Norfolk, 1991

The battle, stage by stage

1. 26 February 1991, evening

   Wheeling north-east

   Two days after breaching the Iraqi frontier defences, the 1st Infantry Division (Mechanized) - the 'Big Red One', Maj. Gen. Thomas Rhame - races north-east across the desert behind the 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment, with its own 1st and 2nd Brigades and the 3rd Brigade of the 2nd Armored Division (Forward) under its command. The cavalry has spent the afternoon fighting the Republican Guard Tawakalna Division and the 12th Armored Division along the 73 Easting, and has halted on its limit of advance. VII Corps orders the division to pass through the regiment that night and attack east. To the north the 3rd Armored Division is fighting toward Objective Dorset; to the south the British 1st Armoured Division is clearing its own objectives. Rain, blowing sand and smoke cut visibility.

2. 26 February, 2200 - 27 February, 0200

   Passage of lines in the dark

   Col. Leonard D. Holder of the 2nd ACR reportedly recommended that the division pass through the southern part of his line, away from the confused fighting in the north. From about 2200 (the 3rd Brigade's memo gives 2230) the brigades thread forward through the cavalry squadrons in total darkness - 1st Brigade (Col. Lon Maggart) through the centre, the 3rd Brigade (Col. David Weisman) through the 1st Squadron in the south, the 2nd Brigade (Col. Anthony Moreno) following. Just after midnight, a 2nd ACR tank mistook a stationary Bradley of 1-34 Armor (HQ-232) for an Iraqi vehicle and fired one round from about 1,500 metres; two observers aboard were seriously wounded. The passage was completed by about 0600.

3. 27 February, about 0030

   Across the 75 Easting

   The two attacking brigades shake out on line along the 75 Easting, about two kilometres beyond the cavalry, with the 92 east-west grid line as their boundary - there was no terrain feature to divide the sectors. 1st Brigade attacks the northern half of Objective Norfolk, held by a Tawakalna brigade; 3rd Brigade attacks the southern half, held by the 37th Brigade of the 12th Armored Division, with three battalion task forces abreast. Objective Norfolk covered a road junction on the IPSA pipeline road and a large Iraqi supply site. Artillery and Apaches fire ahead of the brigades. (The order of the task forces within each brigade shown here is inferred from the investigation records.)

4. 27 February, 0200 - 0430

   'Fright Night'

   The fight becomes a confused, 360-degree melee in rain and darkness, Iraqi infantry with RPGs fighting from bunkers among the U.S. vehicles. The 3rd Brigade's three battalions cannot keep a straight line, and through thermal sights friend and foe look alike. Around 0200 Bradleys of B Company, TF 1-41, are hit; later, Bradleys D-21 and D-26 of D Company, about a kilometre north of the 92 line and out of sector, are fired on by 1-34 Armor tanks, and five M1A1s of 3-66 Armor are hit. An Army damage assessment found that nine of the ten U.S. vehicles hit in 3rd Brigade's fight had been struck by 120mm depleted-uranium rounds from American tanks; the brigade's own investigation first credited most losses to enemy fire. Six of the brigade's soldiers were killed that night.

5. 27 February, dawn

   Norfolk taken

   The 1st ID's report states that both Iraqi brigades were destroyed by 0430; by first light the division holds Objective Norfolk, its supply site and the pipeline road. Tanks, personnel carriers and guns lie wrecked across the objective, and prisoners are taken in large numbers. With the passage complete, the 2nd ACR goes into VII Corps reserve. To the north the 3rd Armored Division is still fighting through the Tawakalna's remaining brigades toward Objective Dorset, which it clears later on the 27th. The 1st Infantry Division refuels at Phase Line Milford.

6. 27 February, 1000 - 28 February, 0800

   Into Kuwait and the cease-fire

   By 1000 the division is attacking again, now in exploitation, and drives east across the Wadi al-Batin - the Iraq-Kuwait border - into northern Kuwait, taking prisoners all along the way. At 1900 VII Corps orders it to halt short of Objective Denver, but the 1st Squadron, 4th Cavalry has already cut the Basra-Kuwait City highway in the centre of the objective, further east than this map shows. The attack to Denver resumes at 0530 on 28 February; the cease-fire takes effect at 0800. Positions inside Kuwait here are schematic. On 3 March the cease-fire talks were held at Safwan airfield, which the division's cavalry had secured.