Combat in urban areas, a high-intensity laboratory

Since the mid-twentieth century, the city has become the preferred location for fighting, a trend that is even more marked today in Ukraine and Gaza. In this compartmentalised environment, the balance of power is evened out and the hybridisation of conflict facilitated. Deciphered by military specialists.

For thousands of years, attacking and conquering a city was based on a simple principle: you had to lay siege to it. Century after century, strategists, architects and engineers perfected the art of besieging and the subtleties of poliorcetics, as the many Vauban fortresses in France testify. And until the early 19th century, a town was considered indefensible once its ramparts had fallen.

In mythology, the Greeks lay siege to the city of Troy for ten years before taking it by deception (by hiding in a large wooden horse). But once inside, there was no fighting, and the inhabitants were "simply" massacred. When the Turks finally entered Constantinople in 1453, they did so by breaching its ramparts, and once again, the capture of the city signalled the end of hostilities.

It was in Spain that everything changed. First of all, there was a historic exception: in Zaragoza in 1808-1809, Napoleon's armies literally took the city house by house. But then, for decades to come, the armies continued to fight on open ground, as they had done since ancient times.

MADRID, 1936, "THE FIRST JOINT AND COMBINED BATTLE".

The real turning point came with the Battle of Madrid in November 1936, in the early months of the Spanish Civil War. "It was the first joint and combined arms battle," says Colonel Pierre Santoni, one of France's leading experts on urban combat. The Republicans succeeded in blocking the advance of the Nationalists and, at this point, the conflict became bogged down. Franco's side would not take the capital until the end of the war, in 1939.

Co-author (with Colonel Frédéric Chamaud) of "The ultimate battlefield. Fighting and winning in the city". (Éditions Pierre de Taillac, revised edition 2019), Colonel Santoni believes that the city is "the last place where there are still duels between adversaries, the last place where there is still manoeuvring", as this terrain allows a kind of "equalisation" between belligerents, whatever the size of their forces or the technological level of their equipment. "Most of the elements of high-intensity combat are concentrated here," he adds.

The Battle of Stalingrad (1942-43) is considered to be the "mother of all battles" in urban areas: involving more than 1.5 million Soviet and German soldiers and causing hundreds of thousands of deaths, it was a turning point in the Second World War, with the Russian victory marking the beginning of the end of the Third Reich's European hegemony.

"Until the end of 1942, the Russians were unable to stand up to the German army in the open zone, in particular because of the Panzer tanks," recalls Colonel Santoni, currently in command of the German Army.Saumur Staff College. "So they drew the Germans into the urban area, before establishing the bulk of their units there. In this environment, the Germans had less manoeuvring superiority. Faced with bloody street battles, the Germans got bogged down. The Soviets could then cut off their army and win the battle.

THE CITY IS "LIKE A BIG FORT BUILT BY CIVILIANS".

After the Second World War, the "Thirty Glorious Years" brought increasing urbanisation - a trend which, according to projections, is set to continue until at least 2050. In the 1990s, the battle of Sarajevo (April 1992) and then Grozny (1994-95) prompted all the major armies to launch specific preparations for urban combat. In 1999, France created the Urban Action Training Centre (CENZUB - 94e Infantry Regiment) at Sissonne (Aisne), which Colonel Santoni commanded from 2012 to 2014. With infrastructures that are unique in Europe, it recreates a real town with numerous buildings and urban amenities, but without the finishing touches.

When it comes to fighting there, the town is "like a big fort built by civilians", according to Colonel Michel Goya in an episode of the Ministry of Defence's JDef devoted to this subject. The space is three-dimensional (all around, above and below); the thickness of the walls, the height of the buildings, everything comes into play. And "the street kills", since it's the only field of fire long enough for the opponent.

During the battle of Bakhmut (Ukraine) in May 2023, the Russian attackers were only advancing by around ten metres a day - which is why the soldiers say that the urban environment is "more abrasive": in town, the balance of power for the attackers is 1 soldier against 6 or 7 enemies, compared with 1 to 3 in an open environment. "The Ukrainians would not have been able to resist as well in an open environment", says Colonel Santoni, noting that "in this conflict, most of the fighting takes place around towns".

"THIS SPACE COMPLICATES THE WHOLE ORGANISATION OF OPERATIONS".

"Urban combat probably represents a form of high-intensity laboratory, because it uses both the physical and immaterial environments as battlefields," explains Lieutenant-Colonel Paul Sédivy, head of the CENZUB - 94 studies and forecasting unit.e RI until last summer and now second-in-command of the National Commando Training Centre - 1er Shock regiment. "Indeed, the effects produced on the battlefield in modern high-intensity conflicts are as much to be found in actions below the threshold of conflict as in the hybridisation of means".

"This three-dimensional, uncertain and complex space complicates the whole organisation of operations and requires the physical and moral endurance that is consubstantial with high intensity", he continues. "In this heterogeneous, difficult, rough and compartmentalised environment, where the disorganisation of the terrain as a result of combat amplifies the obstacles to observation, movement and communication, the threat of getting bogged down is permanent.

What about artificial intelligence, robotisation, cyber and the "droning" of conflicts? For Colonel Santoni, "in the short term, this will not change the urban area, which will remain compartmentalised and confined. Admittedly, AI can make it possible to scan an area instead of having it studied by staff officers; admittedly, a robot is better than a team of bomb disposal experts. AI will therefore make the role of the attackers less bloody, and cyber can enable actions like the one carried out by Israel on Hezbollah's beepers, or to send messages to the population. But in fineWe will always have to send infantrymen and sappers to search pockets of resistance, as the Israeli army is currently doing in southern Lebanon.

HYPER-TECHNOLOGY "SHOULD EXERT A CONSIDERABLE INFLUENCE IN THE FUTURE".

Colonel Sédivy also believes that "hyper-technology does not yet provide a sufficient tactical advantage to outmanoeuvre the enemy while preserving manoeuvrability". But advances in robotics hold out the promise of progress in terms of logistics, observation of the enemy, terrain reconnaissance, freedom of movement for troops, and so on. Without calling into question the principles of general tactics, the use of automated systems in urban areas should have a considerable influence on urban combat in the future," he says.

The evolution of combat in urban areas also raises legal questions: "Recent urban battles confirm the disinhibition of belligerents and the hybridisation of means", notes Colonel Sédivy. This context "calls into question the interpretation of the law as a new field of action to compensate for the constraints associated with very high casualties in urban areas. The "Atlantean Sea" operation carried out by Tsahal in the Gaza Strip has shown that there are certainly changes to come within Western armies. Treaties designed to humanise armed conflict could be denounced".

To find out more

Future Combat Command : General Military Review N° 59 - Combat in urban areasJune 2024 (with an article by Lieutenant-Colonel Paul Sédivy on "tomorrow's combat in urban areas").

Podcast Le Rubicon : Urban combat - high-intensity warfarewith Colonel Pierre Santoni, 19 December 2023

JDef report from the Ministry of Defence: Fighting in the city, November 2023

Article IHEDN : The possible future of urban combatwith Lieutenant-Colonel Paul Sedivy, 19 October 2024.