Purpose of this blog

Dmitry Yudo aka Overlord, jack of all trades
David Lister aka Listy, Freelancer and Volunteer

Sunday, February 16, 2014

Chief of Battle: Part two

 Part one can be found here

Late at night on August the first 1990, Kuwaiti Intelligence learned of the impending Iraqi invasion.  They immediately flashed the warning up through the chain of command.  The Kuwaiti 35th Brigade hurriedly started to mobilise its Chieftain tanks.  They were hampered by having some squadrons detached to guard duties elsewhere, and numerous soldiers away on leave.
As the unit began phoning around trying to find soldiers, one of the Brigade officers began combing through personnel files of soldiers on base.  If they'd had any armour training, no matter how long ago, they were assigned to composite crews.
Meanwhile other troops started to load ammunition into the tanks. Unfortunately this wasn't complete by the time the unit moved out at 0600.  In the previous 8 hours the 35th Brigade had managed to find 36 full crews, and partially load their tanks with ammunition. There hadn't been time to boresight (zero) the guns, and the tanks were carrying insufficient supplies of water.  The number of tanks was further reduced when one tank broke down on the very short march north.
The 35th Brigade deployed two battalions that day.  The 7th Battalion had 25 tanks, in three understrength companies while the 8th Battalion, was just a single company of ten tanks.
The 7th Battalion who were in the lead deployed in hull down positions, in a line, near a graveyard between the town of Al Jahra and Mutlaa ridge.  A six lane highway ran diagonally down from the ridge to Al Jahra, and then linked  to a ring road.  There was a police station next to the road on the ridge, and the 7th Brigade sent a reconnaissance vehicle there.  It reported a column of Iraqi's advancing down the road, this turned out to be the Republican Guards Hammurabi Division. 
As the Iraqi's reached the ring road at 0645, the 7th Battalion opened fire.  For the Chieftains with their fearsome firepower the range the Kuwaitis were firing at was practically point blank (around 1500 metres).  Here at last was the tank battle the Chieftain had been designed for, defending a line against a larger force of Soviet armour.

The pounding the Iraqi's were taking suddenly let up. Lieutenant-Colonel Al Wazan, the commander of 7th Brigade had received orders to cease fire and return to base!  For a few moments the Iraqi's could collect their battered wits, then LTC Al Wazan used his initiative and ordered his battalion to open fire again.
By now the 8th Battalion had arrived on the battlefield.  There was an Infantry unit inside Al Jahra that would be surrounded so the 8th Battalion was ordered to advance and link up with the Infantry.
Captain Ali, the commander of the the Battalion moved up to the first obstacle, the six lane ring road around Al Jahra.  He quickly realised that any attempt to cross the road, especially the central barrier would result in a massacre of his unit. With that in mind he fell back and emplaced his company to the east of the 7th Battalion on the other side of a road that led to the west from the Ring road.
Almost immediately after taking up positions a car came screeching up behind Cpt Ali's tank.  He was happy to see the gunner from his normal crew leap out of the drivers seat.  The gunner was the battalions best shot, and had been at home on leave when the news of the Iraqi attack had come in.
No sooner than the gunner had taken his seat, he spotted and killed an Iraqi command/observation vehicle that was mostly obscured by a bridge.  Then an Iraqi platoon of three T-72's wormed its way through Al Jahra and tried to launch a flank attack on the 8th Battalion.  The Kuwaiti tanks easily spotted them and destroyed all three.
As the morning wore on the tanks had been engaged for a long time, and now the lack of water began to tell, on both sides.  At some of the lulls in the battle soldiers from both sides queued up next to each other to buy water from a local roadside water vendor.
About 1100 hours a new threat began to develop.  Along the road leading to the west came a second Iraqi division.  This was the Republican Guards Medina Division.  A small battery of SPG's had set up there to support the tanks.
The battery commander upon seeing the tanks approach at first thought they were Saudi re-enforcements so he closed with them.  As he got closer he saw the tanks were T-72's. If he ran now after being spotted, the Iraqis would realise they were Kuwaitis and obliterate them.
So he decided to bluff, he walked up to the lead T-72 and spoke to the commander and gathered some intelligence on the Iraqis.  When the tanks drove past they were none the wiser.

With enough warning from the artillery position the 8th Battalion shifted so that it refused its left flank, and could keep the Hammurabi Division to its front and also cover the back of the 7th Battalion.  The Medina T-72's stormed down the road towards Al Jahra unaware of exactly what was happening.
The Medina Division drove between both Kuwaiti battalions and as it entered the frontal arcs of the 7th Battalion all the defenders opened fire wreaking havoc.  As the Medina Division fell back after a very short exchange of fire the artillery battery took them under bombardment.

By early afternoon however, the 35th Brigade was running out of ammunition, the tanks had three rounds left at most and many had less.  Equally the lack of water was becoming a concern.  The biggest issue was that the Medina Division was forming up for another attack from the rear.  With no other choice LTC Al Wazan ordered his brigade to retreat.  The brigade crossed the border into Saudi Arabia at 1630.
The Chieftain had proved it was able to do exactly what it was designed to do, hold larger forces of Soviet armour at bay.  The 35 Chieftains had held up the lead elements of two divisions for nearly ten hours.  As well as the one breakdown the brigade had only lost two tanks in the battle.

24 comments:

  1. Considering the greenness of the crews I think the Chieftain came out very well here. It really is a shame that it's engine was underpowered. With a decent one it probably would have sold better abroad.

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    1. They bought the export model - it was better than the homegrown one

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    2. Britain NEVER makes export models better than the homegrown version. The reason why? Because Britain never wants to face an enemy with the same equipment as their own troops that is/was better. You will also find that the USA also follows this way of thinking.

      Why do people automatically believe that export = better? It may be the case for certain whisky's but military equipment is not one of them.

      Assumption is the mother of all ****-up's!!!

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    3. We did export Mk.5 Chieftains to Iran while most of our own regiments were still equipped with Mk.3s, though.

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  2. Nice read as always! Keep it up!
    Also, any chance we could get a write-up about the Battle of Long Tan?

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  3. There is one problem with T-72's,export versions,mainly those which were exported to east had much worse armor compared to T-72 in Russia,for exmaple T-72 during desert strom etc had laminate in/on armor,guess cheapest version of T-72,who knows if this is not same case?

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    1. They are not T72 tanks. They are copies made from 2 originals that Sadam purchased. Instead of laminated armour, they were all steel armour, hence the losses. Old T55/type %( sights etc were used just to get the thing off and running. They were named Lion of Babylon. The only thing It can be compare to a T72 is its shape

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    2. so chieftain export versus t72 export? sounds fair match to me. And before anyone gets too excited about that comment, look up results of battle. Fairly even considering Chieftains were defending know territory, attacking forces are always at a disadvantage.

      anyway yet another fascinating article listy!

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    3. I beg to differ sir, the Lion of Babylon was not as inferior as you describe it, it was an upgrade to the regular T-72M1 Tamyia monkey model. with thermal sights and pods for electro-optical countermeasures to counter ATGMs and upgraded armor (Laminate). the saddam T-72M1 Monkey models had poor armor and poor quality as you said, but not the Lions. they also upgraded numerous other vehicles (T-55s especially). as for this attack, it was'n a good example of the cheiftain's performance. the Iraqis were screening around blind as a bat while the kuwaitis had their gunsights fixed on their approaches. anyways great article but some of the writing is alittle "short" and raises alot of questions, such as iraqis and kuwaitis lining up to buy water from a local vendor in a lull.

      peace

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    4. and if I may ask, what is the story or location or history of the last photo of a destroyed chieftain tank? is it a kuwaiti tank or an iraqi? or is it a souvenir photo from the iran-iraq war?

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  4. And that's why the Chieftain will never make it in the game. Because "Russian tonk, stronk tonk, best tonk in world!"

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    1. How nice it would be if WG starts to replace the FV215b with the Chieftain.....
      Dream... Dream... Delusions...
      What do you think Overlord. Will we see the Chieftain until 2024 in WoT?

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    2. Thanks for the answer. I will then continue with dreaming. :-)
      Btw. nice article, will there be a third part?

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    3. Just be careful about what you wish for... =)

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    4. No part three, I couldn't find any other battles the Chieftain took part in.

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    5. Wouldn't the Chieftan be a better replacement for the FV4202 instead of the FV215B?

      Chieftan was model FV4201 and Conqueror was a FV214. It would seem that the Chieftan should end up on the Medium line instead of the heavy line.

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    6. Well,having in game 60s and sometimes 70s tanks is realy hard to cover "close to wwii" era, and puting here 80s tanks...well just add here t-80, m1a1 abrams....
      i heard that is planed game which will have modern tanks in it, so you will have chieftain here :).

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    7. The Leopard 1 already exists within the game and was introduced AFTER Chieftain.

      @ Craig..... Chieftain fully loaded weighed 62 tons. This is NOT a medium tank and it was ONLY ever designated as an MBT.

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    8. Did the Kuwaitis have the option of night engagement with the Mk.11 TOGS? If your mission is to stop Iraqi armor, get in the desert, let them pass and shoot up their logistics F2 as they drive by.

      British 120mm is so bulky they have to split it in half to stow it.

      OTOH, .50 cal comes 250 to a box or a 1,000 per 7.62 belt. Properly applied, they will do for a truck just as well and take half the space.

      Also every battalion has more than tanks, they have some form of ammunition carrier and engineer vehicles.

      These should have also been deployed at rally points so that the Kuwaitis could harass the Iraqis all the way into the outskirts of KC.

      If you're soldiers and not actors, you're there to fight for your country and make the enemy bleed for as many inches as you can before they take the mile.

      Commandeer trucks to bring up ammo if you have to. Conserve maneuver fuel by slingshoting off tank transporters. Roll the enemy up from behind. Organize with the infantry to overrun laagers and steal tanks when your's go dry.

      Never give up. Never yield. Always fade to strike someplace softer, easier, elsewhere.

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  5. Why is it that you take the time of publishing this? Is the cheiftan entering the game?

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    1. I leave this quote here:
      "OverlordFebruary 17, 2014 at 11:20 AM
      In dreams, for now."

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  6. and somewhere in the end of the kuwaiti-iraq war was at its closure the kuwaitis got support from the americans that send in the M1A1 Abrams and helped the kuwaitis win the war and i find that war very interesting due to all that happened :) but this was truly a great job Lister :D

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  7. Well sorroy to say that our home grow tank was no better then the export is true out in the field we lost 6 tanks cos they would not start or kick over happy to say the mk 12 to 15 was a lot better cos we had upvgrade the power plant

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