> Leveling cities into rubble does not necessarily help the attacker, see Stalingrad. Yes. It wasn't a city, but when the Allies bombed the Italian hillside mo

> Leveling cities into rubble does not necessarily help the attacker, see Stalingrad. Yes. It wasn't a city, but when the Allies bombed the Italian hillside monastery of Monte Cassino [0] in 1944, it left a pile of rubble that the Germans managed to hold for another three months. If you don't rubbleise a city, they are horrendous to assault. Most battle tanks (western and Russian) can't elevate their main guns high enough to take out attackers in a nearby multi-story towerblock (the 'urban canyon'), some military comms systems and GPS lose signals, defenders can use subways to transit, etc etc. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Monte_Cassino https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Monte_Cassino