cmh_70-117-1

they knocked out over 360 tanks and armored personnel carriers, over300 artillery pieces, over 1,200 trucks, 500 pieces of engineer equipment,19 missiles, and 25 aircraft and rounded up over 5,000 enemy soldiers.Just as surprising as these large enemy losses were the small numbersof American casualties: 8 killed in action, 36 wounded in action, and 5nonbattle injuries. In the entire XVIII Airborne Corps, combat equipmentlosses were negligible: only 4 M1A1 tanks, 3 of which were repairable.In the VII Corps’ sector, the advance rolled east. The battles begunthe previous afternoon continued through the morning of 27 Februaryas General Franks’ divisions bore into Republican Guard units tryingto reposition or escape. As the assault gained momentum, Franks forthe first time deployed his full combat power. The 1st Cavalry Divisionmade good progress through the 1st Infantry Division breach and up theleft side of the VII Corps’ sector. By midafternoon, after a high-speed190-mile move north, General Tilelli’s brigades were behind the 1stArmored Division tying in with the 24th Infantry Division across thecorps boundary. Now Franks could send against the Republican Guardfive full divisions and a separate regiment. From left (north) to right, theVII Corps deployed the 1st Armored Division, 1st Cavalry Division, 3dArmored Division, 1st Infantry Division, 2d Armored Cavalry Regiment,and the British 1st Armoured Division.The dust storms had cleared early in the day, revealing in the VIICorps’ sector an awesome array of armored and mechanized power. Ina panorama extending beyond visual limits, 1,500 tanks, another 1,500Bradleys and armored personnel carriers, 650 artillery pieces, and supplycolumns of hundreds of vehicles stretching into the dusty, brown distancerolled east through Iraqi positions, as inexorable as a lava flow. To Iraqiunits, depleted and demoralized by forty-one days of continuous airassault, the VII Corps’ advance appeared irresistible.Turning on the enemy the full range of its weapons, the VII Corpssystematically destroyed Iraqi military power in its sector. About fiftymiles east of Al Busayyah, the 1st and 3d Armored Divisions toreinto remnants of the Tawalkana, Medina, and Adnan Divisions of theRepublican Guard. In one of several large engagements along theadvance, the 2d Brigade, 1st Armored Division, received artillery fireand then proceeded to destroy not only those artillery batteries but alsosixty-one tanks and thirty-four armored personnel carriers of the MedinaDivision in less than one hour. The 1st Infantry Division overran the 12thArmored Division and scattered the 10th Armored Division into retreat.On the south flank, the British 1st Armoured Division destroyed the52d Armored Division then overran three infantry divisions. To finish61