swiftest battlefield troop movements in his- the first barrier like it was water. Then they brought
tory. This giant `6endrun" by more than 250,000 both divisions steaming through that breach. Ab
soldiers spread over several hundred miles, solutely superb operation -a textbook, and I think it
moved deep into Iraqi territory from the Saudi will be studied for many, many years to come as the
border behind the Iraqi forces to deliver a fatal way to do it.,,
"left hook." The flanking maneuver not only
cut off all avenues of retreat north and west of Overhead, Cobras, Harriers and Intrud-
Kuwait, it fulfilled Chairman of the Joint Chiefs ers provided dose-air support as the Marines
of Staff, General Colin Powell's prediction that pushed forward meeting occasional resistance.
the coalition specifically the American miii- Navy A-6 Intruders laid down heavy barrages.
tary - were going to "cut off the head ... and Marine aircraft aftacked in waves as engineers
kill" the Iraqi army. continued to shoot line charges and drop
bundles of plastic pipes near trenches so the
The Marine Corps, with the support of biadetankscouldformmakeshiftbridges. Even
Navy air powet was tasked with going for the though the 1st Division Marines encountered
jugular. After performing their own deception artillery fire and a mechanized counter-attack,
by shifting both Marine divisions some 40 to 50 their attack proved unstoppable. Most Iraqis
miles northe~;tfrom their original staging area, fought for only a few minutes before surren-
the Marines stepped off into battle. The 1st and dering. Massive artillery and air support from
2nd Marine Divisions, each more than 18,000 Navy and Marine aircraft sparked a frenzy of
strong, and the U.S. Army 1st Brigade ("Tiger surrender that, at times, slowed the progress
Brigade"), 2nd Armored Division, plunged of advancing Marine units.
into the attack. They were supported by the
3rd Marine Aircraft Wing and thousands of The 2nd Marine Division enjoyed equal
combat service support staff from the 1st and success. With the Army's Tiger Brigade on the
2nd Force Se~rvice Support Groups, and by west flank, the 8th Marine Regiment to the
Navy air fora~. east, and the 6th Marine Regiment in the cen-
ter, the division kicked off its attack. Within
On tY\eir way, the Marines had to cross hours they too had breached both defensive
two belts of minefields, 12-foot high sand belts. Facing enemy mortar and small arms
berms, barbed-wire defenses, booby traps and fire, the .2nd Division drove into Kuwait and
fire trenches, all the while under sporadic at- took more than 5,000 EPWs by the end of the
tack by Iraqi artillery. These "impenetrable first day.
barriers 1,were quickly breached by the Marine
teams. As the two Marine divisions advanced, As Marines continued their attack the
two. Saudi and Qatari task forces moved up sea-based arm oftheNavy-MarineCorps team
Kuwait's east coast in a similar drive. The continued to provide support. The battleships
initial Marine advance was described by continued rapid, responsivegunfireon targets
Schw'arzkopf in his 27 February briefing as designated by Navy and Marine spotters on
follows: the ground and in the air. The amphibious task
force in the Persian Gulf continued to demand
"It was'; classic, absolutely classic military difficult decisions from the Iraqi generals. Be-
breaching of a very, very tough minefield, barbed cause of the threat of an amphibious landing
wire, fire trench-type barrier. They went through and the uncertainty of where and when it
46 -
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