Are there any examples of street or urban fighting on the western front in WW1?

by jocker1992

What happened when opposing forces met in or around an urban centre? Also what happened when trench lines would have neared a city/village? would the trenches have been built around or somehow through? Thank you

military_history

Yes. I'm really not sure what to add apart from that! Urban combat in WWI was much like urban combat in other 20th century wars--close-ranged, indecisive and costly, much like trench fighting. I'm not aware of any prolonged fighting taking place over cities, since cities were vital transport hubs and strategic imperatives dictated that trench lines should go well round them, to adequately defend them from the enemy, rather than through them (this may have happened in the French-held sectors of the front, and I don't know enough about that to say for sure).

Troops would certainly use buildings to their advantage. In Storm of Steel Ernst Jünger describes in numerous places taking shelter in houses and basements, and I believe at one point trenches going through the gardens behind a row of houses. It was obviously much more comfortable to live in a building rather than a trench so they were used wherever possible; or buildings could provide cover and concealment to a trench line. The downside, of course, was that they made an obvious target for enemy artillery, and a prime concern of gunners was to demolish anything that could be used as an observation post or to shelter enemy troops. Farms and villages formed strong points in defensive systems and were given extra attention during bombardments. This doesn't mean that the stereotypical image of total destruction was universally true. When we picture towns razed to the ground we are picturing places like Ypres or Verdun which came under immense concentrations of shelling, but on much of the front buildings did survive. So for the British attack at Aubers Ridge in May 1915 buildings overlooking the German defences were used for observation and commanders (including Winston Churchill, who happened to be in France) watched the battle from a nearby windmill. During the battle of the Somme in 1916 houses were important strong points and one of the successes of the first tanks (which first went into battle on 15 September) was to suppress such defences. In the more fluid fighting which took place after the German offensive of March 1918 it was more likely that troops would encounter terrain which had been untouched by the fighting and had its buildings intact.

As I said, urban fighting wasn't particularly common, and I can think of two occasions--the Battle of Neuve Chapelle and the Battle of Loos--where British troops were able to occupy villages with relative ease. On both occasions the German defenders held lines outside the villages, and once these lines were taken the villages were left only lightly defended. They would have made tougher targets if properly garrisoned, but generally it was seen as preferable to defend trench lines rather than urban areas which made obvious targets for artillery and usually were needed to house headquarters and logistic units rather than front line troops.