High-Intensity Urban Combat Tactics – Special Tactics

Something not covered in article: vehicular restriction. Some roads in urban places may not be able to handle our big MRAPs, tanks or other armored vehicles. I remember that some areas in Iraq during my OIF deployment were inaccessible after switching from armored HMMWVs to MRAPs due to height or weight restrictions. Although we have JLTVs and other vehicles coming out, we may have to rely on other means of combat transport or do more foot marching in cities.

I don't recognize the site and haven't read the article, but perhaps the biggest example of combat in a high-intensity conflict in a urban area is the battle of Stalingrad in the Second World War. I see that this post is tagged with Special Forces - but I think that for high-intensity conflict, this is probably more the domain of big, conventional maneuver units - Infantry battalion task forces - probably several of them in a battle (at least).

Some things that stand out from reading history about "big wars" in urban environments:
- rubbling buildings for preparation of a defense (intentionally collapsing buildings under your control into the streets to create complicated, nasty obstacles)
- subterranean movement (tunnel and sewer movement between buildings - a lot of MOUT sites have this represented in their construction)
- enormous use of hand grenades and satchel charges
- contested control of buildings (I've read accounts of Soviet and German lines passing through buildings for days at a time, in which each side controlled different parts of the same building)
- very high density of troops (much more than in other terrain), and therefore a need for lots of Soldiers

Alternate and more recent examples could include Hue and Fallujah, but Stalingrad was a very big conventional battle. FM 90-10-1 is dated, but talks at length about combat in urban terrain in a "big war" conflict.