First thing first. Maneuver warfare is essentially an orchestral work. Musicians make great manuever
people because of the ability to time and space things correctly. The general is a conductor.
During Desert Sheild there were shepherds that where black Nigerian and Sudanese that would show up in
the middle of the field anytime we did movement operations prior to the invasion. Just like the Horse
Cavalry used Indians to scout the west because they new the terrain the Iraqis clearly used the shepherds
to spy on us. At one point I made eye contact with one and it was clear as day they were counting us. At
least three times they stopped our formation with the herds in the middle of the field. This was to study how
we would react.
After the Battle of Khafji it was obvious to the Iraqis that even after sending in three armor brigades that the
Americans and Arabs could still control the battlefied once it regrouped from the intial shock. 25 Americans
died during that cross border attack and yet three days later they were routed out. Chuck Ingraham and
the crew played a big parts as well as 10th Group and the Saudi National Guard.
Knowing they could not hold Kuwait City they designed a plan to hold us and get out of there when the full
invasion kicked off. Like drilling a platoon you use a pace man. Usually the first man in first squad is wh0
you call left on as you watch his feet. The rest of the platoon responding to your voice is actually following
that first squad leader.
Every inch of air and space is coordinated in maneuver warfare so artillery and airpower do not upset the
ground effort. Everything must be based of the pace element. The african scouts assumed that would be C
3rd Tank Battalion based on the field operations they had watched.
They established preposition artillery strikes to channel us into the wall at Kuwait City. They used sacrificial
troops( probabaly no more than a squad) to hold us in position and offset timetables in order to evacuate
the city. That battle lasted three or four hours because it went from night to day. They had no intention to
destroy us but simply hold up the pace of the I MEF advanvce and it worked.
The IMEF Commander was still prepared because we had Tiger Brigade to our far left flank acting as an
armored cavalry regiment. When the escaping troops bailed out they leapfrogged over us and nailed them
outside the city.
The Iraqis just used good scouting techniques.