An Cosantóir

26 | BY PTE CONOR MURPHY (B COY, 65 RES INF BN RDF) F ighting in built up areas (or FIBUA as it is commonly known) is not a new phenomenon in modern warfare. The Russian Red Army perfected it during the Battle of Stalingrad during WWII and did so once again during the Battle of Berlin in Apr 1945. A prime example would be the famous Battle of Mogadishu in 1993 and more recently the second battle for Fallujah in Nov and Dec 2004. It involves literally fighting street by street, building by building and room by room. The battle is not won until that street, building or room is completely clear of enemies, booby traps, IEDs etc. For some members of the 65 Reserve Infantry Battalion it was our first time undertaking FIBUA Training. Our FIBUA training took place over a number of weekends from Feb till May 2011 under the instruction of PDF personnel, before culminating in a large exercise in June. The PDF instruc- tors were Cpl's Eastwood and McEnaney and Lt's McEoin and Gough from the 5 Inf Bn. In the morning of our first day of FIBUA training, we began by practising basic skills, such as how to fall and roll properly. After all these were completed we were divided into three groups. One group is completing an obstacle course, another scaling walls using your buddies and another group learning how to use ladders to assault buildings, how to An Cosantóir December 2011 dismount ladders and how to hold them properly. The obstacle course enabled us to refine skills such as climbing walls, leopard crawling, bear crawling, scaling high walls, climbing high fences and balancing across beams. We did this in pairs and in between each exercise we had to carry our buddy either by piggyback or fireman's lift. This was to simulate that in a FIBUA environment, or indeed in any warfare environment, your buddy could get shot, get wounded or worse case scenario be killed and you've got to get him or her out of there. On the "how to scale walls using your buddies" exercise we were taught how to get over walls and obstacles using our bud- dies to lift us up and over or by using objects commonly found in an urban environment, like planks of wood to get them over the top. These included the shin lift, the knee lift and finally the platoon lift. The final one was achieved using ladders. In a FIBUA environment it is always more practical to assault a building through the top floor. We were taught how to hold and secure the ladder so it wouldn't fall down, how to get off the ladder and finally how to dismount them properly. All three groups rotated before eventually we completed each exercise. In the afternoon we progressed onto how to assault build- ings. This included how to break in windows, break in doors, rip

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