# Mouse-holing

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{{Short description|Urban warfare tactic}}
thumb|right|US marines in Afghanistan, 2011.
'''Mouse-holing''' is a [tactic](/source/military_tactics) used in [urban warfare](/source/urban_warfare) in which soldiers create access to adjoining rooms or buildings by blasting or tunneling through a wall.  The tactic is used to avoid open streets since advancing [infantry](/source/infantry), caught in [enfilade](/source/enfilade), are easily targeted by [machine-gun](/source/machine-gun) and [sniper](/source/sniper) fire.{{sfn|Priestley|2006}}{{sfn|US Army|2011|loc=par. 5-91}} Another purpose is to reach enemy troops hidden within a structure.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=W4IKaP7qoaAC&q=mouse+holing+ortona&pg=PA26|title=Last Man Standing: The Life of Smokey Smith, Vc, 1914-2005|author=Thomas Glen Lockhart |page=26|date=27 November 2012|publisher=Douglas & McIntyre|isbn=978-1460201992 |access-date=26 December 2018}}</ref>

==Use==

Mouse-holing began to appear in military tactical manuals during [World War II](/source/World_War_II). The tactic allows [combatant](/source/combatant)s to move around an urban battlefield under cover without needing to expose themselves to enemy fire or observation. A typical passage is large enough for a single file of soldiers. Large unrestricted holes can compromise the [structural integrity](/source/Structural_engineering) of the building and offer little cover from opposing forces.

During the [Battle of Ortona](/source/Battle_of_Ortona) in 1943,<ref>{{cite web|url = http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/ortona-canadas-mini-stalingrad-feature/|title = Ortona: Canada's Mini Stalingrad |website=[The Canadian Encyclopedia](/source/The_Canadian_Encyclopedia)}}</ref> the [Canadian Army](/source/Canadian_Army), which gave the tactic its name,<ref>{{cite news|title = Obituary: Brigadier Syd Thomson|url = https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/4437088/Brigadier-Syd-Thomson.html|date = 2 February 2009|newspaper = [The Daily Telegraph](/source/The_Daily_Telegraph)}}</ref>{{sfn|Gooderson|2007|p=72}} used it to great effect, breaching the walls of buildings (houses in Ortona shared adjoining walls) with weapons such as the [PIAT](/source/PIAT) or [Teller anti-tank mines](/source/Teller_mine).{{sfn|Zuehlke|2003|pp=286-287}}<ref>{{Cite book| last=Bercuson| first=David| orig-year=1996| year=2001| title=Maple Leaf Against the Axis| publisher=Red Deer Press| isbn=0-88995-305-8| page=[https://archive.org/details/mapleleafagainst0000berc/page/175 175]| url=https://archive.org/details/mapleleafagainst0000berc/page/175}}</ref>  The soldiers would throw in [grenades](/source/Hand_grenade) and assault through the mouse holes, clear the stairs with grenades or machine-gun fire, and make their way up or down. Their adversaries would then struggle in repeated [close-quarters combat](/source/close-quarters_combat).{{sfn|Zuehlke|2003|p=160}} Mouse-holing was used also to pierce through walls into adjoining rooms, which sometimes caught enemy troops by surprise. Creating a series of mouse-holes in a series of adjoining buildings was a strategy that also allowed the troops to progress through the town, building by building, without entering the streets, where they would face enemy fire.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=W4IKaP7qoaAC&q=mouse+holing+ortona&pg=PA26|title=Last Man Standing: The Life of Smokey Smith, Vc, 1914-2005|author=Thomas Glen Lockhart |page=26|date=27 November 2012|publisher=Douglas & McIntyre|isbn=978-1460201992 |access-date=26 December 2018}}</ref> Some sources attribute the strategy to the Canadian forces, but a British training film of 1941 had already illustrated the concept.{{sfn|Zuehlke|2003|p=286}}

Similar to tunnels used in rural battlefields, mouse-holes can also allow forces to infiltrate behind enemy lines, which provides a significant tactical advantage. In some cases, a mouse-hole is [camouflage](/source/camouflage)d with furniture, especially when it is created to aid a defending force or a clandestine operation.

In defensive positions, mouse-holes often join and combine with tunnels.{{Citation needed|date=July 2010}} That was used by the [Red Army](/source/Red_Army) of the [Soviet Union](/source/Soviet_Union) during the [Battle of Stalingrad](/source/Battle_of_Stalingrad) and consistently allowed troops to [infiltrate](/source/Infiltration_tactics) areas to the German rear that had been supposedly cleared. The ubiquitous availability of the [Panzerfaust](/source/Panzerfaust) in the last months of the war made all sides use it to breach buildings quickly from unexpected directions.

The tactic was used heavily by anti-[coalition](/source/Multi-National_Force_%E2%80%93_Iraq) insurgents during the [Iraq War](/source/Iraq_War). They would connect houses converted into fortified bunkers by creating holes in walls in order to evade and ambush coalition troops.<ref name="Camp2009">{{cite book|author=Dick Camp|title=Operation Phantom Fury: The Assault and Capture of Fallujah, Iraq|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8TYGayCy8NAC&pg=PA236|date=15 December 2009|publisher=MBI Publishing Company|isbn=978-1-61673-253-0|pages=236–}}</ref> In addition, coalition snipers would utilize mouse-holing as a method to be able to fire at enemy fighters from further within rooms and other structures and thereby conceal their position.<ref name="Zeigler2015">{{cite book|author=Matt Zeigler|title=Three Block War: Vigilant Resolve|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NJW5CgAAQBAJ&pg=PT11|date=9 October 2015|publisher=Booktango|isbn=978-1-4689-6559-9|pages=11–}}</ref>

==Methods==
thumb|A British engineer detonates an explosive charge to create a mouse-hole in a compound wall in Afghanistan.
Mouse-holes can be made in light interior walls by hand or with [small arms](/source/small_arms).  More substantial walls require the use of explosives such as a [satchel charge](/source/satchel_charge) or a large caliber vehicle-mounted [cannon](/source/autocannon) or [tank gun](/source/tank_gun).<ref>{{cite book|author= <!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.-->|title= FM 3-21.8: The Infantry Rifle Platoon and Squad|url= https://armypubs.army.mil/doctrine/DR_pubs/dr_a/pdf/fm3_21x8.pdf|publisher= Headquarters, Department of the Army|at= App. F|date= March 2007|url-status= live|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20130217070734/http://armypubs.army.mil/doctrine/DR_pubs/dr_a/pdf/fm3_21x8.pdf|archive-date= 2013-02-17}}</ref> If time and conditions allow, breaches can be made with even small amounts of explosive if properly tamped and braced, such as with sandbags and props, to direct the force of the explosion into the wall. Since the early 1990s, many armies have developed special-purpose weapons, like the [MATADOR](/source/MATADOR) and [SMAW](/source/Shoulder-launched_Multipurpose_Assault_Weapon), specifically for the tactic.{{sfn|US Army|2011|loc=Ch. 8}}

==See also==
* {{annotated link|Loophole (firearm)}}
* {{annotated link|Urban terrain}}
* {{annotated link|Door breaching}}
* {{annotated link|Rhizome manoeuvre}}

==Notes==
{{reflist|2}}

==References==
* {{cite book |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |title= FM 3-06.11: Combined Arms Operations in Urban Terrain|url= https://armypubs.army.mil/doctrine/DR_pubs/dr_a/pdf/attp3_06x11.pdf|publisher= Headquarters, Department of the Army|date= June 2011|ref= {{harvid|US Army|2011}}}}
* {{cite web|last=Priestley|first=Stephen|date = 2006|title =  Punching at Panjwaii: Canadian Leopard Tanks in Combat; CF Tracked Vehicles Tackle the Taliban and Afghan Winters|publisher = Canadian American Strategic Review|url = http://www.casr.ca/ft-leopard-tank.htm}}
* {{cite journal |last= Gooderson|first= Ian|date= 2007|title= Assimilating Urban Battle Experience - The Canadians at Ortona|url= http://www.journal.forces.gc.ca/vo8/no4/doc/gooderso-eng.pdf|journal= [Canadian Military Journal](/source/Canadian_Military_Journal)|publisher= [Department of National Defence](/source/Department_of_National_Defence_(Canada))|volume= 8|issue= 4|pages= 64{{endash}}73|issn= 1492-0786}}
* {{Cite book|last=Zuehlke| first=Mark |year=2003 |title=Ortona: Canada's epic World War II battle| location=Vancouver| publisher=Douglas & McIntyre|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pzL7VE3o24wC&q=Canada%20World%20War&pg=PP1| isbn=1-55054-557-4}}

Category:Urban warfare
Category:Force protection tactics

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Mouse-holing](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mouse-holing) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mouse-holing?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.