Kuwait Airport and the Burqan Field, 1991

The battle, stage by stage

1. 24 February 1991, before dawn

   In among the minefields

   The 1st Marine Division (Major General J. M. Myatt) is to break the Iraqi 'Saddam Line' between the Umm Gudair and Al Wafrah oil fields and drive north for Al Jaber airfield and then Kuwait International Airport. Two infantry task forces have already slipped inside the obstacle belts on foot: Task Force Grizzly (4th Marines headquarters with 2/7 and 3/7, Col James Fulks) on the left and Task Force Taro (3d Marines, Col John Admire) on the right. The night before G-Day, engineers and Marines of 3/7 probed a footpath through the second belt with a bayonet, guided in part by surrendering Iraqis carrying chemical lights. Behind them the mechanized Task Force Ripper (7th Marines, Col Carlton Fulford) crosses Phase Line Black at 0125 and waits in its attack position; Task Force Papa Bear (1st Marines, Col Richard Hodory) is on the move from Saudi Arabia.

2. 24 February, 0600–1100

   The first belt

   In light drizzle and rain, Ripper goes in first. Red star clusters mark the start of breaching at 0617: tanks with mine plows fire line charges, which often fail to detonate remotely, so engineers climb out to prime them by hand. 1/5 opens the two left lanes and 1/7 the two right; the belt is barely defended, and Iraqi soldiers start surrendering to the tanks at 0755. To the east Papa Bear's 3/9 begins its breach at 0905 and by 1040 holds a breachhead 2,000 by 3,000 metres. Division engineers report four lanes through the first minefield by 0715 and four more through the second by 1230.

3. 24 February, afternoon and evening

   Al Jaber and the second belt

   After a 22-minute, 550-round barrage, Ripper attacks the second belt at 1125 and swings toward Al Jaber airfield; at 1400 1/7 (LtCol James Mattis) assaults the Emir's Farm, a walled oasis east of the airfield, taking about 200 prisoners. Papa Bear's second breach is harder: the 22d Brigade of the Iraqi 5th Mechanized Division resists, mortar fire wounds ten Marines clearing bunkers, and a roller tank is knocked out on a mine before lane 2 opens at 1600. Task Force Shepherd (1st LAI Battalion) races ahead to screen the division's front along the western edge of the burning Burqan oil field, where visibility at 1500 is down to 50–100 metres. Thousands of Iraqis surrender; the division's forward command post moves up to the edge of the Emir's Farm.

4. 25 February, 0515–noon

   Out of the flames

   Prisoners had warned of a counterattack 'out of the flames'. In fog and oil smoke, Iraqi armored and mechanized brigades (the records variously name the 5th Mechanized Division and other brigades) come out of the Burqan field. About 0800 a T-55 and Type 63 carriers loom out of the fog fifty metres from Papa Bear's command post; headquarters Marines fight them off with machine guns and rockets. Five artillery battalions fire on the field and 1st Tank Battalion, with Cobra gunships, breaks up the attack. Around the division forward CP, an Iraqi mechanized force attacks out of the Emir's Farm; Captain Eddie Ray's Company B of Task Force Shepherd, with Cobras overhead, sweeps through the oasis — he later received the Navy Cross. (On the division's left, the 2d Marine Division's B Company, 4th Tank Battalion fought its own dawn 'Reveille' tank engagement the same morning.)

5. 25 February, afternoon and night

   Consolidating at the burning field

   Task Force Grizzly, moved up by truck, clears Al Jaber airfield, I MEF Objective A. Task Force X-Ray (1/3) lands by helicopter at 1500 south of the second belt and takes the right-flank guard. Shepherd's companies fight scattered Iraqi armor along the field's western edge, capturing a brigade commander and calling A-6 strikes on a police post, and set a new screen on the '20' grid line. By 0030 on the 26th Papa Bear has moved north; 1/1 spends the night inside the Burqan field among the burning wells. Papa Bear reported elements of at least three Iraqi brigades in the counterattacks of 25 February.

6. 26 February, 0800–1500

   North through the smoke

   The division drives north for Kuwait International Airport, I MEF Objective C. Oil smoke turns day to dusk; GPS and position-reporting systems falter and units steer by compass. Ripper meets resistance after 0900, destroys two T-55s at 1050 and halts on its limit of advance, the '30' grid line, at 1155. Papa Bear, now division reserve, moves in column up the west side of the Burqan field, reaches Phase Line Red at 1100 and stops beside Ripper behind Phase Line Dianne at 1300. The route is littered with abandoned tanks, guns and vehicles, and Iraqis surrender all along it. Task Force Taro, short of trucks, sets off into the field at 1600 in a mix of trucks, pickups and Humvees.

7. 26 February, 1500–2300

   Isolating the airport

   Ripper attacks north again at 1500 against Iraqi armor reported as the 3d Armored Division; at 1609 1/7 destroys eight BTRs and, heavily engaged on its right, asks for help. Papa Bear crosses Phase Line Dianne: 3/9 pushes through the bunkered agricultural area south-west of the airfield at about 1800, 1/1 fights tanks and APCs around a radio station, and 1st Tanks blocks the divided highway to the south-east. Lance Corporal James Waldron of 7th Engineer Support Battalion is killed in a skirmish at the airport that evening. At 2300 3/9 breaks through the airport perimeter fence; Ripper holds Phase Line Green to the north-west, and at 2230 Task Force Shepherd is given the airport itself.

8. 27 February 1991

   The airport secured

   To avoid friendly fire in the dark and smoke, 3/9 pulls back outside the fence by 0430. Shepherd's LAVs come south along the highway and enter the airport from the south, taking RPG and tracer fire; Company A raises the U.S. and Marine Corps colors and at 0657 Company C strikes the Iraqi flag and raises Kuwait's. Task Force Taro arrives at 0745 and clears the terminal buildings, finding Iraqis hiding inside; the division's forward headquarters moves to the airport about 0900. Organized resistance in Papa Bear's zone has ended by 0800. In three days Papa Bear alone reported 102 tanks, 41 APCs and 62 other vehicles destroyed and more than 1,600 prisoners, for one Marine killed and fourteen wounded. Kuwait City was liberated the same day.