The urban offense is the most dangerous type of combat for two simple reasons. In a built-up area, movement is almost impossible to conceal. It is also almost impossible to cover by fire.
Unable to camouflage himself, the urban attacker is plainly visible in all but the darkest of corners. He is automatically silhouetted every time he moves through or across any opening. He can sometimes be seen and killed through several coincidently aligned openings. He also runs a greater chance of creating a movement signature, reflection, or unnatural shadow.
There is no way to fully cover by fire an urban attacker. While moving along a street, he can be shot from front, back, above, or below. He can be killed from 100 obvious places and any number of camouflaged ones. If his opponent fires through a curtain, his buddies won’t see a muzzle flash. If that opponent fires from an elevated, interior location with a narrow sector of fire, they won’t be able to hurt him at all. While outdoors, the urban attacker must defeat the first bullet himself—through how he moves. When he goes indoors, his problems magnify. There, he is more canalized than before and highly susceptible to ambush. He can be killed through walls, floors, ceilings, or through a window from 1,000 meters away. His buddies can only help by covering the hallways and stairwells.
So, it would appear that the key to preparing someone for urban offense is teaching him how to move individually. For the best results, the instructor works on each threat separately and then gradually combines them. Every student has different motivation and athletic ability. Thus, the instructor must put the onus on each to improve himself. By giving him back-to-back chances to move up on an aggressor counting simulated hits, the instructor gives him the required feedback. Then, how ever the majority of students avoid the threat becomes the working solution. To accelerate the learning curve, that working solution becomes the technique taught until a better one is found. (See Figure 15.4.)
Figure 15.4: Urban 4GW Takes Refined Movement Techniques
{Source - Courtesy ot Sorman trrto. & Media, iWustratKX) Dy WoHgang Bartsch. from SoidP Sofdaten i fait. C 2001 Forsvarsmakten. Stockholm, p. 289)
As the students will now be responsible their own progress, they must first be reminded of all the ways to get shot in the street or between the buildings:
(1) By bullets deflected along walls
(2) By a machinegun at either end of the street
(3) From upper stories to the front or rear
(4) From spaces between buildings
(5) From windows, open doors, and tiny apertures (like air vents)
(6) Through closed doors or thin walls
Then the instructor finds a deserted city street that looks like one in the war zone. He splits the student body in half and issues rubber rifles. The two columns wait on opposite corners at the same end of the street. He sends four aggressors with rubber rifles to the other end of the street. Two sit in the middle to simulate long-range machinegun or sniper fire. Two separate and stand next to their respective building fronts to simulate the bullets that follow walls. Each will try to repeatedly “kill” the advancing man from his respective column. He will record a “kill” every time he acquires a three-second sight picture of an upright human being. He then debriefs each victim.
Then, the instructor sends one student from each column up the street. Their only instruction will be to move as fast as they can while avoiding the two threats. After learning the score, the runner takes the place of one aggressor, and that aggressor moves by alternate route to the starting point. When the next runner replaces the second aggressor, he too enters the rotation. By constantly switching roles, the participant can more quickly grasp the essence of his error. As soon as everyone has had a chance, the instructor repeats the drill and asks students to better their previous scores.
Then the instructor secretly repositions the aggressors to provide the third and fourth threats. He sends the troops, two at a time, up opposite sides of the street to work on fire from between the buildings and from above the street. After all have had one chance, he repeats the drill and asks students to beat their previous scores.
Next, the instructor secretly repositions the aggressors to provide the fifth and sixth threats. He sends the troops, two at a time.
Up opposite sides of the street to elude fire from apertures, closed doors, and thin walls. When all have tried, he allows them to better their scores.
Finally, as time permits, the instructor deploys more aggressors and works on four threats at once, and finally all six threats concurrently. Only two people can be trained every five minutes with this drill, so each column should be no larger than eight people. For more students, the command must set up identical courses on additional streets or on each block of the same street. Similar training packages would then be needed for street-crossing and interior-movement. (See Figure 15.5.)
Figure 15.5: Street Crossings Are by Fire Team Columns
(Source: Counosy o( Sorman Into < Me<te. illustralion by Wodgang Bartsch. from SotoF Sddalen i tsK. O 2001 ForavaramaWen. Stocdholm. pp 22, 23)
World History
