Marines share hard-earned knowledge.

• Author: Peck, Michael
• Position: URBAN COMBAT

Marines fighting in Iraq have concluded that, in order to defeat insurgents, the urban tactics learned in the United States require a substantial makeover.

"The most effective training in this environment is for the squad leader to sit down with his squad and talk," wrote a group of Marines in a report titled "Lessons Learned: Infantry Squad Tactics in Military Operations in Urban Terrain During Operation Phantom Fury in Fallujah, Iraq."

The Marines belong to a scout-sniper platoon from the 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment.

The report, written by a sergeant, a corporal and two lance corporals, offers, in bits and pieces, a glimpse of the insurgency that Marines encountered in Fallujah in November 2004, when they fought Operation Phantom Fury.

These Marines quickly discovered that tactics that they had learned before going to Iraq--such as house clearing, breaching and fire support--required considerable overhaul.

"Traditionally, the top-down assault is taught as being the most ideal method for clearing a structure ... Realistically, this may not be the best option for the infantry squad," the report said.

Starting with the top floors may surprise the enemy and allow a Marine squad to cut off escape routes more easily than going in through the ground floor. But it also makes it tough for a squad to pull out of the building.

"Momentum must not be lost," warned the Marine snipers. "Marines have been left behind in houses because the momentum was lost."

Breaching tactics also were adapted to the environment, the squad members explained. "An important principle in breaching that was learned is that the Marine making entry is never the breacher ... The breacher should always fall in the back of the stack and never go in first.

"Marines have died because they followed their own breach," said the report. The Marines also asserted that speed is the most significant factor in breaching a building. "If one method of breaching is not working, then the breacher must quickly transition to a different type. Standing in front of a door and beating it with a sledgehammer for 10 minutes is unacceptable."

In situations when immediate fire support was needed, tanks always won over aircraft, the report said. Snipers praised the support their regiment received from tanks and from infantry teams that were armed with .50-caliber machine guns and Mark 19 grenade launchers.

"Fixed-wing close air support is an enormous weapon that has great effects on the ground...