Battleplan 17. Flank Attack (14 of 20)

Battleplan

The Screaming Eagles of the 101st Airborne Division, use 300 helicopters to establish an FOB, a Forward Operating Base, 70 miles inside lraq.
Still unseen in the desert, the main attack force waits.
On the Coalition right, the attack is going well - maybe too well.
Arab and US Marine units penetrate the lraqi line and push on.
It 's supposed to be a deception, but they're moving fast.
The Marines are coming up from the south through two penetrations, but they're moving faster than anyone thought possible.
Everyone thinks it's going perfectly, and don't discover the problems until later.
Schwarzkopfs original plan is to begin his main flank attack the next day.

But with so little lraqi resistance, he's now in a hurry.
It 's time to throw his knock-out punch.
At midday, he launches the Hail Mary Pass - the 140,000 troops and 1,300 tanks of his unseen 7th Corps.
In the centre, the US 1st lnfantry division, the Big Red One, breaches the lraqi defensive wall of sand and brushes aside two infantry divisions.
The US 2nd Armoured Cavalry regiment pushes through to screen the advance, and the British 1st Armoured division follows to protect the right flank.
Then the main assault force rolls through.
By nightfall, the US 1st and 3rd Armoured divisions are more than 30 miles into lraq.
Schwarzkopfs fear that his force is outnumbered has proved groundless.
Within hours of Operation Desert Sabre being launched, it became clear to General Schwarzkopf that conventional force ratios did not apply.
He had forces which, on paper, were outnumbered, but in terms of quality were vastly superior.
Significantly, also, the lraqis had been subject to an incredible pounding from the air and from the ground, before the ground attack went in.
They were basically ready to surrender.