Am I the only one picturing them in full black and blaring Ride of the Valkyries the whole way in?
Marc A
Lines in the Sand: A History of the Gulf War
- Thread starter NeoDesperado
- Start date
Am I the only one picturing them in full black and blaring Ride of the Valkyries the whole way in?
Marc A
That's the kicker, isn't it? By the time Iraq and Yemen could be kicked out, how much will be left intact? And it's going to be nigh impossible for the princes to mentally separate control over the oil versus the holy sites. Both form the foundation of their power and influence and their future survival depends upon trying to gain both.
Am I the only one picturing them in full black and blaring Ride of the Valkyries the whole way in?
Marc A
No worries, we'll be seeing what those mysterious helis are up to in the next update! They do have a part to play, but they won't be deciding the course of the war all by their lonesome.
Kind of surprised no one's mentioned the New Ihkwan yet...
The Emir saw the writing on the wall and basically managed to sneak out by the skin of his teeth. For the moment the New Ihkwan won't have much power beyond Buraydah and the Qasim Province (Nayef's de facto base of operations), so while Riyadh is becoming increasingly dangerous due to infighting among the factions it'll take some time before we start seeing deliberately planned and focused hostility against outsiders.
Thank you very much!
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Okay folks, little bit of an interim update. Thought it might help to have a map showing the current breakdown within Saudi Arabia on the eve of the second Iraqi attack. (Knew those rusty Photoshop skills would come in handy someday!) It's somewhat generalized given that things on the ground are still sorting themselves out, but consider it a general overview of how various towns and provinces are leaning.
Key:
Red - Iraq/Yemen
Teal - Jordan
Blue - Prince Sultan
Orange - Prince Nayef
Green - Prince Mansour
Tamandaré
Banned
Oh boy, the whole kingdom is falling into pieces!
And Jordania is probably going to be the only one winner here. Getting Medina and Mecca in the long run is pretty good, as long as they continue proceeding according to the plan, it is pretty much impossible to stop them. Kinda hard to bomb charity and peacekeeping. We will probably see a referemdum in the future that will allow Jordan to annex it. That is a true masterstroke.
Saddam has the perfect situation now: Nothing can stop him from simply going south and seizing Ryadh. Then all he has to do is stall until the international community tires of the conflict and allows him to go home with Kuwait or even some part of Saudi Arabia.
Yemen is doomed, through, unless they peace-out in exchange for "policing" that area they claim - Read annex it so Jordania doesn't take it too or the feuding princes also go there.
Saudi Arabia seems to be heading straight to failed-state ville. Three-way civil war, two occupying forces, jordanian "peacekeepers" seizing their western coast, Saddam's coming for them, Bin Laden is still out there, tension and havok all the way...
I bet that the next wacky thing that happens will be a Shia insurrection with covert support from Iran.
And Jordania is probably going to be the only one winner here. Getting Medina and Mecca in the long run is pretty good, as long as they continue proceeding according to the plan, it is pretty much impossible to stop them. Kinda hard to bomb charity and peacekeeping. We will probably see a referemdum in the future that will allow Jordan to annex it. That is a true masterstroke.
Saddam has the perfect situation now: Nothing can stop him from simply going south and seizing Ryadh. Then all he has to do is stall until the international community tires of the conflict and allows him to go home with Kuwait or even some part of Saudi Arabia.
Yemen is doomed, through, unless they peace-out in exchange for "policing" that area they claim - Read annex it so Jordania doesn't take it too or the feuding princes also go there.
Saudi Arabia seems to be heading straight to failed-state ville. Three-way civil war, two occupying forces, jordanian "peacekeepers" seizing their western coast, Saddam's coming for them, Bin Laden is still out there, tension and havok all the way...
I bet that the next wacky thing that happens will be a Shia insurrection with covert support from Iran.
Aw, I thought there was an update.
It's kind of sad for Yemen. Originally many people, including myself, thought they would be able to keep some territorial games in exchange for switching sides. But now it looks that they're less likely to get territorial gains than Iraq! It's still possible that they gain territory given the mess Saudi Arabia has fallen into, but now they have to beg.
It's kind of sad for Yemen. Originally many people, including myself, thought they would be able to keep some territorial games in exchange for switching sides. But now it looks that they're less likely to get territorial gains than Iraq!
It's still possible that they gain territory given the mess Saudi Arabia has fallen into, but now they have to beg.Argh, so behind on catching up! Rushed to finish the update for you guys tonight before I leave for Heat of Battle VII in New Orleans tomorrow. I swear I'll answer your posts and PMs when I get some free time in the next day or two! For the moment though, enjoy the latest chapter (warning: some of the language is a bit saltier) and should you find yourself wargaming in the Big Easy this Saturday and want to say hello, I'm vowing to spend most of the day at the Axis and Allies table.
For the moment though, enjoy the latest chapter (warning: some of the language is a bit saltier) and should you find yourself wargaming in the Big Easy this Saturday and want to say hello, I'm vowing to spend most of the day at the Axis and Allies table.Lines in the Sand: A History of the Gulf War
XII
Jarhead: A Marine’s Chronicle of the Arabian War
By Anthony Swofford Simon and Schuster, Inc. 1998
It is dawn, and I am fleeing south in a five-ton. Everyone on board hasn’t slept in over 24 hours now, but we are all alert and watching for the Enemy, currently in hot pursuit of our vehicle. It is of course foolish to think that the Republican Guard has singled us and only us out to chase down and engage, surely our exercise in spontaneous flight is being repeated en masse across the northern front as forward scouting and listening units get pushed back by a wave of advancing steel. Encouraged by the newborn Saudi civil war, Saddam Hussein has thrown three divisions of his elite troops south in the hopes of booting the American presence on the Saudi coast back into the Gulf. No doubt he desires to send more troops our way, but for now he will just have to content himself with a mere 36,000 combat-hardened soldiers, riding in and around some 780 tanks of various Soviet make and model and fully intent on causing us bodily harm. Opposing them we have 20,000 Marines with 182 tanks of our own, most of them part of the 1st Tank Battalion but with a few newcomers courtesy of the 3/9th Infantry out of Fort Lewis. Many of the poor bastards have arrived just in time to spend only a day or in some cases mere hours in position before the attack comes. Welcome to The Suck, enjoy our fine sand accommodations and the constant incoming rounds and oh has it been five minutes already time to run thank you for your stay. If anything they get off lucky; they haven’t had to spend the last few weeks digging intricate and lovingly crafted trenches and dugouts only to abandon them at the first sign of trouble. It only seems to prove that our presence on the line was part of a massive bluff on our part, the growl of a puffed up animal warning a shadow in the darkness not to come near. Now it seems that the Iraqi beast has decided to test us in spite of the growling and the puffing and we must back up our bark. Fight like men or flee like pussies. We must defend the honor of that poor damsel in distress, Dhahran. We will lay down our lives for her sake until command deems it no longer necessary, and then we will abandon her like a cheap whore.
Kuehn has been the most vocal in bitching about the retreat, or ‘phased withdrawal and defense consolidation’ as the generals will call it, and his sentiments are echoed by most of the other members in the platoon. Most of them are complaining only half-heartedly. The Marine STA platoon is a force designed for locating the enemy and sniping him until he is dead or calling in arty and air strikes when mere bullets will not suffice. Our vehicle pool consists of three Humvees and, as of this morning, two five-tons that were liberated from a neighboring motor pool now preoccupied with much greater concerns. The alternative is hoofing it on foot until someone from the rear remembers to come and pick us up, and we are all highly skeptical of such a nicety occurring, hence our recent acquisitions. Scout Marines in Humvees and trucks versus Iraqi Republican Guard in battle tanks equal dead Marines. It’s basic math, rattling around in the back of our heads while we posture and complain about having to pull back to the main defense lines. We blame command for everything because the alternative, the idea that United States Marines are running away in the face of some raghead motherfuckers, is unthinkable. We console and nurse our battered egos with the certain knowledge that command has no idea what they’re doing. No one talks about the occupant riding in the other five-ton being treated by Doc John. We’ve picked up a stray from a neighboring company during the confused pullout, a scout whose name I didn’t catch who has lost most of his lower right leg to shrapnel. Doc has him stabilized but the guy’s gone into shock and it’s essential that he gets to a medevac. It’s a sobering reminder that we aren’t invincible, a slap in the face of our chest pounding.
The view from the truck bed presents us with a panoramic display of battle unfolding around us in the early morning light: overhead a flight of Harriers scream by in search of targets to bomb and to our east we can see several other trucks moving south, no doubt filled with Marines much less courageous than ourselves. A pair of A-10s follows in their wake, and soon we hear several dull booms echoing across the desert, probably the sound of machines and their human occupants dying terrible burning deaths. Several of us cheer and shout “Get some” and “Fuck ‘im up”, and we are jealous of the pilots and relieved that for now the Enemy is someone else’s concern. We are eager to wipe Iraq and Yemen off the face of the earth, and we are secretly terrified of taking a life, to take on the responsibility of removing someone’s father or son or brother from this world. We want to kill everyone and no one, and as we drive south through the Desert part of me realizes that we have been given a small reprieve, that we can wait just a little longer before losing that part of ourselves to the war. I muse briefly on how the pilots flying strike missions must see the battlefield. Masses of black armored ants scuttling about in the desert on their little tread legs hunting down other black ants who’ve had the misfortune to belong to another anthill. Douse the ants with fire, stomp them, send them back into their hole, but please remember not to stamp on too many of the good ants.
Dettmann starts to say something when the morning sky splits open with the shriek of a round passing overhead. Seconds later, another screams by to our right, close enough for us to feel the shift in pressure as the air is literally torn aside to allow the shell’s passage. The Enemy has gotten around to our front and we are trapped in a cage of metal and fire and we will all surely die. Instantly, it is chaos with everyone trying to yell over each other as we start jumping to the relative safety of the desert before the five-ton has even finished coming to a full stop. As our transport is the tallest object in the immediate vicinity and no doubt high on our attacker’s list of things to target, we dash a respectable distance away into the desert before belly-flopping and scanning the horizon for the distinctive shape of Iraqi tanks. Another shot screams in, and the other five-ton disappears into a wall of flame that engulfs the corner of my vision and heat and the stench of oil and charred flesh hits me. All but three managed to get away from the vehicle before it went up. I learn that Doc John and Martinez were trying to help the scout whose name I never found out down when the round hit and just like that they are snuffed out of existence for having the audacity to try and save someone.
“Swoff, get me a goddamned visual!” Johnny is screaming into my ear and clutching the PRC-77 to his chest, ready to call in air and wipe out these sons of bitches. Rounds keep flying overhead at a rate that suggests we are facing a group of tanks to our front. As I search the desert with my scope, I’m briefly thankful that the attackers are outside machine gun range. The closest thing the desert offers to cover lies in the abandoned vehicles scattered around us, and though the chance of being hit by a stray shell is low the Enemy is no doubt gearing up for a charge into our midst to finish us off.
I gain visual. Two M-60A1s, possibly Saudi but more probably American. Friendlies.
“It’s our own tanks!” I yell to Johnny. He grabs my scope and checks for himself.
“Yeah, they’re ours. Gotta be 1st Tank.” He dials up command and starts screaming at the XO to stop firing on our people goddammit how fucking stupid are these tankers stop killing us you stupid fucks. As he yells into the radio one of the Humvees gets hit, obliterating it completely. I would be proud of the destructive ability of American firepower if it didn’t keep shooting up our rides.
Our dismal situation has taken a turn for the worse. If it were Iraqis we could call in arty and air, but we are under attack by our own people, soldiers who think we are enemies and must therefore be annihilated. That’s the problem when Marines are attacking you: we are taught to fight and keep fighting until nothing remains of the enemy. It is a simple and brutally efficient method of conducting one’s combat affairs, but when it is turned against your own by accident...I can only hope that the tankers haven’t gotten air support on the net to turn our convoy into a mass of craters, the same craters that are probably turning the desert to our north into a moonscape. The whole thing is farcical; surely they can tell from two grand out that we’re friendly, surely they’ve been trained to spot the difference in silhouette between Humvees and T-62s. It’s true that there are hundreds of Iraqi tanks bearing down on us from the north as I lie on my belly in the desert and wait for fellow Marines to decide that I am not a threat to them, tanks that will in all probability be driving over this very spot in another hour or so. Every moment we waste because a tank commander got panicky and forgot that not everything to his north was an opponent allows the Iraqis to drive closer to the platoon. People are dying because some stupid motherfucker couldn’t take the extra few seconds to make sure the shape in the desert constitutes a goddamned enemy.
Johnny’s screaming and cursing and pleading finally pays off as the M-60s begin to cease fire. It is grudging and reluctant, as if they are still unconvinced that we are indeed their own and not Saddam’s men in clever disguises. The sound of incoming is replaced by the groans of the wounded and the steady crackle of flames from burning vehicles, with the occasional boom of thunder to our north. With Doc blown across the landscape we do what we can for the wounded and clamber onto the remaining and now overcrowded transports. The engagement has cost us two vehicles, seven wounded and three dead, two of which are ours. The tankers do not stop to apologize or check on us, but speed northward, tearing gouts of sand into the air in a frantic drag race where the prize for winning is an all you can kill buffet. We hurl insults at them as they pass, but their armor deflects our heaviest abuse with ease and I hope that the gunners have nightmares for years to come over what they’ve done. We are close to the main defense lines now, and a chance for us to lick our wounds and get back into the fight. We will mourn later for those lost, in our own fashion, but for now there is no time. Our war is waiting for us. Later, we will hear about the tragedy of PanAm 307 and grieve for our fallen brothers, but it will not match the level of losing Doc John and Martinez that first day of battle. Sad, but only human. It is ironic that in the time we have been in the Desert, for all of the barrages at random hours, despite the armored attack overrunning our position, the platoon’s first deaths are the handiwork of our own. Far overhead, trails from dueling fighters loop and intersect and spread to create a suffocating web of death across the morning sky.
Excerpt from Mother of All Battles: A New History of the Arabian War
By Simon Anderson Naval Institute Press 1995
Highways of Death
The second Iraqi ground assault into Saudi Arabia was essentially a scaled down version of the war American forces had trained to fight against the Soviet Union in Europe. A large armored force had invaded with significant air support and intent upon destroying or pushing out a limited opposing force blocking their path before additional reinforcements could arrive and turn the tide of battle against them. The invader would enjoy superiority in armor, which the defenders would attempt to counter with their own air squadrons. In addition, the Iraqi Army and Air Force was primarily equipped with Soviet arms and equipment and had been extensively trained in their use, making the comparison even more apt. The irony and implications of the situation were not lost on foreign observers eager to view a clash of U.S. and Soviet equipment and taking careful notes of the results. Both sides were relatively fresh, well trained and disciplined, and with high morale. The period from March 6 to March 26 had been relatively quiet on the ground along the northern front, with the daily artillery exchanges causing only limited damage to each side. Protected by an umbrella of SAM launchers on the Iraqi side and a growing shield of air power for the allies, the ground forces themselves had been relatively untouched by war and had spent the last few weeks eyeing their opponents warily as each side rushed to bring in what supplies they could. The situation in Saudi Arabia had forced a reset on plans for a renewed Iraqi push and after a week of frantic reorganization and preparation Saddam Hussein felt that enough men and equipment were ready to achieve the final victory.
Of the five Iraqi divisions in the Al Jubail area, three were deemed sufficiently resupplied and available for the new push on Dhahran: the 1st Armored Division (Hammurabi), the 3rd Mechanized Division (Tawakalna), and the 7th Infantry Division (Adnan). All three were Republican Guard and the among the best trained and equipped units in the Iraqi military and deemed more than a match for the American forces in the area. To help avert losses from the inevitable allied air strikes as they advanced, the IAF would be launching their largest raid of the war, sending eight squadrons south to provide air cover and hit targets within Dhahran itself. As a final bit of insurance, troops from the 8th Special Forces Division’s airborne brigade would be dropped into the Saudi interior between Dhahran and Riyadh in order to further isolate the coastal port. Assisting them would be an armored brigade of the 4th Infantry Division (Al Faw) tasked with advancing south along Highway 75 to augment the blocking force. If successful, the attack would cut off and wipe out nearly the entirety of the allied ground commitment in western Saudi Arabia and ensuring a position of strength for Iraq at the negotiating tables in Geneva.
The allies had rushed to bring in what additional units they could in the days leading up to the assault, but were still greatly outnumbered on the ground. Facing the armored thrust from Al Jubail were the 1st and 7th Regiments of the 1st Marine Division guarding the coastal highways with the 101st Airborne Division guarding the western flank and the 3rd Brigade/9th Infantry Division held in reserve after lengthy debate among planners concerning Iraq’s intentions. Farther to the west, CENTCOM had predicted (correctly) that any major Iraqi thrust would tend to follow major roadways and had deployed the 82nd Airborne Division to the town of Alsarar on Highway 75 to block potential moves in the area. The Air Force had deployed 15 squadrons of fighter aircraft to Dhahran, Al Kharj and Riyadh, though five of those squadrons based in Riyadh were in the process of relocating to alternate basing facilities due to the growing chaos in the Saudi capital. The bulk of close support missions would be flown out of Dhahran and its close proximity to the battlefield would result in pilots joking that they never had to bother with retracting their landing gear during a combat mission. They would go a long way in bridging the gap between the numerical disparities of forces in the coastal theater.
With the Hammurabi Division serving as the spearpoint of the assault, the Republican Guard rapidly overran the scattered Marine listening posts and pushed south into the primary defense lines 10 miles south of Al Jubail. Iraqi planners had decided that commencing the attack without a preparatory artillery barrage would allow for greater surprise and less warning time for allied air units to respond. Taking full advantage of information provided by their agents within Saudi Arabia, Iraqi armor hit the gap between the 1st and 7th Regiments and attempted to drive a wedge between the two Marine units. Despite taking numerous losses from A-10s flying danger close support missions and the qualitative superiority of the Marines’ M-60 battle tanks, as with the war’s earlier engagements the Iraqi forces had numbers on their side and steadily pushed back the Americans throughout the morning in a series of vicious, sometimes close-quarter, battles. By late afternoon on March 26 Iraqi armor had broken through the defense line and follow-on forces had moved in to exploit the breakthrough. Bloodied but still in the fight, the Marines began to fall back in good order south, and as night fell over the Saudi coast a running engagement between Iraqi and American armored units unfolded over several hundred square miles of desert. AH-64 Apache attack helicopters from the 101st Division made near-continuous attack runs throughout the day and night of March 26/27 and managed to stall several company-sized attack groups, losing four helicopters to Iraqi air defense units in the process. As of the morning of March 27, the Republican Guard had advanced 16 miles from their starting points and the advance as a whole was still making acceptable progress in the face of spirited defense efforts.
In contrast to the situation on the ground, the war in the air was going much more in the allies’ favor. Despite the numerical superiority of 500 operational attack fighters the Iraqi Air Force had at its disposal, expertise and training among their pilots was far below that of their Western counterparts, a deficiency that was all too apparent in the losses taken throughout the first day of the attack. Though a number of fighters managed to break through allied air patrols to launch air strikes on Dhahran itself, the majority of the initial Iraqi attack wave bogged down into countless dogfights all along the coast as allied air units from across the region converged on the scene to intercept. While managing to keep the majority of attacking aircraft distracted from hitting the ground force, the IAF had succeeded in this purpose more from acting as a bullet shield than through any particular talent. On the first day of the attack alone, Iraq suffered the loss of 7 Mig-21s, 4 Mig-23s, 2 Mig-25s, and 5 Su-25s in sharp contrast to allied losses of 2 F-15s, 1 AV-8B Harrier and 2 A-10s due to Mig-29s and ground fire. The Mig-29 Fulcrums would prove to be the greatest threat to allied pilots during the war, often managing to escape potential attackers through sheer speed. These engagements were the exception however, as the IAF found itself quickly losing a war of attrition in the air simply trying to provide cover for their advancing forces. No further raids on Dhahran were attempted after March 26 as the IAF’s focus turned to providing air cover for their ground forces, though increasing numbers of Al Hussein and Scud rockets continued to rain down on the area and disrupting efforts to shuffle forces to stem the Iraqi wave.
Though most Saudi forces were preoccupied with the expanding internal conflict and would be of little use to the allied defense effort on the coast, native pilots from 2 squadrons of the Royal Saudi Air Force broke their ongoing wait-and-see neutrality and returned to the skies to combat the latest Iraqi incursion on their soil. By the time shortages in ammunition forced them to ground again on March 29, they had accounted for 11 air-to-air kills. In a period when their country was falling apart and the safety of their families unknown, their decision to put aside tribal differences and focus on the outside threat to the kingdom was a welcome, if short-lived, example of an island of unity in an atmosphere of fracture and mistrust.
The biggest loss to the allies on March 26 came over the skies of eastern Saudi Arabia. In a desperate effort to bring in what reinforcements they could before the attack, the United States had continued to fly units into the embattled Saudi capital before rushing them on to the coastal front. With the increasing number of street battles between pro-Sultan and pro-Nayef forces, CENTCOM knew that time was running out to utilize the local facilities before having to abandon the capital altogether. PanAm Flight 307 was one of the last of a limited number of flights into Riyadh from civilian air corporations assisting the military with the buildup effort and was carrying two companies from the 1st Marine Division’s 5th Regiment. They were in Saudi airspace when the attack began and were ordered to divert their course south before continuing on to Abu Dhabi. Due to a faulty navigational GPS, the 747 found itself much farther north of their intended flight path and wandered into the coastal battle zone by accident. Before CENTCOM could discover the error and dispatch an escort, 2 Mig-29s pounced on the unfortunate aircraft and destroyed it with missiles, killing all 409 people aboard. It was the worst single loss of life for the Marine Corps since the 1983 Beirut bombing and devastated the ranks of 5th Regiment. Another flight, Delta 116, nearly suffered the same fate after a close run with IAF fighters over the Gulf but was able to make a hard landing after diverting to Doha on the afternoon of March 26.
Another consequence of the attack would be the capture of several dozen American soldiers by the Iraqis as support units were caught up and overrun in the retreat towards Dhahran. Of particular concern was the fact that several of these soldiers were female, in fact the first American female POWs to be taken since the Second World War. The highest ranking of those captured was Major Rhonda Cornum, a flight surgeon whose UH-60 Black Hawk was shot down on March 27 during its return from a search and rescue mission. Major Cornum, along with the other female POWs, would be separated from the male prisoners and transported to a holding facility in Kuwait City for processing and interrogation.
Thanks to initial confusion as the allies scrambled to counter the Iraqi attack, the helicopters carrying the airborne troops of the Iraqi 8th Special Forces brigade flew south unmolested, at least initially. Theirs was a straightforward mission: seize and hold the towns at the crucial junction of Highways 75 and 40 until relieved by the Al Faw Division’s armored brigade. As long as they held the primary road between Riyadh and the Gulf coast, reinforcements from the Saudi interior would be cut off and constitute a major threat to the American flank. Flying close to the desert floor to avoid their detection on radar, the group of Mi-8s and massive Mi-6s managed to penetrate over 40 miles into Saudi Arabia before encountering resistance. Under strict orders to complete their mission regardless of casualties, the unarmed helicopter transports conducted evasive maneuvers to throw off their pursuers but were nonetheless savaged by repeated strafing runs from allied air units. Only a handful of the helicopters survived to deposit their troops at their target, the town of Judah. Several others crashed or were forced to land in the surrounding area, and by 0700 the surviving 237 paratroopers were moving to secure their immediate landing zones. Operating far below their planning estimates for the mission, they were still able to secure Judah by 0745 and began constructing vehicle barricades across the Saudi superhighway. A smaller force had landed a few miles to the east in Urayarah and immediately fortified themselves into several buildings on the local university campus. A final helicopter crash landed to the north at Um Rabia and its survivors seized a nearby farming complex.
As the remnants of the airborne brigade were busy digging in, some 100 miles to the north the armored brigade of the Al Faw Division was racing south from their garrison at Nairyah. Having gotten underway even before the main attack along the coast began, the brigade was well underway and had advanced over 20 miles by 0800 hours. By 0837 they encountered recon posts of the 82nd Airborne in the town of Nita, about 10 miles north of the main American position at Alsarar. The brigade commander ordered an immediate assault on the town, and by 0930 Iraqi tanks were rolling through defensive emplacements around Alsarar. A counterattack from the 82nd’s attack helicopter battalion stalled the advance just north of the city, and additional air strikes called in throughout the day forced the brigade to retire north to Nita by early evening. SAM launchers were set up to keep the battered force from suffering additional losses from the helicopters roaming to their south, and while the commander put in the request for reinforcements from Nairyah, their artillery battalion resumed the northern front’s time honored tradition of exchanging fire with enemy howitzers.
The Iraqi paradrop to cut Highway 40 threw CENTCOM into a panic. Initial reports on the size of the force that had landed were sketchy at best, as were estimates on what sort of equipment the Iraqis could have landed. With the loss of the Al Hofuf area to Prince Nayef, the attack on Highway 40 effectively sealed of the Saudi eastern coast from the interior. It was an ironic setback for the allies after having just managed to re-open the Bab el Mendab for shipping, and after some debate it was decided to send the 3/9th west to take back the junction before the Iraqis could consolidate their position. The light vehicles of the 9th drove west throughout the night and by 0500 on March 27 were camped several miles from the junction at Um Nerrad to observe the Iraqi position and plan out an assault. Scouting units revealed the desperate nature of the paratrooper’s foothold on the area and with air support from Ac-130 gunships the attack went in at 0800. The Iraqi position at the Urayarah university fell quickly, and by 0945 units were engaging the barricades at Judah. Despite fierce resistance from the paratroopers, the Iraqis were overwhelmed and surrendered by 1320. A final push north mopped up the remaining forces at Um Rabia that evening, with Highway 40 declared safe for traffic by nightfall. 3/9th had performed admirably, with their light vehicles serving as ideal platforms to outflank the Iraqi positions and taking light casualties in the process. Iraqi losses in the heli-drop had been disastrous, with only 129 surviving as POWs out of the original 600 selected for the mission.
The victories at Alsarar and Judah were a small measure of relief for CENTCOM as bad news from the coastal front continued to crop up. In spite of punishing losses in the air, the Iraqi ground attack continued to grind forward and had reached the outskirts of Safwa and Ras Tanura late on March 27. The airfield at the edge of Dhahran started to receive artillery fire by 2245 that night, but the order for aircraft to evacuate had gone into effect several hours before. Despite this, several fighters were caught on the ground and declared losses due to shrapnel damage. The majority of the squadrons based at Dhahran managed to escape south to relocate to fields in Qatar and the UAE, though it would take several days to allow their supporting air crews time to prepare for handling missions from the new facilities. Until that time, Navy fighters from the carriers offshore and squadrons at Al Kharj would have to make up the loss in air power. Of much greater consequence would be the loss of munitions and supplies so carefully built up over the previous weeks; those that could not be carried in every available truck south had to be destroyed lest it fall into enemy hands. Resupply ships bound for Dhahran were ordered to divert to Qatari ports, and the King Fahd Causeway linking Bahrain to the mainland was rigged for demolition. Marine and Army units continued to battle Republican Guard forces on the outskirts of the coastal city and were ordered to delay the Iraqi advance as much as possible in order to give CENTCOM time to evacuate headquarters personnel and sensitive documents to facilities in Doha. By the morning of March 28, Iraqi artillery could shell any target within the Dhahran area with impunity and proceeded to do so with great enthusiasm. American forces and a scattered number of pro-Sultan units had fallen back into the city proper for cover and refused to cede control of the port to Iraqi control without a fight. For all practical purposes however, the allies had written off Dhahran.
Jarhead: A Marine’s Chronicle of the Arabian War
By Anthony Swofford Simon and Schuster, Inc. 1998
It is dawn, and I am fleeing south in a five-ton. Everyone on board hasn’t slept in over 24 hours now, but we are all alert and watching for the Enemy, currently in hot pursuit of our vehicle. It is of course foolish to think that the Republican Guard has singled us and only us out to chase down and engage, surely our exercise in spontaneous flight is being repeated en masse across the northern front as forward scouting and listening units get pushed back by a wave of advancing steel. Encouraged by the newborn Saudi civil war, Saddam Hussein has thrown three divisions of his elite troops south in the hopes of booting the American presence on the Saudi coast back into the Gulf. No doubt he desires to send more troops our way, but for now he will just have to content himself with a mere 36,000 combat-hardened soldiers, riding in and around some 780 tanks of various Soviet make and model and fully intent on causing us bodily harm. Opposing them we have 20,000 Marines with 182 tanks of our own, most of them part of the 1st Tank Battalion but with a few newcomers courtesy of the 3/9th Infantry out of Fort Lewis. Many of the poor bastards have arrived just in time to spend only a day or in some cases mere hours in position before the attack comes. Welcome to The Suck, enjoy our fine sand accommodations and the constant incoming rounds and oh has it been five minutes already time to run thank you for your stay. If anything they get off lucky; they haven’t had to spend the last few weeks digging intricate and lovingly crafted trenches and dugouts only to abandon them at the first sign of trouble. It only seems to prove that our presence on the line was part of a massive bluff on our part, the growl of a puffed up animal warning a shadow in the darkness not to come near. Now it seems that the Iraqi beast has decided to test us in spite of the growling and the puffing and we must back up our bark. Fight like men or flee like pussies. We must defend the honor of that poor damsel in distress, Dhahran. We will lay down our lives for her sake until command deems it no longer necessary, and then we will abandon her like a cheap whore.
Kuehn has been the most vocal in bitching about the retreat, or ‘phased withdrawal and defense consolidation’ as the generals will call it, and his sentiments are echoed by most of the other members in the platoon. Most of them are complaining only half-heartedly. The Marine STA platoon is a force designed for locating the enemy and sniping him until he is dead or calling in arty and air strikes when mere bullets will not suffice. Our vehicle pool consists of three Humvees and, as of this morning, two five-tons that were liberated from a neighboring motor pool now preoccupied with much greater concerns. The alternative is hoofing it on foot until someone from the rear remembers to come and pick us up, and we are all highly skeptical of such a nicety occurring, hence our recent acquisitions. Scout Marines in Humvees and trucks versus Iraqi Republican Guard in battle tanks equal dead Marines. It’s basic math, rattling around in the back of our heads while we posture and complain about having to pull back to the main defense lines. We blame command for everything because the alternative, the idea that United States Marines are running away in the face of some raghead motherfuckers, is unthinkable. We console and nurse our battered egos with the certain knowledge that command has no idea what they’re doing. No one talks about the occupant riding in the other five-ton being treated by Doc John. We’ve picked up a stray from a neighboring company during the confused pullout, a scout whose name I didn’t catch who has lost most of his lower right leg to shrapnel. Doc has him stabilized but the guy’s gone into shock and it’s essential that he gets to a medevac. It’s a sobering reminder that we aren’t invincible, a slap in the face of our chest pounding.
The view from the truck bed presents us with a panoramic display of battle unfolding around us in the early morning light: overhead a flight of Harriers scream by in search of targets to bomb and to our east we can see several other trucks moving south, no doubt filled with Marines much less courageous than ourselves. A pair of A-10s follows in their wake, and soon we hear several dull booms echoing across the desert, probably the sound of machines and their human occupants dying terrible burning deaths. Several of us cheer and shout “Get some” and “Fuck ‘im up”, and we are jealous of the pilots and relieved that for now the Enemy is someone else’s concern. We are eager to wipe Iraq and Yemen off the face of the earth, and we are secretly terrified of taking a life, to take on the responsibility of removing someone’s father or son or brother from this world. We want to kill everyone and no one, and as we drive south through the Desert part of me realizes that we have been given a small reprieve, that we can wait just a little longer before losing that part of ourselves to the war. I muse briefly on how the pilots flying strike missions must see the battlefield. Masses of black armored ants scuttling about in the desert on their little tread legs hunting down other black ants who’ve had the misfortune to belong to another anthill. Douse the ants with fire, stomp them, send them back into their hole, but please remember not to stamp on too many of the good ants.
Dettmann starts to say something when the morning sky splits open with the shriek of a round passing overhead. Seconds later, another screams by to our right, close enough for us to feel the shift in pressure as the air is literally torn aside to allow the shell’s passage. The Enemy has gotten around to our front and we are trapped in a cage of metal and fire and we will all surely die. Instantly, it is chaos with everyone trying to yell over each other as we start jumping to the relative safety of the desert before the five-ton has even finished coming to a full stop. As our transport is the tallest object in the immediate vicinity and no doubt high on our attacker’s list of things to target, we dash a respectable distance away into the desert before belly-flopping and scanning the horizon for the distinctive shape of Iraqi tanks. Another shot screams in, and the other five-ton disappears into a wall of flame that engulfs the corner of my vision and heat and the stench of oil and charred flesh hits me. All but three managed to get away from the vehicle before it went up. I learn that Doc John and Martinez were trying to help the scout whose name I never found out down when the round hit and just like that they are snuffed out of existence for having the audacity to try and save someone.
“Swoff, get me a goddamned visual!” Johnny is screaming into my ear and clutching the PRC-77 to his chest, ready to call in air and wipe out these sons of bitches. Rounds keep flying overhead at a rate that suggests we are facing a group of tanks to our front. As I search the desert with my scope, I’m briefly thankful that the attackers are outside machine gun range. The closest thing the desert offers to cover lies in the abandoned vehicles scattered around us, and though the chance of being hit by a stray shell is low the Enemy is no doubt gearing up for a charge into our midst to finish us off.
I gain visual. Two M-60A1s, possibly Saudi but more probably American. Friendlies.
“It’s our own tanks!” I yell to Johnny. He grabs my scope and checks for himself.
“Yeah, they’re ours. Gotta be 1st Tank.” He dials up command and starts screaming at the XO to stop firing on our people goddammit how fucking stupid are these tankers stop killing us you stupid fucks. As he yells into the radio one of the Humvees gets hit, obliterating it completely. I would be proud of the destructive ability of American firepower if it didn’t keep shooting up our rides.
Our dismal situation has taken a turn for the worse. If it were Iraqis we could call in arty and air, but we are under attack by our own people, soldiers who think we are enemies and must therefore be annihilated. That’s the problem when Marines are attacking you: we are taught to fight and keep fighting until nothing remains of the enemy. It is a simple and brutally efficient method of conducting one’s combat affairs, but when it is turned against your own by accident...I can only hope that the tankers haven’t gotten air support on the net to turn our convoy into a mass of craters, the same craters that are probably turning the desert to our north into a moonscape. The whole thing is farcical; surely they can tell from two grand out that we’re friendly, surely they’ve been trained to spot the difference in silhouette between Humvees and T-62s. It’s true that there are hundreds of Iraqi tanks bearing down on us from the north as I lie on my belly in the desert and wait for fellow Marines to decide that I am not a threat to them, tanks that will in all probability be driving over this very spot in another hour or so. Every moment we waste because a tank commander got panicky and forgot that not everything to his north was an opponent allows the Iraqis to drive closer to the platoon. People are dying because some stupid motherfucker couldn’t take the extra few seconds to make sure the shape in the desert constitutes a goddamned enemy.
Johnny’s screaming and cursing and pleading finally pays off as the M-60s begin to cease fire. It is grudging and reluctant, as if they are still unconvinced that we are indeed their own and not Saddam’s men in clever disguises. The sound of incoming is replaced by the groans of the wounded and the steady crackle of flames from burning vehicles, with the occasional boom of thunder to our north. With Doc blown across the landscape we do what we can for the wounded and clamber onto the remaining and now overcrowded transports. The engagement has cost us two vehicles, seven wounded and three dead, two of which are ours. The tankers do not stop to apologize or check on us, but speed northward, tearing gouts of sand into the air in a frantic drag race where the prize for winning is an all you can kill buffet. We hurl insults at them as they pass, but their armor deflects our heaviest abuse with ease and I hope that the gunners have nightmares for years to come over what they’ve done. We are close to the main defense lines now, and a chance for us to lick our wounds and get back into the fight. We will mourn later for those lost, in our own fashion, but for now there is no time. Our war is waiting for us. Later, we will hear about the tragedy of PanAm 307 and grieve for our fallen brothers, but it will not match the level of losing Doc John and Martinez that first day of battle. Sad, but only human. It is ironic that in the time we have been in the Desert, for all of the barrages at random hours, despite the armored attack overrunning our position, the platoon’s first deaths are the handiwork of our own. Far overhead, trails from dueling fighters loop and intersect and spread to create a suffocating web of death across the morning sky.
Excerpt from Mother of All Battles: A New History of the Arabian War
By Simon Anderson Naval Institute Press 1995
Highways of Death
The second Iraqi ground assault into Saudi Arabia was essentially a scaled down version of the war American forces had trained to fight against the Soviet Union in Europe. A large armored force had invaded with significant air support and intent upon destroying or pushing out a limited opposing force blocking their path before additional reinforcements could arrive and turn the tide of battle against them. The invader would enjoy superiority in armor, which the defenders would attempt to counter with their own air squadrons. In addition, the Iraqi Army and Air Force was primarily equipped with Soviet arms and equipment and had been extensively trained in their use, making the comparison even more apt. The irony and implications of the situation were not lost on foreign observers eager to view a clash of U.S. and Soviet equipment and taking careful notes of the results. Both sides were relatively fresh, well trained and disciplined, and with high morale. The period from March 6 to March 26 had been relatively quiet on the ground along the northern front, with the daily artillery exchanges causing only limited damage to each side. Protected by an umbrella of SAM launchers on the Iraqi side and a growing shield of air power for the allies, the ground forces themselves had been relatively untouched by war and had spent the last few weeks eyeing their opponents warily as each side rushed to bring in what supplies they could. The situation in Saudi Arabia had forced a reset on plans for a renewed Iraqi push and after a week of frantic reorganization and preparation Saddam Hussein felt that enough men and equipment were ready to achieve the final victory.
Of the five Iraqi divisions in the Al Jubail area, three were deemed sufficiently resupplied and available for the new push on Dhahran: the 1st Armored Division (Hammurabi), the 3rd Mechanized Division (Tawakalna), and the 7th Infantry Division (Adnan). All three were Republican Guard and the among the best trained and equipped units in the Iraqi military and deemed more than a match for the American forces in the area. To help avert losses from the inevitable allied air strikes as they advanced, the IAF would be launching their largest raid of the war, sending eight squadrons south to provide air cover and hit targets within Dhahran itself. As a final bit of insurance, troops from the 8th Special Forces Division’s airborne brigade would be dropped into the Saudi interior between Dhahran and Riyadh in order to further isolate the coastal port. Assisting them would be an armored brigade of the 4th Infantry Division (Al Faw) tasked with advancing south along Highway 75 to augment the blocking force. If successful, the attack would cut off and wipe out nearly the entirety of the allied ground commitment in western Saudi Arabia and ensuring a position of strength for Iraq at the negotiating tables in Geneva.
The allies had rushed to bring in what additional units they could in the days leading up to the assault, but were still greatly outnumbered on the ground. Facing the armored thrust from Al Jubail were the 1st and 7th Regiments of the 1st Marine Division guarding the coastal highways with the 101st Airborne Division guarding the western flank and the 3rd Brigade/9th Infantry Division held in reserve after lengthy debate among planners concerning Iraq’s intentions. Farther to the west, CENTCOM had predicted (correctly) that any major Iraqi thrust would tend to follow major roadways and had deployed the 82nd Airborne Division to the town of Alsarar on Highway 75 to block potential moves in the area. The Air Force had deployed 15 squadrons of fighter aircraft to Dhahran, Al Kharj and Riyadh, though five of those squadrons based in Riyadh were in the process of relocating to alternate basing facilities due to the growing chaos in the Saudi capital. The bulk of close support missions would be flown out of Dhahran and its close proximity to the battlefield would result in pilots joking that they never had to bother with retracting their landing gear during a combat mission. They would go a long way in bridging the gap between the numerical disparities of forces in the coastal theater.
With the Hammurabi Division serving as the spearpoint of the assault, the Republican Guard rapidly overran the scattered Marine listening posts and pushed south into the primary defense lines 10 miles south of Al Jubail. Iraqi planners had decided that commencing the attack without a preparatory artillery barrage would allow for greater surprise and less warning time for allied air units to respond. Taking full advantage of information provided by their agents within Saudi Arabia, Iraqi armor hit the gap between the 1st and 7th Regiments and attempted to drive a wedge between the two Marine units. Despite taking numerous losses from A-10s flying danger close support missions and the qualitative superiority of the Marines’ M-60 battle tanks, as with the war’s earlier engagements the Iraqi forces had numbers on their side and steadily pushed back the Americans throughout the morning in a series of vicious, sometimes close-quarter, battles. By late afternoon on March 26 Iraqi armor had broken through the defense line and follow-on forces had moved in to exploit the breakthrough. Bloodied but still in the fight, the Marines began to fall back in good order south, and as night fell over the Saudi coast a running engagement between Iraqi and American armored units unfolded over several hundred square miles of desert. AH-64 Apache attack helicopters from the 101st Division made near-continuous attack runs throughout the day and night of March 26/27 and managed to stall several company-sized attack groups, losing four helicopters to Iraqi air defense units in the process. As of the morning of March 27, the Republican Guard had advanced 16 miles from their starting points and the advance as a whole was still making acceptable progress in the face of spirited defense efforts.
In contrast to the situation on the ground, the war in the air was going much more in the allies’ favor. Despite the numerical superiority of 500 operational attack fighters the Iraqi Air Force had at its disposal, expertise and training among their pilots was far below that of their Western counterparts, a deficiency that was all too apparent in the losses taken throughout the first day of the attack. Though a number of fighters managed to break through allied air patrols to launch air strikes on Dhahran itself, the majority of the initial Iraqi attack wave bogged down into countless dogfights all along the coast as allied air units from across the region converged on the scene to intercept. While managing to keep the majority of attacking aircraft distracted from hitting the ground force, the IAF had succeeded in this purpose more from acting as a bullet shield than through any particular talent. On the first day of the attack alone, Iraq suffered the loss of 7 Mig-21s, 4 Mig-23s, 2 Mig-25s, and 5 Su-25s in sharp contrast to allied losses of 2 F-15s, 1 AV-8B Harrier and 2 A-10s due to Mig-29s and ground fire. The Mig-29 Fulcrums would prove to be the greatest threat to allied pilots during the war, often managing to escape potential attackers through sheer speed. These engagements were the exception however, as the IAF found itself quickly losing a war of attrition in the air simply trying to provide cover for their advancing forces. No further raids on Dhahran were attempted after March 26 as the IAF’s focus turned to providing air cover for their ground forces, though increasing numbers of Al Hussein and Scud rockets continued to rain down on the area and disrupting efforts to shuffle forces to stem the Iraqi wave.
Though most Saudi forces were preoccupied with the expanding internal conflict and would be of little use to the allied defense effort on the coast, native pilots from 2 squadrons of the Royal Saudi Air Force broke their ongoing wait-and-see neutrality and returned to the skies to combat the latest Iraqi incursion on their soil. By the time shortages in ammunition forced them to ground again on March 29, they had accounted for 11 air-to-air kills. In a period when their country was falling apart and the safety of their families unknown, their decision to put aside tribal differences and focus on the outside threat to the kingdom was a welcome, if short-lived, example of an island of unity in an atmosphere of fracture and mistrust.
The biggest loss to the allies on March 26 came over the skies of eastern Saudi Arabia. In a desperate effort to bring in what reinforcements they could before the attack, the United States had continued to fly units into the embattled Saudi capital before rushing them on to the coastal front. With the increasing number of street battles between pro-Sultan and pro-Nayef forces, CENTCOM knew that time was running out to utilize the local facilities before having to abandon the capital altogether. PanAm Flight 307 was one of the last of a limited number of flights into Riyadh from civilian air corporations assisting the military with the buildup effort and was carrying two companies from the 1st Marine Division’s 5th Regiment. They were in Saudi airspace when the attack began and were ordered to divert their course south before continuing on to Abu Dhabi. Due to a faulty navigational GPS, the 747 found itself much farther north of their intended flight path and wandered into the coastal battle zone by accident. Before CENTCOM could discover the error and dispatch an escort, 2 Mig-29s pounced on the unfortunate aircraft and destroyed it with missiles, killing all 409 people aboard. It was the worst single loss of life for the Marine Corps since the 1983 Beirut bombing and devastated the ranks of 5th Regiment. Another flight, Delta 116, nearly suffered the same fate after a close run with IAF fighters over the Gulf but was able to make a hard landing after diverting to Doha on the afternoon of March 26.
Another consequence of the attack would be the capture of several dozen American soldiers by the Iraqis as support units were caught up and overrun in the retreat towards Dhahran. Of particular concern was the fact that several of these soldiers were female, in fact the first American female POWs to be taken since the Second World War. The highest ranking of those captured was Major Rhonda Cornum, a flight surgeon whose UH-60 Black Hawk was shot down on March 27 during its return from a search and rescue mission. Major Cornum, along with the other female POWs, would be separated from the male prisoners and transported to a holding facility in Kuwait City for processing and interrogation.
Thanks to initial confusion as the allies scrambled to counter the Iraqi attack, the helicopters carrying the airborne troops of the Iraqi 8th Special Forces brigade flew south unmolested, at least initially. Theirs was a straightforward mission: seize and hold the towns at the crucial junction of Highways 75 and 40 until relieved by the Al Faw Division’s armored brigade. As long as they held the primary road between Riyadh and the Gulf coast, reinforcements from the Saudi interior would be cut off and constitute a major threat to the American flank. Flying close to the desert floor to avoid their detection on radar, the group of Mi-8s and massive Mi-6s managed to penetrate over 40 miles into Saudi Arabia before encountering resistance. Under strict orders to complete their mission regardless of casualties, the unarmed helicopter transports conducted evasive maneuvers to throw off their pursuers but were nonetheless savaged by repeated strafing runs from allied air units. Only a handful of the helicopters survived to deposit their troops at their target, the town of Judah. Several others crashed or were forced to land in the surrounding area, and by 0700 the surviving 237 paratroopers were moving to secure their immediate landing zones. Operating far below their planning estimates for the mission, they were still able to secure Judah by 0745 and began constructing vehicle barricades across the Saudi superhighway. A smaller force had landed a few miles to the east in Urayarah and immediately fortified themselves into several buildings on the local university campus. A final helicopter crash landed to the north at Um Rabia and its survivors seized a nearby farming complex.
As the remnants of the airborne brigade were busy digging in, some 100 miles to the north the armored brigade of the Al Faw Division was racing south from their garrison at Nairyah. Having gotten underway even before the main attack along the coast began, the brigade was well underway and had advanced over 20 miles by 0800 hours. By 0837 they encountered recon posts of the 82nd Airborne in the town of Nita, about 10 miles north of the main American position at Alsarar. The brigade commander ordered an immediate assault on the town, and by 0930 Iraqi tanks were rolling through defensive emplacements around Alsarar. A counterattack from the 82nd’s attack helicopter battalion stalled the advance just north of the city, and additional air strikes called in throughout the day forced the brigade to retire north to Nita by early evening. SAM launchers were set up to keep the battered force from suffering additional losses from the helicopters roaming to their south, and while the commander put in the request for reinforcements from Nairyah, their artillery battalion resumed the northern front’s time honored tradition of exchanging fire with enemy howitzers.
The Iraqi paradrop to cut Highway 40 threw CENTCOM into a panic. Initial reports on the size of the force that had landed were sketchy at best, as were estimates on what sort of equipment the Iraqis could have landed. With the loss of the Al Hofuf area to Prince Nayef, the attack on Highway 40 effectively sealed of the Saudi eastern coast from the interior. It was an ironic setback for the allies after having just managed to re-open the Bab el Mendab for shipping, and after some debate it was decided to send the 3/9th west to take back the junction before the Iraqis could consolidate their position. The light vehicles of the 9th drove west throughout the night and by 0500 on March 27 were camped several miles from the junction at Um Nerrad to observe the Iraqi position and plan out an assault. Scouting units revealed the desperate nature of the paratrooper’s foothold on the area and with air support from Ac-130 gunships the attack went in at 0800. The Iraqi position at the Urayarah university fell quickly, and by 0945 units were engaging the barricades at Judah. Despite fierce resistance from the paratroopers, the Iraqis were overwhelmed and surrendered by 1320. A final push north mopped up the remaining forces at Um Rabia that evening, with Highway 40 declared safe for traffic by nightfall. 3/9th had performed admirably, with their light vehicles serving as ideal platforms to outflank the Iraqi positions and taking light casualties in the process. Iraqi losses in the heli-drop had been disastrous, with only 129 surviving as POWs out of the original 600 selected for the mission.
The victories at Alsarar and Judah were a small measure of relief for CENTCOM as bad news from the coastal front continued to crop up. In spite of punishing losses in the air, the Iraqi ground attack continued to grind forward and had reached the outskirts of Safwa and Ras Tanura late on March 27. The airfield at the edge of Dhahran started to receive artillery fire by 2245 that night, but the order for aircraft to evacuate had gone into effect several hours before. Despite this, several fighters were caught on the ground and declared losses due to shrapnel damage. The majority of the squadrons based at Dhahran managed to escape south to relocate to fields in Qatar and the UAE, though it would take several days to allow their supporting air crews time to prepare for handling missions from the new facilities. Until that time, Navy fighters from the carriers offshore and squadrons at Al Kharj would have to make up the loss in air power. Of much greater consequence would be the loss of munitions and supplies so carefully built up over the previous weeks; those that could not be carried in every available truck south had to be destroyed lest it fall into enemy hands. Resupply ships bound for Dhahran were ordered to divert to Qatari ports, and the King Fahd Causeway linking Bahrain to the mainland was rigged for demolition. Marine and Army units continued to battle Republican Guard forces on the outskirts of the coastal city and were ordered to delay the Iraqi advance as much as possible in order to give CENTCOM time to evacuate headquarters personnel and sensitive documents to facilities in Doha. By the morning of March 28, Iraqi artillery could shell any target within the Dhahran area with impunity and proceeded to do so with great enthusiasm. American forces and a scattered number of pro-Sultan units had fallen back into the city proper for cover and refused to cede control of the port to Iraqi control without a fight. For all practical purposes however, the allies had written off Dhahran.
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Orville_third
Banned
I had forgotten about Swofford. I wonder how his war will turn out. I hope it goes well- though it's already worse.
Meanwhile, with Iraq in charge of Ras Tanura, a major oil shipment point is now under their control- and if they damage it...
Meanwhile, with Iraq in charge of Ras Tanura, a major oil shipment point is now under their control- and if they damage it...
If it wasn't obvious from before, this war is going to be remembered muuuuuuuch differently than the OTL Gulf War in the public imagination. I mean, we've already had higher losses among just the Americans than in the OTL conflict...
Doc Cornum and the others are in for a rough time. If you're not familiar with her story, find the book about her OTL experience: She Went to War: The Rhonda Cornum Story. It should be available in any good college or public library.
With the Sauds falling apart have any other tribes considered making a move? It was mentioned at the start that only the House of Rashid would really be able to try anything.
This is going to change future military thinking. No "shock and awe" and the lighter higher tech force have taken a real beating.
This is going to change future military thinking. No "shock and awe" and the lighter higher tech force have taken a real beating.
Good job! Nice take on an ATL Jarhead, and Doc Cornum's in a lot worse trouble than her OTL POW experience. She was held for only a week IOTL.
I definitely like the ATL Jarhead.
Dhahran is "written off" and the Coalition aircraft are abandoning it? Oh dear.
Saddam's weak logistical system should keep him from advancing too far too fast, but the Coalition isn't doing too well. At least with the damage inflicted on the Iraqi Air Force and the Coalition naval air offshore, he's not going to be able to assist Yemen too much.
What's the Iraqi Navy up to at moment? OTL all they did was die, but in TTL the Coalition buildup in the region isn't as strong and so they might be able to accomplish something.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraqi_Navy#Republic_of_Iraq_Pre-2003
Dhahran is "written off" and the Coalition aircraft are abandoning it? Oh dear.
Saddam's weak logistical system should keep him from advancing too far too fast, but the Coalition isn't doing too well. At least with the damage inflicted on the Iraqi Air Force and the Coalition naval air offshore, he's not going to be able to assist Yemen too much.
What's the Iraqi Navy up to at moment? OTL all they did was die, but in TTL the Coalition buildup in the region isn't as strong and so they might be able to accomplish something.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraqi_Navy#Republic_of_Iraq_Pre-2003