frankl@ide.com (Adam Frankl) (04/06/91)
From: frankl@ide.com (Adam Frankl) The following letter was sent by CPT Roland DeMarcellus from Iraq. CPT DeMarcellus was mobilized from the New Jersey National Guard on December 26 and arrived in Saudi one month later. He is attached to the 3rd Armored Division. 11 March 91 Dear All, I'm still here in the same spot in Iraq, pretty much waiting for the conclusion of the peace talks I think. We've been at the same site here on the Iraqi side of the north-western Iraqi-Kuwait border for 12 days. At first it was an abandoned battlefield, totally deviod of life -- or even death -- just destroyed vehicles and armor. Now that we've been here a while we seem to be attracting other life. Dogs and puppies have appeared from somewhere (and been quickly adopted -- counter to all policy), camels in herds of a dozen or more have wandered by to be fed by the troops, little birds and even a pigeon now live here. Desert kangaroo rats and snakes have also just started to appear. The flies also seem to have found us. As to humans, Kuwaiti civilians have happened on some of our positions (in Iraq - curiously - they said they were buying camels from beduins). Yesterday they brought in 3 Iraqi POWs who of course tell of being forced into the army and of the propaganda that US soldiers would kill prisoners. They seemed (through an interpreter) genuinely impressed with American soldiers' compassion. Of course, they're fed like kings relative to the Iraqi army, but they were particularly struck when a monster-sized MP picked up an injured POW like a baby and carried him to a vehicle. They said that they don't even do that for each other. Things are still going well. I'm pretty busy here with the ops cell. Always some mini-crisis. Morale is still good out here. People aren't overly impatient on going home. They concede that they got here last and that otherhe EEC. troops deserve to go home before them... As you may know, VII Corps came north thru the neutral zone thru southern Iraq to the Euphrates River to cut off the escape of the Republican Guards (RG). (The XVIII Corps, 24 ID + 1st CAV, swung even wider.) 3rd AD was supposed to be in reserve of VII Corps as it swept around behind the RG. However, with the success of the contact, particularly in Southern Kuwait, and the lack of Iraqi defense at the neutral zone border, Powell decided (probably w/ Schwartzkopf) to change the angle + speed of the VII Corps attack. We swung almost due east and drove straight through. After the turn, a flank right actually, 3rd AD was no longer the reserve division. Now we had 1st AD, who we had been trailing, on our left flank and the British on our right, with 2nd ACR out front + to the right. The new course put 3rd on a course to hit directly on the bulk of the Republican Guards exactly to the east (their defenses were aimed to the southwest.) The RGs consisted in our sector of the Tawakalra Div reinforced by parts of the Medina + Hammurabi RG Divisions and 2 regular armored divisions, the 17th and 52nd. I'm sure there's a lot of speculation about what happened to the Republican Guards. From the experience in the 3rd AD sector they meant to fight but were totally ineffective for 2 primary reasons: They were caught by surprise and they were technologically outgunned. Apparently, they didn't expect VII Corps to hit them so fast, although they knew it was on the way. They thought the Corps to be 50-60 km and several hours away when it was actually right on them. This was compounded by a blinding sandstorm at the time of contact, followed by night, then a thunderstorm. Our tanks used thermal imaging which the Iraqis didn't have. Also the Iraqis stayed in foxholes adjacent to their tanks + APCs due to the fear of air attack. Their first warning that something was up was when their tanks blew up. They thought it was an air attack and looked for the planes. They didn't realize that it was a ground attack until they saw the M-1 tanks passing the flames out [of] their burning tanks on their way to the next engagement. At that point they had no vehicles left and promptly surrendered to the engineers who we used to police up POWs. The above account is obviously from those POWs. The Americans were on their part mystified to see little reaction from the dug-in tanks and then confused people on foot running around in front of them. Therefor most of the destroyed tanks were empty. Definitely, the best way to do it. Technology also played a large role. The M-1s fired their SABOT rounds through the sand berms around the T-72s and into the tanks, which blew up completely, with turrets flying 50 feet. The T-55s and T-62s had less spectatacular explosions. On the opposite side, the T-72 SABOTs apparently couldn't penetrate the M-1 armor. One round went about 5 inches in and stopped. The greatest technological edge might have been the longer range of our weapons. M1 gunners usually had first round kills, and out to 2800m. TOW gunners were killing out to 3800m. Apache with Hell-fire to 4000m. Therefor they could kill before enetering the kill zone of Iraqi systems ~2000m. They saw a lot of Iraqi SAGGER missles fall short, and most Iraqi tanks that fired missed on the first shot and never got the chance for a second shot. So when the M-1s and Bradleys rolled through the kill-zone they mainly faced mortar and RPG fire that only harassed them. Some of the engagements were over in 60 seconds. I think only one or two of our Bradleys were hit and killed, and no tanks. The other biggee of course was the fact that we could see (with thermal sights) and they couldn't. Then in fine armor tradition our tanks never stopped rolling. We were only just barely able to keep them refueled. Anyway, within 24 hours the 3rd AD had utterly destroyed the RG divisions and come out the other side where it linked up with 1st ID. As it was happening, soldiers in the 3rd were saying "They're going to be writing about this one." MG Funk said that "it was too easy a victory for people to realize what a great one it was." Another tech advantage was our intel. Through air + satellite + intercepts our guys were never surprised by an engagement. They just systematically dismantled the RGs. The "fog or war" was on one side only. In some cases the Iraqis tried charging the APCs on foot (after their own vehicles were lost). After many were cut down the rest gave up. Once an entire US Battalion (60 tanks) came up on line over a ridge to the shock of the Iraqis on the other side. A tanker's dream. (Almost no tanks or Bradleys broke down.) Well, that's the assessment from here in the 3rd AD of what happened to the "elite" republican guards. -- replies may be sent via frankl@ide.com (LT Adam Frankl, USA)