If There Are No Bullets, Make Them

"The road into the city is narrow. They may have a lot of men, but the number of troops who can enter at once is limited."

I drew a series of red X's across the map.

"We hide behind the buildings as shields. When tanks enter, we punch through their sides with the 88mm; when infantry enters, we suppress them with machine guns and grenades. No matter how many division-level forces they have, the bottleneck in these narrow streets means they can't bring more than a battalion's worth of firepower to bear at once."

In theory, it was a perfect urban warfare doctrine. On Earth, it was a tactic proven by the Battle of Stalingrad.

"We just need to grab them by the collar and hang on."

I slammed my command baton down hard on Rosenheim's position on the map.

"What if the distance between the enemy and our forces closes to within fifty meters? They won't be able to receive their precious artillery support. If they fire, shells will fall on their own heads, too."

"A-are you suggesting we provoke close-quarters combat… a melee?"

"Exactly. Building rubble makes excellent trenches and shields. Tanks are nothing more than coffin-like hunks of metal in narrow alleys, rendering their superior range and firepower useless. All that remains is infantry against infantry—a blood-draining war of attrition."

Brigade Commander Dietrich's eyes wavered...