"I came through right after the lead company. Anthony Moreno, commander of the brigade that led the assault, told The Seattle Times. "For all I know, we could have killed thousands," Col. Rather than clear the trenches man by man, the Americans simply plowed through the Iraqis on combat earthmovers, even burying some defenders alive as they tried in vain to shoot the bulldozers. Army Mobility Equipment Research and Development Command to provide combat engineers with an armored bulldozer capable of building combat routes and creating, demolishing or filling various types of obstacles. 1st Infantry Division (Mechanized) instead used minesweeping plows mounted on tanks along with " combat earthmovers" in what soon became known as the "bulldozer assault."Ī left front view of an M-9 Armored Combat Earthmover (ACE) during a bulldozing operation. There were no bayonets, no trench brooms and no chemical warfare (at least, not from the Americans). The secret to their success was nothing they had to work with in World War I. local time, and the Saddam Line of trenches was the first stop along the way.īy 6:45 a.m., the allies had broken the Saddam Line and were deep inside Kuwaiti territory. The attack to liberate Kuwait began at 4 a.m.
It was all that was keeping the coalition allies out of Kuwait. The "Saddam Line" was Iraq's first line of defense, a series of trenches (some filled with oil to be ignited), sand berms, trench works, anti-tank ditches, barbed wire and mine fields. That's when they found the Iraqis had literally dug in. 23, coalition forces made their way toward Kuwait. The U.S.-led coalition waged a Noah's Ark-like air campaign for 40 days and 40 nights before the ground war even began.
17, 1991, Operation Desert Shield turned into Operation Desert Storm.
15 deadline passed, and the " Mother of All Battles" was on. He moved an estimated 100,000 to 300,000 troops into Kuwait to greet the Americans and their coalition partners. But Saddam wasn't going to just sit there and wait to get his butt kicked.
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