I have come across reference to two Battle Schools for Urban Warfare set up in 1943 for formations to learn urban warfare skills - what today would be called FIBA - Fighting in a Built-up area. My references come from SOE files and refer to SOE para-military groups training in Battle Schools in Southampton and in Limehouse in East London. I wonder if any of our veterans have details of the training done in these schools, or have details of others?
On occasion I still jog through an area of Burlsedon and Hamble (Southampton) an area where a lot of amphibious work was carried out. Locals tell of very secretive training going on in the area with commando units. I believe a local news programme ran a story on the area some years ago.
In the memoir of a US Army paratrooper of the 17th Airborne Division he recounted using a bombed out section of London (IIRC) for live-fire training. If you are interested I could dig out the book and quote the sections. I don't think there is much detail, just that he was impressed.
I know a few years ago we had some threads on them, a member had an relative who was an instructor at one. If I find the old threads I'll edit in the links. edit: mmm, think this was it, sorry not as much info in it as I thought. http://www.ww2talk.com/forum/general/8938-street-fighting-wing-london-school-tactics.html
On the War Chronicle website, in an interview with Corporal Robert Littlar of the KSLI, there's a brief reference to urban warfare training in preparation for D-Day ... Q: Had you had much training for house-clearance, or house-to-house fighting? Mr. Littlar: Not a lot: we did some street-fighting in an area of bomb-sites in Limehouse, in the East End of London, and we’d done some house clearance in Edinburgh and Glasgow. When we were in the J-Camps, I seem to remember we had to climb up the outsides of three- and four-storey buildings. The full interview is on the website at Littlar interview KSLI WWII
There was urban warfare training - FIBUA - in a bombed out area of Canning Town, near the Silvertown Viaduct. See (4) Stephen Fisher on Twitter: "In the background we see the Silvertown Way viaduct, so we can identify this location as Canning Town (just north of Royal Victoria Dock in East London), looking west. This area suffered terribly in the Blitz, and the bombed out housing was used to train troops in urban warfare." / Twitter There are extracts of a training film here URBAN WARFARE WW2 - Fighting In Built Up Areas Documentary - Part 2 - YouTube
