Heavy Metal - A Tank Company's Battle to Baghdad

At that instant England came on the radio to me: “Cobra Six, this is White One. We got tanks!” “What do you mean you have tanks?” I asked, incredulous that we suddenly found ourselves fighting tanks in these tight quarters.

The infantry often refers to urban combat as a knife fight in a phone booth. For us, it was more like a gunfight in a phone booth.

I thought he was mistaken and saw BMPs or something else.

“I’ve got T-72s in the street!” he shot back.

The sound of a main gun round was enough to convince me that he was right.

Stewart’s first shot hit the back slope of the T-72 sitting on the right side of the street. The extra fuel drums on back exploded, sending flames and black smoke shooting high into the late afternoon sky. The tank’s turret popped off and the engine was knocked to the other side of the street.

The brass AFCAP of the M1A1 HEAT round was ejected from the tube, hit the deflector with a clang, and fell into the catch on the floor. Lopez quickly loaded another round. But instead of the SABOT that Pinkston called for, it was a HEAT.

The SABOT with its depleted uranium penetrator is the round of choice for killing tanks. We started the mission that day with many of the tanks battle-carrying SABOT because we anticipated fighting tanks. When we encountered trucks and bunkers, many tank commanders shifted to HEAT rounds, which are more effective against those targets because of the high explosives content.

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