Battle of Phase Line Bullet

Battle of Phase Line Bullet
Part of the Persian Gulf War

Iraqi T-72 Asad Babil tank abandoned to advancing 3AD forces
Date26 February 1991
Location
Southern Iraq
Result Iraqi victory
Belligerents
 United States Iraq
Commanders and leaders
Norman Schwarzkopf
Frederick M. Franks, Jr.
Paul E. Funk		 Saddam Hussein
Iyad Futayyih
Strength
3rd Armored Division
2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment
7th Cavalry Regiment		 Tawakalna Republican Guard Division
Casualties and losses
2 killed
12 wounded
4 IFVs destroyed
10 IFVs damaged		 6 tanks lost
18 IFVs and APCs lost
Iraqi losses include armored vehicles attacked by US air assets and artillery the night after the ground action.

The Battle of Phase Line Bullet was one of a series of engagements that led to the destruction of the Tawakalna Iraqi Republican Guard Division, on 26 February 1991, by a simultaneous attack of the 1st and 3rd armored divisions, the 1st Infantry Division, and the 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment (2ACR) during the Persian Gulf War.

The 3rd Armored Division advanced to the west through a corridor between the 1st Armored Division in the north and the 2ACR in the south. The Bradley squadron that spearheaded the assault was beaten back by a screen of Iraqi entrenched infantry, APCs, and Iraqi T-72 tanks. The incident also involved American friendly fire casualties caused by M1 Abrams tanks operating in the rearguard. The action forced to halt the offensive of the 3rd Armored Division until dawn. The Iraqi troops were eventually dislodged from their positions by close air support and artillery fire during the early hours of 27 February.

Background

The initial skirmishes between American and Iraqi Republican Guard units took place earlier that day around the grid reference line 73 Easting, some 30 miles west of Wadi al Batin, where the 2ACR managed to destroy two Iraqi armored brigades. The skirmishes in this sector were still going on when the 3rd Armored Division (3AD) positioned north, made the first contact with a brigade of the Tawakalna Armored Division around 03:30 pm. The scouts of the division made contact with the Iraqi army just after they crossed the grid reference line Phase Line Bullet.[1]

Weather conditions were extremely poor, hampering identification of targets and preventing the use of helicopters in reconnaissance missions.[1]

Battle

Flank screen maneuver

As the usual practice for armored reconnaissance, a troop of M3 Bradleys (Alpha Troop), belonging to the 4th Squadron of the 7th Cavalry Regiment, along with an attached platoon of Armored Personnel Carriers, belonging to 2nd Platoon Charlie Company, of the 23rd Combat Engineer Battalion, was scouting ahead of the main tank force. The flank screen maneuver occurred along the southern boundaries between the 2ACR and the 3AD operational areas. Task Forces 4-34 and 4-32 were advancing from the rear. The general movement of the US forces followed an eastward direction. The fumes from hundreds of oil wells set on fire by the Iraqis, combined with an intense shamal, forced the US vehicles to use thermal sights.[1]

Sudden contact and retreat

At 03:00pm, the reconnaissance troop of 14 Bradleys received information from the GHQ of the 3rd Armored Division that no enemy unit remained between them and the Kuwaiti border. Suddenly, they found a screen line of Iraqi APCs straight ahead, barely 600 metres (660 yd) to the east.[2] The poor weather and burning oil fumes reduced the visibility conditions.[3]

Tanks from 3rd Armored Division Brigade along the Line of Departure

A burst of small arms and heavy machine gunfire, RPG-7s and Sagger anti-tank missiles erupted. Initially, the American commander thought they were engaging dismounted infantry supported by BMP-1s, he later realized that they were also receiving main-gun tank rounds.[2][4] The US vehicles retaliated by firing TOW missiles, 25 mm cannon and machine guns. The contact lasted about two hours until the Bradleys, battered by the enemy and friendly fire and running out of ammunition, were forced to withdraw to the west.[5]

American M1 Abrams tanks from TF 4-34, positioned in the rear echelon, fired in support of the IFVs, destroying at least one T-72 and several Iraqi APCs. They also hit three Bradleys (A-24, A-31 and A-22), causing two American deaths.[3] The 2ACR also became entangled in the fighting from the rear right.[6]

Another Bradley (A-36) was first disabled by a 12.7 mm round from an NSVT heavy machine gun which penetrated the transmission[7][8] and later shattered by a large caliber, shaped charge impact in the turret's front. Bradley A-35 also took some damage from a mix of ricocheting 12.7 mm bursts and indirect fire, but was able to drive out,[9] while A-33 suffered two injured and its radio station was hit by 12.7 mm fire. During the rescue of casualties from A-24, Bradley A-26, commanded by Sergeant Major Ronald Sneed, was near-missed by two T-72 main rounds, which spattered the vehicle with splinters.[10][2] While providing cover for A-21 who was attempting to assess the situation with A-36, Bradley A-22, commanded by Staff Sergeant Meyers, was struck in the turret by an M-1 tank from TF 4-34, killing one of the crew.[11] The gunner of A-24 was also killed by tank fire from friendly US forces.[6]

The disabled A-22, A-36 and A-24 were left abandoned on the battleground, while A-31, although heavily damaged by friendly tank fire, was able to pull back.[5] All the surviving Bradleys were raked by machine gun fire and shell splinters, but they remained operational.[12]

Aftermath

American forces could not find a breach in the northern Iraqi lines until the first hours of February 27. The commander of the 3rd Armored Division, General Paul Funk, ordered to stop the assault until daylight.[13][5] Funk requested air support from 24 Apache helicopters, A-10 aircraft and artillery to deal with the Iraqi positions at night.[14] Later in the morning, 7th Cav scouts found the hulls of 18 APCs and IFVs, mostly BMP-1s, and six T-72s disabled or abandoned by their crews. The commander of Alpha troop, Captain Gerald Davie, acknowledged that his force was "ten times too close to the enemy than we would choose to be."[13]

References

  1. ^ a b c Atkinson (1993), p. 430
  2. ^ a b c Atkinson (1993), p. 431
  3. ^ a b See this official report (scan)
  4. ^ See this official sketch of the Iraqi screen line
  5. ^ a b c Atkinson (1993), p. 433
  6. ^ a b Atkinson (1993), p. 432
  7. ^ From Wunderlich article:
    • "SGT Ronald Jones (A-36 commander) picked up the narrative; "LT 'V' came over the net and said we had to move south about 800 meters. As we were shifting, my loader was reloading a TOW missile. When we took up position, we engaged another BMP and a tank. We were getting low on ammo, so I told my driver to pivot so we could reload. I realized we were still up front so we started backing up. It sounded like we lost a track, so I told him to stop. As soon as we stopped, we took a round in the transmission. Later, we found out it was from a 12.7-mm machine gun."
  8. ^ Bin, Hill and Jones, page 195, according to a more detailed account by Sgt Jones:
    • "The weather was bad, and I couldn't see anything without the thermal sights. Just as I started to drop back into the hatch, I saw some sparks and dirt fly off the front of my vehicle-I knew we were being shot at. I told the driver to back up. He put it in gear, but all the transmission did was to whine."
  9. ^ Rostker (1998), p. 307
  10. ^ "The round landed 10 meters short, spraying dirt and shrapnel against Sneed's Bradley and blowing him to the ground.." US Defense Department: Conduct of the Persian Gulf War: An Interim report to Congress (1991), Prologue, P-2.
  11. ^ Atkinson (1993), pp. 431-432
  12. ^ Atkinson (1993), pp. 428-433
  13. ^ a b Lowry (2003), page 163
  14. ^ Scales (1997), pp. 275-76

Bibliography

  • Atkinson, Rick (1993) Crusade, The untold story of the Persian Gulf War. Houghton Mifflin Company. ISBN 0-395-71083-9
  • Rostker, Bernard (1998) Environmental Exposure Report:Depleted Uranium in the Gulf. DoD Publication.
  • Wunderlich, Sgt. Tony (1991) Lucky Scouts Dodge "Big Bullets" That Ripped Their Bradley Armor magazine, May–June, 1991, pp. 22-23.
  • Bin, Albert, Hill, Richard, Jones, Archer (1998) Desert Storm: A Forgotten War. Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 0-275-96320-9
  • Lowry, Richard S. (2003) The Gulf War Chronicles: A Military History of the First War with Iraq. iUniverse, inc. ISBN 0-595-29669-6
  • Scales, Robert H. (1997). Certain Victory: The U.S. Army in the Gulf War. Potomac Books, Inc. ISBN 978-1-57488-136-3.

29°53′34″N 46°52′23″E / 29.89278°N 46.87306°E / 29.89278; 46.87306

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