Battle of 73 Easting

Infobox Military Conflict
conflict=Battle of 73 Easting
partof=the Gulf War


caption=Wrecked Bradley IFV burns after being hit by Iraqi 125 millimeter tank fire.
date=February 26 to 27, 1991
place=Iraq
result=Decisive Coalition victory
combatant1=flagicon|United States United States Army,
flagicon|United Kingdom British Army
combatant2=flagicon|Iraq|1991 Iraqi Republican Guard
commander1=flagicon|United States Norman Schwarzkopf
commander2=flagicon|Iraq|1991 Saddam Hussein
casualties1=U.S.: 12 KIA and Friendly Fire,
57 wounded
casualties2=600 killed and woundedThe Battle of 73 Easting was a decisive tank battle fought on 26 February 1991, during the Gulf War, between United States and British armoured forces against those of the Iraqi Republican Guard. The battle took place about convert|50|mi|km|0 east of, and several hours after the Battle of Al Busayyah. It was named for a UTM north-south coordinate line (an "Easting", measured in kilometers and readable on GPS receivers) in the featureless desert that was used as a phase line to measure progress of the offensive.

The main U.S. unit in the battle was the 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment (2nd ACR), mainly a reconnaissance element of VII Corps. The corps's vanguard also included the American 3rd Armored Division (3rd AD) and 1st Infantry Division (1st ID), and the British 1st Armoured Division (1 AD).

On the night of 23/24 February, in accordance with General Norman Schwarzkopf's plan for the ground assault called Operation Desert Sabre, VII Corps raced east from Saudi Arabia into Iraq in a maneuver later nicknamed the "Hail Mary." The Corps had two goals: to cut off Iraqi retreat from Kuwait, and to destroy five Republican Guard divisions near the Iraq-Kuwait border that might attack the Arab and Marine units moving into Kuwait to the south. Initial Iraqi resistance was light and ineffective and the 2nd ACR did not see much fighting until 25 February.

Plan

The 2nd ACR was to advance east, locate and engage the enemy at a distance, then allow the heavy mechanized units of the 1st ID to pass through to finish destroying the Iraqis. The 2nd ACR's limit of advance was to be 70 Easting, while the 1st ID would push on to objectives further east.

They faced Iraq's heavily armored Tawakalna Division, which occupied well-constructed defensive emplacements. They had also prepared alternate positions which enabled them to reorient to the west to face VII Corps’s attack. Despite extensive aerial and artillery bombardment by U.S. forces, most elements of the Tawakalna Division remained effective.

67 Easting

The battle was conducted in very bad weather. The day began with heavy ground fog, which later lifted amid winds gusting to convert|42|kn|km/h|0. Heavy rain, and later, blowing sand often reduced visibility to less than 100 meters. The ceiling was generally too low for Army aviation or Air Force close air support aircraft to fly during the opening rounds of the battle.

At 13:00, one of 2nd ACR's cavalry units, G- (“Ghost”) Troop, destroyed several Iraqi armored personnel carriers and, about 15:30, three enemy tanks.

By 16:10, further south near the east-west UTM coordinate line 00 Northing, 2nd ACR's E- (“Eagle”) Troop received fire from an Iraqi dismounted outpost, a dug-in Iraqi ZU-23 and several occupied buildings in an Iraqi village. The American scouts returned fire with their tanks and Bradleys, silenced the Iraqi guns, took prisoners, and continued east. They advanced three more kilometers east to the 70 Easting line. More enemy fire came in and was immediately returned.

73 Easting

Reaching 70 Easting at 16:22, 2nd Squadron knocked out a screen of eight Iraqi T-72 tanks. Three kilometers beyond, T-72s could be seen in prepared positions at 73 Easting. This was the Iraqi Brigade Assembly Area. Fearing the loss of surprise, E-Troop's commander, Captain H.R. McMaster, decided not to wait for heavier units to come forward and engage the Iraqis. McMaster ordered E-Troop to advance and engage the Iraqi tanks in a hasty attack.

E-Troop consisted of 10 M1 Abrams tanks, 13 M3 Bradleys, two M106 mortar carriers, one M577 command track and a M981 FIST-V.

Armored battles in the open desert are generally decided very quickly; 73 Easting was no exception. The 2nd ACR surprised the enemy and penetrated the Iraqi positions so quickly that they were unable to recover. Superior American night vision equipment turned the poor weather into a U.S. advantage.

McMaster's unit charged and destroyed the Iraqi tanks at 73 Easting at close range. Unlike previous engagements, the destruction of the first Iraqi tanks did not result in the wholesale surrender of Iraqi soldiers. The Iraqis stood their ground while their tanks and armored personnel carriers of the Tawakalna Division attempted to maneuver and fight. E-Troop destroyed more than 20 tanks and other armored vehicles, a number of trucks and bunkers, and took a large number of prisoners with no losses to themselves. In 20 minutes, E-Troop had advanced in constant heavy contact with Iraqi armor from 67 Easting to 74 Easting.

Other 2nd ACR Troops, I- (“Iron”), K- (“Killer”), and G- (“Ghost”), joined the fighting at 73 Easting. By 16:40, G-Troop had assumed a fixed position on a ridge overlooking a wadi at and parallel to the 73 Easting phase line, north of E-Troop's battle. During the fight, the Republican Guards' Tawakalna Division's 18th Brigade had gotten tangled up with their own 12th Armored Division, and both enemy units were trying to retreat through the same narrow piece of terrain, a shallow valley between two ridgelines, leading straight into G-Troop. At 18:30, the first of several waves of Iraqi T-72 and T-55 tanks advanced into the wadi in a bid to escape, directly into G-Troop. The fighting was fierce, as wave after wave of tanks and infantry charged G-Troop. The other troops and tank companies were fighting largely against dug-in soldiers and stationary tanks, not the armored charges faced by G-Troop that night. The fighting was so intense that, more than once, only the calling in of artillery and helicopter gunships saved G-Troop. During the six-hour battle, the G-Troop fire support team called in 720 howitzer rounds. By 21:00, G-Troop was desperately short on ammunition and a tank company, “Hawk,” was sent in to relieve them. G-Troop lost one M3 Bradley to Iraqi IFV fire and one soldier, Sergeant Nels A. Moller, the gunner of the Bradley, was killed. Reportedly, the Bradley had depleted its supply of TOW missiles and was laying fire with its 25 mm cannon when it was hit by 73 mm cannon fire from an Iraqi BMP-1. [See the following official damage report:
* [http://www.gulflink.osd.mil/declassimages/army/19980729/980715_sep96_sagwi1_0110.html#prof www.gulflink.mil] ]

74 Easting and beyond

By 22:30, the 2nd ACR's front at 74 Easting was quiet as the 1st Infantry Division began its forward passage of lines. The 1st Infantry Division passed through the 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment's line and continued to advance on Objective Norfolk, an area encompassing the intersection of the IPSA Pipeline Road, several desert trails, and a large Iraqi supply depot. Now, instead of three armored cavalry squadrons, the Iraqi 18th and 37th Armored Brigades faced six heavy battalions of American tanks and infantry fighting vehicles and another six battalions of 155 mm field artillery. Again, the Iraqis did not run or surrender, but manned their vehicles and weapons to face the advancing Americans. In the ensuing battle, many American units advanced past Iraqi tanks and crews, who were in shelters or had not yet turned on their engines and so did not appear to be threats in the American crew's thermal sights. Some confusion resulted, with enemy tanks and anti-tank infantry crews operating in the rear of the American lead units, and several friendly fire incidents occurred. The brigade commander, Colonel David Weisman, decided to pull the battalions back, consolidate, and use his artillery to destroy the aggressive Iraqi infantry.

The Iraqis had halted the 1st Infantry Division's initial push into their sector only temporarily. By 00:30, 27 February, the two attacking brigades of the 1st Infantry Division were positioned along the 75 Easting, 2,000 meters east of 73 Easting. In what has since been dubbed the Battle of Norfolk, they crossed the remaining ten kilometers to their objective, Objective Norfolk, over the next three hours. By dawn, the 1st ID had taken Objective Norfolk and the fight shifted away from the 73 Easting area to 1st Armored Division's attack to the north, started at 20:00 on 26 February, and the 3rd Armored Division attack just to the south of the 1st Division.

After midnight, the British 1st Armored Division’s 2nd Brigade engaged a brigade of the Iraqi Adnan Infantry Division —a light infantry Republican Guard unit— which was moving into its sector. Farther east, two brigades of the Iraqi Medina Division were trying to set up a defense line around what had been designated Phase Line Lime. The 3rd Brigade, 1st Armored Division engaged the Tawakalna Division, while the rest of 1st Armored Division continued after the Adnan Infantry Division in conjunction with continuous artillery and helicopter attacks. There was some ground contact, but most of the destruction was visited upon the Adnan ID by artillery and Apaches. Objective Bonn, containing the Medinah division and a major Republican Guard logistics base, was attacked by helicopter and air force strikes. Pilots reported large massings of enemy forces there: Medina was reinforced by elements of the 17th, 12th, 10th and 52nd Armored Divisions, which had been retreating north. The Medina Division retained about three quarters of its tanks and was attempting to maneuver against 1st AD. The British responded decisively with MLRS fire, cannon artillery, and air strikes. This was the start of nearly two days of continuous combat for the British, some of the toughest fighting of the war. In the largest of this series of running battles, the British destroyed 40 enemy tanks and captured an Iraqi division commander.

Casualties

12 American soldiers were killed in the battle, and an additional 57 were wounded by friendly fire. Bradley IVF's were easy targets for Iraqi fire, and some were destroyed. 600 Iraqis were killed or wounded, and large numbers of Iraqi tanks were destroyed or captured.

The significance of the Battle of 73 Easting

The 2nd ACR, which advanced between the Iraqi 12th Armored Division and the Tawakalna Division, was the only American ground unit to find itself decisively outnumbered and out-gunned. Nonetheless, the 2nd ACR's three squadrons, along with the 1st Infantry Division's two leading brigades, destroyed two Iraqi brigades (18th Mechanized Brigade and 37th Armored Brigade) of the Tawakalna Division. The 2nd ACR alone destroyed about 85 tanks, 40 personnel carriers and more than 30 wheeled vehicles, along with several anti-aircraft artillery systems during the battle. The equivalent of an Iraqi brigade was destroyed at 73 Easting; it was the first ground defeat of the Republican Guards. Within 24 hours, most of the other Iraqi brigades were gone.

Notes

References

*"Ghost Troop, Battle at 73 Easting." Crawley, Vince, Armor, May-June 1991, VOL C, #3.

*"The 2nd ACR at the Battle of 73 Easting." Davis, 1LT Daniel L., Field Artillery Journal, PB 6-92-2, Apr 92, Pg 48.

*"A Swift Kick, 2nd ACR's Taming of the Guard." Army Times, Aug 5, 1991.

*"Dragon's Roar: 1-37 Armor in the Battle of 73 Easting." Armor, May-June 1992, VOL CI, #3.

*Draft Report The Battle of 73 Easting, 26 February 1991, a historical introduction to a simulation. Krause, Col Michael, US Army Center of Military History, 2 May 1991.

External links

* [http://www.comw.org/rma/fulltext/victory.html Victory Misunderstood:] What the Gulf War Tells Us About the Future of Conflict, by Stephen Biddle. From International Security, Vol. 21, No. 2 (Fall 1996)
* [http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=15295&archive=true An account of Ghost Troop's fight] , by Stars and Stripes