Qualla: Battle of 73 Easting https://qualla.com/battle-of-73-easting en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:31 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/t/j/3/0/battle-of-73-easting-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Battle of 73 Easting https://qualla.com/battle-of-73-easting Battle of 73 Easting: Introduction https://qualla.com/battle-of-73-easting/ Photo credit Uncertain (possibly Tom Johnson Nottingham, UK), Public domain. The battle is named for a line on a map that nobody on the ground could see. In the featureless desert of southern Iraq, Coalition forces measured their advance by UTM grid lines -- invisible north-south coordinates readable only on GPS receivers. On February 26, 1991, the 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment was pushing east through blinding sandstorms when it crossed the 73rd such line and ran headlong into the dug-in defenses of Iraq's Republican Guard. What followed was twenty-three minutes of concentrated violence that destroyed an Iraqi tank company and set off a running battle lasting into the night. Lt. John Mecca, who fought there, would later call it "the last great tank battle of the 20th century."

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Image: Uncertain (possibly Tom Johnson Nottingham, UK) | Public domain

]]> Sat, 28 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/t/j/3/0/battle-of-73-easting-wp/tj30-battle-of-73-easting-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Battle of 73 Easting: A Hail Mary Through the Sand https://qualla.com/battle-of-73-easting/ Photo credit Fury 1991, CC BY-SA 4.0. General Norman Schwarzkopf's ground assault plan hinged on a sweeping left hook he called a "Hail Mary." On the night of February 23, VII Corps raced east from Saudi Arabia into Iraq, aiming to cut off the Iraqi retreat from Kuwait and destroy five elite Republican Guard division...

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Image: Fury 1991 | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Sat, 28 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/t/j/3/0/battle-of-73-easting-wp/tj30-battle-of-73-easting-a-hail-mary-through-the-sand.mp3 0:06 2 full Battle of 73 Easting: Twenty-Three Minutes at the 70 Easting https://qualla.com/battle-of-73-easting/ Photo credit Fury 1991, CC BY-SA 4.0. Captain H.R. McMaster's Eagle Troop was in the lead. At around 4:20 PM, his nine M1A1 Abrams tanks crested a low rise and surprised an Iraqi tank company dug into a reverse slope defense along the 70 Easting. McMaster engaged the first T-72 himself. His two tank platoons finished...

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Image: Fury 1991 | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Sat, 28 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/t/j/3/0/battle-of-73-easting-wp/tj30-battle-of-73-easting-twenty-three-minutes-at-the-70-easting.mp3 0:06 3 full Battle of 73 Easting: Ghost Troop's Six-Hour Fight https://qualla.com/battle-of-73-easting/ Photo credit Fury 1991, CC BY-SA 4.0. Three kilometers to the north, Captain Joe Sartiano's Ghost Troop occupied a ridge overlooking a wadi running parallel to the 73 Easting. The position became a magnet for trouble. By 6:30 PM, waves of Iraqi T-72 and T-55 tanks began advancing into the wadi. Wave after wave of arm...

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Image: Fury 1991 | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Sat, 28 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/t/j/3/0/battle-of-73-easting-wp/tj30-battle-of-73-easting-ghost-troops-six-hour-fight.mp3 0:06 4 full Battle of 73 Easting: The Passage of Lines https://qualla.com/battle-of-73-easting/ Photo credit Fury 1991, CC BY-SA 4.0. By 10:30 PM, the fighting at 73 Easting was dying down. The 2nd ACR had accomplished its mission -- fixing the southern forces of the Republican Guard and mapping their defenses. Colonel Don Holder, the regimental commander, advised VII Corps to send the 1st Infantry Division thr...

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Image: Fury 1991 | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Sat, 28 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/t/j/3/0/battle-of-73-easting-wp/tj30-battle-of-73-easting-the-passage-of-lines.mp3 0:06 5 full Battle of 73 Easting: A Battle Measured in Grid Lines https://qualla.com/battle-of-73-easting/ Photo credit Fury 1991, CC BY-SA 4.0. The final accounting tells the scale of what happened in this patch of empty desert. The 2nd Cavalry Regiment destroyed 159 enemy tanks and 260 other vehicles, and captured 2,000 prisoners. The regiment's own losses were six soldiers killed and nineteen wounded. The 2nd Squadron ...

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Image: Fury 1991 | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Sat, 28 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/t/j/3/0/battle-of-73-easting-wp/tj30-battle-of-73-easting-a-battle-measured-in-grid-lines.mp3 0:06 6 full