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Article: Using underground facilities in urban warfare.
- Article from:
- Military Thought
- Article date:
- January 1, 2002
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2002 East View Publications. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Troops used underground service lines and structures for centuries, doing that as far back as the Roman and Byzantine empires. Already at that time there were undermining tunnels made under fortifications. The Russian army led by Ivan IV (The Terrible) made a skilful use of this tactics while storming Kazan (1552).
The topicality of this theme today is connected with considerable proliferation of cities and urban population numbers. Major populated localities tend to "sprawl" and expand their territory. Modern-day urbanization is characterized in particular by a transition from a compact ("pinpoint") town to urban agglomerations, urban- and rural-type territorial ...