The Second Battle of Britain - a Soviet Sealion

[James G]

44 – Humanitarian aid


Since the Six Day War back in the 1967, diplomatic relations between Iraq and the United States had been seriously strained. Iraq was the last of the Arab countries to re-establish relations after the break then and only did so a year before Saddam was assassinated. Full ambassadors hadn’t been appointed though each had a Chargé d'Affaires appointed in the other’s capital with plans to upgrade their status. But then Saddam was slain, Rashid fought to take control over Iraq and the two nations were on a course taking them towards the war which they ended up in. Diplomats from Baghdad and Washington had been withdrawn and facilities closed once the shooting started. Switzerland was acting as a ‘protecting power’ for the support of citizens of each country in the other (those numbers had dwindled to almost zero) and maintained an open offer to act as a conduit for talks between the opposing sides too. It was only at the UN up in New York where any diplomatic contact was being made between Iraq and the United States though. The little contact there was there was as far from friendly as possible.

Secretary of State Schultz told the Iraqi ambassador to the UN that should Iraq use chemical weapons against American forces, Iraq could expect a disproportionate response in kind. This was the one and only warning that Iraq would get on the subject. If Iraq used weapons of mass destruction, the United States would do the same too. Furthermore, Iraq was also being put on notice that it’s attacks using gas against non-American forces in the Gulf needed to cease as well. Right now too. If they didn’t, at a time of American’s choosing, and again in a disproportionate fashion, Iraq would pay gravely for such further actions. In response, Schultz faced a barrage of accusations of purported American & Coalition war crimes and counter-threats made. Schultz took note of the particulars of the latter and found none of them to be direct: the ambassador was all bluster. Only the words, and actions, of Rashid in Baghdad would matter. The secretary of state was certain that his words would be heard there in the Iraqi capital among Iraq’s leader… as well as his Soviet backers in Moscow too.


King Fahd’s humiliation of the Soviet Union had been determined by the Politburo to be something which they couldn’t allow to go unanswered. The Saudis had been asking for a response, General Secretary Ligachev and his cohorts had decided, and so they gave him that many times over.

Into the lay of the Iraqis, both the GRU and the KGB delivered a wealth of intelligence that they had on the Saudis to Rashid’s people. This was information on the current state of their military forces in terms of dispositions, strengths, weaknesses, supply situation and so on. A lot of this the Iraqis already knew but outside confirmation came to support what they already had plus there was the additional intelligence. Similar information had previously been shared in a drip-drip fashion to the Iraqis but now everything was handed over to them. They were urged to exploit it. The Politburo had approved the release of further ammunition stocks, ones which could arrive in Iraq quickly via air transfers, to see that the exploitation was made.

A Soviet-flagged ship docked in the Saudi port of Dammam. The Iraqis were in control here and, using forced ‘local’ labour (not Saudis but foreigners caught up during the invasion; men from across South and South-East Asia whose countries had no stake in this war), they set to work in having the contents of the ship unloaded. The cargo was humanitarian aid. There were cameras on-scene to record the images of the distribution of this food and medicine to the people of Dammam… all broadcast worldwide afterwards.

More cameras were on-hand in Riyadh too where the Soviets were involved in another staged media event to show the world what they wanted to depict. Their ambassador from the still-open embassy (other country’s representatives had long left the King Fahd’s capital) met with the Iraqi Army officer who was acting as military governor in addition to an Iraqi-appointed Saudi national who was collaborating with them. Humanitarian aid was promised to be sent here also while there was a visit to one of the city’s hospitals to visit civilians supposedly injured in Coalition air attacks. Like the footage of events in Dammam, what happened here in Riyadh was too broadcast globally.

[James G]

45 – Was it worth it?


In the absence of the ability to yet deploy ground forces to the fight on the ground in Saudi Arabia because of delays in transiting equipment & stores, the Americans stepped up their air campaign. The massed air attack against the Iraqi V Corps was a one-off affair, the exception rather than the rule. What had already done was a range of air activity with offensive, defensive & support missions flown across the board. This now increased. It was the US Air Force which provided the bulk of these flights made. CENTCOM ordered a slow-down in US Navy activities for a short period due to their previous intensive operations, allowing the carrier air wings to recover a bit, because the Twelfth Air Force had brought into play more of their assets.

Many air missions were flown throughout the first week of July. F-15s were used for rear-area defensive patrols as little as possible now and instead they were pushed forward on offensive fighter sweeps over the Saudi desert as well as up the Gulf in the direction of Kuwait and even Iraq too. They worked alongside the Saudi’s own F-15s in doing this with each nation’s fighters having the support of airborne radar aircraft. There were E-3 Sentrys not just at Tabuk in the northwest of Saudi Arabia but now flying from Masirah in Oman as well. The radars on those aircraft could see for hundreds of miles in every direction and the aircraft came complete with battle-staffs. Such aircraft had won the air war in terms of fighter combat for the Coalition some time ago now. Still, the Iraqis tried their best to dodge their coverage and conduct limited air operations. When they came out to do so, F-15s were sent towards them.

Two whole wings of F-16s were to be eventually established in the Gulf by the Twelfth Air Force but with one whole one and part of another active, there were plenty of these strike-fighters available already. These were multirole aircraft. They made some air-to-air engagements though were generally tasked for ground attack. There was a lot of work for them to do. Iraqi targets were plentiful and the F-16s were sent against them throughout occupied areas of Saudi Arabia. Often alongside the F-16s were the Wild Weasel versions of the F-4 that had come to fight in the Second Gulf War too. They undertook attack missions against Iraqi air defences. Missiles were shot off against SAM-launchers & radars while bombs were dropped on anti-aircraft artillery (Iron Hand missions). The F-4s were very busy, more than either the F-15s or the F-16s. For long-range strike, there were F-111s as well. These were sent on distant, semi-strategic missions to hit the Iraqis deep into the rear. They dropped bombs as far north as inside Kuwait – permission was still be refused to strike Iraq itself – as they undertook daring low-level strikes. F-4s didn’t escort the F-111s like they did the F-16s in the face of enemy air defences. Instead, the small fleet of EF-111s in-theatre did that. These were unarmed electronic warfare aircraft which jammed those defences in-flight and allowed the F-111s to get their bombs through.

Only one squadron of A-10s were currently assigned to CENTCOM air operations. These came from a reserve unit rather than a frontline one. The part-time status of the aircrews didn’t mean that they weren’t up to the job. Thrown into the fight taking place not far from the base of the peninsula on which Qatar lay – the Second Battle of Hofuf –, the A-10s showed their worth. They blasted apart Iraqi armour in quite the fashion. Another reserve squadron (the regulars were being kept back for any possible European operation to keep NATO allies happy) was already on the way and they would be used just as much as those already here. There was nothing like a flight of A-10s that could cut through Iraqi armour that the Coalition had.

All sorts of non-combat aircraft were flying on Operation Desert Eagle missions. The E-3s got a lot of the attention but the Americans had an air force like no one else’s. They had tactical and strategic reconnaissance aircraft as well as signals interception platforms. There many were air-to-air refuelling tankers active in the skies over the Arabian Peninsula too which allowed for significant range increases. Furthermore, they also had their search-and-rescue aircraft here too. These were seeing a lot of action. They were thrown into missions where combat was seen too.


Iraq had taken down a total of just four American aircraft in air-to-air combat during the three plus weeks of war between them; the Iraqi Air Force was claiming that they’d shot five times as many out of the sky with their fighters. Regardless of that lie, they’d hit some in airborne combat in the form of a pair of US Navy A-7s early on, a US Air Force F-16 during chaotic scenes over Bahrain and then recently a US Navy F/A-18 too in an above water lucky engagement. In addition, and gaining a greater number of kills, they’d been using their mobile ground-based air defences to hit the Americans above them. With SAMs and anti-aircraft guns, the Iraqis had shot down eleven more. These had been brought down in a variety of engagements since the shooting started while others had managed to limp home with different degrees of damage done to them.

Aircrews escaped from more than two thirds of those aircraft taken down by various means. Some fell into Iraqi custody but others were in the desert or the water awaiting rescue. The Americans tried to rescue their personnel when possible. They had help at times from their allies and also made rescue efforts of their aircrews as well because it wasn’t just US Air Force & US Navy jets that the Iraqis managed to successfully target. Those missions to locate and extract aircrews were hazardous. The Iraqis attacked the rescue aircraft and helicopters when they could just like they had the strike aircraft they had hit the first time around. They managed to shoot down several of these as well. Due to one particularly heavy loss where a HC-130 aircraft was brought down with all aboard lost, the situation as it currently stood was that more lives had bene lost in rescue missions than in combat missions. Still the Americans were going to continue to try to bring out downed aircrew though. They were bringing in more assets including better-armed aircraft & helicopters as well as having rapidly re-evaluating their tactics.

Was continuing to do so going to see others lose their lives? Yes.

Was it worth it as far as they were concerned? Yes.

[James G]

46 – Carrier-killer


The US Navy called the class of vessel to which the submarine belonged to an ‘Oscar’; the Soviets deemed it one of the Project-949 class. The particular submarine itself was given the name K-206 Minskiy Komsomolets by the Soviet Navy; the Americans had no idea of what she was named. What they cared about was that this Oscar, with its missile battery that was surely designed as a ‘carrier-killer’, was stalking one of their aircraft carriers in the Arabian Sea.

The Soviet Navy had added units of its Black Sea, Northern and Pacific Fleets to their Indian Ocean Squadron. They had that surface group inside the Persian Gulf built around their battlecruiser as well as maintaining a presence of several individual ships outside in the general area where Coalition naval forces were operating. They brought in submarines too, including this Oscar. Wherever the USS Carl Vinson was – the carrier moved about a lot –, the submarine would soon enough show up too. The Oscar didn’t come in close yet it maintained easily within range of the missile armament that it carried. At times the Oscar would approach the surface while on other occasions it would stay deep. It wasn’t going away no matter how many times the Americans tried to force it away. That they did, repeatedly.

US Navy warships, submarines of their own, aircraft and helicopters were all focused on attempts to do this. They tracked the Soviet boat and made mock attacks against it. Intimidation was the game that they were playing, doing to the Oscar in an active manner what the Soviets were trying to do to their carrier by just a passive presence. This meant simulating attacks where steps were taken all the way up to what would be that of weapons release: activities meant to broadcast to the crew aboard the Oscar that, should they choose, the US Navy could attack their boat. Each time this was done, no one aboard the Soviet submarine could be certain that that the Americans weren’t going to open fire. They dropped sonobuoys from aircraft and helicopters that could have been depth charges or torpedoes. Their submarines would flood their torpedo tubes while warships positioned themselves to fire their own mounted ones as well: the projectiles within were clearly held ready to be fired from them.

The captain aboard the K-206 held his fire. Many others in his shoes wouldn’t have done so but then they never would have been sent here and given the responsibility that he had. He didn’t launch any of his carried torpedoes because his orders stated that he wasn’t to do so unless attacked first or if he had existing instructions to strike first. This all being done by the Americans gave the captain’s men plenty of work to be doing. This was no pleasure cruise for them as they had to at all times do everything possible to try to avoid these mock attacks less they suddenly become real. As to why the US Navy was going as far as they were, the captain understood the reasoning behind that: he had no illusions that this was something unfair or over the top. The K-206 was being kept this close to the Carl Vinson so that should the orders come, it’s captain could launch more than just torpedoes. There were two dozen anti-ship cruise missile aboard. In wartime, they would be launched in a swarm fashion – six, eight or even twelve at once – and were armed with a warhead that could be either conventional or nuclear. The Americans knew about this capability, they understood that should it be used the K-206 would target their aircraft carrier and kill it stone dead. Therefore, they continued with their activities and the submarine’s captain carried on with his as he followed their capital ship all across the Arabian Sea without opening fire no matter what the provocation that might come.


Those same carrier-killer missiles that the Oscar had, the supersonic P-700 (which NATO called the SS-N-19 Shipwreck), was the primary missile armament on the Frunze up in the Persian Gulf. At the beginning of July, this battlecruiser with twenty of them aboard – again available with either a conventional or nuclear warhead – went along the coastline of occupied parts of Saudi Arabia. Escorted by half a dozen warships carrying a wide variety of armaments just like she was too, the Frunze went right through what were legally Saudi territorial waters rather than international waters further out. Inside, between the Soviet Navy and the shore, were all of that oil infrastructure that the Iraqis had seized. It all sat exposed there and undamaged by the ongoing war. The pumping stations and ship-to-shore terminals were all held by Iraqi troops – engineers mainly though with some commandos present to guard against any effort at sabotage – while the Soviets sailed their warships past them.

There was no American carrier inside the Gulf but they had their battleship USS Missouri present along with an amphibious ship fulfilling the role of a helicopter platform for minesweeping work. When the Frunze came as far south as the immense oil set-up around Ras Tunura, the Americans came into sight. They had one of their destroyers present as well as aircraft flying about too but the Missouri was just over the horizon. As was the case with their submarine shadowing the Carl Vinson, and also other Soviet assets close to the Americans at sea throughout the region, should the captain aboard the Frunze either be attacked first or receive the order to fire, then he would do make an attack. His P-700 missiles were designed to eliminate a carrier but they would work just as well against a battleship too… especially if instead of containing a high-explosive warhead, they had a thermonuclear one fitted.

No orders came yet to open fire nor were the Americans doing so first. By nightfall, as the Frunze moved away from Ras Tunura, US Navy fighters came close by. They were conducting their intimidation efforts but no shots were exchanged. Things could change though. Should it come to that, things would happen pretty damn fast here too.

[stevep]

Aug 20, 2019 15:12:09 GMT James G said:

44 – Humanitarian aid


Since the Six Day War back in the 1967, diplomatic relations between Iraq and the United States had been seriously strained. Iraq was the last of the Arab countries to re-establish relations after the break then and only did so a year before Saddam was assassinated. Full ambassadors hadn’t been appointed though each had a Chargé d'Affaires appointed in the other’s capital with plans to upgrade their status. But then Saddam was slain, Rashid fought to take control over Iraq and the two nations were on a course taking them towards the war which they ended up in. Diplomats from Baghdad and Washington had been withdrawn and facilities closed once the shooting started. Switzerland was acting as a ‘protecting power’ for the support of citizens of each country in the other (those numbers had dwindled to almost zero) and maintained an open offer to act as a conduit for talks between the opposing sides too. It was only at the UN up in New York where any diplomatic contact was being made between Iraq and the United States though. The little contact there was there was as far from friendly as possible.

Secretary of State Schultz told the Iraqi ambassador to the UN that should Iraq use chemical weapons against American forces, Iraq could expect a disproportionate response in kind. This was the one and only warning that Iraq would get on the subject. If Iraq used weapons of mass destruction, the United States would do the same too. Furthermore, Iraq was also being put on notice that it’s attacks using gas against non-American forces in the Gulf needed to cease as well. Right now too. If they didn’t, at a time of American’s choosing, and again in a disproportionate fashion, Iraq would pay gravely for such further actions. In response, Schultz faced a barrage of accusations of purported American & Coalition war crimes and counter-threats made. Schultz took note of the particulars of the latter and found none of them to be direct: the ambassador was all bluster. Only the words, and actions, of Rashid in Baghdad would matter. The secretary of state was certain that his words would be heard there in the Iraqi capital among Iraq’s leader… as well as his Soviet backers in Moscow too.


King Fahd’s humiliation of the Soviet Union had been determined by the Politburo to be something which they couldn’t allow to go unanswered. The Saudis had been asking for a response, General Secretary Ligachev and his cohorts had decided, and so they gave him that many times over.

Into the lay of the Iraqis, both the GRU and the KGB delivered a wealth of intelligence that they had on the Saudis to Rashid’s people. This was information on the current state of their military forces in terms of dispositions, strengths, weaknesses, supply situation and so on. A lot of this the Iraqis already knew but outside confirmation came to support what they already had plus there was the additional intelligence. Similar information had previously been shared in a drip-drip fashion to the Iraqis but now everything was handed over to them. They were urged to exploit it. The Politburo had approved the release of further ammunition stocks, ones which could arrive in Iraq quickly via air transfers, to see that the exploitation was made.

A Soviet-flagged ship docked in the Saudi port of Dammam. The Iraqis were in control here and, using forced ‘local’ labour (not Saudis but foreigners caught up during the invasion; men from across South and South-East Asia whose countries had no stake in this war), they set to work in having the contents of the ship unloaded. The cargo was humanitarian aid. There were cameras on-scene to record the images of the distribution of this food and medicine to the people of Dammam… all broadcast worldwide afterwards.

More cameras were on-hand in Riyadh too where the Soviets were involved in another staged media event to show the world what they wanted to depict. Their ambassador from the still-open embassy (other country’s representatives had long left the King Fahd’s capital) met with the Iraqi Army officer who was acting as military governor in addition to an Iraqi-appointed Saudi national who was collaborating with them. Humanitarian aid was promised to be sent here also while there was a visit to one of the city’s hospitals to visit civilians supposedly injured in Coalition air attacks. Like the footage of events in Dammam, what happened here in Riyadh was too broadcast globally.

  Well that's a somewhat more restrained and thought out response than I was expecting from the Soviets.  By encouraging and enabling the Iraqis to make more attacks their either throwing them to the wolves when the hammer comes down or already thinking of aiding them more directly, albeit possibly not an attack on western Europe yet.  Unless they think that the Iraqis can win, which seems highly unlikely.

[James G]

Aug 21, 2019 14:37:53 GMT stevep said:

Aug 20, 2019 15:12:09 GMT James G said:

44 – Humanitarian aid


Since the Six Day War back in the 1967, diplomatic relations between Iraq and the United States had been seriously strained. Iraq was the last of the Arab countries to re-establish relations after the break then and only did so a year before Saddam was assassinated. Full ambassadors hadn’t been appointed though each had a Chargé d'Affaires appointed in the other’s capital with plans to upgrade their status. But then Saddam was slain, Rashid fought to take control over Iraq and the two nations were on a course taking them towards the war which they ended up in. Diplomats from Baghdad and Washington had been withdrawn and facilities closed once the shooting started. Switzerland was acting as a ‘protecting power’ for the support of citizens of each country in the other (those numbers had dwindled to almost zero) and maintained an open offer to act as a conduit for talks between the opposing sides too. It was only at the UN up in New York where any diplomatic contact was being made between Iraq and the United States though. The little contact there was there was as far from friendly as possible.

Secretary of State Schultz told the Iraqi ambassador to the UN that should Iraq use chemical weapons against American forces, Iraq could expect a disproportionate response in kind. This was the one and only warning that Iraq would get on the subject. If Iraq used weapons of mass destruction, the United States would do the same too. Furthermore, Iraq was also being put on notice that it’s attacks using gas against non-American forces in the Gulf needed to cease as well. Right now too. If they didn’t, at a time of American’s choosing, and again in a disproportionate fashion, Iraq would pay gravely for such further actions. In response, Schultz faced a barrage of accusations of purported American & Coalition war crimes and counter-threats made. Schultz took note of the particulars of the latter and found none of them to be direct: the ambassador was all bluster. Only the words, and actions, of Rashid in Baghdad would matter. The secretary of state was certain that his words would be heard there in the Iraqi capital among Iraq’s leader… as well as his Soviet backers in Moscow too.


King Fahd’s humiliation of the Soviet Union had been determined by the Politburo to be something which they couldn’t allow to go unanswered. The Saudis had been asking for a response, General Secretary Ligachev and his cohorts had decided, and so they gave him that many times over.

Into the lay of the Iraqis, both the GRU and the KGB delivered a wealth of intelligence that they had on the Saudis to Rashid’s people. This was information on the current state of their military forces in terms of dispositions, strengths, weaknesses, supply situation and so on. A lot of this the Iraqis already knew but outside confirmation came to support what they already had plus there was the additional intelligence. Similar information had previously been shared in a drip-drip fashion to the Iraqis but now everything was handed over to them. They were urged to exploit it. The Politburo had approved the release of further ammunition stocks, ones which could arrive in Iraq quickly via air transfers, to see that the exploitation was made.

A Soviet-flagged ship docked in the Saudi port of Dammam. The Iraqis were in control here and, using forced ‘local’ labour (not Saudis but foreigners caught up during the invasion; men from across South and South-East Asia whose countries had no stake in this war), they set to work in having the contents of the ship unloaded. The cargo was humanitarian aid. There were cameras on-scene to record the images of the distribution of this food and medicine to the people of Dammam… all broadcast worldwide afterwards.

More cameras were on-hand in Riyadh too where the Soviets were involved in another staged media event to show the world what they wanted to depict. Their ambassador from the still-open embassy (other country’s representatives had long left the King Fahd’s capital) met with the Iraqi Army officer who was acting as military governor in addition to an Iraqi-appointed Saudi national who was collaborating with them. Humanitarian aid was promised to be sent here also while there was a visit to one of the city’s hospitals to visit civilians supposedly injured in Coalition air attacks. Like the footage of events in Dammam, what happened here in Riyadh was too broadcast globally.

  Well that's a somewhat more restrained and thought out response than I was expecting from the Soviets.  By encouraging and enabling the Iraqis to make more attacks their either throwing them to the wolves when the hammer comes down or already thinking of aiding them more directly, albeit possibly not an attack on western Europe yet.  Unless they think that the Iraqis can win, which seems highly unlikely.

They are doing a lot else and this is only the beginning.
The new men in charge in the Kremlin don't want the Iraqis to lose... which isn't the same as wanting Iraq to win.

[James G]

47 – Encirclement


It had been a week since the last Iraqi use of gas. The wider Coalition was aware of what the Americans had told the Iraqis in that meeting at the UN about the consequences of doing so again against the United States or anyone else. Intelligence and reconnaissance showed suspected Iraqi artillery units deemed capable of delivering gas shells as still being present on the ground in Saudi Arabia yet there appeared to be no special preparations around them. A judgement call was made on the likelihood of Rashid authorising the use of chemical weapons again at this time with the conclusion reached that he wouldn’t.

On the edge of the Najd, the plateau which was the historic heart of Saudi Arabian state, the Iraqis held Riyadh. Saudi and Egyptian forces moved to retake that city and deliver a serious defeat to the Iraqis. Which of those was the top priority – liberating the Saudi capital or smashing apart the Iraqis in the field – was something on which King Fahd and his allies would differ. However, the intention was that both would be done and thus everyone would be happy. Egypt’s leader, President Mubarak, long had a difference of opinion with Saudi Arabia and the GCC countries over other matters. However, when it came to Rashid, especially the leader of Iraq’s ties to the Soviets, he had his country as a key member of the Coalition. A large and ever-growing presence of Egyptian military might was committed to the fight. Without the Egyptians, the Saudis wouldn’t have been able to do what they did here in the Najd. Mubarak sent tanks, armoured infantry vehicles and self-propelled artillery – good equipment in plenitude along with capable soldiers – in the battles which the Saudis opened along with significant air support. Egyptian aircraft flew ground attack missions while the Saudis provided fighter cover. The Iraqi IV Corps faced the full might of a determined effort to overcome them.

When it came to striking at Riyadh itself and fighting their way into it, the Saudis were unable to complete this task. They had a lot of assistance but they found the Iraqis held on. The IV Corps had taken the time to establish a strong defensive position and these were experienced soldiers who were led well. They held their ground and wouldn’t budge from where they were. The Saudis weren’t going to be able to liberate their capital on their own. The actions of the Egyptians away from that fight meant though that the Iraqis in Riyadh were soon in trouble. Egyptian armour met the Iraqis in open battle and came off the winner. Three separate advances were made by Mubarak’s dispatched soldiers and the spearheads of them soon started to link up. They managed to cut through the Iraqi rear areas and scattered those whom they didn’t manage to crush under the treads of their tanks. Parts of the IV Corps were pushed back down onto the slopes of the Najd with the desert blow them while other survivors ended up encircled within Riyadh in a giant pocket. The Egyptian’s Republican Guard – independent of the regular Egyptian Army – won the most important battles in the fighting with their armoured division involved in an engagement against an opponent twice their size. Hitting the Iraqis from above meant careful cooperation with the Egyptian Air Force but the F-4s and Mirages brought in for the task worked well together. The brigades each given their individual assignments all linked up in the general areas where they were supposed to with a vanquished enemy behind them. This allowed for the Riyadh Pocket to be formed. The Iraqis inside the city, who had only a few days before been the focus of attention for Soviet media teams broadcasting images of a ‘peaceful’ Riyadh around the world, were now stuck in there. There was no way out for them. Saudi forces took over the city’s encirclement while the Egyptians moved away to start clearing those Iraqis out of the high ground that they clung onto by their fingernails. There would be no way back for Rashid’s army to either save their men nor to try to change the situation here in the Najd.


The same day that the encirclement of Riyadh was completed was when the first British and French air missions were flown in the Second Gulf War. Each country had naval forces in the region and they were dispatching ground forces but they had hoped to begin air operations at the end of June rather than waiting until early July. However, they had faced similar issues that the Americans had with a lack of infrastructure in the Gulf Arab Monarchies to support their air power as well as delays in getting their shipping in that carried so much of what was needed to conduct flight operations beyond jets and aircrew. Combat aircraft just couldn’t turn up and start flying no matter how appealing that might seem. The RAF sent squadrons of Jaguar strike-fighters, Phantom fighters and Tornado strike-bombers to the Gulf; the Armée de l'Air dispatched Jaguars too as well as Mirages. Unlike the Americans, neither air force had AWACS aircraft of their own but they added (small numbers of) electronic support aircraft and tankers to their deployments. The RAF set themselves up in Oman with the French in the UAE. At the highest level, their air operations were under overall Saudi command through Prince Sultan yet, in reality, each was conducting operations under CENTCOM control. This did rankle London and Paris some as they would have preferred not to be so tied to the Americans on this but they couldn’t do this on their own.

Jaguars, Mirages and Tornados all saw their first action as part of the still-raging Second Battle of Hofuf. This had been ongoing for some time with a lot of dead and injured inflicted to the opposing sides for no real gain. It wasn’t a battle of manoeuvre like the fight in the Najd was but instead almost a static affair. Neither the Iraqis here with their II Corps nor the Saudi-GCC troops that Prince Sultan was effectively personally leading despite his top position in the Coalition chain-of-command were able to advance to any significant degree. When moves forward were made, often on the flanks, the other side pushed the attack back soon enough. The communications centre which was Hofuf along with the Ghawar oilfield remained in Saudi hands but only just. The Americans were soon going to lead a ground offensive which promised to see the end of the fighting here: they were just days away now from having their troops ready. Before then, Coalition air power was being brought in.

Multiple targets across the battlefield were struck at. The British and French worked with allied cooperation in hitting artillery concentrations and rear-area infrastructure as well as making some attack right near the frontlines too. It was as dangerous for them as it was other Coalition aircraft. No Iraqi fighters were able to get near the battle – the F-15 & E-3 combination was still working very well – but they had their missiles and guns for air defence. Both the RAF and the Armée de l'Air lost an aircraft each with the RAF having another one forced to make an emergency landing in Qatar due to combat damage. The baptism of fire for these late arriving Coalition forces could have been worse, much worse, but it was still an unpleasant experience for them. They would be back again in the fight soon enough though.

[James G]

48 – Into the desert


On July 6th, a day early than anticipated, the Americans sent ground forces back into Saudi Arabia. No longer were the ‘hiding in the Emirates’, as one of Rashid’s spokesmen in Baghdad put it, but instead heading into the fighting taking place in the Saudi desert. The lessons from mid-June with the disaster at Dhahran were learnt. The Americans went in with tanks, lots of them. They weren’t about to suffer the bloody defeat they had there once again, not giving the Iraqis another boastful bit of propaganda like they had after the wiping out of lightly armed paratroopers early on in the war. Under the command of CENTCOM, the US Third Army was now active. This headquarters was fielding the US Army’s XVIII Airborne Corps and the I Marine Amphibious Force (I MAF): the US Marines were operating a corps-sized command of their own. Soon enough, the Third Army would take command of British and French ground forces when they were able to get into the field. Moreover, though Prince Sultan was still holding onto ‘his’ men, the Joint Chiefs back at the Pentagon had told Crist and the Third Army’s commander General Chambers that Saudi & GCC ground troops here in the east of the country would likely be folded in as well in time.

Into the desert the Third Army’s lead elements went and towards the ongoing fighting.

Not all of the XVIII Corps was ready to move but enough of it was. Out ahead of everyone else moving from the western expanses of the UAE into Saudi Arabia was the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment. The Cav’ didn’t have horses. They had one hundred and twenty plus tanks (all new M-1A1s with 120mm cannons) and close to two hundred other armoured vehicles with dozens of armed helicopters too. Behind them moved the 9th Motorized Division. Two brigades of that formation were light but the third one wasn’t: almost sixty tanks (new-build M-60A3s) and over two hundred more armoured vehicles with them. A pair of brigades from the 82nd Airborne were moving in trucks far behind though weren’t going to be committed unless their own armour was with them plus the Cav’ covered them too. Within another week, the 157th Mechanized Brigade and the 24th Mechanized Division were expected to be ready to also move into Saudi Arabia once they finished assembling. In addition, there was the 101st Air Assault Division which was waiting in Qatar to move on signal. They’d be going into Saudi Arabia though not via the same route and at a time deemed optimal for what they could bring to the fight. As the XVIII Corps moved its combat units, a huge rolling support network went over the Saudi-UAE border too. There were self-propelled artillery units and more helicopter gunships – Apaches and Cobras – to add to what the Cav’ had. Then there were the engineers, the signallers and the air defence assets. Furthermore, outnumbering those ahead of them were the medical, supply, transportation and vehicle maintenance units. Without them, the XVIII Corps wasn’t going to be able to fight. A large number of US Army Reserve units joined with the regular counterparts here in the desert as this was quite the undertaking. They were in an environment which was unfriendly and where the US Army had never fought before. To allow the XVIII Corps to go up against the Iraqis wasn’t going to be easy but that was why they were here: to make it possible in the middle of the desert at the height of summer.

Only part of the I MAF rolled out of the UAE and into the desert of eastern Saudi Arabia. That wasn’t because the US Marines weren’t fully ready. It was instead a similar case as it was with elements of the XVIII Corps being held back for operations which didn’t require an overland journey into battle. Two separate brigades, self-contained formations, were waiting to see action at time when they would enter the fight via assault landing craft and helicopters in an amphibious assault. The 1st Marine Division – complete with Marine Reservists – entered Saudi Arabia after making the trip from Oman into the Emirates and onwards. They came with plenty of their own armour to support the mass of riflemen. There were well over a hundred tanks (older M-60A1s) and then several hundred more armoured vehicles too with wheeled LAV-25s and ‘amtracs’. The former were new and came in several variants with different armament fits; the amtracs, AAV-7A1s, weren’t that old and they also mounted plenty of weapons in addition to the marines carried inside them. Through the desert all of them moved where they would be put to use in direct support of US Marines soon fighting the Iraqis. There were thousands of them destined to see frontline action yet also too fulfilling combat support and service support roles. The 1st Marine Division had their own artillery and armed helicopters along with supply, transportation, etc. units too. In addition, the I MAF retained control over their own fixed-wing air support. The US Marines came to this fight with A-4 Skyhawks, AV-8 Harriers and F/A-18 Hornets available to directly aid their ground forces.


There remained that fighting with the Second Battle of Hofuf that Prince Sultan had his men engaged with the Iraqi II Corps involved in. The Americans weren’t going to join that. Neither Crist nor Washington wanted to see the XVIII Corps nor the I MAF thrown directly into that clash taking place there. To do so was regarded as being a waste of the capabilities that they would bring to the war. Moreover, it didn’t fit in with what was being done where those air assault troopers (with attendant transport helicopters) and the other US Marines with forced entry capabilities were being held ready for exploitation operations.

Instead, Chambers had his orders from CENTCOM’s commander to have the Third Army avoid the Hofuf area and ‘cut inside it’. This was done as the mass of American ground forces crossed the desert close to the shallow waters of the inlet of the Persian Gulf which was the Gulf of Bahrain. They went past the Iraqis on their left flank, avoiding first contact. This wasn’t about just getting behind them and cutting the Iraqi II Corps off. The aim was bigger than that. The Third Army was going through the desert towards Dammam and Dhahran to give the Iraqis a strategic defeat, not just a tactical one.

[James G]

US THIRD ARMY

US XVIII Corps
3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment
157th Infantry Brigade (Mechanized), US Army Reserve
9TH INFANTRY DIVISION (MOTORIZED)
1st Infantry Brigade (Motorized)
2nd Infantry Brigade (Mechanized)
3rd Infantry Brigade (Motorized)
24TH INFANTRY DIVISION (MECHANIZED)
1st Infantry Brigade (Mechanized)
2nd Infantry Brigade (Mechanized)
197th Infantry Brigade (Mechanized)
82ND AIRBORNE DIVISION
1st Airborne Brigade
2nd Airborne Brigade
3rd Airborne Brigade
101ST INFANTRY DIVISION (AIR ASSAULT)
1st Infantry Brigade (Air Assault)
2nd Infantry Brigade (Air Assault)
3rd Infantry Brigade (Air Assault)

US I Marine Amphibious Force
1st Marine Amphibious Brigade / 3rd Marine Regiment
7th Marine Amphibious Brigade / 7th Marine Regiment
1ST MARINE DIVISION
1st Marine Regiment
5th Marine Regiment
23rd Marine Regiment, US Marines Reserve

[James G]

49 – Tank–vs.–Tank


In the Saudi desert near to the town of Abqaiq, where the Iraqis had used gas before against the armies of their neighbours, there was an armoured clash during the night of July 6th/7th. It was a tank–vs.–tank fight with no chemical weapons used this time, just cannon shells. The Iraqis fought the US Army here. Part of the 3rd Cav’ caught the extreme flank of the Iraqi II Corps with one of the divisions assigned to that command pushing a tank regiment forward when the American advance was spotted. Soviet-built T-72s went into battle in the darkness and came up against the best that the US Army had to offer. Two companies of tanks used their M-1A1 Abrams’ to engage the Iraqis at distance. This was no fair fight. The Americans outranged them and knew exactly where they were as well as what they were facing. The Iraqis went into the fight unprepared in every way. Using thermal sights, accurate cannon fire was directed against the Iraqi T-72s. There were more of them than there were of the M-1A1s but that did them no good. They couldn’t return fire on-target and shot blindly into the night. Their shells fell short whereas the American’s ones did not. Three dozen T-72s were knocked out seemingly within minutes for the loss of zero belonging to the 3rd Cav’. The Iraqi regimental commander screamed a withdrawal order into his radio mike before his own T-72 was blown up. The kill number reached forty before the remaining Iraqis fled. They had that order to retreat but nothing more. Tank drivers were shouted orders by vehicle commanders to go this way then that way… any way that would take them far from where the Americans were. The 3rd Cav’s tanks didn’t follow. A couple of flights of AH-1F Cobra helicopter gunships went after them instead. Wire-guided TOW missiles started hitting the T-72s spread across the desert as well as regimental supporting vehicles which came into the sights of the helicopter crews as well. It was a bloodbath only partially avenged by the Iraqis who managed to get one of the Cobras with a SAM shot to blow it up in mid-air.

Those American tanks didn’t follow the Iraqis. They re-joined the rest of the 3rd Cav’ as it moved onwards. The XVIII Corps was on its way towards Dammam and Dhahran with the Cav’ providing escort for them. Other Iraqi units were engaged in the early hours of the morning though in not quite the stunning fashion. There were Iraqi screen units hastily sent forward of which many didn’t even locate the Americans. Others did though and they were able to shoot back with levels of success occurring. None of the M-1A1s were hit but M-3 tracked scout vehicles were knocked out. They fired their cannons and launched their own TOW missiles but stubborn – or maybe confused – enemy resistance was met. The 3rd Cav’ took casualties. They gave out more than they got though, especially once their tanks got stuck in again. There were a lot of those M-1A1s here and the Iraqis couldn’t match them. Their ‘best’ tanks had ever-so spectacularly failed near Abqaiq and what second-line ones they had near the Persian Gulf coast did no better. Chinese- & Soviet-built tanks here were blown apart. Many kill shots from the Americans hit their opponents in such a manner as to cause internal explosions with enough force to throw entire turrets skywards. Less dramatic kills were achieved elsewhere. The Iraqis had their improvised defensive positions torn open.

Coming up from the southwest, the 3rd Cav’ didn’t enter the (relatively) built-up area which was Dammam and Dhahran itself. They instead moved along the western outskirts, with the desert on their flank, to engage what Iraqis came their way. The day was breaking and Iraqi units were streaming towards the area… all into the waiting guns of a lot of American tanks supported by more armed helicopters too. The job of securing the built-up area beside the sea fell to the 9th Motorized & 82nd Airborne Divisions. Two thirds of each formation were engaged in this fight. The 9th Motorized brought their own tanks and there were those armoured assault vehicles – M-551 Sheridans – with the 82nd Airborne. These came into Dammam and Dhahran not because many Iraqi tanks were expected to be there but instead because the last time there had been fighting here, the beaten US Army paratroopers had been without significant armour and suffered gravely. It was mostly infantry which went in anyway. They had other armoured vehicles with them. What they faced were scattered and surprised Iraqi garrison troops. These men were supposed to be protecting the international airport, the airbase and the seaport which could all be found here. It was taking those which had made the Iraqi Southern Army able to achieve its fantastic early victory during the opening stage of the Second Gulf War. There was a hostile civilian population that the Iraqis were here to ‘control’ too. They’d done so and while it hadn’t been overdone in brutality with no serious excesses undertaken, it had been a harsh rule. The Iraqis had been comfortable here. They weren’t expecting the US Army to roll in like they did from out of the desert.

Firefights erupted across the wide area. The Iraqis were engaged in Khobar and then Qatif soon afterwards as well as in Dammam and Dhahran. Gunfire and explosions went on throughout the morning. Fighting men on both sides were killed and wounded though there were civilians caught up in the crossfire too. Iraqi units fought isolated battles. There were no frontlines here, no established positions to fall back towards in a stage-managed withdrawal. From on the ground and from above they met American fire. To defend themselves, those Iraqis used everything in their means to do that. They blew buildings up and set fires where needed. The Americans wanted to take as much of the infrastructure here as intact as possible but the Iraqis made that difficult for them. Plenty of Iraqi soldiers soon threw their hands up in surrender when they understood the strength of the opponent which they were fighting. Others refused to see all of this lost: officers on-scene didn’t fancy being the ones who Rashid would blame if the Americans were able to hand this all back to the Saudis in a manner where the facilities would be useful for fighting the war against Iraq. It thus wasn’t fanaticism which saw what instances of dedicated fighting took place occur. Instead, those who did so were just doing their duty.


The fighting would go on for most of the day. In the end, the Americans would win but it was a tougher fight than they thought they would get, even without the Iraqis being able to bring tanks into it. It was the port area in Dammam where the last of the main fighting took place. Sniping and the deliberate setting of fires, rather than efforts at sabotage (this had been what the Americans had feared the most), defined the type of opposition which the trucked-in paratroopers with the 82nd Airborne faced. They took significant casualties before they secured it. About half of the port facilities were wrecked. What a mess this all was. The rest of it was theirs though. Engineers, American and Saudi, moved in behind the victorious soldiers. The Coalition had suffered much in their logistics capability without Dammam in their hands but now they had it.

Those Iraqis who had fought the XVIII Corps in the built-up area as well as outside through the day – the 3rd Cav’ and one of the 9th Motorized’s light brigades had been busy – all reported to the Iraqi III Corps. Last month, it had been units assigned to this command which had been involved in the many unconventional assaults which had helped seize Kuwait alongside the tank heavy II Corps. Transfers out had seen the majority of the commandos, marines & paratroopers replaced by the inward movement of lower-grade infantry units. The area of responsibility stretched from Dammam and Dhahran all the way up the coast and into Kuwait. There was a lot for them to guard, especially all of that coastal oil infrastructure which the US Marines had their eyes upon ready to take soon enough. The III Corps should never had fought here against the American ground assault that they faced. Orders from Baghdad had been for the V Corps to come down… before the combined efforts of the US Air Force and US Navy Aviation blew them apart. Rashid had issued instructions for two further corps commands, the VII & VIII Corps, full of reserve infantry units with a small number of tanks, to enter Saudi Arabia. They only did so today and were thus far from the battlefield. Between them and the Americans was a lot of desert. Through that each side would soon be moving, one going north and the other heading south. There was a lot more fighting to come, especially since the Second Battle of Hofuf was ongoing with the Iraqi II Corps fighting Prince Sultan’s troops there. One victory for the Americans didn’t mean this was over with. None of that could take anything away from the fact though that Iraq had just suffered a significant defeat on the battlefield where it didn’t appear that they could recover from.

[forcon]

Nice update. Natarually, the smaller nature of Allied forces in the Gulf means the casualties will be somewhat higher, but probably not by that much in tank-v-tank engagements. IIRC, the British are sending the Royal Marines and and an ad hoc Army brigade - is that an infantry brigade or an armoured one? I can't seem to find the update with those details.

Nice work.

[James G]

Aug 23, 2019 16:14:01 GMT forcon said:

Nice update. Natarually, the smaller nature of Allied forces in the Gulf means the casualties will be somewhat higher, but probably not by that much in tank-v-tank engagements. IIRC, the British are sending the Royal Marines and and an ad hoc Army brigade - is that an infantry brigade or an armoured one? I can't seem to find the update with those details.

Nice work.

Thank you. The Iraqis aren't beaten yet by first outside Riyadh and now at Dhahran they've taken stonking defeats.
It's the 24th Infantry Brigade (it became airmobile in 1988) but with at least a full regiment of Challengers. I'll do a UK and French ORBAT closer to when they see combat.
That brigade, and the one with Royal Marines, will be sorely missed closer to home come the end of August / beginning of September!

[lordbyron]

The Mideast conflict reminds me of Countdown to Looking Glass, only without the nuclear strikes (so far)...

[James G]

Aug 23, 2019 17:46:38 GMT lordbyron said:

The Mideast conflict reminds me of Countdown to Looking Glass, only without the nuclear strikes (so far)...

Have patience, it'll happen!
Things are going to come to a head in this war. The Soviets are present, the Iranians are acting aggressively, Iraq is taking a beating, the Americans are in full swing with their war and the Saudis are spoiling for a bigger fight. Something will happen and then everything in the Gulf will, suddenly, become of no relevance to the bigger picture as we tumble into WW3.

[James G]

50 – Retreat, Hell!


General Hamdani had been appointed by Rashid to replace the captured former commander of the Iraqi Southern Army. Following Saddam’s death, Hamdani had been one of the fellow contenders who fought a brutal but contained fight to take the helm of the nation. He and Rashid hadn’t directly clashed though – each had fought with Saddam’s eldest son and Saddam’s brother-in-law – and once they came together in an alliance, Hamdani had secured himself a comfortable position under Rashid. With General Al-Obaidi gone, Rashid needed someone such as Hamdani to take over down in Saudi Arabia. Hamdani had the gravitas as a seasoned military commander and was believed to too have the right military skills. The new commander had gone south into Saudi Arabia and taken with him as one of his key staff officers Qusay Hussein: the brother of the deceased Uday. That young officer had served with both Rashid and Hamdani during the war against Iran. He had also married Hamdani’s daughter because, like so many similar regimes in the region, political power often came with inter-family marriages. Qusay was only a major but Rashid wanted him out of Iraq and near to the frontlines as the course of the war had taken an unfortunate turn with the defeat outside of Riyadh and then the American ground offensive through the desert. While not a threat to Rashid’s regime himself, he could conceivably be used as a figurehead for others with their own intentions. Even without the war, Iraq was beset by problems and there were still those with designs on Rashid’s seat. Hamdani was also down there too: another possible challenger to Rashid’s rule was out of Baghdad and sure to be kept busy.

The Soviet-led military liaison team of Eastern Bloc officers inside Iraq was headed by a two-star lieutenant–general. He had many tasks while here that included overseeing the activities of advisers & observers, keeping a track on the ‘volunteers’ fighting Iraq’s war for them and also helping to disseminate all that recent free-flowing Soviet intelligence into Iraq. It was a job for a more senior man after the growth in scale from the first intention. He held onto his job though and believed that it would see him get a promotion himself. The general had a big staff including several Soviet Army conventional warfare officers who were tasked to keep track of fighting inside Iraqi-occupied Saudi Arabia. They alerted him to the defeat suffered at Dammam and Dhahran long before the Iraqis said anything about it. His attention was brought to the state that the rest of the Iraqi forces were left in following the movement of American ground forces forward like they did. A recommendation was put to him by his staff, one which even he – an administrator rather than a tanker like those staffers were – could see for himself without their help. Urgent contact was made by the Soviet general with the Iraqi officer appointed to work with the liaison team. Withdraw, the Iraqi was told; have your commanding general down the desert retreat what forces he has left with haste or they’ll all be lost.

Word came back soon enough when that man got onto his superiours. There would be no withdrawal. Instead the opposite would be done: Hamdani would counterattack. The Soviet general shot off his own message to Moscow. He told them that the Iraqis were going to lose, and lose big, in the Saudi desert. Hamdani wasn’t going to pull out his exposed men and Rashid was backing him on that. The fools!


‘Retreat, Hell!’ was the motto of 2/5 Marines, a battalion of marine riflemen based in California. This came from an engagement during June 1918 – the later stages of World War One – where a company of the 2/5 Marines arrived on the battlefield at Belleau Wood and was at once told to withdraw by a French officer there. The reply from the captain in command was the famous ‘Retreat? Hell, we just got here!’: that had been shortened over the course of time. Now seventy-nine years and one month later, the inheritors of that motto and the tradition which came with it were inside their amtracs, the AAV-7 armoured personnel carriers, on the battlefield of a different fight crossing through the Saudi desert. Iraqi infantry came at them in a sudden attack. Hundreds of men on foot and dozens of tracked armoured vehicles attacked the 2/5 Marines. Marine tanks and LAV-25s, alongside helicopter gunships and Harriers too, were engaged in other fights with further Iraqi units. These marines weren’t completely on their own because another battalion was nearby and there were also heavy guns too nearby with US Marines artillery units. Still, the enemy which they faced was something significant. There would be no withdrawal in the face of them though: Retreat, Hell!

The Iraqis advanced into waves of gunfire. 2/5 Marines had dismounted from their vehicles and fought with those who came at them. Machine guns, mortars and light rockets were used first before the Iraqis closed-up and the battle became one where assault rifles and then even bayonets were used. It was no easy going for those involved. The US Marines were inside their NBC suits out under the afternoon sun. Conditions for these young men fighting so far from home were horrible. The Iraqis were brave and committed. They kept on coming. The amtracs moved around the edges of the fight – wary of Iraqi missiles which would tear them apart should they get a hit – but opened fire with machine guns and automatic grenade launchers went present. First one then two batteries of M198 towed howitzers were firing shell after shell. They used HE rounds in the main but also added in WP (white phosphorus) for the purposes of providing smoke… and additionally causing significant burns to many unlucky Iraqis. The 2/5 Marines held. They weren’t falling back. Their stand cost them casualties (seventy dead and wounded by the end of it) but the Iraqis took far more losses. Then, over on the left, tanks were spotted. These weren’t Iraqi ones. A company of M-60A1s drove forward after winning the other tank–vs.–fight they’d been in before aiding in this fight. In the face of the American tanks, the Iraqis finally broke. 2/5 Marines started moving forward as AV-8B Harriers showed up above as well. They’d too been freed of other fights and came into this engagement. Under tight control with US Marine forward air controllers directing their brother marines in the sky to make sure friendly fire wasn’t incurred, the Harriers dropped bombs, launched rockets & fired their cannons against Iraqi units out ahead of the 2/5 Marines’ attack.

The battalion attack turned into a regimental one and, while the tanks were the first out ahead, 2/5 Marines, back in their amtracs, were right behind them. Retreat, Hell!


This one fight was one of several conducted by the Iraqi II Corps as orders came from the field army commander for counterattacks to be made throughout the corps’ rear area. The Americans were trying to get behind them with the clear intention of squeezing the II Corps between Prince Sultan’s troops to the south and where the US Marines would be behind them. It failed though and so did all but one of the other efforts. Iraqi infantry were aided by some tanks in their one (partially) successful effort to counterattack the advancing Americans. The reservists with the 3/23 Marines did retreat in the face of the when caught out by the sudden attack yet those tanks – Chinese-built Type-69s – went after them. 100mm shells from their cannons blew up amtracs full of marines and when other men of the 3/23 Marines dismounted, the mounted machine guns on the Type-69s caused many more casualties. It was this fight, along with a similar one which 1/1 Marines got into but managed to hold off, which drew off much of the 1st Marine Division’s supporting firepower. Those tanks, gunships and aircraft were needed elsewhere before they could move into assist units like the 2/5 Marines who were holding. Well over a hundred marine reservists were killed. As many as much were wounded. Dozens would be reported missing later too: captured or blown apart. 3/23 Marines gave way as the Iraqis shunted their survivors aside and opened up a big gap which they intended to pour though to get at the rest of the 1st Marine Division. Alas, that wasn’t to be.

A lot of aircraft filled the sky and these weren’t Iraqi. The US Air Force and US Navy joined with the US Marines in putting extraordinary amounts of ordnance on the Iraqis who’d shattered the improvised defence line strung to keep the II Corps trapped with its supply line cut. Cobra gunships showed up too. Those Iraqis who pushed so far were in the way of this and were battered to pieces. No orders came to retreat and those who stood died where they did. Others fell back without orders though, chased by those in the sky as they did so, and then would face ‘field justice’ later for falling back without orders. To stay meant to die. To flee meant to die.

The 1st Marine Division re-established itself once darkness came. 3/23 Marines were pulled far back into the rear due to the losses taken but the rest of the 23rd Regimental Landing Team (the division had organised itself into a trio of RLTs with mixed components) took its place in the line. Prince Sultan’s Saudi & GCC troops were going to make a frontal attack come tomorrow and the marines behind would stand in the way of them getting away. If they were going to try to make a retreat, not just a series of counterattacks to break effective encirclement, they’d have to fight at their front and to their rear… and also engage those who carried on attacking them from above too. Though it hadn’t yet happened, the Iraqi II Corps was finished. The rest of the Southern Army was same. Hamdani should have withdrawn when he could, probably long before to be perfectly honest.

[stevep]

   Well hubris strikes and ruins what little changes the Iraqi regime had. What might happen now,with the current leadership discredited and much of the army being destroyed is unrest in both the north and south, with Iran probably supporting the latter.  However that seems unlikely given the closer co-operation between Iran and the Soviets and the fact we're heading into a world war.

  A major American military operation in a confused battle and no friendly fire incidents! 

  Under ordinary circumstances it would be messy but the war would be virtually over.  Although what happened to Iraq is likely to be very chaotic.  Retreating is the least bad option for the isolated Iraqi troops as they can't be sure their superiors will kill them, if only because they will need every man they can get.  However as you say the wheels are going to come off very quickly for everybody.