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00:00The bleak and forbidding desert of southern Iraq.
00:08It's a place of sudden and violent sandstorms.
00:12But today, we'll see it torn apart by a different kind of storm.
00:18We engage them with tank main gun rounds.
00:21You see the explosions going off.
00:23I dropped down inside.
00:25I looked through my commander's sight.
00:27I was finally impressed with the enemy.
00:30The U.S. 2nd Armored Cavalry is on a collision course
00:34with the Tawakalna Division of Iraq's Republican Guard.
00:37They see themselves being great warriors
00:40who are expected to stand and fight and even die
00:44so that others may live.
00:46Two tank armies clash on a remote strip of desert.
00:50This is the Battle of 73 Easting.
00:53Armored warfare at its most intense.
00:57This probably was the last great tank battle of the 20th century.
01:01æ”»ids circling.
01:03Amir, Amir, Amir, Amir, Amir, Amir.
01:06The attack is the second half.
01:07The attack is the second half.
01:09A USSa is with the county guard.
01:11Forms circling.
01:13The attack is the second half.
01:14The attack is on the back.
01:15A USSa is with the power of the land.
01:16He is the captain.
01:18The attack is the terror.
01:20You are theéš».
01:21It's the head of the sky.
01:23February 24th, 1991.
01:38American tanks roll across the Saudi Arabian desert
01:41toward the Iraq border.
01:49They're part of a multinational force
01:52with a clear and simple mission
01:53to drive Saddam Hussein's Iraqi army out of Kuwait.
02:00Coming out of the Iran-Iraq war, Saddam has two problems.
02:04He has a great big military with nothing really for it to do.
02:08The other problem he has is that he has devastated Iraq's economy
02:12as a result of the Iran-Iraq war.
02:14And so when you're Saddam Hussein and you need money,
02:17when you need it, you do what comes natural.
02:19You rob the piggy bank next door.
02:21And in this case, that piggy bank was Kuwait.
02:26Iraqi armor and infantry overrun the oil-rich emirate
02:29in just 36 hours.
02:32Saddam ignores the United Nations' demand
02:35for an immediate withdrawal.
02:38And the UN sends an American-led coalition of 620,000
02:43to show him they mean business.
02:50Saddam realized that he was in a bit over his head.
02:54But in Saddam's mind, the great weakness of the United States
02:58was their inability to take casualties.
03:01He assumed that it would be very much like the Iran-Iraq war.
03:04It would be a slugging fest between these two sides.
03:08And that in the end, the Americans would cry uncle first.
03:13And so the strategy that Saddam lays out
03:15is designed to cause the most casualties to the United States
03:20while absorbing the least damage to his own forces.
03:24He dug in the biggest share of the Iraqi army,
03:2851 of 66 divisions, and he dug them in deep.
03:34Saddam deploys 16 infantry divisions
03:37and two armored corps along the Saudi border
03:40to absorb the brunt of the coalition attack.
03:42He holds his best fighters in reserve.
03:47Eight divisions of the Republican Guard,
03:501,000 tanks and 120,000 men,
03:53are poised to strike a massive counterattack
03:55and inflict devastating casualties on the advancing coalition.
04:00The scheme for defending Kuwait that they actually employed
04:03was really the only one that was available to them.
04:06And the problem that they had
04:08was that the coalition wasn't going to play by their rules.
04:12They don't believe that it's possible
04:14for the coalition to move any further to the west.
04:18It is trackless desert out there,
04:20and the Iraqis didn't believe that the Americans
04:22could possibly move any further west than that
04:25because the Iraqis themselves,
04:27whenever they tried to operate in that desert out there,
04:30got horribly lost.
04:32There were no terrain features, there were no roads.
04:35It was impossible to maneuver out there.
04:38And the one thing that the Iraqis weren't aware of
04:41was at that time a brand new technology
04:43called the Global Positioning System.
04:48It's the first GPS war.
04:52Satellite technology enables the coalition
04:54to cross into Iraq far to the west
04:56of the main Iraqi defensive line,
04:58setting the stage for an attack
05:00on their unprotected right flank.
05:08At 1,300 hours,
05:10the U.S. 7th Corps breaches the sand berm,
05:13marking the border between Iraq and Saudi Arabia.
05:19We had a psyops platoon with us
05:21with these 25,000-watt speakers on top of the Humvees.
05:25They were there to broadcast surrender appeals,
05:27but I had them play Ride of the Valkyries
05:29as we were crossing over the berm into Iraq.
05:42It's kind of cool watching it,
05:44but there was nothing there.
05:45Our unit was moving to the north and to the east
05:55and really not hitting a whole lot.
05:57I mean, yeah, we did.
05:59We had some reconnaissance units we ran into,
06:01but after a couple of shots at us,
06:04they would give up.
06:07You had an Iraqi military
06:09that were desperately unhappy
06:11and really just wanted to go home.
06:13These were not Iraq's first-rate troops.
06:19They were mostly Shia conscripts
06:21who had been conscripted during the Iran-Iraq war
06:24and been kept in the army ever since.
06:26They were desperate to get out of the army,
06:29and massive U.S. formations
06:30would run into these tiny little Iraqi units.
06:35These forces would fire at you.
06:36You would quickly overwhelm them,
06:38and then you would see the white flags come out
06:40and you would take large numbers of prisoners.
06:41This is what the main coalition armored force encountered
06:47on the first day of its climactic swing
06:50around the right flank of the Iraqi army.
06:52The armor of the 7th Corps rolls ever deeper into Iraq,
07:04but at a snail's pace.
07:08Cautious force commanders order continual halts.
07:10And what they basically did was said,
07:15you know what, if we're going to go due east,
07:17we're just going to use the eastings,
07:18all the north-south grid lines,
07:20as our methods to control your rate of advance.
07:24It was almost like we were crawling.
07:26It was not a fast lightning strike.
07:29It was very slow.
07:31Okay, we'd move a few clicks,
07:33and they'd stop us.
07:34I mean, a 50-ton vehicle,
07:39all this ammunition,
07:40I can drive 40-something, 50-something miles an hour,
07:43and you're telling me to stop?
07:45You know, the enemy's that way.
07:46I need to keep going.
07:50There was no one forward to see anything
07:52to make a personal evaluation.
07:54There were no Patton, Rommel, Guderian types
07:57who were pulling up next to my tank,
07:59saying, well, there, Major, what do you think?
08:01By the end of the second day,
08:04the initial surprise and strategic advantage
08:06of the flanking maneuver is lost.
08:09And the Iraqis realize that the U.S. 7th Corps
08:12is about to cut off and surround their forces in Kuwait.
08:19It's at that moment that Iraq's general staff
08:22actually demonstrates some degree of real competence.
08:26They recognize what's going on,
08:28and what's more, they realize from the ease
08:31with which American formations have been destroying
08:34Iraqi formations throughout the theater
08:36that if they are going to stop the American 7th Corps,
08:40they're not going to be able to throw some ash and trash,
08:43some weak formations in front of it
08:45and allow their better units to escape.
08:48Instead, they're going to have to put their best formations
08:51in front of those American divisions.
08:54The Iraqis make their stand on a defensive line
08:58stretching 90 kilometers along the northwestern border of Kuwait.
09:02Two infantry and two armored divisions of the Republican Guard
09:06will defend the northern half of the line.
09:09In the south and directly in the path of the advancing Americans
09:11are the cream of Saddam's armored forces.
09:14The southern half of the Iraqi Republican Guard line
09:19is handled by the Tawakalna Ala'Allah division,
09:23which means in Arabic, in God we trust.
09:26And they see themselves as being great warriors,
09:30warriors who defended their nation for eight years
09:33and ultimately defeated Iran, the Persian menace.
09:36And they saw themselves as Republican guards
09:39as being the best of the best, Iraq's elite,
09:42professional warriors, not conscripts,
09:45who were expected to stand and fight and even die
09:48so that others may live.
09:54We respected them.
09:56We knew that they were capable of some serious destruction.
10:00And we knew there were a lot of them.
10:05They got tons and tons of equipment.
10:07We respected that.
10:08We were real worried about their armored vehicles.
10:14And, of course, our biggest fear was the T-72 tank.
10:21The Soviet T-72, known in Iraq as the Lion of Babylon,
10:26is the backbone of the Iraqi armored corps.
10:29Its 125-millimeter main gun can destroy targets
10:32over 1,800 meters away.
10:34It's a 41-ton monster, plated with armor
10:38that is in places 300 millimeters thick.
10:41Still, it can reach a speed of 60 kilometers per hour.
10:44This makes the T-72 one of the fastest
10:47and most lethal heavy tanks in the world.
10:50And Saddam has more than 1,000 of them
10:52deployed along the Republican Guard's defensive line.
10:56They're supported by hundreds of armored vehicles,
10:59including the Soviet-designed BMP.
11:01The Republican Guard seems ready to take on all comers.
11:08Heading straight for them is the U.S.-led 7th Corps
11:11with hundreds of M2 Bradley fighting vehicles
11:15and well over 1,000 tanks.
11:19The most powerful of these is the M1A1 Abrams main battle tank.
11:28The Abrams is armed with a 120-millimeter high-velocity cannon
11:33and protected by composite armor
11:35that's as tough as 60 centimeters of pure steel.
11:39It's one and a half times heavier than the T-72,
11:42but just as fast,
11:43making it the most powerful tank on the battlefield.
11:48By the end of the day, on February 25th,
11:57these two armored forces are only 14 kilometers apart.
12:01The morning of the 26th, very early,
12:17perhaps 4.30, 5 o'clock, I can't remember precisely,
12:20we suddenly get a change of orders
12:23and essentially find and destroy the Republican Guard
12:26for all intents and purposes.
12:28It got to the point, sort of late morning, early afternoon,
12:35where you couldn't see more than perhaps 20, 30 yards.
12:41All of a sudden, we're about to go into combat
12:43against the one real enemy that we had practiced to defeat,
12:48and suddenly our visibility is terrible.
12:50But the Abrams is up to the job.
12:55It has a thermal imaging system
12:57that can identify the heat signatures of potential targets,
13:00even in the worst conditions.
13:02So we're moving in this very limited visibility,
13:08and we begin to identify some hot spots.
13:13As McMaster's platoon approaches 73 Easting,
13:16a line of longitude on the map,
13:18he encounters a Tawakalma Division forward outpost.
13:21It's manned by infantry with anti-tank guns
13:23and rocket-propelled grenades.
13:25And it was at this point
13:28that we first received fire from the enemy.
13:35What we had realized is we were paralleling a road
13:37that ran due east right into the enemy's position.
13:41The Battle of 73 Easting,
13:44the last great tank battle of the 20th century,
13:47is about to begin.
13:48February 26th, 1991.
13:58It's been two days
13:59since the U.S.-led international coalition
14:01invades southern Iraq
14:03in an attempt to outflank Iraqi forces
14:05and drive them out of nearby Kuwait.
14:08In response,
14:09the Iraqis establish a defensive screen,
14:12deploying five divisions
14:13of Saddam Hussein's elite Republican guard,
14:16including the fully mechanized Tawakalma Division.
14:18The U.S. 2nd Armored Cavalry,
14:29the spearhead of the coalition advance,
14:31makes contact with the Republican guard.
14:34And it was at this point
14:35we first received fire from the enemy.
14:39I then pull up our nine tanks online,
14:43all of us oriented on this village.
14:46I give this troop fire command.
14:49Village, direct front, frontal,
14:52one round heat,
14:53at my command, ready report,
14:55which means everybody load a heat round,
14:57look at that village,
14:59pick out your aim points
15:00on the enemy positions,
15:01and when they're ready,
15:03we're going to fire nine simultaneous
15:04main gun rounds at the center.
15:06I fire one round before that
15:08to mark center with a tank heat round.
15:12Green says ready,
15:13white says ready,
15:14I say fire,
15:15nine tank main gun rounds
15:16impact simultaneously.
15:18Now, we get the word,
15:26continue to move to the east.
15:28And it's at that point
15:29I just get this gut feeling,
15:30you know,
15:30I get this feeling that
15:31we're about to make contact
15:33with, you know,
15:34with a defending enemy force.
15:36And I make the decision
15:37to go into a tank's lead formation.
15:38That means positioning
15:42the Abrams tanks
15:43in a rolling wedge
15:44with the more vulnerable
15:45Bradley fighting vehicles
15:47tucked in behind for protection.
15:51This formation places
15:53McMaster's big guns forward,
15:55ready for whatever lies ahead.
15:59So my tank comes up
16:01over that crest.
16:02And again, remember,
16:03it's a sandstorm, right?
16:04You can't see very far,
16:05but it is if the sandstorm
16:06just lifted.
16:07I mean, as soon as
16:08we came over that ridge,
16:10it was some weird
16:11environmental factor,
16:12but it was like
16:12a curtain lifting.
16:14And what I was confronted with
16:16was the enemy
16:17defensive position.
16:20They were deployed
16:20in a reverse slope position,
16:22which is designed
16:23to minimize the amount of time
16:25and the amount of distance
16:26that an attacking force
16:27actually has before
16:28it can start to fire
16:29on the defenders.
16:31Unfortunately,
16:31they didn't count
16:32on the sophisticated optics
16:34and fire control systems
16:36of the U.S. M1 tanks,
16:37which made their thinking
16:38entirely obsolete.
16:42I could see eight enemy tanks
16:44in defensive positions.
16:46And I said,
16:46fire, fire, Sabo,
16:48which means we had
16:49a heat round in.
16:50And it means the next round
16:51going in that gun
16:52is going to be a Sabo tank,
16:53you know,
16:54armor-defeating round.
16:56The Abrams tank
16:58carries two types
16:59of high-velocity ammunition.
17:01The Sabo,
17:02an armor-piercing dart
17:03made with high-density
17:05depleted uranium.
17:06And the high-explosive
17:08anti-tank round,
17:09a shaped charge projectile
17:11which can bore
17:12through heavy armor.
17:13We engage that first tank
17:15with a heat round.
17:19That fireball blows
17:20the tank commander
17:21out of that tank.
17:22And then ultimately
17:23there's a secondary explosion
17:24that blows the turret
17:25off that tank.
17:26My gunner traverses left,
17:29hits with another tank.
17:35We're able to destroy
17:36three tanks
17:37as our tank hits
17:39the first leading edge
17:40of the minefield.
17:43I looked to the right
17:44and I saw
17:45what looked like explosions
17:47to the left front
17:50of McMaster's tank.
17:52And I couldn't tell
17:53if these were mines
17:54or artillery fire again.
17:57And my gunner,
17:59Dewey Jones,
18:00pipes up and says,
18:02holy sh**,
18:04look at this.
18:11And I dropped down inside,
18:13I looked through
18:14my commander's sight
18:15and I said,
18:16oh yeah,
18:17I was finally impressed
18:19with the enemy.
18:24Here were,
18:25you know,
18:26rows,
18:26literally 10,
18:2715 tanks
18:28spread right across
18:30to the front
18:30and you could see
18:31that these tank guns
18:32were moving.
18:35And I imagine
18:36since these were
18:37manual T-72s,
18:39the poor Republican guard
18:41was in there
18:42busily cranking
18:43to get the guns around
18:45towards us.
18:47Then all of a sudden,
18:48my tank went
18:49into a minefield.
18:50And this thing
18:52rocked the 70-ton tank.
18:54A fireball went over it
18:56and knocked me down
18:56to the turret floor.
18:58And, uh,
19:00fortunately,
19:01my driver was
19:02very tough-minded.
19:03So what the hell
19:04was that?
19:04And I said,
19:05don't worry about it,
19:06keep driving.
19:08As we were coming
19:09out of the minefield,
19:10we had a couple
19:11of tanks to our front.
19:14It was,
19:15sir,
19:15I got tanks
19:15to my front.
19:16And I'm looking
19:17at the damn tank
19:18that we're about
19:19to take under fire.
19:20And the gunner
19:21hesitated,
19:21sir,
19:22can I shoot?
19:23Can I fire?
19:24I said,
19:24for God's sake,
19:25shoot!
19:29We swung
19:30to the next one
19:31and fired.
19:35And in the meantime,
19:36I could see
19:37that Eagle Troop
19:38was taking,
19:39uh,
19:40enormous numbers
19:41of vehicles
19:41under fire.
19:42initially,
19:49there was a great
19:49deal of disorientation
19:51on the Iraqi side
19:51because they just assumed
19:52that this couldn't be
19:53American tanks attacking
19:54them.
19:54It had to be aircraft.
19:59But even after
20:00they figured it out,
20:01they still had difficulty
20:03getting into their vehicle
20:04in time because
20:05they didn't realize
20:06how quickly
20:06the Americans
20:07were closing on them.
20:08American armored forces
20:13would charge
20:14using speed
20:15to simply try
20:16to disorient
20:17the Iraqis
20:18and it worked.
20:19The Iraqis
20:19could not imagine
20:21armored forces
20:22this big,
20:23this powerful,
20:24moving at them
20:25as fast as they were.
20:31It's a tactic
20:32developed by
20:33General Erwin Rommel,
20:34the great World War II
20:35German tank commander.
20:38And the M1A1 Abrams
20:42is ideally suited
20:43for this kind
20:44of warfare.
20:47The gun stays
20:48right on target.
20:49It has a geo-stabilized
20:50system and,
20:51um,
20:52I mean,
20:52you can be moving
20:53out at,
20:53you know,
20:5340,
20:5450 kilometers an hour
20:55going over bumps
20:56and firing.
21:05And then the shock
21:06effect of a
21:067-ton machine
21:07hurtling at you.
21:12I think this is the blow
21:13from which the enemy
21:14could never really recover.
21:17We were now
21:18on top of their command post
21:20and we entered
21:21their reserve position.
21:22And in,
21:23just in like typical
21:24Soviet doctrine,
21:25they had put their
21:26tank reserve
21:26like a coil,
21:27but we moved too fast.
21:30They couldn't get out
21:31of their coil in time.
21:31They were just starting
21:32their engines.
21:36I looked at an enemy
21:37tank commander,
21:38looked over his shoulder
21:39at me.
21:40I could see the expression
21:41on his face
21:41and,
21:42and we engaged that tank
21:43at very close range.
21:45And you couldn't tell
21:48the difference between
21:49the enemy tank being hit
21:50and our gun going off
21:51and just big hunks
21:52of metal,
21:53blue sparks
21:53arched right back
21:54over our heads.
21:56And then the rest
21:57of our tanks came up
21:58and we destroyed
21:58these tanks
21:59in their assembly area.
22:00The Iraqis,
22:09you know,
22:10had set up
22:10a pretty sound defense.
22:11I mean,
22:11it was a reverse slope defense.
22:13It had a reserve.
22:14It had a counterattack plan.
22:16It had a minefield
22:17to disrupt our movement.
22:18But the fatal flaw
22:19was that we gained
22:21surprise over them.
22:24Despite the Iraqis'
22:26best efforts,
22:27Eagle Troop
22:27overwhelms the position,
22:29killing hundreds
22:30of Iraqis
22:30and destroying
22:31more than 50 tanks
22:33and armored vehicles.
22:35It's the opening round
22:36in a furious tank battle.
22:38They will soon be fought
22:39across a much larger front.
22:43Eight kilometers
22:44to the north,
22:45the 2nd Armored Cavalry's
22:46Ghost Troop
22:47slowly makes its way
22:48through the blinding sandstorm.
22:51In the reduced visibility,
22:53they have lost touch
22:54with Eagle Troop.
22:56Ghost Troop's commander
22:57sends two lightly armored
22:58Bradley reconnaissance vehicles.
23:00vehicles to reestablish contact.
23:01I tell the driver
23:03to start slowing down
23:04because I'm starting
23:04to see these little objects.
23:06But what could they be?
23:07I mean,
23:08you're in the middle
23:08of the desert.
23:09So I'm immediately thinking,
23:10well, they're vehicles.
23:12But my number one concern,
23:13of course,
23:13is I'm going to go link up
23:14with Eagle.
23:15That's, maybe that's Eagle.
23:16Maybe that's not.
23:19And I see all these people
23:20emerging out of nowhere
23:21out of the ground.
23:22And then you see, like,
23:23this diesel plume
23:24and immediately followed
23:25by this behemoth giant
23:27T-72 tank backing up
23:28out of a hole.
23:32Ah, that must be enemy.
23:35Now I'm seeing
23:36a lot of activity.
23:37Turts start moving
23:38and I'm like,
23:40oh, s**t.
23:41Where is Eagle Troop?
23:51February 26, 1991.
23:541600 hours.
23:56Eagle and Ghost Troops
23:57of the 2nd U.S. Armored Cavalry
23:59have become separated
24:00in a sandstorm.
24:01Two Bradley fighting vehicles
24:05from Ghost Troop
24:06have been dispatched
24:07to reestablish visual contact
24:09between the two tank units.
24:11But they run into a platoon
24:13of Iraqi T-72 tanks.
24:17So I tell the driver
24:19to pull up to this little mound
24:20and as soon as he comes
24:21to the stop,
24:22he says,
24:23tank front.
24:25Roger, got it, thanks.
24:27And he goes,
24:28no, no, there's a tank
24:29to our immediate front.
24:30He goes, I see it.
24:31No, no, you don't understand.
24:32There's a tank
24:33to our front.
24:36And I just get up,
24:37push myself out
24:38of that turret
24:39and I look down
24:39and I go,
24:40I'll be down.
24:43Well, what happened
24:44is I didn't realize
24:45the little mound of dirt
24:46that I told him
24:47to pull up front
24:47was a T-72.
24:52I just grabbed
24:53the commander's
24:54out of the ride,
24:54max deflect
24:55the 25mm cannon.
25:00And then I say,
25:01you know,
25:01we're scouts.
25:02We don't go toe-to-toe
25:03with tanks.
25:03We need to back up a little.
25:06Well, now I'm seeing
25:07all these tanks,
25:08a lot of activity.
25:12And the turrets
25:13start moving
25:14and I'm like,
25:15oh, shit,
25:16where is Eagle Troop?
25:19So I'm backing up,
25:20I'm backing up.
25:21What?
25:22Where am I going to go to?
25:23Okay.
25:28Okay.
25:28Sergeant Wonder,
25:29raise the missile.
25:33So I lay him on
25:34to this T-72
25:35that's showing me
25:36this beautiful,
25:37bright profile.
25:38Sergeant Wonder,
25:39gunner,
25:39missile tank,
25:40it's right to our front.
25:41And, you know,
25:42I can't identify,
25:43this is,
25:44this could be Eagle Troop.
25:45And I'm just like,
25:46how could you miss?
25:48It's bigger
25:48than a barn door.
25:50What do you mean
25:50you can't see this?
25:52So I said,
25:52go clear channel.
25:54He goes,
25:55flips over,
25:55takes it off the armholes.
25:57Identify T-72 tank.
25:58It's a fire.
26:02The Tome missile
26:03is the Bradley's
26:04most powerful
26:04and accurate weapon.
26:06It's guided by wires,
26:08enabling the gunner
26:09to steer it to the target,
26:11even at ranges
26:12of up to 3,000 meters.
26:17Now I realize
26:18there's like eight of them,
26:20all in this immediate vicinity.
26:21At this time,
26:22I'm thinking,
26:23okay,
26:23these guys all know
26:24that I'm here
26:25and they're probably
26:26a little pissed off
26:27at that.
26:28So I go,
26:29gunner,
26:29missile,
26:29tank,
26:30he has identified.
26:31And I say,
26:33fire.
26:34And I see this missile
26:35come out
26:36from the launcher,
26:37go just past my gun tube,
26:41fall to the desert floor.
26:44I'm like,
26:45hmm,
26:45mm-hmm,
26:46mm-hmm.
26:47Um,
26:48uh,
26:49misfire,
26:49misfire.
26:51At that time,
26:53my wingman opens up
26:54a missile,
26:55blows the heck
26:55out of this thing
26:56that was turning
26:57the turret on me.
27:02Then it occurred to me,
27:03we both have shot
27:04both our missiles.
27:06And we both have,
27:06to our front,
27:07at least eight T-72 tanks.
27:12Merriweather says,
27:13hey,
27:13I need to reload drill.
27:15So I said,
27:15roger that,
27:16we got you covered.
27:19And I told Sergeant Wonder,
27:20all right,
27:21whatever we do,
27:21we're going to keep firing
27:22and firing
27:23until we can't fire no more.
27:25And he starts firing
27:26a 25-millimeter cannon
27:26into the sun.
27:27Do-do-do-do-do.
27:28And it's bouncing off the turret.
27:30And my gunner,
27:31he's like,
27:32sir,
27:32it's bouncing off,
27:33it's bouncing off,
27:34you know,
27:34we're just pissing it off.
27:35And my intent was,
27:37look,
27:37better us
27:38than my wingman
27:39who's staying there,
27:40you know,
27:40basically naked.
27:45I'm thinking,
27:45well,
27:45I wonder how long
27:46it's going to take
27:46that gunner
27:47and commander
27:48to shoot me
27:49while I'm sitting there
27:50pinking it
27:52with a 25-millimeter cannon.
27:58The M2 Bradley
27:59is a reconnaissance vehicle
28:01designed for mobility
28:02rather than heavy combat.
28:04It is equipped
28:05with a 25-millimeter
28:06main cannon
28:07capable of firing
28:08high-explosive rounds.
28:10But to increase
28:11its speed and range,
28:13it is protected
28:14by just 25-millimeter
28:15of armor plating.
28:19The Bradley
28:20is no match
28:21for the powerful T-72.
28:29Then,
28:29at that time,
28:30my wingman
28:31reported up.
28:35Almost instantaneously,
28:36he serviced that tank
28:37with a missile.
28:41Probably saved my life.
28:47So out of the sandstorm
28:50and a lot of smoke
28:51right now on the battlefield,
28:52he murdered some,
28:53a couple of Eagle troop
28:53Bradley's,
28:54slowly approached me
28:55from the right.
28:57And he pulls up next to me
28:58and he screams
28:59at the top of his lungs,
29:00there's tanks over there!
29:03I go,
29:03I know!
29:08In just minutes,
29:10Haynes and his wingman
29:11destroy no fewer
29:12than five T-72s.
29:12But this is just one strong point
29:18in an Iraqi defensive line
29:19stretching across
29:20a 90-kilometer front
29:22that is in places
29:2310 kilometers deep.
29:26To the north,
29:27Ghost Troop continues
29:28through the sandstorm.
29:31Unaware,
29:32they are moments away
29:33from contact
29:33with the main line
29:35of Iraqi defense.
29:38We're slowly moving forward
29:39and when I mean slowly,
29:41I mean about as fast
29:42as a man can walk.
29:44And when you're in a tank,
29:45you've got track pads.
29:47We were going slow enough
29:48where you could actually feel
29:49the individual track pads
29:50hitting the ground.
29:53We get a little bit,
29:56a little bit of a wind shift
29:58and we can see something
30:00out in front of us.
30:03We saw heads pop out
30:04and we think what it was,
30:05they were in a bunker
30:06and they felt the movement
30:08of the armored vehicle.
30:13The bunker is barely recognizable
30:16because it's cold,
30:17but when the bodies come out of it,
30:19they're white hot,
30:20they're glowing hot.
30:21They're so white
30:22on your background.
30:23And so they're running
30:24from one bump to another.
30:26But I can figure out
30:27if they're coming out
30:27of something running
30:28to something,
30:28that's probably a vehicle.
30:31When the telecoma soldiers
30:33finally figure out
30:34that there is a major attack
30:35on them,
30:36they leap to their tanks,
30:38they get in their tanks
30:39and their armored
30:40fighting vehicles
30:41and they fight back
30:42as best they can.
30:43The problem that they have
30:44to begin with
30:45is that the Americans
30:46are shooting at them
30:48at ranges at which
30:49they can't possibly fire back.
30:51I told the gunner
30:52to shoot the vehicle.
30:56Immediately followed,
30:57just a second or so later,
30:58by a heat round
30:59from Ghost 6.
31:03So we shot it
31:04and this thing exploded
31:05and the next thing
31:06I know, you know,
31:08my other tank platoons
31:10have seen similar things
31:12to what I was seeing
31:12and they started engaging.
31:13And now you've got
31:20the dark, oily, black smoke
31:23mixed in from the vehicle
31:24that's just destroyed
31:25that is hot.
31:29You can see people and things
31:31moving behind it.
31:33So I called my troop commander
31:35and told him,
31:36hey, sir,
31:36there's something past that smoke.
31:38That wasn't a single vehicle.
31:39I want permission
31:40to move up
31:41and poke my nose
31:43through the smoke.
31:44And I said, yeah,
31:45okay, Roger,
31:46makes sense.
31:48So these four tanks
31:49of Andy's
31:50just disappear
31:50through the black smoke
31:51and then it is
31:55just absolute
31:55Armageddon.
31:57I can see rounds
32:01being fired,
32:02the whole,
32:02I don't know
32:02whether it's friendly,
32:03I don't know
32:03whether, you know,
32:04they're being attacked
32:05and I'm trying to raise
32:06Andy on the net
32:07and, you know,
32:08as I'm watching this,
32:09it's like, okay,
32:10Catherine,
32:10what are you going to do now?
32:11February 26, 1991.
32:31The remote desert
32:32of southern Iraq
32:33erupts in a fierce tank battle
32:35between the U.S.
32:362nd Armored Cavalry
32:37and the Tawakalna
32:39Mechanized Division
32:40of the Iraqi Republican Guard.
32:47Captain H.R. McMaster
32:49and the men
32:49of Eagle Troop
32:50have destroyed
32:50an entire company
32:52of Iraqi T-72 tanks.
32:58Now Lieutenant Andy Kilgore
33:00and Ghost Troop
33:01are about to experience
33:02their own baptism of fire.
33:07At that time,
33:08the 7th Corps
33:10was four M1 Abram tanks.
33:12There was 110,000 soldiers
33:14behind me.
33:16There was nobody
33:17in front of me.
33:25When I'm poked
33:26through the smoke,
33:27we realize
33:28that we had
33:28about a company defense
33:30spread out in front of us.
33:31He was in them.
33:33He was in their assembly area.
33:35I mean,
33:35he was in
33:36and amongst these guys.
33:42I mean,
33:42he basically,
33:43it's like, you know,
33:43he opened the front door
33:45and just started shooting.
33:46The T-72 is a pretty good tank
33:59for when it is developed,
34:00but it is developed
34:01in the 1970s.
34:03It's got good armor,
34:04but it's very much outclassed
34:06by the M1 Abrams tank,
34:08which is its superior
34:10in every imaginable category.
34:12It's armor can take anything
34:14that the T-72
34:15has to throw at it,
34:16whereas the T-72
34:17gets sliced open
34:19like a hot knife
34:21going through butter.
34:25The Soviets
34:26had a different theory
34:28on storage of ammo
34:29than the Americans.
34:30They've got the ammo
34:31basically stored
34:32around their hull.
34:34So if you make the ammo
34:35explode on a T-72
34:37or any Russian tank,
34:38all that explosive force
34:40is funneled up
34:42through the turret.
34:54Ghost troop fires repeatedly
34:57until the Iraqi tank company
35:02is all but destroyed.
35:07But the men
35:08of the Tawakalna division
35:10won't give up.
35:11They saw themselves
35:12as being the best
35:13of the best,
35:14Iraq's elite.
35:16They manned their positions,
35:17they manned their vehicles,
35:19they fought back hard,
35:20they didn't surrender,
35:21and they died fighting.
35:26In many cases,
35:27the Americans
35:28had to kill
35:28every single member
35:30in an Iraqi squad
35:31or a platoon
35:31to get these guys
35:33to stop fighting.
35:33And I'm looking over
35:38and I can see past
35:39my wingman
35:40to my platoon sergeant.
35:43And I see an Iraqi
35:44jump up in front of him
35:45with an RPG.
35:47Iraqi is probably
35:4850 meters
35:49in front of the tank.
35:50He slew the gun
35:52onto the target.
35:53The gunner,
35:54very excited to see
35:55a guy pointing an RPG
35:56straight at him.
35:57Instead of flipping
35:58the coax,
35:59he just pulls the trigger.
36:00And he hit him
36:01what looked to me
36:02about center of my ass
36:03with a heat round.
36:04120 millimeter projectile
36:06about like that
36:07in the center
36:08of the guy's chest.
36:08It looked like he imploded.
36:14The guy's body's just
36:15picked up
36:15and thrown away
36:16like a leaf.
36:19In just a few minutes,
36:21Lieutenant Kilgore's platoon
36:22kills dozens of Iraqis
36:24and destroys four tanks
36:26and nine armored vehicles.
36:30When I finally destroyed
36:32all the vehicles
36:33that we could see,
36:34I got back up
36:35on the troop net,
36:36called in a spot report
36:37to the troop commander
36:38who was not very happy
36:40with Lieutenant Kilgore
36:41at that time
36:42since I had been
36:42in engagement
36:43for a few minutes
36:43and not reporting.
36:45I said,
36:45you ever pull any stuff
36:46like that,
36:46I'll put a bullet
36:48in you myself.
36:49But as it turned out,
36:50in hindsight,
36:52that was the absolute
36:53right thing to do,
36:55move forward that smoke
36:56because basically
36:56he took the initiative
36:57away from the enemy.
37:00Despite heavy losses,
37:02the Iraqis won't quit
37:03and launch a counterattack
37:05in an attempt
37:05to halt Ghost Troops' advance.
37:07We got to the point
37:16where we were on 73 Easting
37:18where we started engaging.
37:20We're moving
37:20and I'm so intent
37:22on what's going on.
37:23I'm in the moment
37:24and all of a sudden
37:25I get thrown to the ground.
37:27I get thrown to the turret
37:28of my vehicle
37:29and I'm like,
37:29what the hell just happened?
37:31And what I look at,
37:32I look up at my gunner
37:33and he's yelling at me
37:34and I can't hear him
37:35because I have a headset on.
37:36And I finally get him
37:38on the intercom.
37:38Why did you do that?
37:39And he says,
37:40sir, there are artillery rounds
37:43landing right next
37:44to our vehicle
37:45and you didn't even notice it
37:46and you were sticking your head
37:46all the way out of the vehicle.
37:48He said,
37:49you didn't see those rounds?
37:50I said,
37:50I had no idea
37:51that was happening
37:51because I was so focused
37:54on what was happening
37:55on the radio,
37:55what was going on
37:56with all the other units.
37:58That's how intense it is.
37:59You're just,
37:59just go, go, go.
38:01They saw that we were attacking
38:07from their flank
38:08so they tried to move out
38:10and come around on our flank.
38:12What that ended up doing
38:13was that gave us
38:14a bunch of silhouettes
38:15moving across our front.
38:18And the crazy things
38:19that when we go to gunnery,
38:21we practice with moving targets
38:23to look just like that.
38:24When that occurred,
38:28what I did is
38:28I scrambled two tanks,
38:30give them to the scout platoon
38:31and the scout platoon
38:32would give two Bradleys
38:34and give them to the tank platoon.
38:37By scrambling Bradleys
38:38and Abrams tanks
38:39in combined fighting units,
38:41Sartiano creates
38:42a lethal see and shoot combination.
38:45The Bradleys,
38:46with their superior targeting systems,
38:48pinpoint targets for the tanks,
38:49which then open fire
38:51with their high-velocity
38:52120-millimeter guns.
38:54Able to unleash
38:55a deadly accurate round
38:56every four seconds.
39:00Can you imagine
39:01putting something
39:02that's about as round
39:03as a grapefruit
39:04two miles away
39:07onto something
39:08that's as big as,
39:09you know,
39:09a little bigger than a van?
39:14That's unbelievable.
39:20We have tanks shooting
39:21over two miles
39:22and getting the hits.
39:23It was absolutely amazing.
39:35All of a sudden,
39:36I remember
39:36it was Jeff Garwick
39:38who said,
39:38Sergeant Mulder
39:39has been hit.
39:44And all of a sudden,
39:45the whole troop net
39:46just went silent.
39:46February 26, 1991,
40:00the U.S. 2nd Armored Cavalry's
40:02Eagle and Ghost Troops
40:04have dealt a crushing blow
40:05to the Tawakana Mechanized Division.
40:07But just as it seems
40:15they will emerge
40:16from the battle unscathed,
40:18one of Ghost Troops'
40:19Bradley fighting vehicles
40:20takes a direct hit.
40:28And we notice
40:29at 1-6,
40:31which is on the extreme right
40:32of the scout platoon
40:33to our left,
40:34he's pulled up
40:35on just a little bit
40:36of a rise.
40:39He was probably hit
40:41by one of the vehicles
40:42that we had shot.
40:44So I don't think
40:44there was anything
40:45left out there unengaged.
40:47So I'm probably willing
40:48to bet
40:48that that BMP
40:49had been shot
40:50with a sable round,
40:51abandoned,
40:52because it didn't explode
40:53and burn,
40:54people got back in it.
40:55The BMP
40:57is a lightly armored
40:58fighting vehicle
40:59like the Bradley.
41:01A high-velocity sable round
41:03might tear right through it,
41:04leaving it still operational.
41:08Armed with a 76mm
41:10semi-automatic cannon,
41:11the BMP
41:12has more than enough
41:13firepower
41:14to penetrate a Bradley.
41:17Staff Sergeant Chaffee,
41:19the Bradley commander,
41:19he said that Andy
41:20turned and looked at him
41:22and said,
41:22what the f*** was that?
41:23About that time,
41:25the second round hit
41:26and decapitated
41:28Sergeant Muller.
41:32Really hurt morale
41:33of the troop
41:34was to know
41:35that Sergeant Muller died.
41:38The whole troop
41:39was able to basically
41:40rally around
41:42the situation.
41:43You know,
41:44oh, s***,
41:44one of our guys
41:45just got hit,
41:46but I got a job to do.
41:47This fight is not over.
41:48You're in the middle of it.
41:49You can't worry about this guy.
41:50You got to keep going.
41:53Anyone with a copy?
41:54Come in.
41:55Come in.
42:01The Battle of 73 Easting
42:03is all over
42:03in just 90 minutes.
42:06American casualties
42:07are remarkably light.
42:09One killed
42:09and 12 wounded.
42:12For the Iraqis,
42:13however,
42:14the toll is enormous.
42:17The Tawakalna
42:18was wiped out
42:19in the fighting
42:20against the U.S. 7th Corps.
42:23Thousands of members
42:25of the Tawakalna Division
42:26were killed.
42:32They started out
42:33the battle
42:33with about 200 tanks
42:35and barely two dozen
42:37were able to pull back
42:39off of it later on.
42:42You know,
42:43after the attack,
42:43we ran out
42:44and then captured
42:45some additional enemy prisoners.
42:47We put them in the back
42:51of our squadron
42:52tactical command post, Bradley.
42:54And as they closed
42:55the turret shield door,
42:57there was a picture
42:57of Erwin Rommel
42:58who, you know,
43:00we had admired
43:01and sort of patterned
43:03ourselves after
43:03in terms of his tactics.
43:06So this brigade commander
43:08says in perfect English,
43:10you know,
43:10why do you have
43:11a picture
43:12of your World War II
43:13adversary
43:13and your Bradley?
43:15And one of our privates
43:16in the back
43:17of the Bradley said,
43:18listen,
43:19why don't you
43:19just shut the hell up?
43:20If you'd read
43:21a little bit more
43:21about Rommel,
43:22you wouldn't be sitting
43:23in the back
43:23of my track.
43:26The reason for
43:27not only the American victory,
43:29but also the overwhelming
43:31nature of that victory
43:32lay in the fact
43:34that the United States
43:35held pretty much
43:36every single advantage
43:37over Iraq
43:38that you could imagine.
43:39But there was
43:41the stand
43:42of the Tawakalna
43:43and several other divisions
43:44of the Republican Guard
43:46that slowed down
43:47the American advance.
43:50It bought time
43:51for other Iraqi units
43:52to retreat
43:53out of the Kuwaiti theater.
43:55It's a great tragedy
43:57because it set the stage
43:58for the intervention
43:59in 2003.
44:01It was the survival
44:03of the Republican Guard Corps
44:04that ultimately
44:05preserves
44:06the Saddam Hussein regime.
44:07He might have fallen
44:08right then and there
44:09in 1991
44:10and save the Iraqis
44:12and the United States
44:13and the entire Middle East
44:14another bloody war.
44:16later, Tawakalna
44:18started looking out
44:18to get the
44:22ooh,
44:23Grimm—
44:23I hope you
44:25don't stop
44:26taking food
44:27in a while.
44:27I don't know
44:28any other of the
44:29hand
44:29so
44:30that could not be
44:31what the
44:31part would
44:33just vu
44:33to follow along.
44:34Could not buy
44:35these two
44:35threes
44:35and
44:36could not lasers
44:37either
44:40like the
44:40hedden
44:41within.
44:42It's
44:43very
Recommended
54:54
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