LIGHTS OUT DOOMED APACHE ATTACK

March 23rd’s failed Apache heli­copter attack on Republican Guard forces was per­haps the low­est point of the American effort in Gulf War II. How did the out-​​gunned Iraqis man­age to turn such a strike back?
By turn­ing off the lights.
Lt. Gen William Wallace, com­man­der of the U.S. Army’s V Corps, told the Associated Press that the Iraqis “orches­trated a local­ized power out­age to serve as a sig­nal of the com­ing Apache attack.” They also used cell phones to warn troops that the Americans were approach­ing.
Wallace got into trou­ble with supe­ri­ors for his com­ments dur­ing the war that the enemy in a Iraq was “a bit dif­fer­ent than the one we war-​​gamed against.” He defended those com­ments Wednesday:

“The enemy that we fought” in numer­ous cities in south­ern Iraq in the open­ing days of the ground offen­sive “was much more aggres­sive than what we expected him to be, at least what I expected him to be.” He men­tioned the cities of Najaf, Hillah, Samawah, Karbala and Nasiriyah.
The Iraqis were “will­ing to attack out of those towns toward our for­ma­tions, when my expec­ta­tion was that they would be defend­ing those towns and not be as aggres­sive,” he added. Wallace also noted that for­eign­ers who fought along­side Iraqi para­mil­i­taries were “fanat­i­cal if not sui­ci­dal.“
“So all of those things led to that com­ment,” he said. 

According to the Associated Press, the Pentagon has replaced Wallace as V Corps commander.

May 8th, 2003 | War Update | Comments Off Both comments and pings are currently closed.