How do real life armies clear cities?

[hoplitis]

1) Don't forget the bulldozers!
2) Try to find out how the Israelis do it!

[troopie]

Something we don't have to do in the game, but armies have to do in reality, is consider the political implications of an action. If the city is an enemy city, and there's a war on (WW2 is an excellent example of this) you can bomb and shell the bejasus out of it. If it's one of yours, you are reluctant to do so, 1: because you don't want to alienate the PBs and 2: you want to use it when you've recaptured it. In a COIN situation you are also reluctant to use maximum force. P!ssing off the PBs adds strength to the terrs.

You go slowly, house by house and block by block, clearing a building floor by floor. Everyone packs spare grenades, bunker bombs and wp. The people tiffies have a lot of work to do. Expect high casualties on both sides.

troopie

[Pazam]

In real urban warfare, more and more armies are avoiding the streets and moving between buildings - I was watching CNN and saw how US forces in Iraq will cut through walls in order to avoid firefights in the street.

[Capt_White]

Well I dont know about any other army but I imagine the Soviet Union would have just used heavy bombers and lots of artilary to
a) create cover
b) demoralise
c) create fear
d) supress

They would then just roll through with tanks APCs and Infantry.

Apart from anything else I dont think the Commies would have been to bothered about collateral damage

[thatguy96]

We'll never really know will we, collateral damage and the fear of creating it really is a post-Cold War phenomenon. During the Cold War, the idea of buring the village to save it from the dreaded communists won out in debates over how many innocents got caught in the way.

[troopie]

I was intimating how I was trained to do it. I've done kraals in reality, but never had to do a really built up area.

troopie

[PlasmaKrab]

Capt_White said:
Well I dont know about any other army but I imagine the Soviet Union would have just used heavy bombers and lots of artilary to
a) create cover
b) demoralise
c) create fear
d) supress

They would then just roll through with tanks APCs and Infantry.

Sounds like what the book would be calling for indeed... at least until, say, mid-90s!

They tried that in Grozny, and I think we all know the result it had at the moment!

Urban assault in a Cold-War-Gone-Hot setting s an interesting thought, but in that case, given the highly mechanized character of any assaulting force (on both sides), the strategy of avoiding and encircling cities would have prevailed IMHO.
Dunno how much the Soviet high command was aware of the western defensive tactics though....