With you at the first, with you to the last.
Regards, Ivan
Posted on 03/16/2003 5:03:58 PM PST by MadIvan
Britain's SAS and the tanks of the Desert Rats are set to play a far more important role in the invasion of Iraq than previously believed.
The war plans are a compromise between two opposing arguments within the United States military over whether the conflict should be fought with light or heavy forces.
They include no role for the 1st (US) Armoured Division and the 1st Cavalry Division, which have yet to arrive in Kuwait and were expected to provide the bulk of the armour.
That leaves the 116 tanks of 7th Armoured Brigade, the Desert Rats, with a key role on the eastern flank of the attack, providing half the force protection for the US Marines.
The plans also require extensive use of US, British and Australian special forces units like the SAS which will move forward ahead of the allied forces, bringing down aerial attacks on key targets.
The 3,000-strong Combined Joint Special Operations Task Force, which includes two SAS sabre squadrons, will secure chemical and biological weapons stocks.
They will also be the first troops into the major towns, snatching key regional supporters of Saddam Hussein to disrupt the Iraqi president's control over the country.
The plans abandon the so-called Powell Doctrine of overwhelming force, named after Colin Powell, the US secretary of state, who formulated it for the 1991 Gulf war.
The confidence of allied commanders that a smaller number of troops will be sufficient has been increased by intelligence showing that the Iraqi army is falling apart.
Between 10 and 15 per cent of troops in front-line divisions covering the northern approaches of Baghdad have deserted over the last month, a senior British defence source said yesterday.
The estimate, gained through signals intelligence and aerial photography, indicates that thousands of men from Iraq's 350,000-strong conscript army have fled their positions without a shot being fired by allied troops.
"We don't know where they [the deserters] have gone," a British official said. "But they are not with their units."
The war is expected to begin later this week with a massive bombardment of Baghdad. The escalation of the allied patrols of the no-fly zones, which began in September, has destroyed the vast bulk of the air defences.
That will allow the allies to concentrate on the capital, with more than 3,000 cruise missiles and smart bombs picking out every single presidential, government and military building in a move intended to "shock and awe" the leadership into surrender.
The ground war, code-named G-Day, could start while the bombardment is underway, with at least two thrusts towards Baghdad.
On the left of the allied front, the US 3rd Mechanised Infantry Division, with 250 Abrams tanks, will head straight for the capital, a 350-mile dash that will stretch the supply chain to the limit.
On the right, the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, including 25,000 British ground troops, will move in to occupy the south.
The Royal Marines of 3 Commando Brigade, supplemented by more than 2,000 US Marines, will take charge of Basra and the southern port of Umm Qasr, which will be key to the allied supply chain.
The capture of Basra will also be key to the allies' attempts to win over world opinion. They hope to have scenes of Iraqis welcoming allied troops as liberators appearing on television screens across the world within days of the invasion.
The allies plan to capitalise on the Iraqis' low morale with a "soft-kill" strategy under which they will neutralise rather than destroy formations.
Areas seized by the allied forces will be flooded with humanitarian aid to win the "hearts and minds" of the population and convince forces in other regions of Iraq that it is in their best interests to surrender.
Britain's 7th Armoured Brigade is to deal swiftly with the Iraqi 6th Armoured Division, based just north of Basra. If the Iraqi troops surrender quickly, the British tanks can join the rest of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force on a second push towards Baghdad.
Remember 9/11!!!!!
Regards, Ivan
After reading the Stratfor analysis of Army deployment delays and foul ups, it seems much of the diplomacy was an attempt to kill time so the Army could get it's sh*t together in terms of deployment.
I'm sure Rumsfeld is pissed.
What's going on? I've read several stories about this. It seems like there are troops minus their equipment (101st doesn't have all its gear, iirc) and, conversely, equipment without its troops. Do we have all this adequately sorted out? Like most here, I'm tired of the constant delays ... but ... I wouldn't mind it at all if we delayed some more so that we could get all our ducks in a row!
"Bravo Two Zero" (about the Gulf War TRUE STORY) and "Immediate Action" about how young McNab came to be an SAS trooper is also a great read...it was the primary reason all SAS personnel are now required to sign nondisclosure agreements before entering the service. It's also the reason SEALS have to do the same thing thanks to "SHARKMAN" Richard Marcinko and his series of books thinly disguised as ahem..."fiction."
Back to the thread..this is a B-I-G mistake to keep the heavy armor out of the scenario. The Abrahms is arguably the best tank in the world and was one of the "sealants" to the first Gulf War. And okay, I'm biased, speaking as a former M1A1 tank officer. But I'm telling you any invasion without "Whispering Death" is going to go FUBAR before you can yell "ON THE WAAAAAAY!"
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