A knife under the collarbone: most soldiers in Iraq battle faceless IEDs. But in Fallujah, the fighting was hand to hand.

• Author: Douglas, Clint
• Position: House to House: An Epic Memoir of War

House to House: An Epic Memoir of War

By David Bellavia with John R. Bruning

Free Press, 336 pp.

The Germans called it Rattenkrieg, the war of the rats. That was how the embittered--and ultimately doomed--troops of the Wehrmacht came to view the battle of Stalingrad in 1942. Used to Blitzkrieging their way across the open steppes of Russia, they were horrified to find themselves locked in desperate urban combat that nullified their tactical and technological advantages. The fight devolved into close-quarter, small-unit infantry battles that raged across the city and down into the sewers. No structure, no pile of rubble was left uncontested. The belligerents could occupy different floors of the same building. The struggle was close and personal. Prolonged and vicious fights for the control of individual rooms were commonplace, as was hand-to-hand combat. No quarter was given; none was expected.

Little has changed, according to David Bellavia, the author of House to House, his new memoir of the second battle of Fallujah in November 2004. Bellavia, then a staff sergeant in the 1st Infantry Division--the famous "Big Red One"--led a mechanized infantry squad through the entire battle. His description of the confused and claustrophobic fight for Fallujah is the stuff of nightmares and horrors so vivid and medieval as to make even the most jaded shudder. As if the picture of men butchering other men weren't enough, we have the image of the packs of feral dogs that devour the putrefying corpses of the fallen insurgents.

Enemy insurgents are, mostly if not entirely, jihadis bent on a glorious, purifying death. They are cavalier with their lives, but plenty of them are tenacious and experienced guerrilla fighters. Many are high on amphetamines, making them more aggressive and difficult to kill. They have had time to prepare the battlefield, and many of the buildings contain bunkers and fighting positions. Booby traps abound, from almost-invisible trip wires anchored to grenades to elaborate schemes involving propane tanks and plastic explosives, designed to collapse whole buildings, if not neighborhoods. Aware of U.S. tactics, the insurgents brick up the stairwells to deprive the Americans access to any commanding rooftop heights. They block off hallways and entrances so as to channel the American advance into prepared kill zones. They preregister their mortars, setting them up in advance for the deadliest effect, and snipers are everywhere. The...