A Bradley on the flank was the first vehicle to get hit by one of the tanks. It was the tank of the platoon leader. You could see the "silver bullet" track right in on that fucker on the playback of the gun camera. And it went through the turret and out the other side. Set off all the main gun ammo on the Bradley and apparently killed all the crew and scared the driver enough he bailed out.
By then our Abrams were down to under two klicks and starting to score. The Iraqis suddenly decided that the Javelins in Khuwaitla were less important than the tanks on their flanks and tried to turn to face our Abrams.
And then the Strykers hit from the south.
They'd bridged the watercourse well to the south and moved up through a screen of trees a couple of klicks down. This was my last platoon of U.S. infantry, First Platoon, and they had a dual mission.
As they moved up, they dropped Jav crews into depressions and those guys started lighting up the armored vehicles. But the main purpose of the Strykers was the line of trucks, filled with infantry, which were following the tanks.
The trucks were mostly still on the road and pretty spread out. U.S. ten tons. (Thanks, State Department!) And a bunch of them had .50 calibers in ring mounts, which can do a number on a Stryker.
If there was any effective fire from those trucks, it wasn't evident. The Strykers spread out and took them all under heavy fire with main guns and the TC's gun. They took out one of the lead trucks, first, which backed up all the others. The others tried to escape onto the fields. Some of them bogged down. None of them were as fast as the Strykers off-road.
The Iraqi commander wasn't done, though. He still had about fifteen Bradleys and ten Abrams and he finally got his artillery firing into Khuwaitla. It was random and mostly fell on the back side of the village but it was a nuisance and we took some casualties. Including one of the Strykers in the village when a 155 round fell right on it.
Out in the fields, it was mano y mano as the Abrams and Bradleys charged each other. I couldn't have that.
"Scouts. Roll out and take the Brads in the ass."
Strykers are not supposed to engage Bradleys. Bradleys are much tougher and even have TOW missiles on them.
But when four Strykers are attacking from the rear while ten Abrams are attacking from the front, thirteen Bradleys are in a bit of a pickle.
There were still the remaining Abrams, though. The enemy's that is. One of ours had been taken out and more were about to be charging right at each other. And with them heading north, most of the Jav teams couldn't get an angle of fire.
"Samad. Get the remaining Jav teams out of the houses. Have them engage only the enemy tanks."
Time of flight became an issue. The two groups closed fast. But Javs started launching up. Not as many as I'd hoped. Clearly we'd lost some of the Nepos. But they were outbound.
The two groups closed to within less than a klick when the Javs started falling on the enemy Abrams. Coming down from the rear, they had a choice (based on their targeting software) of engine, turret or gun.
Most chose engine. Nice big heat source.
It got very fast and furious for a moment. Then six Abrams charged out of the smoke and dust. They ran actually through the formation of Strykers, turned around and charged back in.
"All Javelins, cease fire."
I hoped I'd been in time.
Javelins are very smart rounds. And, somehow, the Nepos managed to sort our Abrams from their Abrams. I couldn't.
Out at the trucks, our infantry was accepting the surrender of the surprisingly large number of survivors.
Battle of Khuwaitla bottomline:
Enemy losses.
Destroyed vehicles:
Forty-three Abrams Main Battle Tanks.
Fifty-three Bradley Armored Fighting Vehicles.
One hundred and four trucks.
KIA: 3800 (approx).
WIA: 2500 (approx).
Prisoner: 1586 (exact).
Captured equipment:
Six damaged Abrams MBT.
Twelve damaged Bradley AFV.
Seventeen Ten-Ton Trucks.
Nine Paladin Mobile Artillery Systems.
Friendly losses:
Four Abrams Main Battle Tanks. (Two recoverable.)
Three Stryker Infantry Carriers. (One recoverable.)
Two Stryker Scout Vehicles. (One recoverable.)
One Hemmitt. (Supply truck. No, the wounded weren't on it.)
Nepalese Auxiliary Infantry: Sixteen WIA, four KIA.
U.S. Army Personneclass="underline" Seven WIA, nine KIA.
Twenty-three and Thirteen to Twenty-five hundred and Thirty-eight hundred.
That's balling the ace.
Chapter Seventeen
Honorable Bastard
We weren't done but we mostly were done.
Wellington had a great quote for the moment the last enemy vehicle was stopped:
"I have never lost a battle. But I cannot but think that the only thing worse than a battle won must be a battle lost."
The fields between the village and the ridge were covered with burning vehicles. Guys were wandering out there chaotically. There were still some shots, especially .50 caliber. A defeated enemy that don't want to be killed had better surrender on a battlefield. Running is the same as fighting under the laws of war.
A lot of my boys, American and Nepalese, were dead. More were injured and that was in a way worse. We didn't have any doctors or medevac.
And we still hadn't taken Mosul or Irbil or the fuel we needed.
I ordered my guys to take prisoners and sort them out. And to use the "special protocols."
Normally, say back in WWII, the way that you take prisoners is this.
You round them up. Any who "show fight" are taken under fire but otherwise you just round them up.
You separate them into three groups: Officers, NCOs, enlisted.
You keep the groups separate.
You ensure the security of the prisoners at all times. Once you capture an enemy fighter, his security is higher than your own security or those of your fellow soldiers.
That's if you're fighting the Germans. Which we don't do anymore.
With Middle Eastern forces, especially any that included or could include "hardcores," that is guys who were fundamentalist nutballs, you used the "special protocols."
There were still three groups: Officers, enlisted and "hardcores."
How to define "hardcores"? It's an art. First, you look for any guy who's got a beard. Military units, even most Middle Eastern units, are down on beards. I'm not talking about stubble, I'm talking about a full-up soup catcher. Fundamentalist Islamics are big on soup-catchers. (Says you're supposed to have one in the Koran. Surah something. Look it up.)
Closer up, you look for the guys who are glaring at you. Look, these guys just took a pasting. Ever been in a fight you lost? I mean, just got the shit kicked out of you? Do you glare at the guy who just kicked your ass? No.
Not unless you firmly believe that Allah or whoever is on your side. Then you keep glaring while he kicks your ass again and again.
Got a beard and glaring? Definite hardcore. Beard and not glaring? Possible. Glaring? Probable. We tended to be conservative. Possibles went into the "hardcore" file.
And you didn't just round guys up. You had them strip down, first. Why? Because hardcores hid grenades and shit in their clothes and would use them on you. And you couldn't be sure you got all the hardcores. Although if a guy had a grenade in his pocket you could figure he was a hardcore. So everybody, from generals to privates, stripped down to underwear. Then the guys searched their clothes. Then a rank tab or other sign of rank, if any, was ripped off the uniform. They were told to hold that in their hand and keep it where it could be seen. Then they were separated.