60                                    U.S. MARINES IN THE PERSIAN GULF, 1990-1991

years. As ground combat neared, attendance at services rose correspondingly
in Hiers' tent which a sign identified as "The Chapel of the Breach."

                        Ground Actions Before D-Day

    During the air campaign, I MEF engaged in both offensive and defensive
ground combat actions. The former included a series of night combined artillery
and air raids along the Kuwait border.  Battery F, 2d Battalion, 12th Marines,
attached to 1st Battalion, 12th Marines, conducted the first such artillery raid
with its M198 155-millimeter howitzers about 30 kilometers inland from the
coast against Iraqi rocket positions at 0315 on 21 January.          The raid provoked
inaccurate return artillery fire from the Iraqis, as was the case in many of the
other raids later on. Some of the eight principal Marine observation posts along
the Berm were the objects of probing engagements as well as artillery and rocket
attacks during the air campaign. These posts were also points of surrender for
defecting Iraqi troops.    By  1 February, 1 MEF had gathered               137 enemy
prisoners of war, most of them taken at these forward observation posts. By 15
February, the force had taken another 101 Iraqis.~
    The first major defensive combat actions commenced on the evening of 29
January when Iraqi armored/mechanized forces penetrated into Saudi Arabia in
four locations along the heel of Kuwait.  The easterumost of these occurred in
the Joint Forces Command-East area in and about the coastal city of Al Khafji
which lay 15 kilometers southeast of the main border crossing point.         Two Iraqi
armored/mechanized brigades crossed the lightly defended border.              By 2315
they were in the city.    Two observation posts and a forward operating base
manned by detachments from 1st Surveillance, Reconnaissance, and Intelligence
Group under command of the SRIG executive officer, Lieutenant Colonel
Richard M. Barry, were shelled and then isolated.             The Marines were able to
escape in the early hours of the 30th to a "safe house" inside the city of Al
Khafji until the town was retaken by Saudi and Qatari units two days later.
During the time that they remained hidden, the teams directed air strikes of
Marine Harrier jets and Cobra helicopters plus other service aircraft onto Iraqi
targets.
    There were three attacks into the MarCent area of operations to the west of
Al Khafji on the same night of 29-30 September.               One was a company-sized
diversion that came Out of the Al Wafrah sector.                The main attack was a
brigade-sized force that attempted to cross the Berm near the southwest corner
of the border about 80-90 kilometers west of Al Khafji.             The general outpost
(GOP) unit for I MEF at this time was      1st Marine Division's Task Force
Shepherd, a reinforced battalion-sized force of light armored infantry com-
manded by Lieutenant Colonel Clifford 0. Myers. After receiving initial reports
of the Iraqi assault from Observation Post #4 at 1926, Company D of Shepherd


    ~~hese actions are generally known as the Battle of Khafji. In fact the main engagement
involving Marines occurred about SO kilometers west of the city of Al Khafji.