WnH THE I MARINE BXPED~IONARY FORCE IN DESERT SHIELD AND DESERT STORM         79


A TS4BJTS5 series tank is located just inside the inner barrier, about five kilometers west ofAl
Jaber Air Base. Otder tanks such as these were dug in as part of the primary iraqi defenses. Many
did not sortie out during the assault and were struck in their holes by various Marine weapons.
The crew of this one onty managed to fire its machine gun before being overrun and captured mid-
morning on 24 February 1991. Newer T62 and T72 tanks were part of the Iraqi operational
reserve which conducted counterattacks the next morning.

from six departure/penetration points that went through the Berm along a 12
kilometer front.  These were named like beaches:     from left to right ran Red 1,
Red 2, Blue 3, Blue 4, Green 5, and Green 6.          The 1st Marine Division's
liaison officer, Lieutenant Colonel Howard P. Shores II, who was familiar with
the terrain and the obstacles, suggested the location of breaches.  Each lane was
marked about every kilometer by appropriately colored plastic garbage pails,
spray-painted with lane numbers and phase lines. The lanes converged down to
a four-kilometer front at the first obstacle belt, and then continued in parallel
until past the second belt.
    As the divisions approached the obstacle belts, the flat, thinly grassed desert
gave way to slightly undulating sandy terrain interspersed with small, low-lying
salt flats (sabicha's) that had become difficult with the rains but were traffica-
ble.  Although oil-filled trenches were burning in the area, the divisions had
picked their breach points well; none of them obstructed the force.        At the
obstacle belts, combat engineers launched single and triple-shot line charges
across the belts that created more or less continuous V-shaped trenches about a
meter deep.  Into these cuts went combat engineers and tank crews in M6OA 1
tanks configured   with track-width mine plows       and mine rakes.      Despite
casualties to the equipment, the Marines were able to open up 5-1/2 meter-wide
lanes to permit waiting armor and mechanized forces to pour through.
    There were many examples of courage and innovation during breaching.
About a third of the line charges failed to detonate.  When this happened, tank
plow crews pressed on anyway.   At some locations Marines went on foot into