Battle Digest Desert Storm

A concise guide to the American-led coalition’s speedy defeat of Saddam Hussein in 1991, with maps, facts, historical significance, and more. Just two years after the end of Iraq’s war with Iran, an emboldened Iraqi dictator, Saddam Hussein, invaded Kuwait. Operation Desert Storm was the final phase of the U.S.-led Coalition’s effort to expel Saddam’s forces from his southern neighbor’s borders. In less than 100 hours of joint air and ground combat, the U.S. and its allies would not only triumph, but also demonstrate to the world the superiority of a new breed of weapons. The battle also had the unintended effect of renewing a pride and confidence in the U.S. military after the long shadow of Vietnam. Learn how America built a coalition of nations to go to war, and how Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf used maneuver and deception to create one of the most lopsided victories in the history of warfare. The Battle Digest summary includes all the key aspects of the campaign and battle, including maps, images, and lessons learned.

The Battle Digest summary includes all the key aspects of the campaign and battle, including maps, images, and lessons learned. During the Second Punic War (218 – 201 B.C.), after Hannibal had been handing Rome defeats and losses for nearly two years, the Roman Senate had finally had enough. After raising the largest army they had ever fielded, they sent it against Hannibal, who had just seized an important grain supply depot at Cannae. But Hannibal was more than ready. On that fateful day, he handed Rome one of the most crushing defeats in history.

When Germany launched its blitzkrieg invasion of France in 1940, it forever changed the way the world waged war. Although the Wehrmacht ultimately succumbed to superior Allied firepower in a two-front war, its stunning operational achievement left a lasting impression on military commanders throughout the world, even if their own operations were rarely executed as effectively. Robert Citino analyzes military campaigns from the second half of the twentieth century to further demonstrate the difficulty of achieving decisive results at the operational level. Offering detailed operational analyses of actual campaigns, Citino describes how UN forces in Korea enjoyed technological and air superiority but found the enemy unbeatable; provides analyses of Israeli operational victories in successive wars until the Arab states finally grasped the realities of operational-level warfare in 1973; and tells how the Vietnam debacle continued to shape U.S. doctrine in surprising ways. Looking beyond major-power conflicts, he also reveals the lessons of India’s blitzkrieg-like drive into Pakistan in 1971 and of the senseless bloodletting of the Iran-Iraq War. Citino especially considers the evolution of U.S. doctrine and assesses the success of Desert Storm in dismantling an entrenched defending force with virtually no friendly casualties. He also provides one of the first scholarly analyses of Operation Iraqi Freedom, showing that its plan was curiously divorced from the realities of military history, grounded instead on nebulous theories about expected enemy behavior. Throughout Citino points to the importance of mobility--especially mobilized armor--in modern operational warfare and assesses the respective roles of firepower, training, doctrine, and command and control mechanisms. Brimming with new insights, Citino’s study shows why technical superiority is no guarantee of victory and why a thorough grounding in the history of past campaigns is essential to anyone who wishes to understand modern warfare. Blitzkrieg to Desert Storm provides that grounding as it addresses the future of operational-level warfare in the post–9/11 era.

CMH Publication 70-30. Edited by Frank N. Schubert and TheresaL. Kraus. Discusses the United States Army's role in the Persian Gulf War from August 1990 to February 1991. Shows the various strands that came together to produce the army of the 1990s and how that army in turn performed under fire and in the glare of world attention. Retains a sense of immediacy in its approach. Contains maps which were carefully researched and compiled as original documents in their own right. Includes an index.

Without oil, no engine can run. "Movement" is the oil that enables America's military forces to sustain an operation, and nothing happens until something moves! As America's military priorities are reordered, the ability to move quickly, sustain forces anywhere in the world, and pre-position equipment and materiel near likely areas of crisis is more important than ever. Because of the apparent ease of movement during Desert Shield and Desert Storm, however, decision makers may be prone to misinterpret the lessons of the Gulf War and fail to address movement capabilities properly for the future. A good example is a recent Congressional decision to divert funds from slated improvements to the Army's afloat pre-positioning capability to the building of an amphibious assault ship. The capacity to foster global stability and defend our national interests depends upon correct long-range planning for transport. Logistics, especially mobility, has long been a bill payer for combat equipment, so perhaps a reappraisal is in order. Lessons from the Gulf War can help reshape America's defense transportation system for the post-Cold War era. Commitment to a balanced and unified mobility strategy should provide the most cost-effective, rapidly deployable, and sustainable combat capability. Regional focus, particularly in a multiple-conflict scenario, and reduced forward presence will significantly increase America's reliance on movement in the future. Careful restructuring of military movement capabilities will lessen the risks of distance and time in an unstable world and contribute to the economic well-being of the nation. To do less might invite confrontation with adversaries willing to test the substance and purpose of U.S. reach.