On January 17, , the coalition began air strikes against Iraq, bombing missile bases and other military installations. Meanwhile, ground troops in Saudi Arabia trained for desert warfare while there were isolated skirmishes between the two sides along the Saudi border. As warships gathered offshore, the Iraqis became convinced the expected assault would focus on the coastline.
Paul Sousa is gazing at a hulking M1A1 Abrams tank with the affection of a middle-age man reunited with his first car. For Desert Storm, I was in one for hours straight—only came out to go to the bathroom, or help fuel, or hold a machine gun while the other guys fueled. Some 1, of these monsters were dispatched against the Iraqis in Desert Storm. The enemy had thousands of serviceable Soviet-era tanks, but nothing to match the firepower at the fingertips of Sousa, a gunner with the 1st Cavalry Division.
Modernized versions of the M1A1 are still stationed around the globe, but this particular one, sitting in a corner of the 67,square-foot American Heritage Museum in Stow, Massachusetts, is the only such tank on public display in the world. Four soldiers manned the M1A1: a commander, a driver, a gunner, and a loader.
These guys call themselves tankers. The commander sits up top, watching the surrounding terrain. The driver is out front, his head jutting from a hole just under the gun.
Early on the morning of February 24, coalition forces secretly stretched some miles along the Saudi-Iraqi border. Iraqi military officials had some suspicions, but did not act on them.
That first morning, the tanks, accompanied by infantry and other armored vehicles, plowed through Iraqi defenses—many of which had been nearly destroyed by earlier air attacks—as they made steady progress north. Utterly unprepared, tens of thousands of Iraqi infantry—most of whom were teens and young men pressed into service by Saddam—fought fiercely but were severely outgunned.
Many surrendered when the tanks arrived in their camps. At home in the U. But those were training films. The actual weather in Iraq was dreadful: Rain pounded the desert for most of the offensive. There were a number of tank-to-tank skirmishes in the first two days of the operation, but the armored war began in earnest on February 26 when the U. In one notable face-off, A Troop—led by future U.
National Security Advisor Capt. McMaster—took a position above a dried-up river bed, and for four hours fought off wave after wave of Iraqi tanks.
In the dark, in the rain, in the smoke, conditions could hardly have been worse. Tanks fired on each other without being certain which side they were on. Iraqi soldiers physically swarmed the coalition tanks, attempting to find holes through which they could aim their machine guns. The tankers responded by sealing their hatches while their comrades in nearby tanks literally peppered them with machine gun fire, killing the hangers-on. More than 75 years later, the Battle of Iwo Jima still haunts this veteran.
The sky was illuminated with tracers. As tanks passed low hills or depressions, Iraqi fighters jumped from hiding, aiming rocket-powered grenade launchers, trying to take the tanks out from behind. It was degree battle. The botched Future Combat System programme Even before the invasion of Iraq, the Pentagon was looking at ways it could replace its ageing infantry vehicles. In , defence officials announced the Future Combat System FCS programme which called for the fielding of an entire suite of systems including a new ground vehicle.
The FCS concept was expected to revolutionise the way the Army would be equipped, with units outfitted with advanced technologies integrated to a central network. Pole position: how F1 tools are transforming defence projects Engineers are taking advantage of Formula 1 design tools, including Oculus Rift-style virtual reality.
It was the biggest-ever acquisition programme attempted by the US Army, but it was majorly flawed and the whole thing was cancelled in The GCV project instead called for a vehicle which was relevant across the spectrum of operations but also incorporated lessons from Iraq and Afghanistan, namely the threat from IEDs and mines.
It would also carry three crew and a full infantry squad of nine soldiers compared to the six soldiers carried by the Bradley. Carrying nine soldiers is seen by the US Army as vital for effective dismounted operations but has been lacking on legacy vehicles.
It sounded like the perfect vehicle for the Army but it was also wishful thinking and deemed too expensive by a Pentagon review team. A new RFP had to be reissued in November to address these concerns but industry figures were still unhappy with the requirements set out by the Pentagon. Mortar and artillery support opened up, raining fire onto the remaining Iraqi positions. The American forces cut down 30 tanks, 14 armored vehicles, and hundreds of infantrymen before reaching their limit of advance, the line they were originally told to halt at.
But McMaster ordered the troop to continue attacking, fearful that the Iraqis would be able to regroup and wage a strong counterattack. The single armored troop had crippled the Iraqi flank with zero casualties. One American tank from the 2nd Squadron headquarters had received light damage from a mine. The enemy made a few half-hearted attempts at counter-attacking the US tanks, but they were quickly rebuffed. About survivors surrendered to Eagle Troop.
Up and down the US lines, the story was similar to that of Eagle Troop. The Iraqis suffered nearly 1, casualties, 85 tanks destroyed, 40 armored vehicles destroyed, 30 wheeled-vehicles lost, and two artillery batteries annihilated. The US suffered 12 men killed, 57 men wounded, and 32 vehicles destroyed or damaged. For you. World globe An icon of the world globe, indicating different international options. Get the Insider App. Click here to learn more.
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