By KIP HILL | The Spokesman-Review, Spokane, Wash. | Published: February 26, 2021 SPOKANE, Wash. (Tribune News Service) Lance Cpl. Brad Hallock woke to a very bad software glitch on Feb. 25, 1991. The just-turned-20-year-old Marine Corps reservist found himself in an M1-A1 Abrams tank as a column of Iraqi tanks rolled along less than 2 miles away from his position. He looked through his sights, but found only a large letter F indicating a failure of the 68-ton war machine s targeting systems. I had a different word I was thinking of, at that point, Hallock said in an interview this week. What followed in the next 10 or so minutes was the largest tank engagement in Marine Corps history, a designation likely to remain for some time as the service elected last year to eliminate its three tank battalions as part of a restructuring of the Corps mission.
كونا : Heroes of Kuwait s liberation remembered on 30th anniversary - الشؤون السياسية kuna.net.kw - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from kuna.net.kw Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
25 Feb 2021, 12:33 GMT
U.S. soldiers examine an Iraqi tank destroyed in February 1991, when 35 nations joined forces to liberate Kuwait from Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein’s military occupation.
Photograph by Photograph Eric Bouvet, Gamma-Rapho/Getty Images
The most pitched tank battle in the history of warfare was fought not against the Nazis in Europe or North Africa but just 30 years ago, in the desert of Iraq.
Operation Desert Sabre, the four-day ground offensive of the six-week military operation known as Desert Storm, involved a fierce tank-against-tank campaign that outstripped even World War II’s savage battle of Kursk, which saw some 6,000 German and Soviet tanks battle over a gruelling six-week period.