City Fights: Selected Histories of Urban Combat from World War II to Vietnam

Urban terrain will likely be the predominant battlefield of future wars. As September 11 and Somalia proved hostile forces are now engaging America differently avoiding open combat with our enormous military striking at our civic centers or dragging us into theirs. But urban warfare isnt new; it is as old as the battle of Jericho. Now an incomparable collection written by esteemed military veteranssome currently serving others civilian analystsre-creates the last centurys most astonishing examples of this kind of fighting . . . and offers important lessons for our future. Here are fourteen riveting histories that are both invaluable teaching tools for security leaders and engrossing accounts for any reader. They include William M. Waddells Tai-Erh-Chuang 1938: The Japanese Juggernaut SmashedHow China defeated the Japanese in battle for the first time in three hundred and forty years by using a city only as a pivot area and attacking the exposed flank and rear ranks of its unprepared enemy. Eric M. Walterss Stalingrad 1942: With Will a Weapon and a WatchThe largest and longest-running urban fight of the twentieth century in which the Red Army became the tortoise to the Germans hare out-lasting its stronger foe. Norm Coolings Hue City 1968: Winning a Battle While Losing a WarThe six-day fight for the cultural center of Vietnam revealed how the American militarys distrust of the media made it fail to expose the enemys mass executions and lose the all-important information war. And these eleven additional accounts: Warsaw 1944: Uprising in Eastern Europe by Maj. David M. Toczek Arnhem 1944: Airborne Warfare in the City by Lt. Col. G. A. Lofaro Troyes France 1944: All Guns Blazing By Col. Peter R. Mansoor Budapest 1944-45: Bloody Contest of Wills by Col. Peter B. Zwack Aschaffenburg 1945: Cassino on the Main River by Mark J. Reardon Manila 1945: City Fight in the Pacific by Col. Kevin C. M. Benson Berlin 1945: Backs Against the Wall by Maj. Mike Boden Jaffa 1948: Urban Combat in the Israeli War of Independence by Benjamin Runkle Seoul 1950: City Fight after Inchon by Maj. Thomas A. Kelley Da Nang-Hoi An A Tank Skirmish in Quang Nam Province by Dennis C. Fresch Evolution of Urban Combat Doctrine by Mark J. Reardon From the 1944 Warsaw uprising that almost caused the complete destruction of Polands capital to the crucial near-forgotten fight for Manila in 1945 . . . from snipers and shoulder-launched missiles to tunnels and tanks . . . all aspects of the most important urban conflicts are revealed in stunning detail. Compelling and cautionary City Fights powerfully reminds us that in our ever more urbanized and vulnerable world if a state loses its cities it loses the war.