but not always.
@@PeachDragon_ Taking a city is also gnarly. A city is a very defensible place, even its ruins. Shelling disrupts all sorts of civilian infrastructure, but the military tends to have organizations who don't depend on it. It adds to locking civilians in place, so you get these situations where people are trapped in a basement for weeks on end unless they want to guess when a ceasefire happens. Chechny and later Syria and others had lengthy urban sieges where the shelling and air strikes continued for months to dislodge defenders.
@@PeachDragon_ yeah reducing a large city to rubble is actually a big disadvantage for the attacker as it creates countless little hidy holes for the defenders to fight from.
It took America a few years to find their groove in CQB, but Russia has a vastly different strategy: just level everything to the ground and who's left is marked as an enemy. Very effective, but also destructive. It took Vietnam and Korea to figure out that it just turns the entire population of said country against you. The more you damage the population, the bigger grudge they hold.
@@baneofbanes And it doesn't help that Russia's logistics is well...to put it lightly quite shit with both corruption and transportation, oh also The disunity between the different groups isn't helping their case. In fact, I don't think Russia learn its lesson from Afghanistan.
@@royalhistorian5109 You would think Russia would steam roll people in war with how many hard lessons they have had to learn in past wars. But it seams they simply don't learn or remeber the lessons.
@@royalhistorian5109 There is a 61-year old Ukrainian who is a veteran of the Soviet-Afghan War. Last year (2022), he single-handedly drove away a group of enemy Chechen troops using hand grenades and an RPG. He said that the Kadyrovite Chechens are nothing compared to the Mujahideen he fought around 30 years ago.
urban warfare probably as terrifying as it can get like you have to go in buildings knowing people could be around any corner ready to shoot as opposed to frontline fighting where you know the enemy is just up ahead either is terryfying but having to go into a building to kill someone just sounds intense
A friend of a friend served two tours in Northern Ireland in the late 70s. He always said the msin difficulty was that the enemy didn't wear a uniform. There was no way of knowing if the man walking towards you was going to pull out a pistol, throw a hand grenade, or was just off to the shop for a newspaper and a packet of cigarettes.
I was kind of in shock one day I guess. I knew a guy was coming around a hall corner so I rushed up so as he turned the corner I'd be right in hi face, gun leveled and fully auto. He didn't expect anyone, rifle slung. He fell apart like an old Don Knox routine. Tried to unsling his rifle but winds up dropping it. Hi flap over his pistol holder seemed like it was glued shut. He can't get that out. The whole time I'm just a heardbeat from pulling the trigger. No problem if he had posed a threat at any moment, I'd have fired. The next thing he does is grab a grenade and I almost shoot but I see he just grabbed a green signal flair. He pulls the pin,hits me in the chest with it then drops to the floor. He's only a few feet away so his head lands at my feet right next to the grenade. He had an explosive grenade, and if he had reached for that instead I'd have cut him in half before he could have pulled the pin. I kick the smoke grenade into the next room. He half heartedly starts reaching for his rifle and I just step hard on his hand and say, "I think your done." He finally surrendered. When your fighting an untrained and non professional Army you just never know what to expect. You have to wonder how many stupid mistakes the Russian conscripted soldiers make that end up getting them killed.
The urban warfare podcast with John Spencer is fascinating about this subject. Its so much more complex than I thought. Its going to get more prevalent too bc if you want to win a war you must capture the cities.
When I was in the specialized training I got was called MOBA (Military Operations in Built-up Areas.) I don't know what they call it now but it was great training. It covered everything from jungle grass hut villages to downtown Chicago like environments.
@@orcshire_teauk 🇬🇧 it's fish fighting in someone's house whitch really shows urban warfare you fighting for your life in a building we're birthdays were once celebrated.
I saw a short movie once, can't recall the name of it but it was about a soldier's rapid psychological decline while stationed in a very claustrophobic urban area during heavy fighting with local insurgents. I think it was in French, and the theme was set in an African country. It covered a week of time, showing something horribly jarring that happened to the soldier on each day and gradually the appearance of the video became more hazy and glitchy as the movie progressed. By the end of it, all of the dialogue is completely muffled, all the colors are extremely oversaturated and the background noise is chaotic and loud. It was something that really stuck with me, probably the most understandable representation of traumatic mental damage I've ever seen.
Could you do an episode on how Calvary has been used throughout the history of war, its rise, its golden age, and its slow movement towards obsolescence?
@@Xynth25 I was thinking mainly about the use of cavalry with the horse and I think today Calvary is mainly helicopters used to move troops at speed rather than used as a super weapon of the battlefield like was seen in the ancient and medieval era with mounted troops.
@@matthewporter2798Cavalry was never a superweapon, it was a shock tactic but cavalry always had to be used intelligently or it broke. The most common use of cavalry historically was scouting and raiding of supply lines. Modern cavalry, air and armored, does the same stuff horse cavalry and dragoons historically did.
No example of Urban warfare in Irak, Kaboul, Yemen, Somali. I wonder why.... Showing cities completely razed would not be great publiccity Does USA pay you well ?
@@Agorax_gg 0:50 2:03 18:11not good enough for you. And what about Russia in any city they’ve tried to take, the towering mountains of ruble are not enough for you to be up in arms. Not to mention it’s a war not some nursery. Also you spelt Iraq wrong.
Urban warfare is the most physically, mentally, and emotionally demanding and exhausting form of warfare without a doubt. Speaking from lots of experience.
As far as other vicious urban fights that i think could be honorable mentions here; Hue City 1968 Tet Offensive, Berlin 1945, Seoul twice during the Korean War, the 24 hours in 1993 Bakara Market in Mogadishu (black hawk down), the various urban battles in Somalia during the various civil conflicts, battle of Kigali during the Rwandan civil war and genocide in 94 etc....
Having spent 13 months fighting in Mosul, Iraq, I can tell you that dealing with foriegn nationals is challenging. The worst thing an occupation force can do is be anything but kind to them. I have seen the worst of humanity and the very best. I will say this about the middle eastern philosophy of the sanctity of life is that it is very different than ours. They will walk away from a wounded child if that child is not family. Even hardened criminals in the US will risk their own lives to help.
Makes me think of the conduct of the French Marshals in the Peninsular War (in the Napoleonic Wars) While Marshal Soult pillaged and plundered everywhere he went, infuriating the Spanish people by plundering churches, Marshal Suchet treated the locals with respect, punished his own men for robbing or harming civilians, and even pledged to protect civilians from the Spanish guerrilla bands (many of whom were really just bandits who committed crimes and atrocities against Spanish civilians while claiming that they were fighting to liberate Spain from French occupation)
You are one of the lucky ones because any longer staying in Iraq in post 9\11 days is more dangerous because booby traps are everywhere like in houses, roads, trees, people etc. It’s like a warehouse storage gun powder ready to explode but it’s in the open
You have been brainwashed with this mentality probably all your life. Wake up please. Did you run to save that child? Do you know you as well are one of those hardened criminals? Do any of you think about innocent children or people when you are bombing cities? Did any of those hardened criminals think about any children in Nagasaki or Hiroshima? Yes, yes you are saving the children of the future. I get it! All the mass murdering governments and their criminal armies should be dismantled!
Easy to judge when your family is safe at home. In all our war like that, you’re focused on your own survival first and foremost, and then your family’s. Everyone else is secondary
@@user-kt8hf9tx6hif you walk away from a injured child knowing you can help your bad no matter what happened to you. Now that family probably couldn’t just help that child so it’s not like they just choose not to, if they could they probably would
Fellujah, Ramadi, Stalingrad, Berlin. Urban combat is a nightmare because the enemy could be anywhere and peepholes to shoot through can be anywhere. The best case is you’ve at least got a team to back you up, clearing an urban setting by yourself might as well be a death sentence. Best case scenario you siege the city by surrounding it and cutting off the defenders inside from supply lines
Even then the tunnels can only supply so much before they're discovered and destroyed. Israel has been able to make relatively rapid advance through Gaza (which is practically all urban terrain) because Hamas has been almost totally isolated from imports of anything. Sadly Gazan civilians are trapped in there with them, but in being so saps valuable food, fuel, and medical resources away from supporting active Hamas combatants.
I retired from the army in 2013 and can tell you my CQB training started way back in 1998 and it was still being fine tuned. By 2005 it was getting major updates from Iraq. Thats what makes the military great, adapt and overcome.
This bring back memorie from my Army days. On the first hand to hand drill, we all were mad about the useless effort and how a bullet will solve this problem. Our superior told US the following: the future of war will be the urban combat and guerilla tactics where an attacking Army will enter such conflict with an 80% losses expectancy, and h2h combat might be the difference between being alive or dead
The first rule of urban warfare is DON'T. Modern siege should be more like bypass. Turn off the power and set up feeding stations around the town/city, I know that would only works for larger settlements, and spend the money so as not to repeat Kitchener's concentratiom camp debacle. Such an approach will cost much less blood and treasure.
I'm not so sure this is a useful approach in most situations. Cities hold key infrastructure, an ever increasing proportion of humans and offer a hiding place for thousands, if not tens or hundreds of thousands, of enemy fighters. Pretty much regardless of your objective, eventually major cities will have to be taken. Otherwise you just control a bunch of empty countryside.
@@Oxtocoatl13 Well that is always question in wars like this. How do we win? Is it about the land occupied the cities we hold or the overthrow of the Government body? What about the people do we oppress or uplift them?. A war of occupation has no victory unless you kill everyone and repopulate the area with your own countrymen.
One more aspect that makes artillery and air power almost useless. Materials don't disappear like video games Collapsing buildings destroyed vehicles ect have the very real potential to block your advance way Very common phenomenon during the battle of Stalingrant The Germans created their own maze like death trap
The Germans didn’t want to enter the city itself, but encircling it was practically impossible with the Volga in the way. So they opted to just pound the city with air strikes and artillery, thus creating the deadly maze…though it would definitely have still been perilous had they left the buildings intact and just went in. In my opinion, the Germans lost the Battle of Stalingrad before it even started.
Another thing about Night Vision. Its very easy to temporarily blind an opponent wearing them in urban enviroments, considering the amount of potential light sources. Thats why you need Thermal Night Vision instead of the regular green stuff
Mandala Bay terrorist sniper event would have been an excellent example of the power of a well positioned sharpshooter. This is a marvelous documentary. Thank you Simon.
Civilians in an urban siege are also often unable to evacuate. The risks of leaving their shelter when conventional warfare is going on upstairs are too great. The front can shift faster than the civilians could anticipate or move, so those not pushed ahead of the wave of conflict find themselves stranded. People who have previously evacuated from another city and turned internal refugees can find themselves surprised by another offensive. One of the first challenges for civilian aid is to negotiate a safe time window and/or corridor or supply area for them to operate and for civilians to evacuate. Getting armed actors to not fight street to street for half a day so UNHCR trucks can roll in and out is often something they're unwilling to do.
I would suggest the Aztec rebellion against the Spanish Conquistadors in early 1520ce to be a prime example of early urban warfare as the Spanish were driven out of Tenochtitlan by Aztec combatants who had the advantage of already having the Spanish surrounded and in close quarters with limited avenues of escape. These factors limited the effectiveness of the Spanish superior weaponry, as well the armor worn by the Spanish soldiers would doom many of them to drowning in the Tenochtitlan canals and surrounding waterways of the city.
Tenochtitlan is actually a very good example. I also recall reading that in some Maya cities archaeologists have found unfinished makeshift barricades dated to around the abandonment of those cities, heavily implying that the settlement's final days were marked by a violent street fighting.
I think that operation "Defensive Shield" that launched by Israel in 2002 against terror groups in Palestinian cities is worth mentioning here. Israel knew that the cities which they going in are crowded and densely populated so their tactic was to enter the first house, make a hole in the wall and move forward through the walls. The idf soldiers was much more safe thanks to this tactic and the enemy didn't knew where the soldiers are. A perfect example of how to make an advantage as an attacking force in urban warfare.
Urban Warfare is nothing but a highly complex siege, and as Sun Tzu said: “…and the worst policy of all is to besiege walled cities. The rule is, not to besiege walled cities if it can possibly be avoided.” - The Art of War by Sun Tzu - Chapter 3: Attack by Stratagem As a former US Marine who trained extensively for years in urban combat, I believe it is so chaotic, unpredictable, costly, and hard to manage that it should be avoided at all cost. If you want to take a city, surround them and cut off their supplies/utilities until they surrender, or bypass the fortified city and find a more important target while hopefully drawing your opponents outside of their defenses. The only type of urban combat mission I believe in is the Raid in the middle of the night, on one or two houses, targeting 1 or a handful of key leaders when they do not expect you to show up at all, and leaving before the sunrises.
" War is just a racket. A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of people. Only a small inside group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few at the expense of the masses. " Smedley Butler
Hopefully you do a video on the Battle of Hue during the Tet Offensive in Vietnam. Would have been another great example of the challenges of urban warfare for the attacker
I think there's no best way in describing how chaotic and hellish conflict the urban warfare is than the "Black Hawk Down" movie that's based on actual event in Somalia. The attackers simply doesn't know where to go, RPGs constantly koving from one part of the city then to the next one, machine gun are put in such way that utterly surprised the attackers. The air superiority provided by the helicopters simply didn't stand a chance, with enemies moving around.
GEN Mark Milley (Chairman of the United States military's Joint Chiefs of Staff) recently commented that the future of warfare will unavoidably include operations in urban areas.
Attacking is usually more difficult, dangerous and costly than defending, and it is expected that you would incur more casualties than the defender. In ancient or medieval times, if you are the attacking force trying to take a castle, you would likely need ten men for every one defender.
Near the end of WW2, my father acted as an interpreter for an American Col. He said he'd rather flatten a German town with artillery then have one of his GIs break a finger nail.
I hope this videos mentions the time during the Lebanese civil war when opposing factions launched artillery and sniper attacks at each other from high rise hotels
I went through Basic Combat Training in 2006. One of the subjects we were trained in was MOUT, Military Operations in Urban Terrain. The course of instruction included going through MOUT sites, small towns built out of shipping containers, and filled with all manner of goodies intended to make us hate life. I won't go into detail about the training we received, but I will say that it was difficult, stressful, and really tested our sanity. Our Drill SGTs really did their job well in making our lives a living hell. I know they enjoyed it, and some of them played the part of our opposition. They were a bunch of sadistic bastards I'd follow to the depths of hell and back, even now, nearly 20 years later. They introduced us to the major considerations of conducting warfare in an urban area, including snipers, enemies that refused to wear uniforms and fight face-to-face, IEDs, etc. I came away with a solid fear and appreciation for just how difficult it is for a conventional army to deal with an unconventional opponent. It also instilled in me an all-encompassing hatred of guerilla fighters who seek to blend in with the civilian population. Using civilians as meat shields is the height of cowardice as far as I'm concerned. I'll respect an unconventional enemy who keeps their fight out of population centers. It's entirely possible to do so, especially if your intent is to seize and hold the moral high ground. Granted, it doesn't make for great propaganda, just ask Hamas. However, there is something to be said for having a population that loves you because you behave in a moralanner, vs a population that supports you because they fear you.
I imagine if you serve in the military and have to fight in urban warfare, the odds of you having ptsd greatly increases. Never knowing what it is danger or safe. Can’t imagine how much that messes with your head.
This was well done. You could have also included fighting in Damascus during the Syria civil war and the fights against Isis and the Philippine Armed Forces. Both has intense urban conflict. Love this channel
Even pillaging could be less damaging then modern urban warfare. I once heard someone say that while the town could be burned you could also have men just grab a few items of value and take some food without going on a murder spree.
most of the time no unless the city surrendered , they would be pillaged,killed and emslaved. Sieges are a Nightmare for the attackers ,they have to build siege Equipment,roll it to the walls and try to climb it meanwhile the defenders use every nasty trick to make their life sucks. when the walls are breached the men turn into animals and there are cases that generals were killed by their own soldiers who tried to stop them from burning, raping,killing and looting the city that put them to misery for months to even years
Urban and close quarters combat is brutal. Marines fighting in Fallujah were told to expect several casualties for every hostile house they entered. I can't imagine the balls it had to take to be the first man in.
I've been playing the game "Six Days in Fallujah" and it is nothing short of scary. It has been made with the direct input from many soldiers who were in Fallujah, and even though it is a game, it demonstrates (as much as possible) just how awful it could be.
In "normal" land warefare the British Army will aim to engage the enemy only when they outnumber them 3 to 1. In urban warfare this goes up to 12:1....that's they're way of saying "we expect up to 11 people to die to kill one enemy".
Loved the video. Very informative, as usual. My one minor, pet peeve is that the script said things like "casualties were incurred upon the enemy" when it should have been "Inflicted" upon the enemy. A small, minor hiccup on what was otherwise a great watch.
As is often the case in warfare the most effective solution is the most brutal one. The message is "Civilians have 1 week to evacuate. After that time the bombard will begin and will continue until no stone sets atop another."
The corinthians' surprise attack on Plataea during the peloponnesian war (as described by Thucidides) is worth mentioning. At first the Corinthians were successful, but once the Plataeans realised what was happening, they started using the streets of their city against the Corinthians. Every house became a shooting platform, every street was barricaded to funnel the enemy and lead them on a merry chase, and the defenders started knocking down connecting house walls to easily, and secretly, move from one place to the next. This last tactic, in particular, is a staple of urban warfare even today.
Feels like modern urban warfare is coming back to the old style. One building complex in Mari pool sounds lot like seize of a castle. Bakhmut has held out for what 9 months against Russian forces
Absolutely looking forward to this series and the future analysis your team and yourself will be making! Probably my favorite series to come out from your channel multiverse haha
I'm firmly of the belief that all civilian casualties in warfare are absolutely unacceptable and should be treated as war crimes regardless of who ends up victorious.
" firmly of the belief that all civilian casualties in warfare are absolutely unacceptable" is an unrealistic view of war. Innocents die, and its sad but thats war. If the idea that even a single civilian casualty is unacceptable then that is inviting armies to HIDE BEHIND THEM. @@willowmoon7
During the battle of the Falls Rd Belfast. All the walls and houses were painted with white wash so the British army uniforms stood out. They used water cannons with black dye to paint them and we went back out with the white wash.
I almost fell out of my chair 🪑 when I found this channel. Simon you are a very busy fellow with your documentaries. I'm sure they will eventually become very popular in class as tools teachers use for the schools they teach at. Anyway, I'm glad you are doing so many different projects, because you very good at narration.
@@beng7654 Thanks for sharing that. Almost half of my relatives were still in Germany during WWII. I've lived in the United States all of my life because some of them moved here after the war. I didn't have any relatives fighting in Berlin, but I did have one distant cousin who was at Monte Casino, but after being wounded he was safely evacuated back to Germany and survived intact.
@@dinsdalemontypiranha4349 I was born here in the US as well but wish I had been born in Germany and had been able to serve in the German military like most men in my family had
Carried both the M60E2&M60E3 with proper maintenance it ran like a dream. As a pig gunner i made sure she was treated like a queen and she never let me down,never used it in anger but loved it... Carried it until I was made company commanders radioman so I switched to the M16A2 which I carried the rest of my time in the Marines...
That clip of soldiers walking through the forest makes no sense. The dude in front is the sniper, and he's scoped in on that massive (usually fixed 10x) scope while walking upright and being point man in a forest? Yeah, that field of view he's got will definitely help lol
Possible Suggestions under the ART OF WAR Playlist -Strategic Initiative (Offensive & Guerrilla Warfare) -Rapid Dominance (Blitzkreig to Shock and Awe) -Air Superiority -Bite and Hold -Defense in Depth
A big problem for tanks or other heavily armored vehicles are basements. As an attacking force you don’t always know which buildings have basements meaning if your not careful your 57 tone abrams just falls through the street. Also the defender can blow basements to trap your forces. Lastly in some cities the basement of houses are so close that breaking through one wall is enough to change buildings. I don’t know how it is in other cities but at least in Berlin some walls in the basements have the numbers of the next building written on them (one of the not well known reminders of the battle of Berlin during WW2)
Exercise Southern Strike 1995, in which I participated as a rifleman was a battalion sized Canadian FIBUA (Fighting In Built-Up Areas) manoeuvre at facilities in Camp Blanding, FL, Spring 1995. The battalion assaulted "Smithville" the mock up of an Eastern-European style town in poured concrete. Using blank fire and MILES gear against a live enemy force, we barely had enough left "alive" to form a platoon at the end of it.
Hey guys. Awesome video. I like this special The Art of War series. It's phenomenal. I've found the tunneling tactics that Hamas has been using to fight and terrorize Israel and the IDF to be a novel and reprehensible (reprehensible in that Hamas digs under residential areas, effectively using their own civilians as human shields, among other deplorable strategies) approach at modern warfare. I'd like to see an episode on Tunnel Warfare. I think that, in the current international climate, the video would be very relevant. Just a suggestion. Thanks, guys! Keep up the good work!
I heard it put best by an old NCO while I was an infantry soldier. Urban combat /hostage situations only effect roe if public opinion is a factor. I'm sure this has been botched to shit but he states "hostage situation somewhere in Russia with 15 armer insurgents and 52 civilians so the reaction force shows up with 67 body bags and kills them all." I'm sure there's some truth in this folklore which is terrifying but if you are able to read between the lines again the message is terrifying. Urban combat could be the militaries absolutely easiest objective or another Fallujah depending on roe. That's why I now love camera crews now leaders have to double/triple check before they have a bunch of people "commit not living". Skedco aks if you know you know... Edit to add a little more. I wouldn't look at a sniper as a force multiplier but just another asset. I hear force multiplier used so often and while not incorrect just way too vague for it to make sense. A rifleman is a force of one but a machine gunner is a force of three hence force multiplier. However, a sniper in COIN spends considerably more time conducting recon both NATO and insurgents. Yes, technically they are a force multiplier but it's kind of the same saying a calculator is a mathematics multiplier when it is easy so much more than that. I'm digging at the "force multiplier " phrase here I just hear it so often now it's nearly lost it's meaning. For example recently I heard "something something the Abrams tank is a force multiplier " no fucking shit it's a tank!
I don't understand Urban Combat and Hostage situations are in no way the same thing unless you are saying the soldiers in the city are using the civilians as hostages which isn't typically the case.
Russian forces during WW2 considered a room cleared only after a full magazine was fired in to the room, then two grenades were thrown into the room, then the room was flame throwered. Then on to the next room.
A+ video! Great writing, organization, images, and application of ideas (great for people that know basically nothing about elements of war). In a day or so I will check out the other Art of War video.
In WWII, the US marines would skip heavily defended islands and move beyond them to cut off logistics, the “island hopping campaign” of Nimitz. It is not clear to me why the same tactic isn’t used to avoid urban warfare altogether. A bypassed city could be closed off by artillery and a small ground force with concealed emplacements.
Study the 2017 Battle of Marawi City in Mindanao, Philippines. It took five months to subdue but the terrorists were rooted out and eliminated. In comparison, check out the 1945 Battle of Manila, also called the "Stalingrad of the East."
The Dresden bombing was actually a preperation for the soviet push into the city. The soviets were being slowed down too much by every city they encountered and has recieved heavy casualties and had inflicted heavy civilian casualties in each one. They requested the bombing raid by the western allies to sap the defenders moral and it worked extremly well, the city fell in a matter of days rather than weeks and the amount of german military and civilian casualties was alot lower than previous cities
Dresden was also a major manufacturing city for the German war effort. Its why it was even hit. The problem is that the Germans had the factories interlaced with the rest of the city. So when they burned, the rest of the city did.
Urban combat is one beast of warfare that’s always chaotic. Fictional media always made the image of zipping through buildings/streets, street firefights, or forces leveling whole complexes to total each other exciting as a fictional setting (notably Call of Duty with Modern Warfare, or different battles seen in Star Wars). But when you get to more realistic portrayals of urban warfare in movies or to actual cases of it in the real world, a lot of that excitement goes away due to the tension of fighting in various small quarters, civilian casualties and the image of great cities being reduced to rubble and to a shell of themselves.
In one of Athur Rehi’s videos, he stated that the Ukrainian troops have reported that it could take 24 hours of non-stop combat to secure one building, and 5 hours of combat just to secure one floor.
Urban warfare is absolutely brutal and terrifying.
Anyone who compares real wart with a video game is braindead, as is anyone who has to use it to explain a point.
Watch Battlestate's Escape From Tarkov: Raid Series. urban conflict is so fucking savage in that show, you're gonna be locked in a trance whether they're fighting off scavs or pmcs.
Black Hawk Down is the only portrayal that even comes close in terms of capturing the chaotic nature of UW.
@@CMY187 Every building is a fort/bunker/castle.
Urban warfare in some way is "back to the stone age". Kill the enemy (often within arm's reach) while looking him in the eye. Each encounter gives you a good chance of getting killed yourself. That can add up to your almost certain death. Even if you survive these fights, after so many nightmarish encounters, you are lucky to get out mentally healthy.
It depends on how willing some actor is to shell the city and sometimes take a pile of gravel.
The only thing that could drastically change urban warfare would be honest to god mechs
@@SusCalvineven with shelling cities have so much underground infrastructure that defenders will still use the rubble to tear into you, big ones like new york would be utterly immune to shelling and bombardment, you'd just suffer a political defeat internationally due to the civilian casualties, it would achieve nothing.
Shelling only really works with small peripheral cities that don't have much infrastructure and even then it depends on the geography, shelling vicenza(italy) would be an exercise in futility even without much underground infrastructure simply because of the geography.
Shelling is a good opener but it's rarely useful, it looks better than it is because Ukrainian cities are particularly vulnerable to it.
Artillery is king yes but not always.
@@PeachDragon_ Taking a city is also gnarly. A city is a very defensible place, even its ruins.
Shelling disrupts all sorts of civilian infrastructure, but the military tends to have organizations who don't depend on it. It adds to locking civilians in place, so you get these situations where people are trapped in a basement for weeks on end unless they want to guess when a ceasefire happens.
Chechny and later Syria and others had lengthy urban sieges where the shelling and air strikes continued for months to dislodge defenders.
@@PeachDragon_ yeah reducing a large city to rubble is actually a big disadvantage for the attacker as it creates countless little hidy holes for the defenders to fight from.
Imagine going about your business one week and then the next week you’re throwing Venti Molotov Lattes out of what used to be a Starbucks.
You just described Paris France.
@Notaspy12 then the next week, it's totally normal again.
@@lovelessissimo Parisians just walking through the battle.
Molotov lattes 🤣🤣🤣
Anyone who has ever worked in the service industry dreams about that 😂
It took America a few years to find their groove in CQB, but Russia has a vastly different strategy: just level everything to the ground and who's left is marked as an enemy. Very effective, but also destructive. It took Vietnam and Korea to figure out that it just turns the entire population of said country against you. The more you damage the population, the bigger grudge they hold.
Except it’s not that effective at all. Bakhmut still isn’t entirely captured despite months of fighting and tens of thousands of Russian casualties.
@@baneofbanes And it doesn't help that Russia's logistics is well...to put it lightly quite shit with both corruption and transportation, oh also The disunity between the different groups isn't helping their case. In fact, I don't think Russia learn its lesson from Afghanistan.
@@royalhistorian5109 You would think Russia would steam roll people in war with how many hard lessons they have had to learn in past wars. But it seams they simply don't learn or remeber the lessons.
@@royalhistorian5109 There is a 61-year old Ukrainian who is a veteran of the Soviet-Afghan War.
Last year (2022), he single-handedly drove away a group of enemy Chechen troops using hand grenades and an RPG.
He said that the Kadyrovite Chechens are nothing compared to the Mujahideen he fought around 30 years ago.
urban warfare probably as terrifying as it can get
like you have to go in buildings knowing people could be around any corner ready to shoot
as opposed to frontline fighting where you know the enemy is just up ahead
either is terryfying but having to go into a building to kill someone just sounds intense
A friend of a friend served two tours in Northern Ireland in the late 70s. He always said the msin difficulty was that the enemy didn't wear a uniform. There was no way of knowing if the man walking towards you was going to pull out a pistol, throw a hand grenade, or was just off to the shop for a newspaper and a packet of cigarettes.
I would say the main difficulty was being part of an occupation army
🇮🇪🇮🇪🇮🇪
Thats why its not good to leave the fort until they order a curfew at night
@@brianfeely9239 an army called in to protect the nationalist population isn’t really an occupation force
I was kind of in shock one day I guess. I knew a guy was coming around a hall corner so I rushed up so as he turned the corner I'd be right in hi face, gun leveled and fully auto. He didn't expect anyone, rifle slung. He fell apart like an old Don Knox routine. Tried to unsling his rifle but winds up dropping it. Hi flap over his pistol holder seemed like it was glued shut. He can't get that out. The whole time I'm just a heardbeat from pulling the trigger. No problem if he had posed a threat at any moment, I'd have fired. The next thing he does is grab a grenade and I almost shoot but I see he just grabbed a green signal flair. He pulls the pin,hits me in the chest with it then drops to the floor. He's only a few feet away so his head lands at my feet right next to the grenade. He had an explosive grenade, and if he had reached for that instead I'd have cut him in half before he could have pulled the pin. I kick the smoke grenade into the next room. He half heartedly starts reaching for his rifle and I just step hard on his hand and say, "I think your done." He finally surrendered.
When your fighting an untrained and non professional Army you just never know what to expect. You have to wonder how many stupid mistakes the Russian conscripted soldiers make that end up getting them killed.
The urban warfare podcast with John Spencer is fascinating about this subject. Its so much more complex than I thought. Its going to get more prevalent too bc if you want to win a war you must capture the cities.
When I was in the specialized training I got was called MOBA (Military Operations in Built-up Areas.) I don't know what they call it now but it was great training. It covered everything from jungle grass hut villages to downtown Chicago like environments.
That does explain how downtown Chicago looks now 😂
Some call is Fighting in Someone's House (FISH) and some call it FIBUA Fighting In Built Up Area
Current, as of 2012, military nomenclature it's known as MOUT (Movement Over Urban Terrain) and all soldiers get some training
@@orcshire_teauk 🇬🇧 it's fish fighting in someone's house whitch really shows urban warfare you fighting for your life in a building we're birthdays were once celebrated.
@@annebokma4637 So true. I actually see the big city videos of Chicago and all the rest and think. "That what it might look like after."
I saw a short movie once, can't recall the name of it but it was about a soldier's rapid psychological decline while stationed in a very claustrophobic urban area during heavy fighting with local insurgents. I think it was in French, and the theme was set in an African country. It covered a week of time, showing something horribly jarring that happened to the soldier on each day and gradually the appearance of the video became more hazy and glitchy as the movie progressed. By the end of it, all of the dialogue is completely muffled, all the colors are extremely oversaturated and the background noise is chaotic and loud. It was something that really stuck with me, probably the most understandable representation of traumatic mental damage I've ever seen.
I know it's been 5 months, but if you ever remember or find it again, please share it with us here!
+1!
Any luck remembering what it's called?
@@duncanharrell5009I knew the name but I forgot😢
Commenting for viablity and the answer.
"The Battle of Manila should probably get its own video."
Yep, you already did that one Simon lmao
That why he say these things, to make you look for it, (better analytical!) Lol
They don't create these videos in the order that they're released.
@@np8139 I'm aware. I just thought it was funny lol
Simon probably forgot, lad has over 10000 videos spread throughout a dozen channels
@@irispaiva more like 100,000
Could you do an episode on how Calvary has been used throughout the history of war, its rise, its golden age, and its slow movement towards obsolescence?
What do you mean obsolescence? Cavalry is still heavily used. Horses are largely phased out, but the cavalry role is still in practice.
Cavalry went away because armies stopped lining up and taking turns shooting at each other.
@@Xynth25 I was thinking mainly about the use of cavalry with the horse and I think today Calvary is mainly helicopters used to move troops at speed rather than used as a super weapon of the battlefield like was seen in the ancient and medieval era with mounted troops.
@@matthewporter2798Cavalry was never a superweapon, it was a shock tactic but cavalry always had to be used intelligently or it broke. The most common use of cavalry historically was scouting and raiding of supply lines. Modern cavalry, air and armored, does the same stuff horse cavalry and dragoons historically did.
@@Xynth25 that is a good point and I think that all this discussion around the unit should get Simon to make a video about it.
1:50 - Chapter 1 - The method
9:40 - Chapter 2 - The history
17:25 - Chapter 3 - The modern day
21:15 - Chapter 4 - Aftermath
- Chapter 5 -
- Chapter 6 -
PS: Humbly requesting *Sappers & Pioneers*
For free
I'll sign on for that
No example of Urban warfare in Irak, Kaboul, Yemen, Somali.
I wonder why....
Showing cities completely razed would not be great publiccity
Does USA pay you well ?
@@Agorax_gg 0:50 2:03 18:11not good enough for you. And what about Russia in any city they’ve tried to take, the towering mountains of ruble are not enough for you to be up in arms. Not to mention it’s a war not some nursery. Also you spelt Iraq wrong.
happy to see that art of war actually became a series!
Snipers can not only cover a large area with fire they can also give information back to their command to make better decision
Urban warfare is the most physically, mentally, and emotionally demanding and exhausting form of warfare without a doubt. Speaking from lots of experience.
I see you havent met jungle warfare.
Bugs and swampass alone...
As far as other vicious urban fights that i think could be honorable mentions here; Hue City 1968 Tet Offensive, Berlin 1945, Seoul twice during the Korean War, the 24 hours in 1993 Bakara Market in Mogadishu (black hawk down), the various urban battles in Somalia during the various civil conflicts, battle of Kigali during the Rwandan civil war and genocide in 94 etc....
Don't forget the "mouse holing" of Canadian forces in WWII during the Battle for Italy.
Battle of grozny
@@realreinjurings2761 one sided urban battle 😐
@@DavidSmith-dl8dm It was still intensely vicious and saw massive casualties on both sides
You need to check out how brutal the battles for ramadi, Sadr and Fallujah cities were in Iraq.
Having spent 13 months fighting in Mosul, Iraq, I can tell you that dealing with foriegn nationals is challenging. The worst thing an occupation force can do is be anything but kind to them. I have seen the worst of humanity and the very best.
I will say this about the middle eastern philosophy of the sanctity of life is that it is very different than ours. They will walk away from a wounded child if that child is not family. Even hardened criminals in the US will risk their own lives to help.
Makes me think of the conduct of the French Marshals in the Peninsular War (in the Napoleonic Wars)
While Marshal Soult pillaged and plundered everywhere he went, infuriating the Spanish people by plundering churches, Marshal Suchet treated the locals with respect, punished his own men for robbing or harming civilians, and even pledged to protect civilians from the Spanish guerrilla bands (many of whom were really just bandits who committed crimes and atrocities against Spanish civilians while claiming that they were fighting to liberate Spain from French occupation)
You are one of the lucky ones because any longer staying in Iraq in post 9\11 days is more dangerous because booby traps are everywhere like in houses, roads, trees, people etc.
It’s like a warehouse storage gun powder ready to explode but it’s in the open
You have been brainwashed with this mentality probably all your life. Wake up please.
Did you run to save that child? Do you know you as well are one of those hardened criminals? Do any of you think about innocent children or people when you are bombing cities? Did any of those hardened criminals think about any children in Nagasaki or Hiroshima?
Yes, yes you are saving the children of the future. I get it! All the mass murdering governments and their criminal armies should be dismantled!
Easy to judge when your family is safe at home. In all our war like that, you’re focused on your own survival first and foremost, and then your family’s. Everyone else is secondary
@@user-kt8hf9tx6hif you walk away from a injured child knowing you can help your bad no matter what happened to you. Now that family probably couldn’t just help that child so it’s not like they just choose not to, if they could they probably would
Basra 05-06. We literally needed eyes in the backs of our heads. 360° combat.
Well rounded video this one. Nice job.
These "Art of war" series of videos are great. hope there's lots more.
Fellujah, Ramadi, Stalingrad, Berlin. Urban combat is a nightmare because the enemy could be anywhere and peepholes to shoot through can be anywhere. The best case is you’ve at least got a team to back you up, clearing an urban setting by yourself might as well be a death sentence. Best case scenario you siege the city by surrounding it and cutting off the defenders inside from supply lines
Wouldn't work if the defenders have tunnels to function as supply lines (case in point Gaza)
Even then the tunnels can only supply so much before they're discovered and destroyed. Israel has been able to make relatively rapid advance through Gaza (which is practically all urban terrain) because Hamas has been almost totally isolated from imports of anything. Sadly Gazan civilians are trapped in there with them, but in being so saps valuable food, fuel, and medical resources away from supporting active Hamas combatants.
I retired from the army in 2013 and can tell you my CQB training started way back in 1998 and it was still being fine tuned. By 2005 it was getting major updates from Iraq. Thats what makes the military great, adapt and overcome.
This bring back memorie from my Army days. On the first hand to hand drill, we all were mad about the useless effort and how a bullet will solve this problem. Our superior told US the following: the future of war will be the urban combat and guerilla tactics where an attacking Army will enter such conflict with an 80% losses expectancy, and h2h combat might be the difference between being alive or dead
The first rule of urban warfare is DON'T. Modern siege should be more like bypass. Turn off the power and set up feeding stations around the town/city, I know that would only works for larger settlements, and spend the money so as not to repeat Kitchener's concentratiom camp debacle. Such an approach will cost much less blood and treasure.
I'm not so sure this is a useful approach in most situations. Cities hold key infrastructure, an ever increasing proportion of humans and offer a hiding place for thousands, if not tens or hundreds of thousands, of enemy fighters. Pretty much regardless of your objective, eventually major cities will have to be taken. Otherwise you just control a bunch of empty countryside.
@@Oxtocoatl13 Well that is always question in wars like this. How do we win? Is it about the land occupied the cities we hold or the overthrow of the Government body? What about the people do we oppress or uplift them?. A war of occupation has no victory unless you kill everyone and repopulate the area with your own countrymen.
Buildings are awesome during peace but terrifying during war.
One more aspect that makes artillery and air power almost useless.
Materials don't disappear like video games
Collapsing buildings destroyed vehicles ect have the very real potential to block your advance way
Very common phenomenon during the battle of Stalingrant
The Germans created their own maze like death trap
The Germans didn’t want to enter the city itself, but encircling it was practically impossible with the Volga in the way.
So they opted to just pound the city with air strikes and artillery, thus creating the deadly maze…though it would definitely have still been perilous had they left the buildings intact and just went in.
In my opinion, the Germans lost the Battle of Stalingrad before it even started.
Another thing about Night Vision. Its very easy to temporarily blind an opponent wearing them in urban enviroments, considering the amount of potential light sources. Thats why you need Thermal Night Vision instead of the regular green stuff
Mandala Bay terrorist sniper event would have been an excellent example of the power of a well positioned sharpshooter.
This is a marvelous documentary. Thank you Simon.
Civilians in an urban siege are also often unable to evacuate. The risks of leaving their shelter when conventional warfare is going on upstairs are too great. The front can shift faster than the civilians could anticipate or move, so those not pushed ahead of the wave of conflict find themselves stranded. People who have previously evacuated from another city and turned internal refugees can find themselves surprised by another offensive.
One of the first challenges for civilian aid is to negotiate a safe time window and/or corridor or supply area for them to operate and for civilians to evacuate. Getting armed actors to not fight street to street for half a day so UNHCR trucks can roll in and out is often something they're unwilling to do.
I would suggest the Aztec rebellion against the Spanish Conquistadors in early 1520ce to be a prime example of early urban warfare as the Spanish were driven out of Tenochtitlan by Aztec combatants who had the advantage of already having the Spanish surrounded and in close quarters with limited avenues of escape. These factors limited the effectiveness of the Spanish superior weaponry, as well the armor worn by the Spanish soldiers would doom many of them to drowning in the Tenochtitlan canals and surrounding waterways of the city.
Tenochtitlan is actually a very good example. I also recall reading that in some Maya cities archaeologists have found unfinished makeshift barricades dated to around the abandonment of those cities, heavily implying that the settlement's final days were marked by a violent street fighting.
Jeez, didn’t even think about that being as urban warfare. That sounds so fascinating!
I think that operation "Defensive Shield" that launched by Israel in 2002 against terror groups in Palestinian cities is worth mentioning here.
Israel knew that the cities which they going in are crowded and densely populated so their tactic was to enter the first house, make a hole in the wall and move forward through the walls.
The idf soldiers was much more safe thanks to this tactic and the enemy didn't knew where the soldiers are.
A perfect example of how to make an advantage as an attacking force in urban warfare.
Urban Warfare is nothing but a highly complex siege, and as Sun Tzu said:
“…and the worst policy of all is to besiege walled cities. The rule is, not to besiege walled cities if it can possibly be avoided.” - The Art of War by Sun Tzu - Chapter 3: Attack by Stratagem
As a former US Marine who trained extensively for years in urban combat, I believe it is so chaotic, unpredictable, costly, and hard to manage that it should be avoided at all cost. If you want to take a city, surround them and cut off their supplies/utilities until they surrender, or bypass the fortified city and find a more important target while hopefully drawing your opponents outside of their defenses.
The only type of urban combat mission I believe in is the Raid in the middle of the night, on one or two houses, targeting 1 or a handful of key leaders when they do not expect you to show up at all, and leaving before the sunrises.
" War is just a racket. A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of people. Only a small inside group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few at the expense of the masses. "
Smedley Butler
Hopefully you do a video on the Battle of Hue during the Tet Offensive in Vietnam. Would have been another great example of the challenges of urban warfare for the attacker
I think there's no best way in describing how chaotic and hellish conflict the urban warfare is than the "Black Hawk Down" movie that's based on actual event in Somalia. The attackers simply doesn't know where to go, RPGs constantly koving from one part of the city then to the next one, machine gun are put in such way that utterly surprised the attackers. The air superiority provided by the helicopters simply didn't stand a chance, with enemies moving around.
He should do a biographics on smedley butler. Good vid as always Simon and team!
Good ol' smegma butter!! War is a racket!!
@@activatekruger446 🤢🤮🤮
GEN Mark Milley (Chairman of the United States military's Joint Chiefs of Staff) recently commented that the future of warfare will unavoidably include operations in urban areas.
Yeah. Any city in North America...
The first lesson to be successful in urban warfare is to acknowledge that there are no civilians in a warzone. Just unmarked, potential combatants.
What I find interesting is that in most cases, when the attacking army wins the battle; they still took more casualties then the defending army
apart from Grozny when else ?
Attacking is usually more difficult, dangerous and costly than defending, and it is expected that you would incur more casualties than the defender.
In ancient or medieval times, if you are the attacking force trying to take a castle, you would likely need ten men for every one defender.
Except Fallujah
@@CMY187 ya, that's what I was referring to. That an attacking force that wins most likely took more casualties than the defending force that lost
I am a simple man. I see new Warographics video, I click
I’m convinced Simon doesn’t sleep, he’s always awake ready for the next video.
There is no Simon, he's AI.
Simon sleeps in a pod for 15 minutes like Judge Dredd.
Near the end of WW2, my father acted as an interpreter for an American Col. He said he'd rather flatten a German town with artillery then have one of his GIs break a finger nail.
I mean by the End of WW2 the US had lost hundreds of thousands of troops.
WW2 ended with nuking cities. The US was already that unwilling to put an effort to save civilian lives.
Really digging this series, Simon & Company.
I hope this videos mentions the time during the Lebanese civil war when opposing factions launched artillery and sniper attacks at each other from high rise hotels
Sounds like Bakhmut...
I went through Basic Combat Training in 2006. One of the subjects we were trained in was MOUT, Military Operations in Urban Terrain. The course of instruction included going through MOUT sites, small towns built out of shipping containers, and filled with all manner of goodies intended to make us hate life.
I won't go into detail about the training we received, but I will say that it was difficult, stressful, and really tested our sanity. Our Drill SGTs really did their job well in making our lives a living hell. I know they enjoyed it, and some of them played the part of our opposition. They were a bunch of sadistic bastards I'd follow to the depths of hell and back, even now, nearly 20 years later.
They introduced us to the major considerations of conducting warfare in an urban area, including snipers, enemies that refused to wear uniforms and fight face-to-face, IEDs, etc. I came away with a solid fear and appreciation for just how difficult it is for a conventional army to deal with an unconventional opponent.
It also instilled in me an all-encompassing hatred of guerilla fighters who seek to blend in with the civilian population. Using civilians as meat shields is the height of cowardice as far as I'm concerned. I'll respect an unconventional enemy who keeps their fight out of population centers. It's entirely possible to do so, especially if your intent is to seize and hold the moral high ground.
Granted, it doesn't make for great propaganda, just ask Hamas. However, there is something to be said for having a population that loves you because you behave in a moralanner, vs a population that supports you because they fear you.
I imagine if you serve in the military and have to fight in urban warfare, the odds of you having ptsd greatly increases. Never knowing what it is danger or safe. Can’t imagine how much that messes with your head.
This was well done. You could have also included fighting in Damascus during the Syria civil war and the fights against Isis and the Philippine Armed Forces. Both has intense urban conflict. Love this channel
Even pillaging could be less damaging then modern urban warfare. I once heard someone say that while the town could be burned you could also have men just grab a few items of value and take some food without going on a murder spree.
most of the time no unless the city surrendered , they would be pillaged,killed and emslaved. Sieges are a Nightmare for the attackers ,they have to build siege Equipment,roll it to the walls and try to climb it meanwhile the defenders use every nasty trick to make their life sucks. when the walls are breached the men turn into animals and there are cases that generals were killed by their own soldiers who tried to stop them from burning, raping,killing and looting the city that put them to misery for months to even years
Urban and close quarters combat is brutal. Marines fighting in Fallujah were told to expect several casualties for every hostile house they entered. I can't imagine the balls it had to take to be the first man in.
I've been playing the game "Six Days in Fallujah" and it is nothing short of scary. It has been made with the direct input from many soldiers who were in Fallujah, and even though it is a game, it demonstrates (as much as possible) just how awful it could be.
Imperialism is sickening
0:01 I always used the fact that the targets are capable of thinking, reacting, and shooting back. But I'm decidedly simple...
In "normal" land warefare the British Army will aim to engage the enemy only when they outnumber them 3 to 1. In urban warfare this goes up to 12:1....that's they're way of saying "we expect up to 11 people to die to kill one enemy".
Loved the video. Very informative, as usual. My one minor, pet peeve is that the script said things like "casualties were incurred upon the enemy" when it should have been "Inflicted" upon the enemy. A small, minor hiccup on what was otherwise a great watch.
incur and inflict are very different words, especially when describing warfare
As is often the case in warfare the most effective solution is the most brutal one. The message is "Civilians have 1 week to evacuate. After that time the bombard will begin and will continue until no stone sets atop another."
I like how he highlights the key problem with urban warfare. Defenders purposly using their own citizens as human shields.
The corinthians' surprise attack on Plataea during the peloponnesian war (as described by Thucidides) is worth mentioning. At first the Corinthians were successful, but once the Plataeans realised what was happening, they started using the streets of their city against the Corinthians. Every house became a shooting platform, every street was barricaded to funnel the enemy and lead them on a merry chase, and the defenders started knocking down connecting house walls to easily, and secretly, move from one place to the next. This last tactic, in particular, is a staple of urban warfare even today.
Feels like modern urban warfare is coming back to the old style. One building complex in Mari pool sounds lot like seize of a castle. Bakhmut has held out for what 9 months against Russian forces
Absolutely looking forward to this series and the future analysis your team and yourself will be making! Probably my favorite series to come out from your channel multiverse haha
My friends I am here once again to ask that Warographics also be put out as a podcast
Awesome but terrifying Simon. Thanks very much for the historical perspective.
I'm firmly of the belief that all civilian casualties in warfare are absolutely unacceptable and should be treated as war crimes regardless of who ends up victorious.
thats crazy my nigga
@@kermit21-2.0 explain?
youre basically begging that civilians be used as shields.
@@wcc4269 explain?
" firmly of the belief that all civilian casualties in warfare are absolutely unacceptable" is an unrealistic view of war. Innocents die, and its sad but thats war.
If the idea that even a single civilian casualty is unacceptable then that is inviting armies to HIDE BEHIND THEM. @@willowmoon7
Airfield defense would be one I'd like to see. For such broad open spaces, they seem to be remarkably hard to take
I think it has something to do with air defense systems.
@@shadowslayer9988 oh I see, SAMs just taking out APCs, armor, infantry. Gee, thanks for the galaxy brained insight.
During the battle of the Falls Rd Belfast. All the walls and houses were painted with white wash so the British army uniforms stood out.
They used water cannons with black dye to paint them and we went back out with the white wash.
I almost fell out of my chair 🪑 when I found this channel. Simon you are a very busy fellow with your documentaries. I'm sure they will eventually become very popular in class as tools teachers use for the schools they teach at. Anyway, I'm glad you are doing so many different projects, because you very good at narration.
Imagine Kowloon Walled City during war. It'd be the Ultimate Urban Warfare.
RIP tho!
While you’re thinking of urban warfare, maybe you could cover the battle of Stalingrad and Berlin.
I believe that Simon already did one on Stalingrad, but don't quote me on that...
Yeah, it was covered on Megaprojects because Warographics didn’t exist yet. Similar thing with Gettysburg on Geographics
My grandfather told me defending Berlin was hell on earth, there was no real ability to surrender for German or soviet it was simply win or die
@@beng7654 Thanks for sharing that. Almost half of my relatives were still in Germany during WWII. I've lived in the United States all of my life because some of them moved here after the war.
I didn't have any relatives fighting in Berlin, but I did have one distant cousin who was at Monte Casino, but after being wounded he was safely evacuated back to Germany and survived intact.
@@dinsdalemontypiranha4349 I was born here in the US as well but wish I had been born in Germany and had been able to serve in the German military like most men in my family had
Carried both the M60E2&M60E3 with proper maintenance it ran like a dream. As a pig gunner i made sure she was treated like a queen and she never let me down,never used it in anger but loved it... Carried it until I was made company commanders radioman so I switched to the M16A2 which I carried the rest of my time in the Marines...
Great work as usual! Would be interested in a video about the Battle of Ramdi Iraq, 2006
As a person of Filipino and Japanese descent, you grabbed my attention with the mention of a possible video of the battle of Manila.
Not sure who the writer was, but they forgot they already published a Battle of Manila video not even a year ago
Excellent video! It must have been challenging to decide what not to include.
That clip of soldiers walking through the forest makes no sense. The dude in front is the sniper, and he's scoped in on that massive (usually fixed 10x) scope while walking upright and being point man in a forest? Yeah, that field of view he's got will definitely help lol
Possible Suggestions under the ART OF WAR Playlist
-Strategic Initiative (Offensive & Guerrilla Warfare)
-Rapid Dominance (Blitzkreig to Shock and Awe)
-Air Superiority
-Bite and Hold
-Defense in Depth
"Inflicting" casualties means you are causing damage TO your enemy. "Incurring" casualties means you are being damaged by your enemy.
This has definitely become my favorite channel.
A big problem for tanks or other heavily armored vehicles are basements. As an attacking force you don’t always know which buildings have basements meaning if your not careful your 57 tone abrams just falls through the street. Also the defender can blow basements to trap your forces. Lastly in some cities the basement of houses are so close that breaking through one wall is enough to change buildings. I don’t know how it is in other cities but at least in Berlin some walls in the basements have the numbers of the next building written on them (one of the not well known reminders of the battle of Berlin during WW2)
😂😂😂
Urban combat still gives me some recurring nightmares
Exercise Southern Strike 1995, in which I participated as a rifleman was a battalion sized Canadian FIBUA (Fighting In Built-Up Areas) manoeuvre at facilities in Camp Blanding, FL, Spring 1995. The battalion assaulted "Smithville" the mock up of an Eastern-European style town in poured concrete. Using blank fire and MILES gear against a live enemy force, we barely had enough left "alive" to form a platoon at the end of it.
Hey guys. Awesome video. I like this special The Art of War series. It's phenomenal.
I've found the tunneling tactics that Hamas has been using to fight and terrorize Israel and the IDF to be a novel and reprehensible (reprehensible in that Hamas digs under residential areas, effectively using their own civilians as human shields, among other deplorable strategies) approach at modern warfare.
I'd like to see an episode on Tunnel Warfare. I think that, in the current international climate, the video would be very relevant. Just a suggestion.
Thanks, guys! Keep up the good work!
we must learn about history or we are doomed to repeat it
Elmo probably
My name is Elmo and I have said this sentence, so your quotation is accurate.
@@Oxtocoatl13 thank you fellow elmo
Thank you for this content! Education and history is the key for future
I heard it put best by an old NCO while I was an infantry soldier. Urban combat /hostage situations only effect roe if public opinion is a factor. I'm sure this has been botched to shit but he states "hostage situation somewhere in Russia with 15 armer insurgents and 52 civilians so the reaction force shows up with 67 body bags and kills them all." I'm sure there's some truth in this folklore which is terrifying but if you are able to read between the lines again the message is terrifying. Urban combat could be the militaries absolutely easiest objective or another Fallujah depending on roe. That's why I now love camera crews now leaders have to double/triple check before they have a bunch of people "commit not living". Skedco aks if you know you know...
Edit to add a little more. I wouldn't look at a sniper as a force multiplier but just another asset. I hear force multiplier used so often and while not incorrect just way too vague for it to make sense. A rifleman is a force of one but a machine gunner is a force of three hence force multiplier. However, a sniper in COIN spends considerably more time conducting recon both NATO and insurgents. Yes, technically they are a force multiplier but it's kind of the same saying a calculator is a mathematics multiplier when it is easy so much more than that. I'm digging at the "force multiplier " phrase here I just hear it so often now it's nearly lost it's meaning. For example recently I heard "something something the Abrams tank is a force multiplier " no fucking shit it's a tank!
I don't understand Urban Combat and Hostage situations are in no way the same thing unless you are saying the soldiers in the city are using the civilians as hostages which isn't typically the case.
Training urban ops: super fun
Actual urban ops: meat grinder
Can not really train for urban warfare 😂
OMG! Warographics too!? This dude has so many channels I like, he just won't go away. 🤣😂
14:48 - Yes, please do that
On Into the Shadows? 😔
Perhaps
20:05 - Always civilians who outnumber soldiers in war regarding casualties 🤦🏼
Russian forces during WW2 considered a room cleared only after a full magazine was fired in to the room, then two grenades were thrown into the room, then the room was flame throwered. Then on to the next room.
Sounds very complete way to do that !
How to conduct urban warfare, a proper way:
1. Destroy a city
2. Conduct field warfare
You forgot the Fallujah horror stories the American invaders came back with, urban warfare at its peak
I'd love a full video on the complications of Urban Warfare!
Excellent info! Thank You. ❤️☕🤔
urban warfare isn't well documented but there is enough across history to get a relative idea of how this could work/play out
I’m here for an hour of Simon talking about the complications of urban Warfare
A+ video!
Great writing, organization, images, and application of ideas (great for people that know basically nothing about elements of war).
In a day or so I will check out the other Art of War video.
Thanks, Simon and Team, for another excellent presentation.
Israel is very soon to demonstrate what this looks like in practice. עם ישראל חי
@@justinb7940 cheers from southern Israel.
Siege of Carthage is a good example of aincent urban combat
Aged well. Humans shields have been used recently… cowards.
In WWII, the US marines would skip heavily defended islands and move beyond them to cut off logistics, the “island hopping campaign” of Nimitz. It is not clear to me why the same tactic isn’t used to avoid urban warfare altogether. A bypassed city could be closed off by artillery and a small ground force with concealed emplacements.
@jamestimmons6838 That is exactly what occurred during the invasion of Iraq.
You expose your flank and rear to counterattack and modern non-perishable food means small teams can operate indefinitely
This would lead to a whack-a-mole style of warfare where your held territory is savaged apart by guerilla forces
Study the 2017 Battle of Marawi City in Mindanao, Philippines. It took five months to subdue but the terrorists were rooted out and eliminated.
In comparison, check out the 1945 Battle of Manila, also called the "Stalingrad of the East."
The Dresden bombing was actually a preperation for the soviet push into the city. The soviets were being slowed down too much by every city they encountered and has recieved heavy casualties and had inflicted heavy civilian casualties in each one. They requested the bombing raid by the western allies to sap the defenders moral and it worked extremly well, the city fell in a matter of days rather than weeks and the amount of german military and civilian casualties was alot lower than previous cities
Dresden was also a major manufacturing city for the German war effort. Its why it was even hit. The problem is that the Germans had the factories interlaced with the rest of the city. So when they burned, the rest of the city did.
This is my favorite simon channel after blaze
the boer war please.