Concrete Hell: Urban Warfare From Stalingrad to Iraq (General Military)

Throughout history, cities have been at the center of warfare, from sieges to street-fighting, from peace-keeping to coups de mains. Sun Tzu admonished his readers of The Art of War that the lowest realization of warfare was to attack a fortified city - a maxim that the Russian army should have heeded before it launched its operation to seize the Chechnyan city of Grozny. Indeed, although strategists have advised against it across the millennia, armies and generals have been forced nonetheless to attack and defend cities, and victory has required that they do it well. In Concrete Hell Louis DiMarco has provided a masterful study of the brutal realities of urban warfare, of what it means to seize and hold a city literally block by block. Such a study could not be more timely. We live in an increasingly urbanizing world, a military unprepared for urban operations is unprepared for tomorrow. Fighting in cities requires new skills, new weaponry and new tactics. But there is no better way to prepare than to look at the successes and failure of some of the most famous operations in modern military history including Stalingrad, Hue City and Fallujah. Written by the US Army's Urban Warfare Specialist, this book is the definitive look at how urban warfare tactics have evolved providing invaluable lessons for the US and British Armies of the future.Throughout history cities have been at the center of warfare, from sieges to street-fighting, from peace-keeping to coups de mains. Sun Tzu admonished his readers of The Art of War that the lowest realization of warfare was to attack a fortified city. Indeed, although strategists have advised against it across the millennia, armies and generals have been forced nonetheless to attack and defend cities, and victory has required that they do it well.In Concrete Hell, Louis DiMarco has provided a masterful study of the brutal realities of urban warfare, of what it means to seize and hold a city literally block by block. Such a study could not be more timely. We live in an increasingly urbanizing world, a military unprepared for urban operations is unprepared for tomorrow. Di Marco masterfully studies the successes and failures of past battles in order to provide lessons for today's tacticians. Throughout history cities have been at the center of warfare, from sieges to street-fighting, from peace-keeping to coups de mains. Sun Tzu admonished his readers of The Art of War that the lowest realization of warfare was to attack a fortified city. Indeed, although strategists have advised against it across the millennia, armies and generals have been forced nonetheless to attack and defend cities, and victory has required that they do it well. In Concrete Hell Louis DiMarco has provided a masterful study of the brutal realities of urban warfare, of what it means to seize and hold a city literally block by block. Such a study could not be more timely. We live in an increasingly urbanizing world, a military unprepared for urban operations is unprepared for tomorrow. Di Marco masterfully studies the successes and failures of past battles in order to provide lessons for today's tacticians. In the aftermath of Waterloo, over 6,000 British volunteers sailed across the Atlantic to aid Simon Bolivar in his liberation of Gran Columbia from her oppressors in Madrid. The expeditions were plagued with disaster from the start, one ship sank shortly after leaving Portsmouth with the loss of almost 200 lives. Those who reached the New World faced disease, wild animals, mutiny and desertion. Conditions on campaign were appalling, massacres were commonplace, rations crude, pay infrequent and supplies insufficient. Nevertheless, those who endured made key contributions to Bolivar's success Cover; Title; Dedication; Contents; Foreword; List of Maps; List of Plates; 1 Urban Warfare, Past and Future; 2 An Operational Debacle Stalingrad, 1942: Stalingrad, 1942; 3 American Urban Warfare Aachen, 1944: Aachen, 1944; 4 Urban Warfare from the Sea: Inchon and Seoul, 1950; 5 Complex Urban Warfare: The Battle for Hue, 1968; 6 War in the Casbah: The Battle of Algiers, 1956-57; 7 The Long Urban War: Operation Banner, 1969-2007; 8 Urban Death Trap: The Russian Army in Grozny, 1995; 9 Invading the Urban Sanctuary: Operation Defensive Shield and the Battle for Jenin, 2002 Kamp i byer og bymæssig bebyggelse har altid fundet sted. Det har imidlertid altid været besværligt og risikabelt at kæmpe på denne måde. Forfatteren hævder, at kamp i byer bliver mere og mere almindeligt fordi flere og flere mennesker foretrækker at bo i byer. I bogen gennemgås bykamp, og den taktik der kræves for at gennemføre bykamp, belyst ved eksempler fra Stalingrad under 2. Verdenskrig til krigen i Irak 2003-2011 10 Systematic Urban Warfare: "Ready First" in Ramadi, 2006-0711 Urban Combat in the 21St Century; Bibliography; Glossary; About the Author; Related Titles; Imprint