Battle of 73 Easting: The Gulf War Tank Battle In A Sandstorm | Greatest Tank Battles | War Stories 

My squadron was in this battle 73 Easting. I was the unit armorer for HWB 2/2 ACR and our battery was supporting these troops with artillery support during this battle. I am so proud to serve this squadron during this battle. Bamberg, Germany. Our Gunny was SFC McNally, Supply Sergeant was SSG Lynch, Commo NCO was SGT Thompson, SFC Miller was the Motor Sergeant, SSG Burns was his asst, LTC Kobe was our Squadron Commander, and who can’t forget SSG Mourad my good friend. I finally retired in 2006 with the rank of Sergeant First Class, (SFC). These were the greatest years of my entire life supporting and fighting for this great country of ours!

Friend of mine was a royal marine mortar man. He told me of a time he had to keep putting mortars down for 2/3 days solid barely getting any sleep as they had no air cover due to the storm. When it cleared he found hundreds of dead Iraqis that he and his team wiped out. I remember him saying he had a personal congratulations from an American General. He said they had 2 week rest at an American base and couldn’t believe the food and drink they had there. Pizza Hut and Burger King in the middle of the desert. Still looked really skinny when he got home tho. Thanks to all our troops who served 🇬🇧🇺🇸

My younger brother was in Apaches and said he flew over the remnants of t-72s and other vehicles and said he would have never expected such a slaughter and as many said "felt sorry" for the Iraquis because it simply was not a fair fight even though all the hype and propaganda would say otherwise before the 100 began. His squadron took out radar, scud, and anti-aircraft sites. He said that was also a slaughter. His son, my nephew, died in the second engagement after 9/11. So we left one of our own there. That we will probably not get over and we miss him very much still. Him and i were best buddies, the typical "cool uncle" thing and colaborated on alot of music. His name is Bryan D. Hitchcock Jr.💖 and he is our hero!!!😥

This guy: We knew the Republic Guard was strong. We respected them. Eagle Troop: So basically, we used their corpses to gain better traction on the sand.

I was 22 when I was over there. I'm 52 now.........thirty years whent in a flash.

I like when the guy in the Bradley is like “we don’t fight tanks”

My uncle served in Dessert storm .. Thank you to all who served .

As a soldier, I NEVER want a fair fight. I want to dominate my enemy so much that he will never even consider going against me in the future.

Ahh when history channel was actually enjoyable

Andy Kilgore was my battalion executive officer in 2003 when I was in 3/8 Cav, 1st Cavalry Division. He had a combat patch I assumed was from Desert Storm, but I had no idea about the degree to which he was involved. Literally the last great tank battle of the 20th century. Thank you , and God bless you sir.

When History Channel actually talked about history instead of idiotic stuff about aliens and bigfoot

I watched these vids as a kid, I’m a soldier now and this gives me goosebumps -I can imagine the anxiety of these battles must’ve been insane for these guys

Battle of Medina Ridge...so proud to have been there..learned a lot about myself during that engagement...God Bless all who served.

With thermal sights one is never "blind" . Bradley gunner during Desert Storm, I served with C 3/15 Inf. 24th ID.

Clearly a dedicated if totally outgunned and outmanoeuvred enemy but these U.S. Forces still speak highly of them. They describe the situations and the way they executed their attacks but they still pay tribute to their enemy and their tenacity. Their professionalism, skill and equipment won the war but the way they speak shows their honour and human side.

Republican Guard - We are warriors, our tanks are amazing America - Just keep pressing that button until there's none left.

Imagine spending decades building this amount of tanks and artillery just to have it all destroyed with very little effort.

I have never clicked a history video so fast. My dad fought in the Gulf War, he was in the United States Marine Corps during the time.

I was assigned to 2nd Sqdn 2nd ACR in Bamberg Germany from August 1984 to Mar 1986. It gives me immense pride and pleasure to see that my old unit was as dangerous as we all knew it was.

They forgot to mention KFFs. Killed by Friendly Fire. My buddy was in an M2 that took a direct hit from an M1A1. He had a massive scar where he was hit by shrapnel, 4 guys dead, others wounded.

"I had them play Flight of the Valkyries" Lmao probably the most cliche thing he could have done haha

I remember the attack back then. The one thing that infuriates me even to this day is the inability of higher command to seize the imitative and move at lightning speed to overwhelm Iraqi forces much sooner than was done. The whole purpose of coalition strategy was move fast before the enemy could react, and they squandered it. Thankfully, our forces were so technically superior it didn't matter, but it could have been much more bloody than it was. We might not be as lucky next time.

The only thing I dislike about the documentary is how the animations depict the tanks engaging at such close range

I love that Bradley commander. I think every scout can honestly relate.

That was the biggest field training ever for the US forces.

I knew a nurse who worked at the VA hospital in Chicago at that time. We're talking on the phone just before this war started, she said they had 10,000 beds ready for casualties. I told her that was a waste of time. Reason being to US military had spent the last 10+ years training in the desert to fight a Soviet style army. What are they facing? A Soviet Style army in a desert. This is going to be more like a live fire exercise than a real war.

I served with ACT 2nd ACR back in 1975 in Germany - a time I am proud of being part of a group of awesome soldiers and pilots

1st Infantry Div. Mechanize - I was so young back then. The Mother of all Battle

That was more like the Massacre of 73 Easting. Iraq had either completely and hopelessly obsolete MBT'S or ones which were downgraded to a level they were absolutely useless. They didn't even have ammunition (which the Soviets otherwise had just didn't sell them any) that could have at least in theory penetrate an M1A1 from any direction and at any range.

Served in Eagle Troop 98-01. Command taught us a lot of the Regiments history but surprisingly this battle wasn’t part of it. Toujours Pret!

When I went to Iraq in 2005, I was assigned to 3rd ACR under then Colonel H.R. McMaster. He was serious and personal, he had a gift for explaining complex issues in simple terms and cared for the soldiers under him. Best officer I ever served under.

When Dad was home off the ship, I used to follow him outside in the late 80’s and early 90’s at night. We would pop out about every 45 minutes or so. He would point in a direction and tell me to watch for a moving light that would come up over the trees. As the night wore on his timing would get almost perfect for when it would appear. When it would pass by, he would go back inside and play on the computer until he got up to head back out. Sometimes he would mention a constellation it would pass through or talk about earths rotation and orbits and how the milky way is so much brighter at sea. I always just thought it was an amateur interest and he appreciated being able to see the sky since he spent so long underwater on the boat in the early 80’s. After years of looking for satellites in the night sky once I left for college and such, it slowly started to dawn on me that he must have been privy to gps and it’s predecessors. Still get the “if I tell you, I’ll have to kill you” line accompanied with a laugh when we stargaze these days and I try to bring it up. Fond memories though and it led me to appreciate the night sky even more. Now we mostly text about rocket launches and I’ll show him pics or give descriptions of what I can see coming over Charleston out of Florida. I never did learn all the constellations and besides Orion and the Dippers, I’ll get lost. I can point out a bright spot figuring it’s a planet, but he can still distinguish the ones in the sky without any sort of reference and tell me which one is Jupiter and Venus, Mars or Saturn.

I like he had a picture of Erwin Rommel in his vehicle. One of my former collegae's was on a Dutch submarine as a sailor. He said they had Opa (grandpa in Dutch) hanging in the submarine. He said they have a picture from Karl Dönitz hanging. Rommel for the tank tactics and Dönitz for the submarine tactics.

We lost more people to friendly fire than the enemy!!! True as the wind blows!

21:03 The greatest strength of the American military has always been our ability to learn from our enemy and integrate their best ideas into our tactics. There's an old saying: "War is chaos, and the Americans practice it on a daily basis." But what that saying doesn't take into account is we practice it to the point that its a choreographed dance to us, and chaos to our enemies. When you fight the US military, you're not fighting just us. You're fighting the French. You're fighting the British. You're fighting the Native Americans, the Imperial Germans and the Nazis, the Italians and the Japanese. And in this particular battle, that force came in the form of a 120mm, 60 ton rolling Rheinmetall canon encased in composite armor and powered by a jet turbine. If someone told me one of 1st Cav officers decided to slash the burned out husk of what used to be a Soviet T72 export missing a turret with a calvary saber, my only thought would be, "yeah. That tracks." Pun intended.

One of the more interesting takeaways from this was the American tank commanders coming through those dust storms, black smoke, etc and seeing all those vehicles didn't hesitate to engage. That's what allowed our technology to be the most effective. They just basically blitzkrieged them without really intending to. They couldn't have planned it any better in relation to our equipment vs theirs.

30 years later, I still remember the news coverage.

*GPS* „In the next 200m Turn left“ *Driver* Turns left *Tank drives over a object* *Commander* „Did we just drive over an Enemy Tank?“

During that battle my squadron was grounded, he said 15 yards, that was a damn sight further than i could see. After the sand storm cleared we were literally in a mine field of unexploded cluster bombs, amazingly no one was killed.

Why is the music so crazy loud !?

When the sound editor is the last man in the production chain ...

Iraqi conscripts quickly proved that they were very good at kneeling down. During the "surrender" ceremony, the Iraqi Generals were surprised when the Coalition Forces asked for their 26 prisoners of war to be returned, in exchange for the 70,000 Iraqi prisoners that they were feeding.

I remember seeing one hand held GPS. My unit .. C Co 3/32 AR traveled across the desert with our tanks in a wedge formation and our FIST tucked inside .. the FIST track had GPS and would say .. "... Left ... Left ... Left . .OK .. straight .." over the company freq .. and that is how we navigated

My boss was a lieutenant with a platoon of M1's. He lost not one tank to enemy fire. He lost 3 out of his 12 tank unit to our own Airforce. Friendly fire scared him more than any Iraqi. They didn't take the time to identify targets, many didn't speak English well enough to understand what was being told to them.

I went into the channel and searched for this tank battle in particular. I love this kind of devastating victory by a technologically advanced USA. Hope America keeps the lead by keeping its military great, well into the 22th century.

I was there. 101st airborne division. 18th airborne corps. C co. 3/187th reg. Combat team. Air assaulted into the Euphrates river valley.

Imagine being a 25 year old and driving and firing one of these tanks in an actual combat operation....

I wish I had taken a pic but where we crossed the berm into Iraq there was a sign that read "Welcome Iraq, the 51st state, home of the 24th IN DIV"!!!

I was in the VII CORPS during the Gulf War. 3RD ARMORED DIVISION. Also I was in the unit 2nd ACR from Bamberg Germany from 1984-1986 before Operation Desert Shield Desert Storm and personally know the soldiers narrating this video.

The segment from 24:00 to 30:30 No disrespect to the Americans, who are insanely brave, superbly trained, and have some of the best armour in the world, but if the best Iraqi units allow a pair of Bradleys to just drive right into their position, pick off 5 of their tanks, and get away, it tells you something about the state of the Iraqi army.

I was a 63E10- H8…….M1A1-M1A2 Tank engine mechanic and tank recovery specialist in the Army, I remember when my maintenance team went to go fix tanks on the battlefield during the ground war phase, we saw so many T-72 tanks and support trucks destroyed it was mind boggling. The bodies in the support trucks were black and burned to a crisp and what ever they were doing or movement they did before getting destroyed is what the burned bodies were still positioned at, I even saw a guy who was still alive with his lower body completely cut off and he was pulling himself forward with his arms.

I'm kurdish I know that Iraqi dictator army were so scared of Americans Nearly all iraqi army were destroyed in few days by American heroes. Thank you America kurds love you

This was my unit. This is the battle and war I fought in. For all those here that where there...Salute my brothers. TOUJOURS PRÊT! Always Ready!

One thing that troubled me about our invasion and conquest of Iraq, was that almost immediately after we completed the mission, our generals were all too eager to be interviewed for documentaries about the strategy and tactics used, as if this was the last war we would ever fight. Then we paraded around like we just won the Superbowl. Dumb and low class. We should have honored the dead on both sides. Bush 41 should have given a solemn speech about the tragedy of war. I mean, let's act like we've been in the end-zone before and that we are a Superpower. I think we've let too much Hollywood BS infect our public perception of how our military should operate and how foreign policy should be conducted.

Thank you all for your service

Desert storm made me join at 18 in 1993. My Squad leader was in Desert storm and had a CIB from fighting. My platoon sgt was in a wrecker and was given a M3 grease gun with 5 rounds of ammo.

War music: ride of the Valkyries. A good choice.

One of the American commanders seem like telling a story about his escapade from school. So cool and relax. Well he lived to tell the tales.!

I was in a Marine infantry battalion and was responsible for testing the TOW missile systems for safety. I got to go on a few live fires. Good stuff

There have been several versions of this History Channel's "Greatest Tank Battles' episode on RU-vid. This is the best so far.

They don't mention the air war before the land war? That is one of the main reasons they surrendered so readily - they had been bombed back to the stone age.

26:00 the sweetest thing I've ever seen

Fight until the fighting is done and morn later. I still honor my fallen every Veteran's Day and Memorial Day. 1991 and 05-06 OIF. "Sapper's Lead the Way"

The late 1980's/early 1990's Army was the best America has ever put in the field.

29:00 This sounds very familiar to the scene in "Saving private Ryan" where Captain Miller is firing his 45 pistol to ward off a tiger tank and then a P 51 destroys the tank. Wondering if the Spielberg put this in the film. 35:00 A tanker told me it was a like a video game. All he had to do to track and lock up the target was to look at it and press a button. He said that if the T72 could get a round off at them, the round would hit them and bounce off.

My wife and I were stationed in The 25th Fwd. Supp. Batt., and our units were going. Strange thing we knew what was going on but it didn't seem like a big deal to worry about. Turn on TV, and it's over! It was VERY exciting to see.

The dude who got hit with a tank round in the chest. Wow. He felt absolutely nothing, that's probably the quickest way to die ever. Disintegrated in an instant.

This was one of the most one sided battles in history.

Every American soldier, sailor, airman and marine, of any rank, will take the initiative to bring the fight to the enemy. Nuff said!

This is like a grand version of a game of World of Tanks, except one team is tier 7, and the other is tier 10.

I hate how after every break for commerical you have to get a recap of what you just watched.

One of the most one-sided victory ever in modern warfare history

"Part of a multinational force..." In other words, Eight and a half parts US, one part British, and a half part a bunch of other countries observing the US and British.

AS A YOUNGE MAN GROWING UP IN CFB PETAWAWA CANADAS LARGEST MILITARY BASE WHERE MY FAMILY RAN THE AMBULANCE SERVICE AND PRE 911 EMS COMUNICATIONS SYSTEM I WAS BLOWN AWAY AT THIS PROGRAM. 1991 WOW THATS 33 YEARS AGO. TIME FLY'S BABY

I was 11 when this happen. I grew up watching old war movies with my dad. This was out of this world watching this happen. And it was on tv, I remember thinking it was like a movie but real.

I was stationed at Ft Irwin NTC as the OPFOR in the late 1980s to early 1990s where we trained for this scenario over and over with countless rotations. Glad the training paid off and it was quick with minimal loss to our side.

When I was Iraq I came up on a tank battle that was just over .i seen so many Iraq tanks destroyed,but never saw any American losses. Every Republican guard i saw alive had there hands up surrendering.what they had was n no match against m1 Abrams and Bradley's.i saw countless at4's laying on the ground,so it wasn't all tanks and Bradley's.

US Military Strategy And Tactics Are Outmatched !

I will just say that in 2003 we were cut-off from all others and ended up in a sandstorm in Iraq heading towards our next objective and if we had become ambushed in the middle of it all to add insult to injury, well, it would've been interesting. I think, looking back on it all, there might have been many more losses in the field by us veteran's who were serving in the 3ID. I know this is about the Gulf War (D.S.) but the 2nd fight in Iraq involved the same elements like the sandstorms where you could barely see anything & in the case of the unit I served in, we had no comm's or anything with anyone for awhile. I am always thankful we survived and fought on. Stay safe brother's!

Excellent video."Rommel,you magnificent SOB,i read your book"...:) (George C. Scott in "Patton".!!

Really enjoyed this one. The initiative of the individual American unit commanders was superb.

The USA has a lot of problems, but people underestimate how good the US Army is at a conventional conflict.

i served with 4th inf. div. 10th ACR LZ ALBANY LZ X ray, lz black hawk. M60 52 ton tank no M-1's . just like fireing a very big rifle, (90 MM main) 50 cal. heavy , 30 COAX. VC NVA loved it. like shotgun rounds wil scratch your back. 1969

It wasn't a battle, it was an execution.

Abrams tank is just too good. They can target and hit them farther back and faster.

The unsung story that was never told is how the US and the defense industry were able to upgrade around 900 tanks within a year from M1's to the M1A1's. That's around 5 tanks a week that it's depleted uranium mesh in the front and upgrade the gun from the 105 m to the 120 m gun that is there today. Along with it being painted in desert colors, it got done and a big reason why better armor protected the crew. When an M1A1 did get hit, the shells just bounced off the tank.

The U.S Air force and navy had this war won before the first tank ever started moving. Air superiority within hours and revolutionary precision bombing. It was over when it started.

Great battle and story with the American side, but this was the battle that the Challenger MK I killed a T-72 at 3.18 miles while the Abrams could only do 1-2 miles because of the smoothbore gun while the Challenger was rifled for greater accuracy

Just stumbled upon this page and I absolutely love it!! 👊🏾

So, this is the war that made the Abrams one of the most feared tanks in the world. Pretty badass.

I was a medic in 2/2 cav during this battle and the days leading up to it and after.

Saddam forgot about technology. Apparently the Russian's didn't tell him satellites exist, GPS, jammers, and that his tanks had no reach and were sitting ducks. Plus he thought having no air force was a good idea. Only threat he had was chemical weapons card.

The BMP doesn't Have a 76mm Gun, its a 73mm Gun, is a Variation of the 73mm SPG-9 Recoilless Rifle Later Variations, the BMP-2 and BMP-3 have a 30mm and 100mm + 30mm Main Guns Respectively

I spent an afternoon in an Abrams Tank Simulator and you can't imagine the team work t takes to operate a modern Tank. My hats are off to those guys.

This brings a tear to my eye. God bless our US troops! Thank you for defending freedom

RIP Sgt Powell , Sgt Strelow & PFc Martin friendly fire

Back in 1980 I was a Combat M.P. in the ARMY and was the gunner on a Gun Jeep.... We mounted à PA System and tape player on the jeep,. But we'd play the Woodstock Album with Country Joe and the Fish: The I got the feeling I'm a gonna die RAG !!! You know, Come on all you Big Strong Men, Uncle Sam needs your help again.... He's got himself in a terrible jam, Way out yonder in Vietnam.... So put down your books and pick up a gun, we're gonna have a whole lot of Fun.... And it's 1--2--3 what are we fighting for.... Don't ask me I don't give a damn, next stop is Vietnam.... And it's 5--6--7 open up them Pearly Gates, ain't no time to wonder why, whoopy we all gonna DIE !!!

Playing “Ride of the Valkyries” while riding a tank into battle is the most gangster move I’ve ever seen

I like how he explains and the video of the tank battles! Brings back memories to world of tanks when it was good on console

37:00 that’s how I want to go. Tank round through the chest at point blank range lol