Duel 018 - M1 Abrams vs T-72 Ural. Operation Desert Storm (1991).pdf

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M1 ABRAMS
T-72 URAL
Operation
Desert Storm
1991
STEVEN J. ZALOGA
M1 ABRAMS
T-72 URAL
OPERATION
D
E
S
E
RT STORM
1991
STEVEN J. ZALOGA
First published in Great Britain in 2009 by Osprey Publishing,
Midland House, West Way, Botley, Oxford, OX2 0PH, UK
443 Park Avenue South, New York, NY 10016, USA
E-mail: info@ospreypublishing.com
© 2009 Osprey Publishing Ltd.
All rights reserved. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study, research,
criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, no part
of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form
or by any means, electronic, electrical, chemical, mechanical, optical, photocopying, recording
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addressed to the Publishers.
A CIP catalog record for this book is available from the British Library
Print ISBN 978 1 84603 432 9
PDF e-book ISBN 978 1 84603 876 1
Page layout by: Ken Vail Graphic Design
Index by Alan Thatcher
Typeset in ITC Conduit and Adobe Garamond
Maps by Bounford.com
Originated by PDQ Digital Media Soloution
Printed in China through Bookbuilders
09 10 11 12 13
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Editor’s Note
For ease of comparison please refer to the following
conversion table:
1 mile = 1.6km
1lb = 0.45kg
1yd = 0.9m
1ft = 0.3m
1in = 2.54cm/25.4mm
1gal = 4.5 liters
1 ton (US) = 0.9 tonnes
Author’s Note
The author would like to thank Prof Mark Gerges of the
US Army’s Command and General Staff College for his
extensive help in recounting his experiences as an M1A1
Abrams tank company commander during Operation
Desert Storm.
I first met Mark more than decade ago when
I attended his lecture about the 1st Armored Division in
Desert Storm,
sponsored by the New York Military Affairs
Symposium. He had recently returned from service in the
Gulf War and had been assigned to teach history at the
nearby US Military Academy at West Point. Besides
describing his experiences as a tank company commander
to the NYMAS audience, he showed a videotape taken
by his unit recording the battle of Medina Ridge. This
videotape left a considerable impression on me as the
clearest exposition of the nature of contemporary tank
warfare I had ever seen. The battlefield was utterly empty
windswept desert; the Iraqi tanks were more than 2km
away and invisible to the naked eye. The only evidence
of their presence came partway into the tape when small
flashes dotted the horizon, followed by barely visible
plumes of smoke. It was hardly the Hollywood depiction
of modern war. So I was very pleased when Mark agreed
to help out and recount his experiences once again for this
book. I would also like to thank John Charvat, Stephen
“Cookie” Sewell and Lee Ness for their help on this project.
Osprey Publishing are supporting the Woodland Trust, the UK's leading woodland conservation
charity, by funding the dedication of trees.
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CONTENTS
Introduction
Chronology
Design and Development
Technical Specification
The Combatants
The Strategic Situation
The Campaign
Analysis
Bibliography
Index
4
8
10
25
42
51
60
76
78
80
INTRODUCTION
The Cold War never turned hot, so the intriguing question remains: “How would
NATO tanks have stacked up against Warsaw Pact tanks?” Other conflicts, fought
away from the main theater, may hint at the answer. Operation
Desert Storm
of
February 1991 provided a fascinating example of modern US versus Soviet-built tanks
in action. This conflict was not a perfect surrogate for a NATO–Warsaw Pact clash
since the latter had better tanks than the Iraqi T-72M1 and Warsaw Pact crews were
probably better that the average Iraqi tank crews. Nevertheless, close examination of
these tank battles provides an intriguing look at the state of tank technology and tank
warfare at the end of the Cold War.
Desert Storm
was not the first war which pitted US against Soviet equipment. The
first significant clash occurred in Korea in 1950 when the North Korean Army
spearheaded their attack on South Korea using Soviet-supplied T-34-85 tanks, and the
US-led intervention involved M4A3E8, M26 and M46 tanks. Although the North
Korean T-34-85 tanks proved to be highly effective in the initial invasion when faced
with poorly trained South Korean infantry, once they were challenged by US Army
tanks they suffered massive losses. The reasons were far less to do with the technology
of the opposing tank types, which was fairly similar, but instead it was primarily crew
quality which made the difference. The US crews were better trained than their North
Korean opponents, and this core issue of crew competence would resonate through
many later Cold War tank battles.
The 1956 war between Israel and Egypt involved tank combat between US-built
Sherman tanks and Czechoslovak-supplied T-34-85 tanks, and once again the results
were heavily dependent on crew quality. The 1967 Six-Day War saw the first major
clash involving tanks developed after World War II. The Israel tank units largely relied
on the British Centurion and US M48A2 Patton tanks while the Egyptian and Syrian
4

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