Urban Resistance to Occupation: An Underestimated Element of Land Warfare

With the world trending toward urbanization, and Russia and China acting aggressively toward Ukraine and Taiwan, respectively, the conduct of irregular warfare in built-up environments—specifically, urban resistance to occupation—merits greater study. The authors’ Dutch-language and primary source research on the Netherlands’ World War II urban resistance to German occupation makes this article unique. It provides deeper insights into the occupation experiences of a highly urbanized, densely populated country in which clandestine underground and auxiliary elements played paramount roles in resistance efforts for most of the occupation period. It also illustrates the feasibility of overt, guerrilla-based activity in urban environments during the final phase of a conflict and offers insight into an understudied Landpower activity that modern at-risk countries should develop and hone.