Heavy Metal - A Tank Company's Battle to Baghdad

Everywhere we looked were photographs and paintings of Saddam.

Hundreds of people were in the streets, most of them in civilian clothes, many armed with AK-47s and RPGs. They would spot us, fire off a burst or two, and then run down one of the many narrow alleys to escape our guns.

Within minutes of pulling back onto the highway, England saw a man get out of a car with an AK-47 and take aim at his tank. He was quickly killed by machine-gun fire.

Another car, this one with six men, stopped not far from Pinkston’s lead tank. The men jumped out and began unloading weapons from the trunk. Pinkston opened up with the .50-caliber machine gun and Stewart with the 7.62mm coaxial machine gun, killing all but one of them at the car. One Iraqi began running for a nearby bunker. He never made it. Stewart walked the tracers up to him and through him, felling him in mid-stride.

The farther Charlie Company advanced into Mahmudiyah, the more small arms fire we received. The volume of fire increased from the rooftops and windows of apartment buildings that loomed over us. Some of the tank commanders were still outside their hatches. The vision blocks inside the tanks greatly restricted our view, but with all this overhead fire it was dangerous to even peek out of the hatch.

“Get your ass down before you get shot!” Stewart yelled at Pinkston, who was so concerned about getting stuck in an alley or a side street he did not realize he was getting shot at.

After the road made its wide, left turn, it swept back to the right around a corner. Just as Pinkston’s tank turned the corner, Stewart saw the two T-72s.

England’s tank was only a few meters behind Pinkston’s but was not yet around the corner when the distinctive hollow “Boom!” of the Abrams main gun echoed among the stucco buildings. That was followed quickly by Pinkston’s spot report of contact with enemy tanks.

...continued