73 Easting, 1991

The battle, stage by stage

1. 26 February 1991, about 13:00–15:20

   East into the storm

   On the third day of the ground war the 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment, leading VII Corps, turns east toward the Iraqi Republican Guard. Morning fog gives way to a shamal: blowing sand cuts visibility at times to a few hundred metres and grounds most air support. The regiment reaches its first limit, the 60 Easting, around 11:00, and by one account 3rd Squadron has already fought elements of the 12th Armored Division's 50th Brigade that morning. In 2nd Squadron, Ghost Troop leads on the north and Eagle Troop on the south, with Fox Troop and Hawk Company (tanks) behind; Iron and Killer Troops of 3rd Squadron are to their south. Corps moves the limit of advance to the 70 Easting. Ahead, unseen, the Tawakalna Division's 18th Brigade is dug in between about the 69 and 75 Eastings.

2. 15:25–16:10

   Contact at the 67 Easting

   Ghost Troop's scouts knock out Iraqi security outposts in the north (about 15:00, by one account three tanks). Captain H. R. McMaster's Eagle Troop — two scout platoons of Bradleys and two platoons of M1A1 tanks, nine tanks in a wedge — is ordered forward to the 67 Easting. It is fired on from a cluster of buildings, a training-area cantonment at grid PU 68 01 that the troop's 1:100,000 maps did not show. Lt. Tim Gauthier's Bradley fires a TOW into the buildings to mark them and all nine tanks fire high-explosive into them; at about 16:07 a Bradley of 1st Platoon drives onto an Iraqi early-warning bunker and its crew surrenders. Iron Troop halts near the 67 Easting.

3. About 16:18–16:25

   Over the rise

   Just east of the cantonment the ground rises almost imperceptibly. The Iraqi commander has built a reverse-slope defence behind it — by McMaster's account about 40 tanks and 16 BMPs dug in, with minefields, bunkers and hundreds of infantry. As Eagle's tanks top the rise, the gunner in McMaster's tank (named Koch in his account) reports eight T-72s in prepared positions at close range. Firing first, the Americans' thermal sights cutting through the sand, the troop sets most of them burning within about a minute, then drives into the position. It is the start of what McMaster later called a 23-minute fight.

4. About 16:30–17:00

   Past the limit of advance

   The troop's executive officer reports that they are at the 70 Easting, the limit of advance. McMaster replies that they cannot stop: they are in contact. Sweeping on a north-easterly heading through the main position and a minefield, Eagle reaches the reserve on a ridge about 3 km farther east and destroys it as its tanks begin to move, halting near the 73–74 Easting. By various counts the troop destroys some 28 to 50 tanks, 16 to 25 personnel carriers and 30 to 40 trucks, with no American losses. To the north Ghost Troop reaches the 73 Easting at about 16:30 and takes position facing the Iraqi northern position, across what the troop described as a small wadi. To the south Iron Troop (3rd Squadron) attacks to the 70 Easting, destroying some 16 tanks; a Bradley hit by a TOW from Killer Troop loses three wounded.

5. About 17:40–21:00

   Ghost Troop's night fight

   As darkness falls, Iraqi armour and infantry — remnants of the Tawakalna and, by some accounts, 12th Armored Division units — counterattack Ghost Troop's line at the 73 Easting in wave after wave, reportedly coming along the low ground in front of it. Ghost calls in some 720 rounds of howitzer and rocket (MLRS) fire. A Bradley whose TOW launcher has failed and whose 25 mm cannon has jammed is hit in the turret by a round from an Iraqi BMP; its gunner, Sgt. Nels A. Moller, is killed instantly — the regiment's only death in the battle. Accounts place this between about 17:40 and later in the evening. By 21:00 Ghost Troop is nearly out of TOW missiles and cannon ammunition.

6. About 21:00–22:30

   Hawk Company relieves Ghost

   Hawk Company, 2nd Squadron's tank company under Capt. Bruce Tyler, moves up and takes over Ghost Troop's position on the 73 Easting, and Ghost pulls back to rearm. Sporadic Iraqi attacks continue, but by about 22:30 the fighting along the 73–74 Easting is dying out; the 18th Brigade's position has been destroyed. Behind the regiment, the 1st Infantry Division ("Big Red One") closes up to pass through and continue the attack.

7. 26 February, night — 27 February, about 06:00

   Passage of lines

   On Colonel Don Holder's recommendation, the 1st Infantry Division passes through the regiment's southern sector, 3rd Squadron's, avoiding the confused ground in the north. Accounts differ on the times: McMaster has it moving through just after 22:00, other accounts have the lanes open along the 70 Easting from about 02:00, with the division's combat units through by about 06:00 on 27 February. Its brigades drive east toward Objective Norfolk while the 1st Squadron, 4th Cavalry takes over the northern flank, and the 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment goes into corps reserve. Eagle Troop's scouts gather hundreds of prisoners — among them, by McMaster's account, the brigade commander, who said he had not known he was under attack until a soldier shouted 'tanks!' into his bunker.