Heavy Metal - A Tank Company's Battle to Baghdad

The impact, and significance, of what we did in Mahmudiyah did not begin to sink in until after we got back to Checkpoint Cobra. And for some Charlie Company soldiers, it may be years before they fully understand the importance of that day.

It was not so much that we killed tanks in the first major tank-on- tank engagement of the war, but how we killed them. We shot main gun rounds at enemy tanks at distances that would be considered too close for a handgun fight. It was unprecedented. There were no manuals for this, no training programs anywhere to teach a tanker how to go into a city and be able to recognize enemy tanks, instantly react to that contact, and get off kill shots before he has time to realize what was happening.

In some ways we had a bit of luck going with us that day.

Because of the direction in which the Iraqi tanks were oriented, we later decided their commanders believed we would be coming in from the north, moving south on Highway 8. Had we done that, we would have driven directly into their guns. And we would have done it if I had told England just a few hours earlier to turn left instead of right.

By skirting the city’s west side, we avoided the main avenue of approach and came in from the south, unintentionally catching the Iraqis by surprise. Call it fate, the hand of God, or simple blind, dumb luck, we were in a better position to kill the Iraqis than they were to kill us.

But much of that was a result of the quality of Charlie Company’s soldiers, especially the second platoon soldiers who on this day led us through a nasty little fight that could have been disastrous had they not demonstrated the aggressiveness and initiative that they did. I could tell from their radio transmissions they were pumped up and excited. But they never lost their composure and adapted to difficult and dangerous situations quickly and with a professionalism that made me proud to say I was a part of the company.

Pinkston’s crew in the lead tank was especially critical in getting us where we had to go and aggressively engaging the Iraqis so they did not have time to respond to our attack. But all of the second platoon crews and TCs played key roles in this fight. They were able to adapt quickly to a difficult and dangerous situation and kill the enemy before he had a chance to kill any of us. Fighting in these close quarters was not something for which we had been trained, but Charlie Company soldiers responded as if it was something that was second nature.

The fight at Mahmudiyah was one of the more important of the war because it demonstrated to us and our commanders that we could take tanks into the city, fight in close quarters, and defeat a determined enemy. It was a fight that led the way to downtown Baghdad in the days to come.

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