Date with History

Warrior’s Rage: The Great Tank Battle of 73 Easting Wednesday, September 5 7:30 pm

Doors open 6:45pm Free Parking and Admission For more information call: 630-260-8187

firstdivisionmuseum.org

Experts warned Americans that U.S. forces would suffer heavy casualties at the hands of Iraqi forces who allegedly knew how to hold ground from years of fighting Iranians. But the “experts” were wrong.

Late in the afternoon of 26 February 1991, the lead cavalry troops of “Cougar Squadron,” the 2nd Squadron of the 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment, charged out of a sandstorm and caught Iraq’s Republican Guard Corps in the open desert along the North-South grid line of a military map referred to as the “73 Easting.” Taken by surprise, the defending Iraqi armor brigade was rapidly swept away in salvos of American tank and missile fire in what became the largest tank battle in the history of the U.S. Army since World War II.

Warrior’s Rage. The Great Tank Battle of 73 Easting plunges the reader into the fight and its aftermath, explaining how a victory won decisively by soldiers on the battlefield was lost by a U.S. Army chain of command remote from the fighting, one that never appreciated the power of its own armored force or the enemy’s weakness.

Colonel Douglas A. Macgregor (Retired) served 28 years on active duty in the U.S. Army, beginning as a cadet at West Point. After the first Gulf War ended, he began to formalize the lessons he learned making the 2nd ACR such a self-reliant and efficient fighting force with all the combat arms of aircraft, artillery, resupply and intelligent command & control working together based on cross-country mobile, armored platforms as the maneuvering force. He began to write and innovate new formations and organizations so the entire U.S. Army could benefit from the Battle of 73 Easting. Over the years however, a thorough examination of this epic battle from an insider's perspective had not been written as the "safe" official account and video, along with some brief write-ups did not cover the geostrategic consequences and the importance of the battle for future defense understanding so sound decisions could be made. The disaster that has followed in Iraq ever since, has made it an urgent matter that he write this book to set the record straight.