part0034

Ivy Mike and Bram Stoker had another assignment that night. Even though their brigade was us at Al Jubayl on the coast, they had been assigned to the Division Intelligence pool, and sent well south this time, to report on suspected movement west of Highway 75. Earlier that day, air reconnaissance had seen a concentration of Iraqi forces around the old desert airfield of Hadhar, but the initial assessment had been that these were brigades reorganizing and resting after the intense fighting around Al Nairyah.

There was no paved road that led to Hadhar, just dirt roads that made their way through the shifting sands, there when they are used, gone when no one came that way. Lieutenant Ives tried to find a reported secondary road using satellite imagery, but all he could see was the empty desert.

Yet the relatively flat and open ground was easy going for tracked vehicles, except in areas of dunes or heavy sand. As highway 75 ran due south, it was fringed by rocky terrain to the west, an area of about 20 kilometers. But beyond that broken ground, things flattened out to empty, hard arid desert, and that was where Hadhar, and several other desert airstrips, had been set up. US planners at OMCOM were worried about it, because it looked like a natural route south.

What they did not know was that Iraqi special forces battalions had been scouting the way south all the previous day, and that night there was a major movement south by the Talwalkana, Nebuchadnezzar, and Al-Medina Divisions of the Republican Guard. They had followed thin desert tracks connecting these little used desert airstrips, to the southernmost strip at Muhaysh. There the ground became more difficult again, with dunes to the west and stony ground to the east, so the column stopped near Hill 1165 to rest, all lights blackened. At 03:00, they planned to move again, looking for the road east towards the junction of Highways 75 and 80.

Infrared air recon saw the long column glowing, and the alarm was raised at King Khalid AFB to get Strike Eagles up. On the ground, Lieutenant Ives and his sidekick Sergeant Stoker had checked in at the headquarters of Panther Brigade, 3BCT of the 82nd Airborne, and then they went up Highway 75 through the hamlet of Urayarah to a substation about 10 kilometers south of the Abwab Heliport. It wasn’t long before they spotted trouble.

The Iraqi 2nd and 3rd Special Forces Battalions had been operating on the ground all night, moving like shadows over terrain they found very familiar to that back home in Iraq. They had picked their way through rocky gullies to a small hill, labeled 912, and Sergeant Stoker spotted movement there before dawn on the 28th of November.

“Right, Colonel Jenkins at Panther Den told me they tangled with our patrols last night. We need to get north up 75, and then get off the road to the west. Its rough country, but I think we can get through.”

They worked their way west of the highway, using hills marked on the map to guide them. Hill 1083 was the highest point on the map, and also easier to get to in the Hummer, so they were up on that hill at 03:00, just as the Iraqi Republican Guard column began to get moving. The silence of the desert was suddenly broken by the deep distant growl of big engines.

“Intel was right,” said Ives. “There’s got to be a big column out there, probably just beyond that high ground on the horizon. They must have used that open valley north of this air strip to get down this far last night, then tried to lay low.”

They watched for some time, until the sound of tanks was palpably evident on the cool desert air. It was a big column, bigger than a division, and that raised Sergeant Stoker’s hackles.

It was, in fact, the Al Medina Armored Division, led by its 14th Mech Brigade, with 2nd and 10th Armored Brigades following. What they did not know, was that three other brigades had already passed this point, and they were well to the east, two independent infantry brigades and the 10th Mechanized Brigade of the Talwakana Division. There was even more force at the tail of the column, as yet unseen.

Now they could hear the sound of helicopters, flying low over the ground bringing in more Iraqi special forces teams. It was clear to the Lieutenant that this was a major offensive advance, and he stated so in his urgent report to 3BCT.

For years, as the military missions began to shift away from anti-terrorism deployments, the TO & E’s of various US Army units began to change to reflect the growing “Great Power” competition underway. This was even reflected in the structure of the 82nd Airborne Division, which had begun by adding a so called “tank battalion” to its order of battle. It began with Alpha Company, 4/68 Armored, a new unit attached to the 82nd. The catch was that instead of “tanks” like the M1A2 Abrams heavy tank, it had light armored vehicles, the LAV-25A2, a vehicle the USMC was using.

After that first company found its way into the division structure, a new idea emerged from the RAND think tank for the conversion of an Airborne BCT into an “Airborne Light Armored Infantry” force. Since the LAV-25 could be deployed by parachute, or carried in C-17’s, the addition of 12 transport LAV’s and another 8 recon versions would add additional protection, ground mobility, and firepower to an otherwise air lifted brigade.

In this history, that concept was embraced by converting the 3rd BCT of the 82nd Airborne with this new TO & E, not just one battalion, but all three. That put 60 LAV-25’s on the ground at Rivet Joint One, which was the code name given to that vital road junction where Highway 75 and 80 crossed one another. The division also had the 73rd Cavalry Regiment, with a squadron attached to each of the three BCTs, and after moving by helicopter to their deployment zone, the were each assigned ten M1A2’s from prepositioned war stocks that had been in the Kingdom. So while the 82nd remained a light infantry force by design, it nonetheless had some teeth in its structure, and all the infantry battalions were also lavishly supported by Javelin and TOW AT systems.

That said, the warning sent by Lieutenant Ives was quite stark. He was advising 3BCT that a heavy column was heading their way with both APC’s and tanks. This deep envelopment was much bigger than anyone at OMCOM had surmised, and it got General Walter Conyers quite concerned. He had flown from OMCOM in Muscat to King Fahd Airport near Damman to get in the saddle for the fight that was drawing closer by the hour.

It soon became clear that the Iraqis had masked the entire front along the lines of the U.A.E. and Saudi forces, and then sent the bulk of their Republican Guard divisions on this big overnight maneuver east of Highway 75. What concerned him most was that the Saudi lines ended around the town of Hanidh on Highway 75, which was 75 kilometers north of the 3rd BCT positions. There was nothing on that road, which made that a big 75 mile gap now that there were strong enemy forces approaching Rivet Joint One. His 3rd BCT was an island, with no friendlies on either flank for miles .

“They came up Highway 615, sir, and just reached Black Gold.” That was Supply Base Ahsa, in the heart of the Ghawar oil fields. Asha was the largest city in that region, encompassing Al Mubaraz, Al Hasa, Al Qarn and Al Hufuf.

“Then let’s get the Marines to Rivet Joint One, on the double. The Saudis are still too far forward given this development. They need to fall back into this area where the heavy dunes will limit the Iraqi infiltration tactics. That should allow them to extend their line south. One more thing. Tell 1/75 Rangers that guard duty is over at the Aramco Plant. Get them moving down Highway 80 to reinforce 3rd BCT. Then we’ll need to pony up assets from the other two BCT’s. Detach both recon squadrons and have one infantry battalion from each brigade ready for airmobile lift on my command. This thing is getting close to paydirt, and we’ve got to hold the line.”

“You mean 1st Division? They could be two goddamn weeks for all I know. That’s up to the Navy. The Saudis are asking for support from Qatar, and now that they see the U.A.E. is in this thing, they’re more inclined to answer that in the affirmative. And our good friend the Sultan is mobilizing his people the get them over here as soon as possible.”

That was, of course, Taimur bin Assad, the current Sultan of Oman in this history, who succeeded Qaboos bin Said Al Said that very year. Oman had perhaps the second largest Army on the Arabian Peninsula after that of Saudi Arabia, and might be able to contribute seven or eight Brigade/Regiment sized units once they were fully mobilized. At that moment, however, The Iraqi Army was knocking on both the front and back doors of Ghawar, and they had to be stopped.

The Eagles and Apaches were also on the prowl that morning. Two Squadrons of F-15 Strike Eagles were based near Riyadh, and they began targeting the Iraqi column that had made its bold advance on that deep left flank. They were joined by 1/17th Heavy Attack Helicopters, their Apaches going in to try and slow the enemy advance and clog up their roads with burning vehicles.

The Iraqi advance continued in spite of these attacks, though it would take them all morning on the 28th as the brigades of the Al-Media Division began to arrive just east of Rivet Joint One. The Karbala Infantry Brigade had taken a position on Hill 853, which was right near Highway 80, about 15 kilometers west of the junction. They soon found themselves mostly surrounded by four US battalions, until they were joined by the19th Mech Brigade of the Talwakana Division, and their LOC west was secured.

Even with the addition of those LAV-25’s, US Airborne troops weren’t about to make assaults against such a heavily armored enemy force, but they would dig in and hold their ground. The brigade artillery battalion was busy all morning, shelling that hill, and Hill 912 20 kilometers north, which had been occupied by an Iraqi special forces battalion. The Iraqis did not press any attacks either, beyond scattered mortar fire. They were waiting on the rest of their corps….

After they made their report, Ives and Stoker had skedaddled east, the Hummer bouncing over the rough ground. They made their way to Hill 781 near Highway 75, just in time to see even more Iraqi troops arriving about ten kilometers to the north along that road. As the Saudis withdrew, they had extended their line south to take up positions along the Highway, as far south as the heliport at Abwab, so the right flank of Rivet Joint One was finally covered.

US reserves continued to flow to the scene, with 3/325th Battalion arriving by helicopter from 2nd BCT at Al Jubayl, and 1/504th Battalion humping it up Highway 80 from 1st BCT in Dammam. The Armored brigade of Bahrain, with 60 older M60A3 tanks, informed OMCOM that it would stand ready to move down Highway 80 if called upon to provide armored support. Around noon, General Conyers decided that the Iraqi infantry up on hill 853 had too good a look at the US positions, and he ordered it taken.

The soldiers of 3rd BCT stormed up that hill, supported by their own artillery and attack helos, and kicked the Karbala Infantry Brigade off those heights by 01:00. Atop their new perch, soldiers of 1/73rd Recon could see the distant smoke and dust rising from big movement to the west. That afternoon, they saw the mech brigades arriving, and now the full scale of the Iraqi concentration was known—a full corps of three Republican Guard divisions.

General Conyers’ force had now swelled from four to ten battalions, but they were looking at an equal number of Iraqi brigades, with at least 100 tanks, and plenty of AFV’s. The position the US forces now held stretched from a refinery substation ten kilometers north of Urayarah, due south over the newly captured Hill 853, and another ten kilometers south to the Mobile 1 airstrip and pipeline pump station. Beyond that, and all along that flank, was the craggy escarpment of Jiba Ash Shuab, which pretty much made any enveloping sweeping maneuver further south around Mobile 1 dubious at best, if not impossible. So the 82nd dug in and waited to see what Saddam’s boys would do. In the meantime, they would watch the fireworks as that concentrated enemy force became the object of F-15 Strike Eagles, B-1’s out of Al Udied in Qatar, and the Buffs [4] , all the way from Diego Garcia.

It was a move that was sound in principle, well executed, yet fraught with potential shortcomings that could make it very risky. Taking three divisions of the Republican Guard and running them into that valley sweeping south towards Highway 80 was an almost impudent move, as the US Generals at OMCOM saw things. Lt. General Scott, the theater commander, summed things us nicely.

“Alright, here’s the latest photo recon from the Air Force this afternoon, and this concentration is the Talwalkana, Nebuchadnezzar, and Al-Medina Divisions of the Republican Guard, three of their very best. They’ve been fighting, and on the move for 96 hours, so they have to be winded, and now this move around that flank has them at the end of a very long supply line, and some of it over rugged terrain. In short, we think they’re tired, hungry, and perhaps needing fuel, but as these photos show, they appear to be organizing for an attack up Highway 80 towards Dammam.”

The photos didn’t lie. They showed the mechanized companies forming up, armor behind them, but what was notably absent was artillery. The big Iraqi self-propelled guns were cumbersome and slow, and none of the battalions had made it that far south. So the Iraqis would attack without the historical queen of the battlefield, artillery. All they had was a few organic guns and mortars.

“Gentlemen, they think they’re looking at a thin line of Khaki out there, just another brigade they plan to blow through. But if they’d squint, and look a little closer, they’ll see the Stars and Bars on the shoulders of our troops, and that makes all the difference. We’re not just anybody and his mother out there, we’re the 82nd Airborne Division, United States Army. We’ve built up to perhaps two brigades in strength against ten of theirs, but that’s deceptive. Any one of the ten battalions we have on the line has the raw muscle, firepower and fighting prowess to equal any Iraqi brigade you put in front of it. So they’re going to have to bunch up on us, and we’ve got the air power to hurt them when they try that.”

“That’s what we think they’re counting on. That attack is being made by their Andan and Al Faw divisions, also Republican Guard, but light motor rifle brigades, with one armored brigade in the mix. That said, at noon we saw movement south from An Nairyah, and we’ve now identified yet another Republican Guard division moving south on 75, the Baghdad Division, with three mech brigades. So that makes it a six pack, gentlemen—six of the eight Republican Guard divisions committed to this one offensive. Their intention is obvious. The two groups want to meet and shake hands at Rivet Joint One, but that isn’t going to happen—not on our watch. This is going to be the biggest fight the 82nd has had since the German counteroffensive in 1944. What happened there, Skip?”

“Sir, the 82nd Airborne Division faced off against 1st SS Leibstandarte, 2nd SS Das Reich, and 9th SS Hohenstaufen Divisions as they attempted to reach and relieve Kampfgruppe Pieper.”