THE BATTLE OF 73 EASTING

PART 1

The Battle of 73 Easting was a decisive tank battle fought on 26 February 1991 during the Persian Gulf War between American-British armoured forces and those of the Iraqi Republican Guard. The battle took place several hours after the Battle of Al Busayyah. It was named for a UTM north-south coordinate line (an "Easting", measured in kilometres and readable on GPS receivers) in the featureless desert that was used as a phase line to measure progress of the offensive. The battle was described by the Military Channel as "the last great tank battle of the 20th century.

The Battle of 73 Easting refers narrowly to the violent armoured combat action that took place in the final hours of 2nd Armoured Cavalry Regiment s covering force operation in the zone of Second Squadron and in the northern third of the Third Squadron zone.

The main U.S. unit in the battle was the 2nd Armoured Cavalry Regiment (2nd ACR), a 4,500- man reconnaissance and security element assigned to VII Corps. It consisted of three ground squadrons (1st, 2nd and 3rd), an aviation (attack helicopter) squadron (4th), and a support squadron. Each ground squadron was made up of three cavalry troops, a tank company, a selfpropelled howitzer battery, and a headquarters troop. Each troop comprised 120 soldiers, 12–13 M3 Bradley fighting vehicles and nine M1A1 Abrams main battle tanks. Task Force 1-41 Infantry breached the berm on the borders between Saudi Arabia and Iraq which was the initial Iraqi defensive positions and performed reconnaissance and counter reconnaissance missions prior to the 2nd ACR's actions. This generally includes destroying or repelling the Iraqis' reconnaissance elements and denying their commander any observation of friendly forces. The corps' main body consisted of the American 2nd Armoured Division (Forward), 1st Armoured Division (1st AD), 3rd Armoured Division (3rd AD), 1st Infantry Division (1st ID), and the British 1st Armoured Division.

M1A1 Abrams with stowage on board.

Iraqi T-72 destroyed by 120mm Sabot.

The job of the 2nd ACR was to cross the border and advance east as a forward scouting element, led by cavalry scouts in lightly armoured M3A1 Bradleys with highly advanced thermals to detect enemy positions. Following closely behind were M1A1 Abrams tanks covering them from the rear, ready to move forward and engage the enemy. Originally advancing ahead of the 3rd Armoured Division until late on 25 February, they shifted to the east and ahead of the advancing 1st Infantry Division as it moved north from its initial objectives. The regiment's mission was to strip away enemy security forces, clear the way of significant defenses and locate the Republican Guard's defensive positions so they could be engaged by the full weight of the armoured forces and artillery of the 1st Infantry Division

On the night of 23/24 February, in accordance with General Norman Schwarzkopf's plan for the ground assault called "Operation Desert Sabre", VII Corps raced east from Saudi Arabia into Iraq in a wide, sweeping manoeuvre later described by Schwarzkopf as a “Hail Mary”. The Corps had two goals: to cut off Iraqi retreat from Kuwait, and to destroy five elite Republican Guard divisions near the Iraq–Kuwait border that might attack the Arab and Marine units moving into Kuwait to the south. Initial Iraqi resistance was light and scattered after the breach, and the 2nd ACR fought only minor engagements until 25 February.

The primary battle was conducted by 2nd ACR's three squadrons of about 4,000 soldiers, along with the 1st Infantry Division's two leading brigades (2nd Armoured Division (FWD), which attacked and destroyed the Iraqi 18th Mechanized Brigade and 37th Armoured Brigade of the Tawakalna Division, each consisting of between 2,500 and 3,000 personnel.