There was a massive historic religious structure that dominated the Liri Valley’s Gustav Line in Italy called the Abby of Monte Cassino in Feb of 1944. The Allies believed that it was being used by the Germans as an observation post. It was targeted for destruction and became the most heavily bombed point target in the HISTORY of warfare and was turned into completely flattened rubble by sucessive waves of heavy and medium bomber attacks which dropped over 1400 tons of bombs on it.
Tough German paratroopers swarmed into the rubble and were able to use it as a much better defensive fortress than the standing structure had been. Between 17 January and 18 May, Monte Cassino and the Gustav defences were assaulted four times by Allied troops, the last involving twenty divisions attacking along a twenty-mile front. The German defenders were finally driven from their positions, but at a high cost. They inflicted enormous casualties upon the troops of the 5th and 8th Armies.
The city of Caen in Normandy was rubbleized in the same manner as Monte Cassino, but SS units such as the Liebstandarte and Hitler Jugend divisions made the British pay an enormous cost in armor and infantry and stopped them cold for a month when Caen was scheduled to be captured on D-Day+1. Most of Okinowa was completely leveled during the fighting there in 1945, but no Japanese unit ever surrenderered and fighting only ceased when most of their 32nd army had been annihalated.
There will never been a substitute for infantry, in combination with other supporting arms, to close with and destroy a tenacious enemy when he is dug in and determined to fight. I would rather have too many ready to do this awful task rather than too few when the time comes for it.
There should have never been two Battle of Fallujah's.
Too many loved ones have gotten killed because we didn't have the will to utilize the weapons in our inventory. The threat of Your cicadas will chirp from the ground, would be a better policy.