Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!sun-barr!rutgers!att!cbnews!military From: fiddler@Sun.COM (Steve Hix) Newsgroups: sci.military Subject: Re: Urban Combat Message-ID: <7255@cbnews.ATT.COM> Date: 8 Jun 89 01:01:52 GMT References: <7200@cbnews.ATT.COM> Sender: military@cbnews.ATT.COM Lines: 67 Approved: military@att.att.com From: fiddler@Sun.COM (Steve Hix) > [2] > > [Bill: Call this topic "irregular troops" or "urban combat", and it'll > fit under the sci.military charter. 8-) ] What can urban civilians do > to attack troops, given the "usual" equipment in foreign cities (i.e. > guns are not usually available)? For example, I've heard that large > rocks or cement blocks can be used to detrack tanks, which then are > more vulnerable if infantry is absent. Molotov cocktails have been > used to some good effect in Beijing. What other things can be done? One area to study might be the 1950 Hungarian uprising in Budapest. There an essentially unarmed populace took on armored forces successfully for a while. They had some help, in that a respectable percentage of both Russian and Hungarian troops either stood aloof from the the fighting, or actively sided with the civilians. (The revolt wasn't put down until Asian soviet troops were brought in.) Some examples: Budapest is not flat, so on some tight uphill corners, liquid soap was poured on the road just ahead of oncoming tanks. The first tank in the line hit the soap, lost traction, and ended up jammed against a building and blocked the progress of the following tanks. (They were not well supported by infantry, which made this sort of thing workable.) A rope would be run across a narrow street between two buildings. just before a tank arrived, the rope would be pulled from one to the other, with some antitank mines tied to the middle of the rope. On a narrow intersection, some unglazed brown plates were placed upside down in the roadway. While the tank commander hesitated, trying to decide whether or not they were mines, someone would run out from cover and place a hand grenade (or other explosive) in the tanks' tracks. Tanks or armored cars (to say nothing of trucks or jeeps) could not operate in built-up areas of Budapest unless they were buttoned up: Molotov cocktails would otherwise rain down from high buildings in the neighborhood. Incidentally, many of the anti-armor tactics were taught to the civilians by Hungarian military personnel who had been taught them by the Russians. In all this, effective action by the Hungarians depended on leadership by people like Pal Maleter (an Hungarian Army General) to direct and inspire the civilians to fight effectively. They also needed (and got) direction in tactics and weapons use by military personnel who sided with them. There was one instance near the headquarters of the Hungarian secret police when a police sniper on the roof of the building began shooting civilians on the ground below. A Russian tank officer, who had been ordered to observe only, got fed up watching the scene and climbed into his tank, buttoned up, and he and his crew proceeded to knock out the searchlights on the roof (which the sniper needed to select targets), and continued pounding the top of the building until there was no more activity up there. (Things like this required the dispatch of Asian troops to put down the uprising.)