Gulf War 1991 - Operation Desert Storm in real time

Well maybe in 2021 i will do Iraq Freedom.

DAY 40 of operation Desert Storm, Day 1 of Ground campaign, Sunday, February 24th 1991

Events of the Day

Queen Elizabeth II, in first wartime broadcast of 39-year reign, tells her country she has prayed for victory.

Combat operations (Ground campaign)

Map: Ground troop movements during Operation Desert Storm



CINCCENTCOM announces that forces of the U.S., Saudi Arabia, UK, France, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman, Syria and Kuwait are proceeding in a major ground, naval and air offensive after 38 days of continuous air attacks on targets in Iraq and Kuwait.

General Schwarzkopf unleashed all-out attacks against Iraqi forces very early at three points along the coalition line. In the far west, the French 6th Light Armored Division and the 101st Airborne Division started the massive western envelopment with a ground assault to secure the coalition left flank and an air assault to establish forward support bases deep in Iraqi territory. In the approximate center of the coalition line, along the Wadi al Batin, Maj. Gen. John H. Tilelli Jr.’s 1st Cavalry Division attacked north into a concentration of Iraqi divisions whose commanders remained convinced that the coalition would use that and several other wadis as avenues of attack. In the east, two Marine divisions, with the Army’s Tiger Brigade and coalition forces under Saudi command, attacked north into Kuwait. Faced with major attacks from three widely separated points, the Iraqi command had to begin its ground defense of Kuwait and the homeland by dispersing its combat power and logistical capability.

The attack began from the XVIII Airborne Corps’ sector along the left flank. At 0100, Brig. Gen. Bernard Janvier sent scouts from his French 6th Light Armored Division into Iraq on the extreme western end of General Luck’s line. Three hours later, the French main body attacked during a light rain. Their objective was As Salman, little more than a crossroads with an airfield about ninety miles inside Iraq. Reinforced by the 2d Brigade, 82d Airborne Division, the French crossed the border unopposed and raced north into the darkness.

Photo: USMC M60A1 with mineplow and AAV-7s



Before the French reached As Salman, they found some very surprised outposts of the Iraqi 45th Infantry Division. General Janvier immediately sent his missile-armed Gazelle attack helicopters against the dug-in enemy tanks and bunkers. Late intelligence reports had assessed the 45th as only about 50 percent effective after weeks of intensive coalition air attacks and psychological operations, an assessment soon confirmed by its feeble resistance. After a brief battle that cost them two dead and twenty-five wounded, the French held twenty-five hundred prisoners and controlled the enemy division area, now renamed Rochambeau. Janvier pushed his troops on to As Salman, which they took without opposition and designated Objective White. The French consolidated White and waited for an Iraqi counterattack that never came. The coalition’s left flank was secure. Meanwhile, Maj. Gen. James H. Johnson Jr.’s 82d Airborne Division carried out a mission that belied its airborne designation. While the division’s 2d Brigade moved with the French, its two remaining brigades, the 1st and 3d, trailed the advance and cleared a two-lane highway into southern Iraq as the main supply route for the troops, equipment, and supplies supporting the advance north. The XVIII Airborne Corps’ main attack, led by Maj. Gen. J. H. Binford Peay III’s 101st Airborne Division, was scheduled for 0500; but fog over the objective forced a delay. While the weather posed problems for aviation and ground units, it did not abate direct-support fire missions. Corps artillery and rocket launchers poured fire on objectives and approach routes. At 0705, Peay received the word to attack. Screened by Apache and Cobra attack helicopters, sixty Black Hawk and forty Chinook choppers of the XVIII Airborne Corps’ 18th Aviation Brigade began lifting the 1st Brigade into Iraq. The initial objective was Forward Operating Base (FOB) Cobra, a point some one hundred ten miles into Iraq. A total of three hundred helicopters ferried the 101st’s troops and equipment into the objective area in one of the largest helicopter-borne operations in military history. Wherever Peay’s troops went during those initial attacks, they achieved tactical surprise over the scattered and disorganized foe. By midafternoon, they had a fast-growing group of stunned prisoners in custody and were expanding FOB Cobra into a major refueling point twenty miles across to support subsequent operations. Heavy CH–47 Chinook helicopters lifted artillery pieces and other weapons into Cobra, as well as fueling equipment and building materials to create a major base. From the Saudi border, XVIII Corps support command units drove seven hundred high-speed support vehicles north with the fuel, ammunition, and supplies to support a drive to the Euphrates River. As soon as the 101st secured Cobra and refueled the choppers, it continued its jump north.

By the evening of the twenty-fourth, its units had cut Highway 8, about one hundred seventy miles into Iraq. Peay’s troops had now closed the first of several roads connecting Iraqi forces in Kuwait with Baghdad. Spearhead units were advancing much faster than expected. To keep the momentum of the corps intact, General Luck gave subordinate commanders wider freedom of movement. He became their logistics manager, adding assets at key times and places to maintain the advance. But speed caused problems for combat support elements. Tanksthat could move up to fifty miles per hour were moving outside the support fans of artillery batteries that could displace at only twenty-five to thirty miles per hour. Luck responded by leapfrogging his artillery battalions and supply elements, a solution that cut down on fire support since only half the pieces could fire while the other half raced forward. As long as Iraqi opposition remained weak, the risk was acceptable. In the XVIII Corps’ mission of envelopment, the 24th Infantry Division had the central role of blocking the Euphrates River valley to prevent the northward escape of Iraqi forces in Kuwait and then attacking east in coordination with the VII Corps to defeat the armorheavy divisions of the Republican Guard Forces Command. Maj. Gen. Barry R. McCaffrey’s division had come to the theater better prepared for combat in the desert than any other in Army Central Command. Designated a Rapid Deployment Force division a decade earlier, the 24th combined the usual mechanized infantry division components—an aviation brigade and three ground maneuver brigades plus combat support units—with extensive desert training and desert-oriented medical and water-purification equipment.

When the attack began, the 24th was as large as a World War I division, with twenty-five thousand soldiers in thirty-four battalions. Its 241 Abrams tanks and 221 Bradley fighting vehicles provided the necessary armor punch to penetrate Republican Guard divisions. But with ninety-four helicopters and oversixty-five hundred wheeled and thirteen hundred other tracked vehicles—including seventy-two self-propelled artillery pieces and nine multiple rocket launchers—the division had given away nothing in mobility and firepower. General McCaffrey began his division attack at 1500 with three subordinate units on line: the 197th Infantry Brigade on the left, the 1st Infantry Brigade in the center, and the 2d Infantry Brigade on the right. Six hours before the main attack, the 2d Squadron, 4th Cavalry, had pushed across the border and scouted north along the two combat trails toward the Iraqi lines. The reconnaissance turned up little evidence of the enemy, and the rapid progress of the division verified the scouts’ reports. McCaffrey’s brigades pushed about fifty milesinto Iraq, virtually at will, and reached a position a little short of FOB Cobra in the 101st Airborne Division’s sector

In their movement across the line of departure and whenever not engaging enemy forces, battalions of the 24th Infantry Division generally moved in “battle box” formation. With a cavalry troop screening five to ten miles to the front, four companies, or multiplatoon task forces, dispersed to form corner positions. Heavier units of the battalion, whether composed of tanks or Bradleys, occupied one or both of the front corners. One company or smaller units advanced outside the box to provide flank security. The battalion commander placed inside the box the vehicles carrying ammunition, fuel, and water needed to continue the advance in jumps of about forty miles. The box covered a front of about four to five miles and extended about fifteen to twenty miles front to rear.

Following a screen of cavalry and a spearhead of the 1st and 4th Battalions, 64th Armor, McCaffrey’s division continued north, maintaining a speed of twenty-five to thirty miles per hour. In the flat terrain, the 24th kept on course with the aid of long-range electronic navigation, a satellite-reading triangulation system in use for years before Desert Storm. Night did not stop the division, thanks to more recently developed image-enhancement scopes and goggles and infrared- and thermal-imaging systems sensitive to personnel and vehicle heat signatures. Around midnight, McCaffrey stopped his brigades on a line about seventy-five miles inside Iraq. Like the rest of the XVIII Airborne Corps, the 24th Division had established positions deep inside Iraq against surprisingly light opposition.

The VII Corps, consisting mainly of the 1st Infantry Division, the 1st and 3d Armored Divisions, the 1st Cavalry Division, the British 1st Armoured Division and the 2d Armored Cavalry Regiment, had the mission of finding, attacking, and destroying the heart of Saddam Hussein’s ground forces, the armor-heavy Republican Guard. In preparation for that, Central Command had built up General Franks’ organization until it resembled a mini army more than a traditional corps. The “Jayhawk” corps of World War II fame numbered more than one hundred forty-two thousand soldiers compared with Luck’s one hundred sixteen thousand. To keep his troops moving and fighting, General Franks had more than forty-eight thousand five hundred vehicles and aircraft, including 1,587 tanks, 1,502 Bradleys and armored personnel carriers, 669 artillery pieces, and 223 attack helicopters. To provide a sense of the logistical challenge to keep such a phalanx supplied, for every day of offensive operations the corps needed 5.6 million gallons of fuel, 3.3 million gallons of water, and 6,075 tons of ammunition.

The plan of advance for the VII Corps paralleled that of Luck’s corps to the west: a thrust north into Iraq, a massive turn to the right, and then an assault to the east into Kuwait. Because Franks’ sector lay east of Luck’s—in effect closer to the hub of the envelopment wheel—the VII Corps had to cover less distance than the XVIII Airborne Corps. But intelligence reports and probing attacks into Iraqi territory in midFebruary had shown that the VII Corps faced a denser concentration of enemy units than did the XVIII Corps farther west. Once the turn to the right was complete, both corps would coordinate their attacks east so as to trap Republican Guard divisions between them and then press the offensive along their wide path of advance until Iraq’s elite units either surrendered, retreated, or were destroyed.

General Schwarzkopf originally had planned the VII Corps attack for 25 February, but the XVIII Airborne Corps advanced so quickly against such weak opposition that he moved up his armor attack by fourteen hours. Within his own sector, Franks planned a feint and envelopment much like the larger overall strategy. On the VII Corps’ right, along the Wadi al Batin, the 1st Cavalry Division would make a strong but limited attack directly to its front. While Iraqi units reinforced against the 1st Cavalry, Franks would send two divisions through sand berms and mines on the corps’ right and two more divisions on an “end around” into Iraq on the corps’ left.

On February 24th, the 1st Cavalry Division crossed the line of departure and hit the Iraqi 27th Infantry Division. That was not their first meeting. General Tilelli’s division had actually been probing the Iraqi defenses for some time. As these limited thrusts continued in the area that became known as the Ruqi Pocket, Tilelli’s men found and destroyed elements of five Iraqi divisions, evidence that the 1st succeede

The main VII Corps attack, coming from farther west, caught the defenders by surprise. At 0538, Franks sent Maj. Gen. Thomas G. Rhame’s 1st Infantry Division forward. The division plowed through the berms and hit trenches full of enemy soldiers. Once astride the trench lines, it turned the plow blades of its tanks and combat earthmovers along the Iraqi defenses and, covered by fire from Bradley crews, began to fill them in. The 1st Division neutralized ten miles of Iraqi lines this way, killing or capturing all of the defenders without losing one soldier, and proceeded to cut twenty-foursafe lanesthrough the minefieldsfor passage of the British 1st Armoured Division. On the far left of the corps sector and at the same time, the 2d ACR swept around the Iraqi obstacles and led 1st and 3d Armored Divisions into enemy territory.

Photo: A British Challenger 1 main battle tank moves along with other Allied armor during Operation Desert Storm.



The two armored units moved rapidly toward their objective, the town of Al Busayyah, site of a major logistical base about eighty miles into Iraq. The 1st Armored Division on the left along the XVIII Airborne Corps’ boundary and the 3d Armored Division on its right moved in compressed wedges fifteen miles wide and thirty miles deep. Screened by cavalry squadrons, the divisions deployed tank brigades in huge triangles, with artillery battalions between flank brigades and support elements in nearly one thousand vehicles trailing the artillery.

Badly mauled by air attacks before the ground operation and surprised by Franks’ envelopment, Iraqi forces offered little resistance. The 1st Infantry Division destroyed two T–55 tanks and five armored personnel carriersin the first hour and began taking prisonersimmediately. Farther west, the 1st and 3d Armored Divisions quickly overran several small infantry and armored outposts. Concerned that his two armored units were too dispersed from the 1st Infantry Division for mutual reinforcement, Franks halted the advance with both armored elements on the left only twenty miles into Iraq. For the day, the VII Corps rounded up about thirteen hundred of the enemy

In the east, the U.S. Marine Central Command (MARCENT) began its attack at 0400. General Boomer’s I MEF aimed directly at its ultimate objective, Kuwait City. The Tiger Brigade, 2d Armored Division, and the 1st and 2d Marine Divisions did not have as far to go to reach their objective as did Army units to the west—Kuwait City lay between thirtyfive and fifty miles to the northeast, depending on the border-crossing point—but they faced more elaborate defense lines and a tighter enemy concentration. The 1st Marine Division led from a position in the vicinity of the elbow of the southern Kuwaiti border and immediately began breaching berms and rows of antitank and antipersonnel mines and several lines of concertina wire. The unit did not have Abrams tanks, but its M60A3 Patton tanks and TOW-equipped high mobility multipurpose wheeled vehicles,supported by heavy artillery, proved sufficient against Iraqi T–55 and T–62 tanks. After the marines destroyed two tanks in only a few minutes, three thousand Iraqis surrendered.

At 0530, the 2d Marine Division, with Col. John B. Sylvester’s Tiger Brigade on its west flank, attacked in the western part of the MARCENT sector. The Army armored brigade, equipped with M1A1 Abrams tanks, gave the marines enough firepower to defeat any armored unitsthe Iraqis put between Boomer’s force and Kuwait City. The first opposition came from a berm line and two mine belts. Marine M60A1 tanks with bulldozer blades quickly breached the berm, but the mine belts required more time and sophisticated equipment. Marine engineers used mine-clearing line charges and M60A1 tanks with forked mine plows to clear six lanes in the division center, between the Umm Qudayr and Al Wafrah oil fields. By late afternoon, the Tiger Brigade had passed the mine belts. As soon as other units passed through the safe lanes, the 2d Marine Division repositioned to continue the advance north, with regiments on the right and in the center and the Tiger Brigade on the left tying in with the coalition forces.

Moving ahead a short distance to a major east-west highway by the end of the day, the 2d Marine Division captured intact the Iraqi 9th Tank Battalion with thirty-five T–55 tanks and more than five thousand men. Already, on the first day of ground operations, the number of captives had become a problem in the marine sector. After a fight for Al Jaber Airfield, during which the 1st Marine Division destroyed twenty-one tanks, another three thousand prisoners were seized. By the end of the day, the I Marine Expeditionary Force had worked its way about twenty miles into Kuwait and taken nearly ten thousand Iraqi prisoners.

Combat operations (Air and Sea)

United States Navy, along with UK, Saudi and Kuwaiti naval forces are conducting carrier air, minesweeping, and amphibious missions along the east coast of Kuwait. USS MISSOURI and USS WISCONSIN fired at targets in occupied Kuwait in support of ground offensive.

USMC AV-8B is downed. Pilot, Captain James N. Wilbourn, is missing.

Maritime intercept operations also continue with USS SAMUEL B. ROBERTS recording 100th interception.

2 Iraqi aircraft flew to Iran.

DAY 42 of operation Desert Storm, Day 3 of Ground campaign, Tuesday, February 26th 1991

Events of the day

Brig. Gen. Richard Neal in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, says Iraqi forces are in "full retreat" with allied forces pursuing; Iraqi POWs number 30,000-plus, number to climb to 63,000.

Residents of Kuwait City celebrate end to occupation. Resistance groups set up headquarters to control city.

Political events

On Baghdad Radio, President Saddam Hussein announced Iraqi troops have begun withdrawing from Kuwait and will be completed today. In the 25-minute speech, Hussein maintained that Kuwait is a part of Iraq which was separated from it in the past, and current circumstances are such that armed forces are forcing us to withdraw.... It should be borne in mind that Constantinople was not conquered in the first battle; the result was achieved in other battles."

President Bush reacted calling Hussein's speech "an outrage. He is not withdrawing. His defeated forces are retreating. He is trying to claim victory in the midst of a rout, and he is not voluntarily giving up Kuwait. He is trying to save the remnants of power and control in the Middle East by every means possible and here, too, Saddam Hussein will fail. Saddam is not interested in peace, but only to regroup and fght another day, and he does not renounce Iraq's claim to Kuwait. To the contrary -- he makes clear that Iraq continues to claim Kuwait.... He still does not accept UN Security Council resolutions or the coalition terms of 22 February, including the release of our POWs, all POWs, third country detainees, and an end to the pathological destruction of Kuwait. The coalition will continue to prosecute the war with undiminished intensity.... It is time for all Iraqi forces to lay down their arms. And that will stop the bloodshed.... The liberation of Kuwait is close at hand."

Combat operations (Ground Campaign)

The XVIII Airborne Corps units turned their attack northeast and entered the Euphrates River valley. With the French and the 101st and 82d Airborne Divisions protecting the west and north flanks, the 24th Division spearheaded Luck's attack into the valley. The first obstacle was the weather. An out-of-season shamal in the objective area kicked up thick clouds of swirling dust that promised to give thermal-imaging equipment a rigorous field test through the day.

After refueling in the morning, all three brigades of the 24th moved out at 1400 toward the Iraqi airfields at Jabbah and Tallil. The 1st Brigade went north, then east about 40 miles to take a battle position in the northeast corner of the corps sector; the 2d Brigade moved 35 miles north to a position along the eastern corps boundary and then continued its advance another 25 miles until it was only 15 miles south of Jahbah; and the 197th Brigade went northeast about 60 miles to a position just south of Tallil. Meanwhile, the 3d Armored Cavalry screened to the east on the division's south flank.

In these attacks the 24th encountered the heaviest resistance of the war. The Iraqi 47th and 49th Infantry Divisions, the Nebuchadnezzar Division of the Republican Guard, and the 26th Commando Brigade took heavy fire but stood and fought. The 1st Brigade took direct tank and artillery fire for four hours. For the first time in the advance the terrain gave the enemy a clear advantage. McCaffrey's troops found Iraqi artillery and automatic weapons dug into rocky escarpments reminiscent of the Japanese positions in coral outcroppings on Pacific islands that an earlier generation of 24th Infantry Division soldiers had faced. But Iraqi troops were not as tenacious in defense as the Japanese had been, and the 24th had much better weapons than its predecessors. American artillery crews located enemy batteries with their Firefinder radars and returned between three and six rounds for every round of incoming. With that advantage, American gunners destroyed six full Iraqi artillery battalions.

Photo: A dug-in T-72 Asad Babil tank abandoned after the battle of Battle of Norfolk



In the dust storm and darkness American technological advantages became clearer still. Thermal-imaging systems in tanks, Bradleys, and attack helicopters worked so well that crews could spot and hit Iraqi tanks at up to 4,000 meters (2.5 miles) before the Iraqis even saw them. American tank crews were at first surprised at their one-sided success, then exulted in the curious result of their accurate fire: the "pop-top" phenomenon. Because Soviet-made tank turrets were held in place by gravity, a killing hit blew the turret completely off. As the battle wore on, the desert floor became littered with pop-tops. A combination of superior weaponry and technique-precise Abrams tank and Apache helicopter gunnery, 25-mm. automatic cannon fire from the Bradleys, overwhelming artillery and rocket direct support and counterbattery fire, and air superiority-took the 24th Division through enemy armor and artillery units in those "valley battles" and brought Iraqi troops out of their bunkers and vehicles in droves with hands raised in surrender. After a hard but victorious day and night of fighting, the 2d Brigade took its position by 2000 on the twenty-sixth. The other two brigades accomplished their missions by dawn.

In VII Corps' sector on 26 February the 1st Armored Division fired heavy artillery and rocket preparatory fires into A1 Busayyah shortly after dawn, and by noon had advanced through a sandstorm to overrun the small town. In the process, General Griffith's troops completed the destruction of the Iraqi 26th Infantry Division and, once in the objective area, discovered they had taken the enemy VII Corps headquarters and a corps logistical base as well. More than 100 tons of munitions were captured and large numbers of tanks and other vehicles destroyed. The 1st Armored Division pressed on, turning northeast and hitting the Tawakalna Division of the Republican Guard. Late that night Griffith mounted a night assault on the elite enemy unit and, in fighting that continued the next day, killed 30 to 35 tanks and 10 to 15 other vehicles.

In the 3d Armored Division sector Funk's men crossed the intercorps phase line SMASH just after daylight and attacked Objective COLLINS, east of Al Busayyah. Through the evening the division fought its toughest battles in defeating elements of the Tawakalna Division. With the capture of COLLINS and nearby enemy positions, VII Corps reached the wheeling point in its advance. From here, General Franks' divisions turned east and assaulted Republican Guard strongholds. Meanwhile, the 1st Infantry Division was ordered north from its position inside the mine belt breach. As the attack east began, VII Corps presented in the northern part of its sector a front of three divisions and one regiment: the 1st Armored Division on the left (north); the 3d Armored Division, the 2d Armored Cavalry, and the 1st Infantry Division on the right (south). Farther south, the British 1st Armored Division, with over 7,000 vehicles, cleared the mine breach at 0200 and deployed to advance on a separate axis into Objective WATERLOO, and on to the juncture of phase line SMASH and the corps boundary. From ARCENT headquarters came word that General Luck's corps would soon be even stronger. At 0930 the ARCENT commander, Lt. Gen. John J. Yeosock, released 1st Cavalry Division from its theater reserve role to VII Corps.

In the early afternoon Col. Leonard D. Holder, Jr.'s 2d Armored Cavalry advanced east of COLLINS in a shamal. The regiment, screening in front of 1st Infantry Division, had just arrived from the mine belt along the Saudi border that it had breached the first day of the ground war. The cavalrymen had only a general idea of the enemy's position. The Iraqis had long expected the American attack to come from the south and east and were now frantically turning hundreds of tanks, towed artillery pieces, and other vehicles to meet the onslaught from the west. On the Iraqi side, unit locations were changing almost by the minute. As Holder's men neared phase line TANGERINE, 20 miles east of COLLINS, one of the cavalry troops received fire from a building on the 69 Easting, a north-south line on military maps. The cavalrymen returned fire and continued east. More enemy fire came in during the next two hours and was immediately returned. Just after 1600 the cavalrymen found T-72 tanks in prepared positions at 73 Easting. The regiment used its thermal imaging equipment to deadly advantage, killing every tank that appeared in its sights. But this was a different kind of battle than Americans had fought so far. The destruction of the first tanks did not signal the surrender of hundreds of Iraqi soldiers. The tanks kept coming and fighting.32

The reason for the unusually determined enemy fire and large number of tanks soon became clear. The cavalrymen had found two Iraqi divisions willing to put up a hard fight, the 12th Armored Division and the Tawakalna Division. Holder's regiment found a seam between the two divisions, and for a time became the only American unit obviously outnumbered and outgunned during the ground campaign. But, as the 24th Division had found in its valley battles, thermal-imaging equipment cut through the dust storm to give gunners a long-range view of enemy vehicles and grant the fatal first-shot advantage. For four hours Holder's men  killed tanks and armored personnel carriers while attack helicopters knocked out artillery batteries. When the Battle of 73 Easting ended at 1715, the 2d Armored Cavalry had destroyed at least 29 tanks and 24 armored personnel carriers, as well as numerous other vehicles and bunkers, and taken 1,300 prisoners. That night, the 1st Infantry Division passed through Holder's cavalrymen and continued the attack east.

Map: Battle of 73 Easting



Farther to the south, the British 1st Armored Division attacked eastward through the 48th Infantry and 52d Armored Divisions and remnants of other Iraqi units trying to withdraw north. This attack marked the start of nearly two days of continuous combat for the British, some of the toughest fighting of the war. In the largest of this series of running battles, the British destroyed 40 tanks and captured an Iraqi division commander.

To the east, the Marine advance resumed on the twenty-sixth with the two Marine divisions diverging from their parallel course of the first two days. The 2d Marine Division and the Army's Tiger Brigade, 2d Armored Division, continued driving directly north, while the 1st Marine Division turned northeast toward Kuwait International Airport. The Army tankers headed toward Mutla Ridge, an extended upfold only about 25 feet high. The location next to the juncture of two multilane highways in the town of Al Jahrah, a suburb of Kuwait City, rather than the elevation, had caught General Boomer's attention weeks earlier. By occupying the ridge the brigade could seal a major crossroads and slam the door on Iraqi columns escaping north to Baghdad.

The brigade advanced at 1200 with the 3d Battalion, 67th Armor, in the lead. Approaching Mutla Ridge, the Americans found a minefield and waited for the plows to cut a safety lane. On the move again, the brigade began to find enemy bunker complexes and dug-in armored units. Enemy tanks, almost all of the T-55 type, were destroyed wherever encountered, and most bunkers yielded still more prisoners. During a three-hour running battle in the early evening, Tiger tankers cleared the Mutla police post and surrounding area. Moving up and over Mutla Ridge, the 67th's tanks found and destroyed numerous antiaircraft artillery positions. Perimeter consolidation at the end of the day's advance was complicated and delayed by the need to process an even larger number of prisoners of war than the day before: 1,600.

The Tiger Brigade now controlled the highest point for hundreds of miles in any direction. When the troops looked down on the highways from Mutla Ridge, they saw the largest target an armored brigade had probably ever seen. The previous night Air Force and Navy aircraft had begun destroying all vehicles spotted fleeing from Kuwait. Now the brigade added its firepower to the continuous air strikes. On the "Highway of Death" hundreds of burning and exploding vehicles of all types, including civilian automobiles, were visible. Hundreds more raced west out of Kuwait City unknowingly to join the deadly traffic jam. Here and there knots of drivers, Iraqi soldiers, and refugees fled into the desert because of the inferno of bombs, rockets, and tank fire.

Photo: An abandoned Iraqi Type 69 main battle tank sits on the side on the road into Kuwait City during the ground phase of Operation Desert Storm.



These lucky ones managed to escape and join the ranks of the growing army of prisoners.

At the close of allied operations on February 26th a total of twenty-four Iraqi divisions had been defeated. In all sectors the volume of prisoners continued to grow and clog roads and logistical areas. Iraqi soldiers surrendered faster than Central Command could count them, but military police units estimated that the total now exceeded 30,000.

The day ended with at least one other major logistical problem. The 24th Division had moved so fast in two days that fuel trucks had difficulty keeping up. After taking positions on the night of the twenty-sixth, the lead tanks had less than 100 gallons of fuel on board. Brigade commanders had the fuel, but lead elements were not sure where to rendezvous in the desert. The problem was solved by the kind of unplanned actions on which victories often turn. A small number of junior officers took the initiative to lead tank truck convoys across the desert at night with only a vague idea of where either brigade fuel supplies or needy assault units were located. By approaching whatever vehicles came into view and asking for unit identity, those leaders managed to refuel division vehicles by midnight.

Combat operations (Air and Sea)

Over 100,000 sorties have been flown. Coalition forces, including the United States Navy and Marine Corps, flew 3,000 sorties today. 1,400 sorties have been directed at the KTO, 700 on close air support.

Naval forces and Marine amphibious forces operated all along the Kuwaiti coast executing feints to make Iraqis think an amphibious landing was occurring.

Marine Light Attack Squadron-269 helos conducted a "wake-up call" on Faylaka Island defenders, while simultaneously, Marine Medium Helicopter Squadrons-263 and 365 and Marine Heavy Helicopter Squadron-461 simulated a heliborne landing on Bubiyan Island. 13th MEU pulled a feint attack south of Kuwait City.

Using Remotely Piloted Vehicles and Marine spotters ashore to zero-in on targets, including artillery, mortar and missile positions, ammunition storage facilities and a Silkworm missile site, battleships USS WISCONSIN and USS MISSOURI have fired more than 1.000 rounds of 16" ammunition in support of ground operations. USS MISSOURI alone fired more than one million pounds of ordnance. USS WISCONSIN's RPVs provided on-site reconnaissance support from 11 nautical miles out for advancing Marines.

Navy A-6Es of USS RANGER's VA-155 and Marine aircraft bombed Iraqi troops fleeing Kuwait City to Basra in "bumper to bumper" convoys along two multi-lane highways. Numerous tanks, armored vehicles, jeeps, cars, ambulances, and tractor-trailers were destroyed.

Photo: French special-forces commandos capture Iraqi soldiers somewhere in Iraqi desert

Yep, he was a captain commanding Eagle Troop of the 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment at the Battle of 73 Easting. During that battle, though significantly outnumbered and encountering the enemy by surprise as McMaster's lead tank crested a dip in the terrain, the nine tanks of his troop destroyed 28 Iraqi Republican Guard tanks without loss in 23 minutes.

YouTube (Eagle Troop and the Battle of 73 Easting)

DAY 44 of operation Desert Storm, Day 1 of cease fire, February 28th 1991

DOD announces temporary cease fire is holding with U.S. and coalition forces in defensive position, conducting combat air patrols and reconnaissance operations. However, there have been several incidents of Iraqi troops firing on U.S./coalition forces, attributed to isolated Iraqis cut off from communications unaware of ceasefire.

Photo: A British Challenger main battle tank, the squadron leader of D Sqn, Royal Scots Dragoon Guards, moves into a base camp along with other Allied armor during Operation Desert Storm.



Over 110,000 sorties have been flown by U.S. and coalition forces. DOD reports 42 Iragi divisions have been destroyed or rendered combatineffective.

An additional division of Iraqi troops has been able to avoid capture or destruction, and flee to safety.

USS NIMITZ (CV-68) and USS FORRESTAL (CV-59) Carrier Battle Groups will depart on 5th and March 7th 1991 for overseas deployment. The battle groups will provide operational and maintenance flexibility for carrier battle groups in support of OPERATION DESERT STORM and ensure maximum readiness and deployment stability of naval forces in that area.

Iraq agrees to meeting to work out cease-fire issues.

DAY 46 of operation Desert Storm, Day 3 of cease fire, March 2nd 1991

By 11-1 vote, U.N. Security Council approves Resolution 686, outlining conditions Iraq must meet prior to a formal cease-fire. Conditions include release of all POWs, release of all Kuwaiti hostages, provide locations of all mines in Kuwait, and compliance with all previous U.N. resolutions.

Allied officials and refugees report that Basra, Iraq's second largest city, had been engulfed in chaos by the arrival of troops and vehicles driven from Kuwait in the last days of the war. Civil government had completely broken down, and foes of Saddam Hussein were taking advantage of the anarchic conditions to forment a popular revolt.

DOD announces cease-fire remains in effect. U.S./coalition forces remain on alert in defensive positions. Navy, Marine and other aircraft are flying reconnaissance, resupply and combat air patrol missions.

Naval forces are conducting continuing maritime interception and minesweeping operations. USS WISCONSIN's RPV gathered intelligence on Faylaka Island's defenses prior to evacuation of Iraqi EPWs.

Photo: Six ships of Battle Force Zulu (Task Force 154) steam in formation after the cease-fire that ended Operation Desert Storm. At left, from top, are the guided missile cruiser USS Leyte Gulf (CG-55), the aircraft carriers USS Midway (CV-41) and USS Ranger (CV-61) and the guided missile cruiser USS Normandy (CG-60). At right are the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-71), top, and the aircraft carrier USS America (CV-66) .



Marine LAV strikes a land mine, killing one Marine, wounding three others. Mine-clearing operations continue.

Over a thousand additional enemy prisoners of war surrender at Talil Airfield. To-date, over 50,000 EPWs in custody.

Photo: a close-up view of the markings on the side of a Carrier Airborne Early Warning Squadron 126 (VAW-126) E-2C Hawkeye aircraft parked on the flight deck of the aircraft carrier USS John F. Kennedy (CV-67). The lightning bolts indicate the number of missions flown by the aircraft's crew during Operation Desert Storm