Anyone heard/know of Battle of Kuwait Airport?

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echoco
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Anyone heard/know of Battle of Kuwait Airport?

Post by echoco »

A few months ago I was researching something and came across the 1991 Gulf War Battle of Kuwait Airport. I've never heard of it before and couldn't find any account of it but the name. I'm looking for more detailed information especially an account of the battle.

From what I gathered its supposed to be fought between Marine Armor and Iraqi republican Guards. I don't think its a major battle but it got my interest because of it being the few battles where Marines get to use their Armor in mass.
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Post by Charles Lewis »

Intrigued I did some digging. I could find no reference to it on wikipedia. Not deterred, I checked out the Marine Corps History Division. There was no mention of the battle in the chronology for 1991.

http://www.tecom.usmc.mil/HD/Chronologi ... y/1991.htm

Unless it was part of a larger engagement, I'm not sure what to tell ya.
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MarkG88
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Post by MarkG88 »

Good question echoco!

This was under my radar as well. Here is what wikipedia's entry on the M-60 Patton MBT had to say about it though:
The M60A1 RISE (PASSIVE) of the U.S. Marines saw limited action in the Gulf War in opposition to Iraqi tanks, opposing various enemy tanks including T-54, T-55, T-62, Type 69, and the T-72. The M60A1s were fitted with reactive add-on armor packages and supported the drive into Kuwait City where they were involved in a two day tank battle at the Kuwait airport with the loss of only one vehicle and no crew. They saw service with the United States Marine Corps, and the Saudi Arabian Army.
That was from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M60_Patton


Not much but at least a hint....but wait there's more....


At G+3, DOD announces that U.S. and coalition forces are engaging, outflanking, out-maneuvering and destroying armed and fully retreating Iraqi troops throughout the KTO as ground offensive continues; 21 Iraqi divisions have been destroyed or rendered combat-ineffective; Marine recon unit is the first U.S. force to enter Kuwait City, retakes control of U.S. Embassy. Marines comb neighborhoods for Iraqis. Pockets of resistance remain, including Republican Guard units and at Kuwait International Airport, where Marines engaged Iraqi tanks.
That is from Feb 26 entry for http://www.history.navy.mil/wars/dstorm/dsfeb.htm


Also http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/ ... it-iap.htm mentions the airport battle but gives no real details.

Now the 3rd Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion website (http://www.29palms.usmc.mil/fmf/3rdlar/Bn%20History.asp) has some good stuff, apparently they were the sharp tip of the spear going into Kuwait, Kuwait City, and International Airport.

Surprisingly enough, the single best source of info on this battle I could find doing some late night surfing was the following:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/in ... 022891.htm

This is an article by Molly Moore for the Washington Post datelined Feb 28, 1991 and it states (in the last third of her article): "In one battle, aging Marine M-60 tanks destroyed about 100 Iraqi tanks and armor, including about 50 top-of-the-line Soviet T-72 tanks, the commander said."

Now it's not clear if this was at the airport or leading up to it (I was tired when I did this so that's a factor here too lol). Also why the M-60s are "aging" but the Iraqi T-72s aren't is typical journalist fluff.....these tanks were peers with the Iraqi tank being over 20 years old in 1991.

But this has to be the "big armor clash" the Marines were in near the airport. Based on the other sites I noted, sounds like this is the tank battle and the actual occupation of airport was a matter of combining Marine armor assets with Naval and various air assets to seize it the next day and keep on advancing through to the U.S. embassy in Kuwait City.

A Time magazine article (datelined March 11, 1991) confirms this was the armor clash at the airport btw and it is at: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/artic ... -7,00.html

-Mark
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echoco
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Post by echoco »

Thanks CL, Mark.

Played around with google and found a book with the battle name in the contents

http://books.google.com/books?id=EcCv1w ... HhslSJgD84

The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Gulf War by Charles Jaco, most probably a brief paragraph.

Its a shame there isn't much information on this battle, its a unique, how often do you hear of Marine tank-to-tank battles (are there?).
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Post by dpgrant38 »

0 - An author whose last name is Gilbert has published several titles, including "Marine Corps Tank Battles in the Pacific," "Marine Corps Tank Battles in Korea," and "Marine Corps Tank Battles in Vietnam." The reviews on Amazon.com are pretty positive.

1 - Battle for Kuwait Airport: hundreds of tanks in a 2-day, all-out battle, only one lost on the US side, with no loss of crew. Marine Corps M60A1s with explosive reactive armor to protect them. Iraqi tank crews were not well trained and using poorly maintained equipment.

2 - U.S. Marine M60A1 tanks saw limited action in the Gulf War. Iraqi tanks included T-54, T-55, T-62, Type 69 (Chinese), and T-72.

4 - on Saipan, in a Japanese tank attack, 31 light and medium Japanese tanks were destroyed, some by American Sherman tanks and 75mm self-propelled guns (Priests?). The Japanes medium tanks had new 47mm guns, very light compared to the Shermans' 75 mm low velocity gun.
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echoco
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Post by echoco »

Thanks for the info, got me happy there thought there was specific about Battle of Kuwait Airport, still good.

I have to admit I didn't look into much about US Marine Armor in WWII, Korea or Vietnam since I assume they were always used in infantry support but this revived my interest, Korea in particular.
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Post by MarkG88 »

Here is another USMC tank tidbit I came across while reading the massive Air Power Survey of Operation Desert Shield/Storm:

But the superiority of American (and Coalition) equipment explains only a portion of the success. On the second day of the ground offensive, a platoon of Marine M1A1s manned by reservists ran into a battalion of Iraqi tanks deploying to counterattack. Despite the fact that the Iraqis outnumbered the M1A1s, and the encounter engagement took place at close range in daylight conditions, the Marines destroyed thirty-four enemy tanks in less than ten minutes; they suffered no losses to themselves. This single example underlines that the crucial factor in the Gulf War lay in the superiority of training that Coalition forces had received during the previous decade. That training advantage overshadowed whatever combat experience Iraqi forces had gained against Iran.

Lt Col J.G. Zumwalt, “Tanks! Tanks! Direct Forward!” Proceedings of the U.S. Naval Institute, Jul 1992, pp 78-80.
What is significant about this engagement, as opposed to most others in the Gulf War, was the fact that it occurred at relatively close range and with both sides caught by surprise. Thus, the combat conditions should have negated some of the technological advantages of US weapons systems. The results, however, were the same: the utter destruction of the enemy forces and minimal damage to US forces.


The second paragraph was the footnote referring to the commentary in the first one. The topic of that particular section was on the ground war component of Desert Storm and whether technology or training was more critical. The interesting part though, was the fact that it stated the unit was armed with M1A1s and not M60s, so apparently the Marines had both in Desert Storm.


-Mark
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