Battle of Stalingrad, Translated to an Italian Setting
The Battle of Ortona, a significant event during World War II that took place on Italy's Adriatic coast, serves as a crucial case study for understanding urban warfare strategies, particularly in dense urban terrain. This battle, often referred to as the "Little Stalingrad" or "Italian Stalingrad," pitted the 2nd Canadian Infantry Brigade against two battalions of German paratroopers.
The battle marked the first prolonged urban battle of the Italian campaign, and its lessons remain relevant even today. In this battle, German forces employed deception tactics that proved effective. By luring Canadian troops into buildings with light resistance, only to detonate pre-planted explosives, they inflicted heavy casualties, emphasizing the importance of creating uncertainty and dispersion to waste the enemy’s time, effort, and firepower.
This approach underscores that survivability in dense urban combat depends less on static protection and more on active manipulation of enemy operations through timing, deception, and tactical dispersion. The defenders aim to make attackers unsure about whether a position is occupied and bait them into traps, thus shifting the tempo and initiative to the defense.
These lessons are not merely historical relics. They are demonstrated in the ongoing conflicts, such as the recent fighting in Bakhmut in 2023, where Ukrainian forces have employed similar tactics.
In summary, the Battle of Ortona teaches that in peer conflict within dense urban terrain:
- Decentralize forces and avoid predictable, static defense positions.
- Use deception and baiting tactics to lure attackers into traps.
- Make the enemy uncertain about occupied positions to cause resource waste and slow their advance.
- Treat survivability as an active control over the enemy’s decision-making, not merely as physical protection.
These lessons help adapt urban warfare doctrine to the complex, close-quarters realities of fighting in densely built areas.
For a deeper dive into the Battle of Ortona, tune into the Urban Warfare Project Podcast, where hosts John Spencer and Major Jayson Geroux discuss the battle in detail. The episode, originally released in 2021, highlights lessons from the Battle of Ortona for urban warfare and potential peer conflict in dense urban terrain today. Major Geroux emphasizes these lessons in the context of modern warfare, making this episode a must-listen for anyone interested in military strategy.
You can find the podcast on popular platforms like Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, TuneIn, or your favourite podcast app. If you're enjoying the Urban Warfare Project Podcast, please leave a review or give it a rating. Sharing the podcast on social media, sending it via email, or printing it is also possible.
In sports, similar strategies of decentralization, deception, and baiting can be observed in team games, where players aim to confuse opponents and create uncertainty to gain an advantage. For example, in chess, a piece might be moved to a seemingly innocuous position, only to be used for a surprise attack later.
Moreover, the lessons learned from the Battle of Ortona highlight the importance of adapting tactics in sports, particularly those played in close-quarters settings like basketball or football where space is limited. Understanding how to create uncertainty and manipulate opponents can lead to success, regardless of the context, be it a battlefield or a sports field.
