Condition Zebra: The Next War - 2025

Chapter 16

Sergeant James Stoker pulled off the side of the road, the big engine of his Humvee rumbling in the night. Part of an advance cadre of recon specialists, he and Lieutenant Michael Ives had been told to get forward and find out what was happening on the ground out near the northern border town of Halfar al Batin. It was actually 50 kilometers south of the Iraqi border, but there wasn’t much more than empty desert north of the city. They stopped there briefly, to liaison with officers commanding the Saudi 8th Mech Brigade, trying to ascertain their intentions, and where they might be planning to deploy. Then they took a secondary road north to the smaller settlement of As Sufayri, pulling in to the Rakan gas station just at the edge of town. They were going to need the fuel.

The two men were close comrades in arms, serving together in the 82nd Airborne for over eight years, and, having each other’s backs on more than one occasion in that time. On a first name basis, “Bram” Stoker would often call the Lieutenant by the handle the men in the battalion had given him, “Ivy Mike,” because he could have an explosive temper when things went FUBAR on his watch. Ivy Mike had been the name of a big thermonuclear test blast on the 1st of November, 1952, over ten megatons, and it seemed to fit Michael Ives well enough when he blew his lid.

“Topped off and growlin’,” said the Sergeant as he listened to the Hummer purr. They had driven through the small settlement, and out into the empty nothing of the desert night, all lights off and navigating with night vision goggles. The desert was laced with the thin tracks of other vehicles that had wandered about in this area. They passed some strange lines of earthen digs in the sand but saw nothing else in the black night. The moon was down, and it was very dark.

“Zero Dark Thirty tonight,” said the Lieutenant. “Can you believe there’s supposed to be a wildlife safari camp out here somewhere?”

“No shit?” said the Sergeant. “Camels humping it out here LT?”

“God only knows. Well, we passed Hill 1194 ten klicks north of that rat hole where we gassed up. I’m figuring that dark spot up ahead will be Hill 1178. Let’s get up there and have look see.”

“Roger that,” said Stoker, putting the hummer in gear and moving on to reach the hill about twenty minutes later. It was not a prominent rise, just an elevation in the land with ragged sides, so the Hummer was left below when the two men hiked up to get a look north. All seemed quiet and still, with no sign of any movement on the desolate terrain ahead. So they hiked back down taking the Humvee north of the hill until they came across a series of what looked like military dugouts, light prepared positions in small circles, spaced about two kilometers apart.

“LT, Kuwati troops maneuver out here? Those look like company defense positions.”

“More like platoon revetments,” said Ives, “probably made by troops of AFV’s. But there’s nobody here now. GPS has us just 37 klicks south of the border. There’s supposed to be a guard post out there somewhere near the wire.”

“Guarding what? There’s not a damn thing out here.”

“Guarding the border, Jimbo, what else. Hey, kill the engine for a minute, I want to listen up.”

Stoker complied, and the silence of that desert night fell heavily all around them. The night sky above was as clear as they had ever seen it, and the Milky Way rose prominently in a vivid display of stars and hazy gas. They got out of the hummer, walking a few yards into that empty silence, a feeling of awe settling on them. Then the Lieutenant touched Stokers arm, as if he heard something that suddenly put him on guard. They stood there, listening. A wind came up, and they could hear the sands simmering and whispering, but behind it, there came a distinctive pop, pop, pop, that their well-trained ears immediately knew as gunfire. The LT looked at the Sarge, nodding his head.

“Looks like the reports were good,” he said. “Sound travels a good long way in the desert. That has to be fighting out near the border.”

They didn’t know it at that moment, but they were listening to the Iraqi Samarra Brigade crossing the frontier, and getting after a Saudi border patrol. Back in the states at Bragg, they had followed the news of the naval fighting for some time, and the fighting in China. They were amazed at the balls the Siberians had when they decided to try and take on 1.4 billion Chinese. When things had flared up in the Med, they got orders to get ready to deploy. “Strike Hold” was the Ready Brigade, and they would be the first to go.

Stoker figured there was some shit going down in the Med, as he put it. “Hell,” he had said, “damn Egyptians shut down the Suez Canal. Maybe they want us to go over there and take charge.”

“Maybe,” Ives had replied. When they learned they were going into Sigonella, that seemed to add up for some action near Suez. But they did not stay long. They were on the big C5 Galaxy airlift planes the next night, winging their way into the darkness. The next thing they knew, they were in Saudi Arabia.

The two men waited there for some time, until the sound of that distant gunfire abated. Then, on a whim, Sergeant Stoker got down on the ground.

“What’s up Stokes? You itching to do some pushups?”

“Hell no. I’m going Indian on you, LT. Hush up. I want to listen to the ground.”

Stoker took off his helmet, pressed his ear to the ground, and the Lieutenant could see the starlight in his eyes. He got up, brushing the loamy sand from his trousers, and smiled.

“They’re coming,” he said definitively.

“Who’s coming?”

“Saddam’s grandkids, who else? Try it, LT. You can hear the AFV’s out there chewing up the ground.”

Lieutenant Ives shook his head, but with a grin. He took a deep breath of that desert night air, and felt the wind from the north on his face, cool and carrying the scent of earthy sand. Then he heard what Stoker had clued him in to just a moment earlier. They had been out for desert training many times, and Ives knew the sound of a tracked AFV in the distance when he heard one.

“Damn,” he said. “No shit, Stoker! They are coming. Let’s get back to the Hummer.”

They turned and went back to Hill 1178, hiking back up and standing on higher ground to surveil the land ahead. Then they saw a faint flickering on the edge of darkness, and Ives knew it had to be headlights on the vehicles. It grew over the next few minutes, that single point of light expanding with others that soon spread across the horizon.

“I make it about 35 klicks out there,” said Lieutenant Ives. Much of the elevation in that hill’s label was gained from the ground it sat on, and it was really no more than three or four hundred feet above the surrounding terrain. That would put the horizon about 36 kilometers out, and something had just crossed it—war. They both instinctively knew that was what they were looking at, war.

“Has to be at least a regiment,” said Stokes.

“Brigade,” said Ives. “Iraqi Army is all organized as brigades. “Hear that? There’s more hum than rattle out there stokes, so my bet is that this is a motor rifle brigade, not heavily mechanized.”

“Damn!” said Stokes. “Iraqis crossed the border? This is some serious shit, LT.”

“Alright, let’s get back to Halfar and clue in the Saudi’s. Better get them on the radio. By the time we get there, the Iraqis will be gassing gup in that hamlet we stopped at north of the city!”

Stoker and Ives delivered their warning to the Saudis, and then contacted OMCOM to make their full report. They were told to wait there at Halfar al Batin, and observe what the Saudis were doing, reporting every three hours. It was soon clear that the local commander. Lt. General Saifur Rahman Hamid, was preparing to make a stand. The General’s name meant “Sword of the Most Gracious,” and he seemed keen on using it. They saw that columns of troops and vehicles were arriving there every hour, coming up the road from the south.

“Where did all this come from?” asked Stoker.

“King Khalid Military City,” said Ives. “It’s about 60 kilometers southwest. But you’re right, all this couldn’t have come from that one base. I think they pulled units from the Hail district to the northwest.”

“Looks like they want to fight right here,” said the Sergeant.

“It does indeed. Hell, there must be five brigades here, and they’ve deployed on a 40 kilometer front from the way I read the map.”

“What’s so important about Halfar?” asked Stoker.

“That’s just it—nothing, really. There’s a big pipeline underground here. Runs all the way from Dammam to the Med—Trans-Arabian Pipeline. That has to be it.”

“Well shit, LT. They’d have to deploy on a much broader front to defend that, and well forward. Iraqis could cut that pipeline anywhere.”

“Just what I was thinking,” said the Lieutenant. “We better let OMCOM know that half the Saudi Army is out here on a limb, and spoiling for a fight. But for my money, I’d say they ought to be humping it southeast towards the coast. That’s where the main event will be. This is a sideshow.”

The tension was building over the next few hours, covered by a frenetic energy as the Saudi troops moved through the dusty streets of the city, coming from many directions. The men were unloading trucks, moving crates of ammunition, mines, wire, and setting up gun positions. North of the city, Ives could see them digging small revetments, just like those they had seen earlier in the desert. There was an urgency to their movements, tinged by uncertainty and fear.

Sergeant Stoker had been listening on the radio set in the Hummer, picking up news of what was happening as he switched from one military band to another. From what he could gather, there was a big invasion of Kuwait underway to the northeast. Reports were scattered. Nothing seemed definitive or certain, but he had heard this kind of radio traffic many times before, and he felt a palpable edge of panic beneath it all.

“Iraqis rolled into Kuwait,” he told the LT. “You were right. That’s where the main shit is. These guys we eyeballed earlier were probably just making a recon in force near the border out here, but where are they now?”

“Did you see that scuffle in the sky an hour ago?” said Ives. “Fighters were mixing it up. Iraqi air force was probably trying to reconnoiter this area, and they most likely saw all this business underway. If we were right, and that was a single brigade we saw earlier, then I don’t think they want to tangle with all this Saudi stuff. I just identified the locals here. They have 6th and 8th Mech Brigades, 45th Armored, King Saud Light Infantry and Border Guards on the flanks. Colonel Jahid says more troops are coming this way from Hail.”

“Strength in numbers,” said Stoker. “Bucks up morale before a fight. Did you report all that to OMCOM?”

“Of course, but they weren’t happy about it. They wanted me to make certain the Saudis were really digging in here, and when I told them what we’ve observed, the revetments and dugouts and all, the Major on the other end of the line was pissed. I don’t think OMCOM wants the Saudis out here. If they hit Kuwait hard, then most everything they have is going to be up there, not here.”

A blind man could see that.

The darkness in the desert night was near complete, for the sickle moon had set four hours earlier, leaving only the scattered diamond stars on sable black silk in the sky.

On this day Theodosius-I made his first entry into Constantinople in the year 380. The Thames River froze solid in 1434 and again in 1715. Mount Vesuvius was grumbling and vomiting lava in 1759. The Texas Rangers mounted up for the first time in 1835. Blue and Gray soldiers mauled one another at Chattanooga in 1863. A man named Clyde Coleman filed a patent on the first electric automobile starter in 1903. General Pershing pulled his troops out of Mexico in 1916. The FBI Crime Lab officially open in Washington DC in 1932, and the German Blitz began with the bombing of Bristol, killing 200 in 1940. Four years later in 1944, US bombers made the first raid on Tokyo from bases taken in Saipan. On a lighter note, in 1966, a British rock band named “The Beatles” recorded Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.

And in 2025, the artillery of the Iraqi 1st Army began pounding the border outpost town of Abdali, a few kilometers south of Safwan. There, the 5th Mech battalion of the Kuwaiti 6th Brigade had dug in along the desert frontier, and they were about to be hit by three Iraqi brigades of the Republican Guard Hammurabi Division. As the troops hunched in their trenches and bunkers, the thump of helicopters was heard, moving like dark, unseen spirits in the night. They would deliver the Iraqi 2nd Special forces battalion to take up blocking positions on the road just south of the Kuwaiti positions, cutting off any possibility of an easy retreat.

Further east near the port of Umm Qsar, the last brigade of the Hammurabi Division, 18th Armored, was also attacking across hastily strung wire and shallow minefields that had been sewn by the 10th Al Tahir Commando Battalion of Kuwait. Here the Iraqi forces would be joined by a contingent from Iran, which had begun crossing from Abadan into Iraq an hour earlier. It included three tank brigades of the 92nd Armored Division, and three more Revolutionary Guard Infantry Brigades.

To the west, the 39th Battalion of the Kuwaiti 6th Mech would receive the full weight of the Iraqi Al-Medina Division, all four brigades, including two armored. Further southwest, the Iraqi 3rd Tawakalna Division reached the border fence, burst through, and found no opposition, only empty desert stretching for miles and miles into the Ratqa Oil fields. Crossing the undefended border to the south, the six mechanized brigades of the Baghdad and Nebuchadnezzar Divisions rolled through the darkness in long columns, turning south towards Highway 70. Their mission was to cut off the great metropolitan center of Kuwait City, and then wait for their comrades to smash their way into Kuwait and come down to join them.

That was the Republican Guard, tasked with the invasion of Kuwait, but it was not the only border to be violated that night. West of Kuwait, about 25 kilometers north of the Saudi frontier, the rest of the 1st Iraqi Army began to roll south. This force was a collection of independent mech and motor rifle brigades, and the 35th Nasirya was the first to cross, with a sharp firefight engaging border guards at the small outpost of Ar Ruqi at the end of Highway 50.

The bold headlines in the New York Times said it all the following morning: IRAQ INVADES KUWAIT! Clashes reported on Saudi border. In light of this momentous event, the skirmish between Iranian patrol boats and US air units in the Gulf of Oman was buried, well below the fold.

Chapter 17

As the war finally ignited in the Middle East, Iraq already possessed 10% of the world’s known oil reserves. Now Qusay Hussein and his aging father, Saddam, were reaching to up that total to 17%. If those “clashes” in the desert east of Kuwait along the Saudi border augured a full invasion of the Kingdom there, then another 20% of the world’s total oil reserves waited to the south. As Iran controlled 10% of known world reserves, that would bump the total to 47% if this great military operation prevailed, and the House of Saud was brought to its knees. If Bahrain and Qatar were added to the plunder, then the Persian Coalition, backed by China, would have seized half of all known oil reserves on earth!

That was what was at stake, the real great prize of the war, not the useful but relatively worthless islands in the Ryukyu chain bordering the East China Sea. This was the real Great Game that China had gambled on so boldly, and once the attack was underway, no one would have to ask for fighter support, as Captain Yu Han had a few hours earlier when his ships docked at Gwadar. Knowing the air forces of Iran and Iraq were weak, China had agreed to provide air cover with numerous squadrons of J-10’s and the more modern J-20’s as well.

As the UN convened an early morning emergency session, China issued a stern warning that so called “hostile” nations should not interfere in what they claimed was now a “local” conflict in the Middle East. Yet seeing this trouble on the way weeks earlier, the United States had already ordered its 1st Marine Division to sea. The Marines were going to Darwin, as part of a secret operation dubbed Able Sentry, and from there, they would move by sea to Oman. The entire 82nd Airborne Division was also added to this order of battle.

That was what Admiral Wells and the US naval forces were mustering for at Diego Garcia, where extensive war supplies had been pre-positioned for years. The only regret the US generals had was the fact that they had little or no real military footprint in Saudi Arabia or the Persian Gulf. The 11th MEU, a battalion sized Marine force, was stationed at Bahrain, but while the Saudi’s would buy US tanks, planes and Patriots in droves, they had never wanted US troops on their soil… until now. US Fighters flew from Al Udied in Qatar, but there was no CENTCOM HQ there. All operations in the region were commanded by OMCOM in Oman, which also had the 12th and 15th MEU’s at its disposal, and 1/75th Ranger Battalion.

Those would be the only ground forces the US would have to react locally. Everything else would have to come by air or sea from the US, and to reach Oman, the sea lanes had to be secured. It was a tall order, because the strength of Chinese naval units in the Indian Ocean would not see them easily brushed aside. Even as the Iraqi troops crossed the border into Kuwait, Admiral Wu Jinlong was preparing to lead a newly reinforced effort against Admiral Pearson’s beleaguered Royal Navy contingent at Singapore. What good was the oil if it could not be moved by sea to China? The Malacca Dilemma still remained unsolved.

The shock of the invasion was profound in Riyadh, where former Prince, and now King Salman was awakened with the news. Lieutenant Ives’ report had been accurate. The Saudi Army had alerted its 6th and 8th Mech Brigades days earlier at King Khalid Military City in the north, and they joined the 45th Armored Brigade near the city of Hafar al Batin. From there, the two lane Highway 50 ran northeast to the border near Ar Ruqi, where the Iraqi’s had already driven off Saudi Military border guards, as Sergeant Stoker and Lieutenant Ives had determined. But why were the Saudis staging there?

Hafar Al Batin was important because it sat right astride the long Trans-Arabian Pipeline, which ran from the big terminals and refineries near Dammam, all the way to Jordan and on through to the Mediterranean coast. In this history, that underground line was carrying two million barrels of oil per day, and plans had been made to increase that even further to five million barrels, since the East West Pipeline from Dammam to Yanbu on the Red Sea was now useless. When Egypt slammed the gates of the Suez Canal shut, oil tankers could no longer call on that port.

The attack came at a very bad time for the Saudis, for their army had been fighting the Houthi Rebel factions in Yemen, which had pulled in five brigades. That night, they would be ordered to withdraw from Yemen, leaving only a watch on the border as they moved the bulk of their forces to Riyadh. The only other troops near that pipeline were those of the Saudi 4th Armored Brigade, at Fort Ulya, west of An Nairyah.[3] The pipeline flowed from that city, along Highway 85 to the northwest and Hafar Al Batin. So the 4th Armored received orders to move north of the road into stony terrain between the heights of hill 928 and 879.

In truth, the Saudi’s realized that with so much of their army far to the south, they would not be able to set up any cohesive defensive front along that long, vital pipeline. If the Iraqi Army was coming in force, it would be able to reach and cut that artery at any number of places, so the Generals began to lower heads over the map tables in the wee hours of the morning on the 25th, trying to decide just where they could make a stand.

In Kuwait, the resistance at the border would last only a few hours against the Republican Guard. The Kuwaiti Army then pulled back in an arc around Al Jahra, the gateway city west of the capital. They were going to try and hold there, and at Kuwait City, and if that failed, they had pre-arranged authorization to retreat into Saudi Arabia.

Those first tense hours in the darkness before dawn would reveal the extent of what the Iraqis might be planning. Summoning the Ambassador to Riyadh did no good, and he claimed to be clueless as to what was happening. For honor’s sake, the Saudis lodged a formal complaint and demanded all Iraqi forces withdraw from their sovereign soil, but that wasn’t going to happen.

The Iraqi response was to simply forge ahead, and by mid-day, they would have eleven brigades pushing south towards Hafar Al Batin, through difficult desert terrain. That area had been a kind of no man’s land, where the hostility of the terrain itself was the main obstacle to be overcome. It was a mix of sandy and stony desert, wrinkled by deep wadis, with occasional hills spiking up. The Iraqis could have moved from the border outpost town of Ar Ruqi down Highway 50 to Hafar Al Batin, but instead they moved due south along a narrow desert track, intending to bypass that city, essentially cutting it off. No matter where they went to the south, the Trans-Arabian Pipeline was dead ahead.

That afternoon, the Kuwaiti positions on the Al Jahra line were being assaulted from the north, while also being cut off far to the south as Iraqi forces pushed for Highway 70, which ran from Al Jahra to the beak of the southwest border zone. Enemy special forces battalions were also landing south of the city to set up blocking positions. It was soon evident that the position was hopeless, and it was now uncertain whether those troops, about five battalions, could even be extracted. When the Kuwaiti Emir learned this late on the 25th, he realized his small army had no chance to stop what was happening. All he could do was to try and salvage as many battalions as possible, and begin the retreat south to Saudi Arabia. That night, the soldiers were weeping as they abandoned the royal palace and capital city, and the Emir formally asked for asylum with the Saudis, for himself, the Royal family, and any Kuwaiti nationals that might escape. It was willingly granted.

Army Lt. General James Scott, Commander at OMCOM had met with his opposite number in the Saudi Army, Prince Sultan Akim, and convinced him that the effort to screen and hold Halfar Al Batin was a fruitless deployment.

“They will cut that pipeline somewhere soon, and holding there does nothing to prevent that. All you will do is see those forces screened and bypassed if this attack pushes further south. I would recommend that you move southeast, down Highway 85, and quickly, before that road is cut.”

“Abandon King Khalid Military City?”

“Holding it would leave all troops there isolated in time.”

“Yet it is a major supply center,” the Prince equivocated.

“Save what you can, but my recommendation stands.”

“And if the enemy continues down Highway 50? It will take them deep into our homeland, and if they were to reach Highway 65, then they would pose a direct threat to Riyadh.”

“That is a long way to go,” said Scott, adamant. “Should they attempt such a move, our 82nd airborne Division would be able to move an airmobile brigade out there to stop them. What you need to do is marshal your forces to protect the key oilfields and industrial infrastructure near the coast. You certainly don’t want to give up the oil terminals and port at Al Jubayl, Ras Tanura, or the facilities around Dammam. That is where they will make their main effort. Why come to Saudi Arabia if not for those refineries, pump stations, gas separation plants, and all the well sites?”

“What if they merely seek to cut the Trans-Arabian Pipeline?”

“With all respect, sir, they won’t stop there. I wouldn’t. They know that time is of the essence. Your army is dispersed, with many brigades in the south. Those oil fields and facilities are among the greatest prizes on earth, and if the Iraqi’s took this risk, courting open war with the United States in the bargain, then that’s where they are going—all the way to the fields at Ghawar.”

Prince Sultan Akim frowned, taking a deep breath. Then he nodded his assent. “I will order the northwest group to move as you advise.”

“Very well,” said the General. “This move will also allow you to join with any forces that can get south from the Kuwaiti Army, and that at least gives you some concentration north of these vital facilities along the coast.”

“And your forces? Your 82nd Division? When will they be coming?”

“Sir, the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit has already crossed the causeway, along with the Bahrain Armored Brigade, to deploy in defense of Dammam. We have several more battalions to move from Oman, and expect three Brigade Combat Teams of the 82nd Airborne to be in country here within ten days—the first arriving tomorrow at King Fahd Air Base outside Dammam. Following them, we will have three full brigades of our 1st Marine Division coming by sea, but that arrival depends on our clearing the way through the Arabian sea.”

“Five brigades,” said the Prince, “assuming your navy prevails. Correct me if I am wrong, General Scott, but the last I heard, the Iraqi Army had at over fifty brigades…”

“Sir, when you see what a good US Brigade Combat Team can do on the ground, you will understand that numbers do not tell the real story here. We’re coming, and we’ll see this thing through to the bitter end. These forces I mention are just the tip of the spear. I can assure you that the United States is prepared to move heavy armored divisions here to make good on that commitment. The House of Saud has a very powerful friend.”

“Indeed,” said the Prince. “And it seems Qusay Hussein and his Iranian cohorts also have such a friend—and he lives in Beijing.”

“Hey LT, I got OMCOM on the radio again.”

“Those bastards are nervous today,” said Lieutenant Ives. He took the call, and when it was over he looked at Stoker, and ‘I told ya so’ look on his face.

“Why the shit eating grin?” said the Sergeant.

“It’s just like I told you,” said Ives. “OMCOM twisted the Saudi General’s arm, and they want all this shit out of here. The Colonel told me they’re going to pull out to the southeast, down Highway 85. We’re to go with them, and advise OMCOM on their progress.”

“So they finally got the message,” said Stoker. “Alright, I gassed up and we can move anytime you want. Better to get out in front. That way we can count the sheep as they go by. Any idea where they’re heading?”

Ives was looking at the map. “There’s a good position near As Sadawi and Um Kedad, but that’s still too exposed on this road. I think they’ll go all the way to Al Wariyah. There’s a highway strip there, and a pump station for this pipeline underfoot. One of their armored brigades was stationed to the south of that area, at Fort Ulya.”

“So that means the Iraqi’s can have Halfar, and that will cut the pipeline, and the road to Hail as well.”

“No big loss,” said Ives. “Yes, it’s a good L.O.C. out to Hail, and Jordon beyond, but I don’t think the Jordanians will be coming down to lend a hand. Hell, the Iraqis might not come here at all.”

“Kuwaiti Army is retreating south,” said Stoker.

“Of course,” said Ives. “They only had a couple brigades, and OMCOM says the Iranians are already knee deep in this too. Those guys will probably be having dinner in Kuwait City by this evening. So now you know why we’re here, Bram. OMCOM must have seen that buildup on satellite weeks ago, and that’s why we got the airlift out here.”

“You think the brigade will come up on the line?”

“Not just yet. No, they’ll move our battalions to key facilities near the coast. That’s my guess. It will take a while for the rest of the division to get here, and who knows what else is coming from the States. Until then, this is a Saudi show now. It remains to be seen if the Iraqis are coming here, or if they’ll be satisfied with what they get in Kuwait.”

“What would you do, LT?”

“What would I do? I’d keep right on going like a proverbial bat out of hell if I were the Iraqis. If they dawdle about in Kuwait, or stop on that border, then that would be a godsend for our side. It would give us the time we need to get our stuff in theater, and then we’d clobber them. Time is on their side at the moment, and if they’re smart, they’ll use it to best advantage.”

“Damn!” said Stoker. “Then this is the shit we’ve been training for in the Mojave Desert every year.”

“Yup,” said the Lieutenant, “and here we are, right in the middle of it. Come on, let’s get moving.”

Chapter 18

By the time the Baghdad Division of the Republican Guard reached the outskirts of Kuwait City, the Royal Family and Guards had all fled south, along with thousands of Kuwaiti nationals, in long lines of civilian cars and trucks. Iraqi helicopters hovered over the city like dark locusts, smoke rising from burning buildings where a few brief firefights with local militias had rattled the dark morning. The day that followed would one of the most difficult in the history of the small oil-rich nation, as Iraqi troops eventually spread through the town, killing anyone who resisted, raping, looting and carting off everything they wanted.

The army would not stay in the city long, much to the relief of the Kuwaiti citizens. All the Republican Guards Divisions were ordered to continue south to the Saudi border, as reserve brigades followed behind them, securing the great prize they had seized in one wild day.

Southwest of Kuwait, the Andan and Al Faw Motor Rifle Divisions of the Republican Guard crossed into Saudi Arabia where the Kuwaiti border made its sharp dogleg, and further west, eight more independent Iraqi brigades were already well south of the border, reaching Highway 85 and the Trans-Arabian Pipeline that morning. Hafar Al Batin was cleared and occupied just before sunrise.

It was a swift, stunning, and sweeping victory, but one that was never in doubt once Saddam had given his approval for the invasion. After that, Qusay Hussein let loose his dogs of war, and they rampaged through the desert, driving all before them, or crushing it beneath their tank tracks. By noon on the 25th, a shaken world would read the news that Kuwait had fallen, and it was now the House of Saud that was scrambling to build its defenses up in the north. The aging Saddam had finally grasped his black gold prize, just 35 years late, at the end of a long life he had never been able to live on our timeline. Now it remained to be seen if he could hold what he had taken.

The Saudi Army was much bigger than that of Kuwait, and much better armed. The US had opened its larders long ago, and Saudi tank brigades all fielded the M1 main battle tank. The Army had seven armored brigades, five regular mech infantry brigades, five more national guard brigades and five lighter infantry brigades, so it was quite capable of putting up a good defense.

The problem was that all these units were dispersed across the Kingdom, and some were in Yemen fighting the Houthi insurgency. But all day on the 24th, the units had been moving, and slowly, as the day lightened on the 25th, a semblance of a planned defensive front was being set up.

Saudi troops had abandoned King Khalid Military City, and moved southeast on Highway 85 where they were rallying near Fort Ulya. That area offered good defensive ground to either side, and would serve to anchor the front in the west. The line would then stretch northeast to the coast at Ras al Khafji, which was now held by what was left of the Kuwaiti Army. They were there, and south of another border town Al Wafrah.

As promised, the 1st Brigade Combat Team of the 82nd Airborne Division arrived by strategic airlift on the 25th. Based at Fort Bragg in North Carolina, it had already hopped the Atlantic to Sigonella in the Med days before the invasion. The “Strike Hold” Brigade was now the designated “Ready Brigade” of the division. From there it would fly high over Libya under the watchful eyes of F-22’s based at Sigonella, then turn east over the Sudan to Saudi Arabia. The brigade landed at King Khalid air base north of Riyadh, and their equipment would continue to arrive over the next few days as more of the division’s troops were winging their way into the theater. Lieutenant Ives and Sergeant Stoker were proud to have been among the first in country.

Yet US planners knew it might be some time before any stronger reserves could arrive in Oman by sea, as that all depended on the naval battle that would be fought to secure access to ports. In many circles, the situation looked grim. After seeing what had happened to Admiral Wells, and the heavy losses inflicted on his fleet, the US Navy knew it was in for a fight. Roosevelt was in theater, and now the USS Independence was ordered to begin moving to the Indian Ocean from Guam. The Saudis would simply have to hold until this situation could be resolved, and so they began to lobby their neighbor for support.

Bahrain had already graciously sent its sole armored brigade over the causeway into Dammam, but wanted it there, and not on the main front. Qatar vowed to send an armored brigade for the defense of the big Ghawar oil fields. The UAE was stronger, with 450 tanks distributed among seven brigades. If the Emirates would march, Saudi Generals would have strong reserves behind them, even if the American forces were delayed, or failed to arrive at all.

In the meantime, long columns of Saudi armor and mechanized infantry would roll all night and through the morning. General Scott had convinced the Saudi Royal Family that there would be no direct threat to the capital at Riyadh, and that he would have two more Brigade Combat Teams of the 82nd Airborne there soon to deal with any contingencies. He therefore urged the Saudis to release units held in reserve at Riyadh, and get them moving northeast, up Highway 80 towards Dammam. Most were then diverted up Highway 75 towards Highway 5 at Nairyah, and from there they were ordered west towards the vicinity of Al Wariyah or east towards the coast. Nairyah was therefore the HQ and forward operating base of the army for purposes of this initial defensive deployment.

The morning of the 25th, the Iraqi 46th MR Brigade arrived at King Khalid Military City, drove off a small security detachment, and occupied the place. It would soon be joined by the 47th MR Brigade, but neither showed any signs of moving down Highway 50 towards the interior of the Kingdom. (From there it was 425 kilometers, or about 263 miles to Riyadh.)

The Iraqi attack would instead come right down Highway 85 towards the Saudi defensive position near Al Wariyah reserve airstrip. That portion of the road had been designated as a highway landing strip, and it was always kept clear of blowing sand by troops that had been garrisoned at the nearby Fort Ulya to the southeast. A 1325 foot tall signal mast marked the location for pilots, and there was also a small pumping station there moving oil through the Trans-Arabian Pipeline. It was there that the Saudis had their 8th and 20 Mech Brigades waiting on defense.

The Iraqis opened the battle with desultory artillery fire at about 13:00 hours that early afternoon, but it was just harassing fire. They were bringing up three mech infantry brigades, 1st Dwaniya, 34th Nasirya, and 27th Kut. They also deployed their 6th MR Brigade well south of the highway to screen that flank, but they were waiting for the 48th Armor Brigade, which was still 50 kilometers behind.

At the same time, another strong column was coming down a secondary road from the north towards a series of escarpments around Hill 879, which was 20 kilometers north of Highway 85. That was the right flank of the Saudi position, where they had a lot of tanks from their 12th and 45th Brigades around those escarpments.

That force would soon be challenged by the 7th Andan and Al Faw Divisions of the Republican Guards, but the Iraqis would be all day getting deployed. Most of their strength, including the three stronger Republican Guard Divisions, was still in Kuwait, slowly moving south to the Saudi frontier. Two brigades of the Baghdad Division had crossed near the coast near Ras Al Khafji, but then stopped to wait for their comrades to come up in support. This slow advance, precipitated by traffic jams on the major roads and the difficult off road terrain in many places, gave the Saudi Army the precious time it needed to get their brigades north.

As darkness fell over the land, the Saudi and Kuwaiti troops could hear a continuous rumble to the north, as if the earth itself was groaning under the weight of heavy armored vehicles. Three hours after midnight those tanks the Iraqis had been waiting for arrived and tried to bull their way through the blocking positions. Their 48th Tank Brigade had 42 tanks, mostly T-80’s bought from the Chinese. They would run into the Saudi 4th Armored Brigade, and get a shock that augured well for the future security of the Kingdom. The Saudis had 48 US M1 tanks, and they just blew the Iraqi brigade to pieces, the big guns tracking, firing, and lighting up the darkness with their rapid fire.

The sharp firefight was so one sided that it left the Iraqis with just 8 tanks, the rest burned and smoking in the pre-dawn grey. So they fell back along the highway, and began heavy artillery bombardments to try and clear the road ahead. Put enough heavy 155mm rounds on a position, and you will either move or kill anything on the ground it was occupying.

As this was going on, the 7th Andan and Al Faw Divisions of the Republican Guards put in a strong attack ten kilometers north of the highway, near the high ground of Hill 928. Here they used their infantry dismounted, and with six brigades, they were able to swarm through the darkness, infiltrating through gaps in the Saudi lines.

Saudi Tanks from their 12th Armored brigade were up on the height of Hill 879, firing down on the Iraqi infantry. Their rocky nest was unassailable because of its steep escarpments, and it could only be approached from the east. Yet now the brigade found that more Iraqi infantry had flanked that hill behind them, and they were being cut off.

Brigade commanders were struggling in the darkness and confusion to learn what was happening, but the Saudis soon realized that the 11th Brigade of the Andan Division had infiltrated through their lines and had to be dealt with in order to extricate their 12th Armored Brigade. Any reserve units, the Turki Brigade, and the King Faisal Light Infantry, were sent to that sector to join the breakout attempt being mounted by the armor. They were able to drive a wedge into the Iraqi Infantry, forcing them back and clearing a route for the armor to get back down off the high ground.

Yet this Iraqi attack had been mounted as a feint. It was meant to force the Saudis to cover Highway 80 as they did, while the main attack would roll south from the Kuwaiti border, closer to the coast.

It was there that Iraqi General Kamel Ayad, his name roughly meaning “the perfect one with power,” launched a multi division assault, aimed mostly at the segment of the front that had been occupied by the retreating forces of Kuwait. Fifteen kilometers west of Khafji, the full weight of the Al-Medina Republican Guard Division fell on just two battalions of the Kuwati Royal Guards, who were really no more than light infantry forces in armored cars. All along that line, the Iraqis threw one brigade after another forward, in what became a massive wave of dismounted infantry backed by their tanks and APS’s. The Kuwaiti troops were the weakest point in the front, and they simply could not hold.

The battle began in the desert, then rippled east towards the coast where several Saudi brigades had set up positions around Khafji. That anchor held on the coast, with the Baghdad Division stopped and repulsed, but in the desert to the west, the Kuwaiti line collapsed, and that would fatally compromise any further defense of Khafji. Fighting went on all morning, the landscape shrouded with smoke from burning vehicles, but by noon it was clear that the sheer weight of the Iraqi Army was breaking through that front in the desert, and Khafji had to be abandoned.

Iraqi infantry swarmed over the few isolated companies of Kuwaiti tanks in the desert, clearing the way for the more mechanized Republican Guard units. It was a kind of scissors paper-rock fight. When the Iraqis had tried to use their armor as scissors to cut through the Saudi Line, the heavier Saudi armor brigades stood like rocks and smashed them.

So the Iraqis then dismounted their infantry and sent them forward like smothering paper, the anti-tanks teams bringing down the elephants by simply overrunning them and attacking the tanks from all sides. What was evident in all this was the fact that the Saudi Army, and even more so that of Kuwait, had no real idea of how to fight a real combined arms operation on the ground, and their inexperience showed. They were not protecting their tanks with infantry, but operating them independently. The Iraqis may not have been any better, but they just had massive numbers, particularly in infantry, and so they prevailed.

The breakthrough through the center took the Iraqis all the way to another small designated highway airstrip, Al Kibrit, this on a secondary road that ran east to Bandar al Mishab on the coast south of Khafji. The small settlement would give its name to that battle, the first feather in the Iraqi cap as they took the fight into Saudi Arabia. By mid-afternoon on the 26th, it was clear that the hastily built defensive front had been fatally compromised. The entire eastern half of the line began to retreat down the coast road toward Ras Tanajib. The Western segment, a more concentrated Saudi force, still held their ground around the Al Wariyah road strip and pump station, but it was clear that it would not be long before the Iraqis would cross the desert and reach Highway 85 behind them.

A general retreat was ordered, down that long highway as the last hours of November 27th faded away. The Saudi Army was rallying on a new line, this time south of Ras Tanajib on the coast, and bending southwest and across Highway 85 into the desert beyond.

Needless to say, after this first great butting of the heads between the armies of Iraq and Saudi Arabia, the Royal Family in Riyadh was somewhat nervous. The new front line was now just 120 kilometers from the big oil center of Al Jubayl, where there were oil refineries and terminals at Port Fahd, pump stations, tank farms, power generation facilities and two airfields, Abu Ali and a much bigger field at King Abdul Aziz AFB. Fifty more kilometers south on the coast was the even bigger terminal port of Ras Tanura and the major supply hub of Dammam.

General Scott looked over the map, thinking the new defensive front looked solid. It was shorter, more compressed, and this time largely composed of Saudi troops, without a weak center, as the Kuwati troops were mostly off the line now. The US was now making a full court diplomatic press to get Qatar and the UAE to commit to the support of the Saudis. Qatar, with a small army, nonetheless agreed to send five battalions, but the Emirates came through in a much bigger way, with five full brigades.

News of that commitment was a great relief to the General, and in spite of a nervous King Salman, he assured the Saudis that they had the means to hold. US advisors were being moved forward to the front to coordinate with Saudi forces, and see if they could not impart something of the fine art of mobile combined arms combat to them. The first thing they advised was that the Kingdom’s good armored brigades needed to be integrated with mechanized infantry at all times, and never fight without it.

That night, the 2nd BCT of the 82nd Airborne Division would land at Prince Sultan / Al Kharj AFB southeast of Riyadh, and it would soon be given orders to get moving north….