The Road to Safwan: The 1st Squadron, 4th Cavalry in the 1991 ...

The Breach 127
firing into each and every foxhole and bunker they passed. Burdan
noticed that the western-most company was heading in his
direction and continuing to shoot at anything its crews considered
hostile. Just as he reached for his hand mike to remind the
battalion command group that he was waiting at the contact
point, the approaching armor let loose a stream of machine-gun
fire in his direction. Cursing, as bullets were pinging off his vehicle,
Burdan dropped into his hatch and began yelling repeatedly
“Cease Fire! You are shooting at friendly units to your
west!!” over the brigade command net. LTC Patrick Ritter, the
battalion commander, reacted within seconds and got the tank
company under control. 30
Even as darkness began falling, the Iraqis continued to resist,
firing artillery and mortars at the lanes cleared through the
forward positions. Now the loss of those hours of daylight
when the division waited became critical. Evening found the
1st Brigade still in the process of clearing the Iraqi fighting positions
on the western part of the objective. The 2nd Brigade
had cleared its sector on the eastern side and had reached PL
Colorado. The 3rd Brigade was ready to begin its attack. However,
just after dark, a soldier either stepped on a mine or detonated
one of the many unexploded bomblets on the ground.
His death added to the concern MG Rhame had about continuing
his attack with the 3rd Brigade after dark. This was the
same force that had formed the core of Task Force Iron and had
suffered the resulting casualties from the Apache strike. It had
not trained at the National Training Center and therefore had
little experience in night combat operations. In addition, there
was still much work to be done as American engineers had still
to mark lanes for the following 1st (UK) Armoured Division. 31
The corps commander also had concerns about continuing
the attack in the dark. He wanted three divisions and his armored
cavalry regiment concentrated ready to strike the Republican
Guard Forces Command like a strong fist. He feared that
dawn would find his left wing strung out and the breach area
was not yet clear enough for the logistics units to begin moving
forward. After talking to his senior commanders, including
Rhame, Franks gave the order to hold in place for the night. 32
By 1800 hours, the squadron was on its objective and had