Supply Scenario

[lobbie111]

Well, I was lookig over famous city battles last night, and I came to the realistation, that infantry is king in a city, but how are they resupplied. Think of the situation like this two well equipped armies are facing eachother for comparisons sake lets say they are both the same type of infantry and relativly the same numbers, now its too dangerous to get MBT's or armoured vehicles in to ressupply the troops and they don't have any reserves to deliver supplies to troops...

So how would it be done/how would you do it?

 

[nikola_281]

I see what are you shooting at, but still your situation seems vague to me.
I personally think that you would hardly do it without armored vehicles unless you want to fight with limited amount of ammo (and that one being of the light caliber).
The best thing would be to ask some of our Russian friends if they know how were the troops supplied during the battle for Grozny.

 

[kato]

Air drops and internal distribution by vehicle and on foot.

That's how it was done in Stalingrad, both by the German 6th Army and the defending Soviet 62nd Army. In a more contemporary setup, of course MANPADS and such would have to be observed, but there's always countermeasures for that - and "acceptable losses".

 

[lobbie111]

I'll extend this a bit

The city is a very dense (ie apartments and highrises dominate the city) small-medium city with a population of around 1 million

e are also assuming the roads are mined, and Anti-Tank/Anti Vehicle teams are positioned throughout the city as well as anti material snipers etc. making vehicle distribution hard to the frontlines

Both forces have sofisticated MANPADS and ATGM's and both have Air, Artillery and Mortar support avaliable although the support functions primary goal is counter battery work.

The way I see it frontline troops can leapfrog with supplies, ie. when the first wave captures a line of buildings the second wave carrying enough support material in packs runs up drops them off at the first line where they can resupply and then assaults the second line of buildings, the block behind is where HQ, and supply units can pick up magazines and restock them, and load the packs with grenades etc.

But anything heavier than infantry small arms I dont have a clue

Nikola Grozny is probably the perfect example only with a military on military confrontation, not Military on "Rebel"

 

[kato]

There are embedded logistics troops for such things... at least a company at battalion-level typically, a battalion at brigade level, a regiment at division level and so on. And if you need to distribute the stuff on foot to a supply point, you just assign a line company to the battalion S4.

And if we're talking about capturing a "line of buildings" within a million-population city, we're talking at least two companies, probably a battalion including internal reserves/reinforcements involved in just that.

 

[lobbie111]

There are embedded logistics troops for such things... at least a company at battalion-level typically, a battalion at brigade level, a regiment at division level and so on. And if you need to distribute the stuff on foot to a supply point, you just assign a line company to the battalion S4.

And if we're talking about capturing a "line of buildings" within a million-population city, we're talking at least two companies, probably a battalion including internal reserves/reinforcements involved in just that.

It would be itneresting to see if locals could be used by the attacking force, if you used incentives or something...

 

[nikola_281]

IMHO every serious force will at least try to secure safe exit (or reinforcement/resupply) corridor. If we assume that movement of the vehicles is limited by the ATGM's then the snipers would also be able to cover large area. This would leave very small opportunities for serious supply and only resupply on foot (made by soldiers through the buildings or terrain that offers them cover) makes sense. If we follow your scenario (where both armies are almost equally equipped and in similar numbers) then I think that there is high probability that we would come to the stalemate situation. Development of the situation would depend on many factors as the level of training of opposing forces, their level of motivation, situational awareness and skills of their commanding officers. Any advance without planing and securing your supply chain could turn into a suicidal trip.