The Evolution of Urban Combat from World War II to the Present and Its Effect on Current Doctrine
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CONTEMPORARY PROFESSIONAL MILITARY WRITING: SELECTED STUDENT PAPERS FROM THE U.S. ARMY'S PROFESSIONAL SCHOOLS From Siege to Surgical: The Evolution of Urban Combat from World War II to the Present and Its Effect on Current Doctrine by Major William T. James, Jr., USA Student, U.S. Anny Command and General Staff College, AY 1997-98 No. 99-2 May 1999 The Contemporary Professional Military Writing series is designed to provide an outlet for original work done by students at the U.S. Army War College, Command and General Staff College and Sergeants Major Academy. The staff and faculty of the respective institutions select the papers; the Institute of Land Warfare reproduces them and makes them available to members. The content represents the personal opinions of the author and not necessarily the position of the Association of the United States Army or its members. Distributed by The Institute of Land Warfare Association of the United States Army 2425 Wilson Boulevard, Arlington, Virginia 22201 www.ausa.org FROM SIEGE TO SURGICAL: THE EVOLUTION OF URBAN COMBAT FROM WORLD WAR II TO THE PRESENT AND ITS EFFECT ON CURRENT DOCTRINE A thesis presented to the Faculty of the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree MASTER OF MILITARY ART AND SCIENCE by WJLLIAM T. JAMES, JR., MAJ, USA B.S., Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida, 1986 Fort Leavenworth, Kansas 1998 Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited. ABSTRACT FROM SIEGE TO SURGICAL: THE EVOLUTION OF URBAN COMBAT FROM WORLD WAR II TO THE PRESENT AND ITS EFFECT ON CURRENT DOCTRINE, by MAJ William T. James, Jr., USA, 126 pages. This study investigates what effect the evolution of urban combat from World War II to the present has had on current urban combat doctrine. Urban combat operations have played a pivotal role in the conflicts of the twentieth century, and will continue to be a crucial part of future U.S. power projection operations. It is imperative that lessons learned from previous urban combat operations be studied for applicability to current urban combat doctrine. The study analyzes the urban battles of Aachen, Manila, Seoul, Hue, ruST CAUSE, and Mogadishu to identify salient lessons for conducting successful offensive urban combat operations; then reviews current U.S. Army urban combat doctrine. The study then evaluates current doctrine using identified salient lessons to determine their effect. The study finds that the primary impacts of previous urban combat operations on current doctrine are that doctrine now embraces the idea of varied conditions for urban combat and validates the concept of fighting as a combined arms team in a built-up· area. The study further finds that FM 90-10, Military Operations on Urban Te rrain is obsolete, and that key procurement decisions have leftU.S. forces without critical weapons that have proven decisive in urban combat. lll ACKNOWLEDG1v1ENTS There are many to which I owe a tremendous debt of gratitude. I would like to express endless thanks to my wife Heather and to my children Eden and Will. Their unconditional love and sacrifice has sustained me. It is their home, most of all, that I defend. I would also like to thank my thesis commit1ee for the boundless mentoring and genui�e friendship they have given to an obstinate infantryman. Also, my heartfelt thanks and sincere admiration go to MAJ Charles B. Dyer for his editing skill, sense of humor, and personal example of courage under fire. I also owe many thanks to the members of my CGSC staff group for all of their support and subject matter expertise. Above all, my deepest respect and thanks in memory of Specialist James M. Cavaco, Sergeant James C. Joyce, Private First Class Richard W. Kowalewski, Sergeant DominickM. Pilla, Sergeant Lorenzo M. Ruiz, and Corporal James E. Smith. All members of Company B, 3d Bat1alion, 75th Ranger Regiment, and all killed in action on 03 October 1993 in the streets ofMogadishu, Somalia. Sua Sponte. "Whom shall I send? And who will go for us? And I said "Here am I. SendMe!" Isaiah 6:8 IV TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ABSTRACT ............................. .............................................. ......................................... .. iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS...... ............ .... ................................ ........... .......................... ...... iv LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS........... ......... ............................. ......................... ................... vi CHAPTER I. IN1'RODUCTION..... ............. ......... .................................................... ... : ............ 1 2. URBAN COMBAT IN WORLD WAR ll .. ......................................................... 8 3. URBAN COMBAT IN THE KOREAN WAR .................................................. 27 4. URBAN COMBAT IN THE VIETNAM WAR .. .............. ................. ............... 39 5. URBAN COMBAT DURING CONTINGENCY OPERATIONS .................. .. 57 6. STATE OF THE ART IN URBAN COMBAT DOCTRINE ............................ 89 7. ANALYSIS .. .... ..... ............................. ........ ............................................... ....... 106 8. CONCLUSION ........................................ ..................... ............................ ....... 114 BIBLIOGRAPHY......... ............................................ ................................. ................... 118 IN1TIAL DISTRIBUTION LIST ........... ........................................... ............................. 126 v ILLUSTRATIONS FIGURE Figure Page 1. The Citadel in Hue ..................... ...... ........................................................... .......... 46 TABLE Table 1. Fire SupportEmployed for the 23 February Assault on Intramuros .... ................. 22 V1 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION Background Projections are that the world's population will reach 8.34 billion people in 2025.1 Worldwide, the number of urban citizens has increased from 737 million in 1950 to 2.5 billion in 1993.2 Additionally, there appears to be a significant population migration both outward from established city cores and inward from rural areas to suburban areas between the two. Simply stated, tremendous population growthand migration to suburban areas equal more urban terrain. Problem Statement Current United States (U.S.) Army doctrine is based on the operational concept of force projection. Units based in the continental United States (CONUS) deploy in response to a crisis or augment forward-deployed forces that are already engaged. Future power projection operations conducted by the armed forces of the U.S. will include unavoidable urban combat. Crucial to the success of this doctrine is the ability to execute entryoperations and rapidly introduce force into a lodgment. The ideal lodgment is an airfield or seaport. The problem is that the most likely scenario requires a forced entry operation, and the majority of the world's air and seaports capable of accepting all U.S. strategicaircraft and sea liftvessels are part of complex urban terrain. Therefore, to gain the lodgment required to execute force projection operations, U.S. forces will have to fight inthe urban 1 terrain of the airport or seaport and then fight in or through the city containing the airport or seaport. Research Questions The primary question to be answered is simple. How has the evolution of urban combat since World War IT influenced the current doctrine of the U.S. Army? Several secondary questions also exist that must be answered prior to answering the primary question. Are there any usefulexamples of urban combat that were not combined arms operations? Are there any examples of weapons systems that were essential in urban combat? Are there any particular forms of maneuver or tactics that proved decisive in urban combat? Has current doctrine incorporated historical lessons for the urban fight? What role do special operations forces (SOF) play in urban combat? Significance Urban combat has played a huge part in combat operations in the twentieth century. Now due to the explosive urban population growth and resulting urbanization of developing countries, 3 it will play an even bigger role. Urban combat is the most likely condition in which U.S. forces will operate in the future. Tremendous resources and lives have been consumed in the urban fighting of the twentieth century. As a result, countless lessons have been learned on how to fight and win the urban battle. This study is intended to achieve two goals. One is to determine how the lessons learned during the evolution of urban combat have shaped the Army's current doctrine. The second is to evaluate its current doctrine based on these lessons learned to determine if it is relevant. 2 Underlying Assumptions I have made two underlying assumptions. The first assumption is that rules of engagement for urban combat will continue to require commanders to take all possible steps to prevent collateral damage and to use minimum force to accomplish assigned missions. This will severely limit the options available for dealing with a well-fortified, determined enemy in urban terrain. The second assumption is that the U. S. will continue to provide some or all of the post-conflict resources to rebuild infrastructure that is damaged or destroyed during urban combat operations Terminology Advanced MOUT Techniques (AMT) are defined as "the tactics, techniques, and procedures employed by Rangers to execute METL tasks in urban terrain across the spectrum of conflict from high intensity MOUT