The Last Great Tank Battle in History

this video is sponsored by keeps it's the final days of operation desert storm the second armored cavalry regiment is unknowingly moving into a village occupied by the tabakalna division of the iraqi republican guard the u.s unit is smaller and carries less equipment than those of their enemies they're unfamiliar with the ground and unaware of the iraqi forces that are positioned to attack them everything seems to be said against the regiment during the battle of 73 easting but the iraqi forces have taken the u.s for granted it takes the regiment only 23 minutes to wipe them out and what is considered one of the greatest and last tank battles of the 20th century the battle not only helped demonstrate the superiority of american military technology and strategy but also led leaders of the world to think that the us military is indestructible [Music] support dart docs and visit keeps.com docs or click the link in the description below to receive 50 off your first order two out of three guys will experience some kind of male pattern baldness by the time they're 35 the best way to prevent hair loss is to do something about it while you still have hair left keeps offers the only two fda approved hair loss products out there you may have tried them before but probably never for this price keeps delivers directly to you every three months taking the awkwardness out of any doctor or pharmacy visits for a limited time go to keeps.com darkdocs or click the link in the description below to get 50 off your first order hair loss can sneak up on you it's often too late to do anything about it by the time you notice so it's important to act fast the sooner you start using keeps the more hair you'll save visit keeps.com darkducks or click the link in the description below the persian gulf war was also known as operation desert storm the us deployed 20 000 american troops to iraq an attack to defeat saddam hussein's army however the american units were greatly outnumbered at the time touted as the fourth largest army on earth the iraqi army possessed units with around 3 000 soldiers each located in defensive positions [Music] before being called to iraq the second armored cavalry regiment provided frontline defense against the warsaw pac nations at the central part of the border between west and east germany on august 2 1990 they were getting ready for an exercise in which they would maneuver nine m1 tanks to imitate the combat conditions they would face if russia ever decided to attack west germany the captain of the regiment was 28 year old h.r mcmaster [Music] when hussein moved his troops across iraq southern border with kuwait and subdued the military captain mcmaster alerted his regiment of the possibility of being sent to iraq according to daniel l davis who was part of the eagle troop of the regiment the captain summoned the troops before the maneuver and told them quote man we must take very seriously what we are about to do it is possible that the next operations order i give will be in the sands of iraq before the year ended as mcmaster had predicted they were sent to saudi arabia with the mission to act as a forward covering element of the seventh corps the regiment totaled approximately four thousand troops between three ground squadrons an aviation squadron and a support squadron since they had mostly trained on the hills of europe their biggest challenge was to adapt their technique to the desert the problem was such that a complex exercise almost ended in disaster captain mcmaster directed his squadron to conduct a simulation of a night assault in the border region but the moonless night left the troops blinded and forced to rely on early generation night vision goggles [Music] mcmaster was aboard one of the tanks when he told his troops over the radio to change the direction towards a different objective the drivers of the bradley fighting vehicles unable to see the terrain kept on the same path directly against mcmaster's tank although his men were trying to warn him he couldn't listen as he was in the middle of giving instructions the gun tube on his tank struck the side of the bradley and speared the engine compartment luckily no one was harmed during the incident and the exercise continued as planned the troops went through several more exercises to get them ready for battle mcmaster personally visited all the soldiers to give them instructions he also reminded them that they were better equipped and were more lethal fighters than their enemies they were so well prepared that as danielle davis said quote when the time to attack came we were not merely willing to engage enemy armor we thirsted for it on february 23 1991 three days before the legendary battle the regiment was moved to iraq as an offensive covering force for the seventh corps the iraqi defense was positioned of the south and the north and the coarse mission was to approach them from the west however their intentions were discovered and the republican guard repositioned in spite of this the attack under southern iraq was successful they took hundreds of prisoners and demoralized the enemy forces the eagle troop of the second squadron engaged in battle one day later they reacted to enemy fire with a bradley fighting vehicle a tank and mortars the soldiers from the republican guard quickly surrendered around 55 tanks 45 vehicles and almost 900 soldiers were taken prisoner but the eagle troop was warned not to become too complacent because of their easy success the same day the seventh corps cleared four passage lanes past the iraqi defense the task force also secured the safwan airfield to the coalition forces iraqi ceasefire negotiations on the 25th the eagle troop entered the republican guard security zone the regiment was told to turn to an eastward axis of attack and pass the first infantry division that day the eagle troop destroyed a reconnaissance unit and captured maps vehicles and new weapons the date is now february 26 1991 during the final days of desert storm the air campaign has weakened the iraqi army and its troops are seen deserting and fleeing the republican guard and its tawakana division are all that's left the rain that fell the previous night has left a fog that limits the visibility of the troops later in the day the fog disappears to give way to a sandstorm which forces the air cavalry squadron remain grounded until the afternoon in the early morning the third squadron successfully fights company to the iraqi 50th armored brigade the first squadron destroys some scattered t-55 tanks trucks armored personnel carriers and artillery pieces meanwhile the second squadron takes over small tower colony division security outposts the three squadrons of the regiment are ordered to motor eastward past 11am sensors report movement of tracked vehicles north out of the regiment zone the troops have a feeling that a fight is near the first infantry division is taking longer than expected to join the regiment so they decide to advance until 70 easting where they reach the main defenses of the republican guard at 3 45 pm the second squadron comes into contact with the telecolony division's defenses while the other two squadrons position in the center and the south with the air cavalry's help they push the iraqi forces three kilometers more where the legendary battle will take place the eighteenth mechanized brigade of the tuba colony division and the 10th armored division of the iraqi forces are led by someone not only as major muhammad a combat officer who graduated from the infantry officer advance course in fort benning in georgia his strategy is to lure the american enemy forces into a road that will lead them into a village where 40 tanks and 16 bmp ones have been strategically positioned his units have had live fire training on the site so they're all very familiar with it the regiment is unaware that they will be entering ground occupied by the telecon division which has been ordered to halt their advance into kuwait in an article he wrote about the battle mcmaster recalls quote his plan was to engage and destroy us piecemeal as we moved over their crest in captain mcmaster's unit there are 140 soldiers 9 m1a1 abrams tanks and 12 m3a2 bradley fighting vehicles it's considerably smaller than the iraqi units what major muhammad doesn't know is that the american troops and bradley's have new gps technology that allows them to move through the ground even if they lack maps or aren't familiar with the geographic conditions they also carry depleted uranium high explosives and armor-piercing rounds the bradleys had extremely effective wire-guided missiles and 25-millimeter cannons the battle begins a little past 4 p.m sergeant john mcreynolds aboard bradley runs across an iraqi bunker from which two enemy soldiers emerge and surrender however the enemy forces have been warned by scouts that the americans are approaching it takes only 23 minutes for the iraqi forces to be wiped out despite having the strategic upper hand the technological advances of the regiment allows mcmaster's unit to destroy three tanks in only 10 seconds the us tanks and weapons are so powerful that they annihilate the enemy's vehicles even though the iraqi forces have ideal fighting positions they are forced out by their inferior weapons the anti-tank mines in the telecon division make no difference their blast damages some tanks but the repairs are quick to captain mcmaster the mines are so ineffective against the tanks that they sound like microwave popcorn popping the unrelenting advance of the american troops has a profound psychological effect on the enemy soldiers mcmaster witnesses how they stand paralyzed and panicked unable to stop the offensive the squadrons keep advancing past the limit that had been established at 70 easting but they can't stop the attack they press on until there's nothing left to shoot at around a thousand iraqi soldiers fell during the battle while the american troops took only 12 casualties the other thousand enemy soldiers that survived were allowed to bury those who were lost during the fight major muhammad lost 30 tanks 30 trucks and 20 personal carriers [Music] two days after the battle of 73 eastingh the ceasefire was announced and the u.s declared the liberation of kuwait in an interview with national geographic mcmaster said their success was largely thanks to saddam hussein's mistake of engaging in conventional warfare with the united states he said quote there are two ways to fight the united states military asymmetrically and stupid soldiers that participated in the battle believed they succeeded thanks to the hard training they received that helped them fight without fear even in the face of an enemy that had a considerable advantage over them in the words of private first class jeffrey taylor quote i'm not going to lie i was about to panic but then i said don't panic do your job lieutenant general mcmaster had a successful career in the military and his account of the battle of 73 easting is still widely studied in 2017 president donald trump named national security adviser he was dismissed a year later following disagreements on key foreign policy strategies [Music] after retiring from the army that same year he began lecturing and writing a book about his life experiences you

Channel: Dark Docs

Views: 890,957

Keywords: tank, battle, history, history channel, military, us military, army, us army, tanks, dark docs, darkdocs, dark doc, darkdoc, documentary, documentaries, short documentary, war, explainer, docu, us military news, military news, history channel documentary, analysis

Id: frnKo6B-aXs

Length: 13min 43sec (823 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 11 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/Mikhail_Mengsk]

Also one of the most one-sided ones.

[u/Reccoun]

Never say last