The significance of street fighting

Xi'an

[street fighting; Fighting on the streets of the town.

Street fighting is also commonly known as "urban warfare", because street fighting is a street-to-street, door-to-door battle, usually in cities or large villages. Street fighting has the following two remarkable characteristics:

First of all, hand-to-hand combat between the enemy and ourselves is cruel. Because almost all battles are dominated by infantry light fire assault, and they are all carried out within sight range, the terrain is complex and unpredictable, so heavy weapons are useless in street fighting. There are dense buildings and high-rise buildings in the city. Due to their own structural limitations, tanks and armored vehicles that provide the main fire support cannot lift the gun barrel to a sufficient height and can't shoot high targets effectively. Narrow streets also prevent tanks and other large chariots from turning around, making their sides and tails vulnerable to attack. In street fighting, the mobility of troops is severely restricted; The limited field of vision brings great inconvenience to observation, shooting and cooperation. In many cases, the combat formation of the troops is divided, and they have to be dispersed to various units to fight independently.

Second, the enemy and I are mixed, jagged and dangerous. Because there is no clear front, the enemy and the enemy are mixed, forming a stalemate situation in which you have me and I have you, while the attacker is in the light and the defender is hiding in the dark, further increasing the difficulty and risk of street fighting. Tall buildings and underground bunkers are good places to hide snipers. "You don't know who the enemy is until someone shoots at you." Where did the bullet come from? Surprise ambushes and unpredictable snipers often make attackers feel scared and fall into the shadow of panic and anxiety.

Famous street fighting in history

Battle of Stalingrad. This is the first large-scale street fighting in the true sense of modern war, and it is also a veritable "urban meat grinder". Its tragic degree can be described as unparalleled in the world and unprecedented. 1in July, 942, the Germans invaded Stalingrad with superior forces. Arrogant Germans tried to level the city, a symbol of the supreme commander of the Soviet Union, with the tried and tested blitzkrieg, but they soon found themselves in a deep pit full of death. Under Stalin's strict order of "no retreat", the Soviet army relied on the complex terrain and numerous artificial buildings in the city to fight to the death with the enemy. A floor, a room, a water tower, a section of railway subgrade, even a wall and a pile of rubble can trigger a fierce battle. The ruins captured by the Germans at great cost were instantly recaptured by the Soviets. The train station changed hands repeatedly, that is, 13 times. The whole Stalingrad was ablaze with war and rivers of blood. The enemy and I fought to the death, and when the bullets were finished, we started hand-to-hand combat. The tank came and rushed over with grenades tied to it. Under the desperate resistance of Soviet soldiers and civilians, the Germans suffered heavy casualties and could not move, and the severe winter weather that followed made them even more weakened. 1in February, 943, the Soviet army launched a counterattack, and the German army exhausted by street fighting was defeated, and the Sixth Army suffered a devastating blow. The Battle of Stalingrad became the turning point of World War II, and Nazi Germany began to retreat.

Street fighting in Mogadishu. This is the shortest battle in the history of street fighting, but its influence and significance are extraordinary. 1993 10 10 On 3 October, the U.S. peacekeeping forces in Somalia dispatched Black Hawk helicopters and commandos to encircle Aideed, the largest warlord in Somalia. Prior to this, the anti-American armed forces led by Aidid used ambush guerrilla tactics, which made the US military suffer enough. This time, the American troops were ambushed again and fell into the mire of street fighting they feared most in the streets and lanes of Mogadishu. Hundreds of people became killers almost in an instant, and even some women and children were not proficient in using weapons to shoot. Because the narrow streets were blocked by roadblocks, the follow-up troops of the US army could not get reinforcements in time. After half a day of fighting, 19 American commandos were killed and two Black Hawk helicopters were shot down. The next day, the Somali people dragged the body of an American soldier to the streets to celebrate. This shot was taken by a reporter and caused an uproar in the United States. Under the pressure of all parties, the Clinton administration had to announce its withdrawal from Somalia.

Street fighting in Grozny. This is the cruelest and bloodiest street fighting after the Vietnam War. Since 1994, two large-scale street battles have broken out between Russian troops and Chechen illegal armed forces in Grozny, the capital of Chechnya. Grozny was designed according to the requirements of the construction of battle fortresses, so the fortresses in the city are dotted like cobwebs. Russian troops entering the city is like a maze, they can't touch the north, and they can't play with superior weapons and equipment. But Chechen snipers can hide in the dark by virtue of their familiar terrain and shoot at targets one by one like practicing shooting. 1995 at the end of the first street fighting, it was said that a Russian regiment 1000 people invaded the city, leaving only 1 officers and 10 soldiers alive. Twenty of the 26 Russian tanks were destroyed, and 120 armored vehicles were also lost 102. The bodies of Russians were even used as sandbags by Chechen armed forces to build "human blockhouses". The second street fighting in Grozny took place from February 25th, 1999 to February 25th, 2000 in/kloc-0. Russian corpses were everywhere, 1 173 soldiers were killed, and even Major General Malofeyev, commander-in-chief of the Russian front, was also killed. The helpless Russian President Vladimir Putin later ordered the bombing of Grozny, but this small town became a permanent pain in the hearts of Russian soldiers.

What will street fighting be like in the future?

Urban street fighting is gradually formed with the development of cities and the expansion of war scale. In the future society, the world population will be further concentrated in cities. According to United Nations data, by 2030, two thirds of the world's population will live in urban areas. This means that if there is a war in the future, urban street fighting will still be inevitable and will become an important combat style.

On June 5438+065438+ 10, 2004, the US military launched a large-scale attack on the city of Fallujah occupied by anti-American armed forces headed by Zarqawi, killing and capturing more than 3,000 Iraqi armed men at a slight cost of casualties of more than 50 marines. This is the first large-scale urban street fighting of the US military in the 2 1 century, which highlights many new features of the US military's implementation of urban warfare under the conditions of informationization.

First of all, the means of attack tend to be high-tech. In the battle of Fallujah, in order to minimize the risk of casualties, the US military used a lot of new technologies suitable for urban street fighting. For example, develop a "multidimensional surveillance system" to monitor military targets around the clock through reconnaissance and surveillance satellites, unmanned reconnaissance planes and various electronic sensors, so that anti-American armed personnel have nowhere to hide; Using anti-sniper and robot technology, search for enemy snipers hidden behind various buildings and organize fire clearance before infantry attacks; Using the new armor protection technology, tanks can enter the city for effective fighting. With the support of high-tech means, modern street fighting will no longer be an attacker's nightmare.

Secondly, the trend tends to be three-dimensional. In the Battle of Fallujah, the US military carried out joint and integrated operations, using long-range precision guided missiles, fighter planes, bombers and special operations forces to attack and destroy the targets occupied by anti-American armed forces in the city from four dimensions: land, sea, air and space. This new multi-dimensional urban street fighting has greatly changed the single mode of traditional ground street fighting and improved the fighting efficiency.

Third, the goal tends to be precise. Modern cities are densely populated, and traditional carpet bombing will bring many problems to post-war reconstruction. In the battle of Fallujah, the US military achieved the greatest success with less casualties. While eliminating anti-American armed forces, the buildings in the city were basically preserved, and innocent civilians were not harmed too much. This shows that the new concept of urban street fighting will emphasize the principle of paying equal attention to attack and protection.