Battle of Phase Line Bullet

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Battle of Phase Line Bullet
Part of the Gulf War

Iraqi T-72 abandoned to advancing 3AD forces.
Date February 26, 1991
Location Iraq
Result Iraqi tactical success.
Combatants
US Army Iraqi Republican Guard
Commanders
Paul E. Funk Ayad Futayih Al-Rawi
Casualties
2 KIAs,
12 WIAs,
4 Bradleys destroyed,
10 Bradleys damaged		 Unknown number of KIAs and WIAs,
6 T-72 tanks destroyed or abandoned,
17 APCs destroyed
Gulf War
Kuwait - Khafji - 73 Easting – Al Busayyah – Phase Line Bullet – Medina Ridge – Wadi Al-Batin – Norfolk

The Battle of Phase Line Bullet was one of the clashes which led to the destruction of the Tawakalna Republican Guard Division, on February 26, 1991, by a simultaneous attack of Two US Armored Divisions (1st and 3rd), an Infantry Division (the 1st) and the 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment. The battle was one of the rare examples of an US armored force repulsed by a screen of Iraqi entrenched infantry, APCs and T-72s tanks during Desert Storm.

Contents

[edit] Background

The initial skirmishes between American and Iraqi Republican Guards units took place earlier that day around pre-established line 73 Easting, some 30 miles west of Wadi al Batin, where the 2 ACR managed to destroy two Iraqi Armored Brigades. The skirmishes in this sector were still going on when the 3rd Armored Division, positioned north, made the first contact with a brigade of the Tawakalna Armored Division around 3:30 PM. The weather conditions were extremely poor, compromising visibility and identification of targets.

[edit] Flank screen maneuver

As the usual practice for armored reconnaissance, a platoon of M2s Bradleys (Alpha Platoon), belonging to the 4th squadron of the 7th Cavalry Regiment, was scouting ahead of the main tank force. The flank screen maneuver took place along the southern boundaries between the 2 ACR and 3rd Armored Division 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 of hundreds of oil wells set on fire by the Iraqis, combined with an intense shamal, forced the US vehicles to use thermal sights.

[edit] Surprising Contact

At 3:00 PM, the 14 Bradleys strong platoon 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 300 mts. to the East. The poor weather, along with burning oil fumes, reduced the visibility conditions to almost zero. The enemy screen line was part of the 9th Armored Brigade of Tawakalna Division. A burst of small-arms and heavy machine gunfire, RPGs and Sagger missiles erupted. Initially, the American commander though they were engaging dismounted infantry supported by BMPs, but later he realized that they were also receiving main-gun tank rounds.[1] The US vehicles retaliated by firing TOW missiles, 25 mm cannon and machine gun fire. The contact lasted for about two hours, until the Bradleys, battered by enemy and friendly fire and running out of ammunition, were forced to withdraw. US Abrams tanks from TF 4-34, positioned in the rear echelon, fired in support of the IFVs, killing at least one T-72 and several Iraqi APCs. They also hit three Bradleys (A-22, A-31 and A-24), with two American KIAs.[2] Another Bradley (A-36) was first disabled by a 12.7 mm round from an NSVT heavy machinegun which penetrated the transmission[3] and later shattered by a large caliber shaped charge impact in the turret's front.[4] All the remainder Bradleys were raked by machine gun fire and shrapnel, but they were still marginally operational.[5]

[edit] Aftermath

The US armored forces were unable to find a breach in the northern Iraqi lines until the first hours of February 27. That morning, the 7th Cav scouts found the hulls of 17 APCs, mostly BMP-1 and 6 T-72s disabled or abandoned by their crews. The clash is one of the few recorded actions where a US assault was fenced off by Iraqi dug-in armored vehicles.

[edit] Footnotes

  1. ^ See this official sketch of the Iraqi screen line
  2. ^ See this official report (scan)
  3. ^ From Wunderlich article:
    • SGT 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.
    Since the Bradley can withstand projectiles up to 14.5 mm, a ricocheting 125 mm sabot round splinter could also have been responsible
  4. ^ By the somewhat flat path of the round (scan) and the position of the Iraqi T-72s, a 125 mm HEAT shell is suspected. Preliminary reports also mentioned a Sagger, but the poor accuracy of this missile in such bad weather and close-range battle conditions makes this theory unlikely
  5. ^ For the overall action, see Atkinson, pp. 428-433

[edit] References

  • Atkinson, Rick: Crusade, The untold story of the Persian Gulf War. Houghton Mifflin Company, 1993.
  • Rostker, Bernard: Environmental Exposure Report:Depleted Uranium in the Gulf. DoD Publication, 1998.
  • Lucky Scouts Dodge "Big Bullets" That Ripped Their Bradley by Sgt. Tony Wunderlich, 3AD PAO. From Armor Magazine, May-June, 1991.
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