Heavy Metal - A Tank Company's Battle to Baghdad

“There’s a tank!” he yelled to no one in particular.

Phinney grabbed the manual override on the turret and took control from Ellis, the gunner. He put the gun tube on the T-72, almost literally. The end of the Abrams gun tube could not have been more than five feet from the Iraqi tank.

“Are you sure it’s not a Bradley?” Ellis asked.

“It’s a tank! Shoot it!” Ellis fired a SABOT round and the fifth T-72 took a fatal blow, this time from point-blank range.

Phinney released control of the turret to Ellis as the tank moved on. Pfc. Jeremy Menery, the driver, was manoeuvring around the burning tanks when Ellis came over the radio: “I’ve got another one!” “Are you sure it’s a tank?” Phinney asked.

“It’s a tank!” “OK! Fire!” This T-72 was about thirty meters away down a side street. A SABOT round killed it instantly.

I was directly behind Phinney’s tank, looking for targets, as it fired. But the pace of the column was picking up so we could get the company through the kill zone. I spotted one tank in an alley but did not have time to shoot and radioed its location back to third platoon, which was trailing me. One of its tanks killed the final T-72.

The entire tank battle in the streets of Mahmudiyah lasted less than five minutes. In that brief span, Charlie Company tankers killed seven T-72s and two BMPs. At times we were firing from point blank range. No one ever heard of such a thing, much less done it. It was like the gunfight at the OK Corral with tank main guns. The fastest gun wins. We did some quick reaction training in Kuwait before the war, but not at these distances. We were practicing at 1,000 to 2,000 meters. Anything else was considered dangerous that close to a tanker.

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