The first inclusive history of the war between the US-led coalition and Iraq, fought 1991, largely based on data released from official archives, and spiced with content acquired in the course of dozens of interviews, Desert Storm Volume 2 tells the story of the air campaign, naval operations, the 100 hours of the land war, and the war's aftermath.
'Desert Storm' reveals the whole war fought between Iraq and an international coalition, from the start of this campaign to its very end. This book offers a refreshing insight into this unique conflict.
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.
The tank revolutionized the battlefield in World War II. In the years since, additional technological developments—including nuclear weapons, ballistic missiles, computer assisted firing, and satellite navigation—have continued to transform the face of combat. The only complete history of U.S. armed forces from the advent of the tank in battle during World War I to the campaign to drive Iraq out of Kuwait in 1991, Camp Colt to Desert Storm traces the development of doctrine for operations at the tactical and operational levels of war and translates this fighting doctrine into the development of equipment.
Using top secret documents stolen from Russian archives, historian Pavel Stroilov, a Russian dissident living in London in political exile, has written a masterpiece on the behind-the-scenes politicking of the first Gulf War that exposes direct lies in the memoirs of President Bush Senior, Brent Scowcroft and James Baker, and explains the truth behind the current revolutions throughout the Middle East. In addition to revealing a great number of never-before-seen top secret documents, Behind the Desert Storm delves into closed-doors discussions between world leaders - something that normally remains secret for a very long time. It tells the hidden history of the events which have largely determined the current state of the Middle East - from the conflict in Iraq to the Israeli-Palestinian 'peace process' to the development of the 'Eurabia' alliance between the EU and the Arab states. Looking forward, Stroilov draws out relevant lessons from history for future foreign policy.
Integrating interviews with individuals ranging from senior policymakers to frontline soldiers, a look at the Persian Gulf War shows how the conflict transformed modern warfare.
In the early 1990s, Operation Desert Storm accomplished its main objectives of liberating Kuwait from an occupying force of the Iraqi Army. The Persian Gulf War helped the United States military regain the respect of the American public, and allowed many nations to work together to accomplish a common goal. In Desert Storm -- The First Persian Gulf War in American History, Debra McArthur paints a portrait of the Middle East during Operation Desert Storm, using historical facts and thrilling accounts from soldiers, politicians, and other key players. The combat situations and political tension comes alive in this thrilling addition to the In American History series. Book jacket.
In response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait on the second of August 1990, a small group of air power advocates in the Pentagon proposed a strategic air campaign - "Operation Desert Storm" designed to drive the Iraqi army from Kuwait by a sustained effort against the major sources of Iraqi national power. John Andreas Olsen provides a coherent and comprehensive examination of the origins, evolution and implementation of this campaign. His findings derive from official military and political documentation, interviews with United States Air Force officers who were closely involved with the planning of the campaign and Iraqis with detailed knowledge and experience of the inner workings of the Iraqi regime.
Saudi Arabia has fallen... ...as America fights to hold on. Saddam declares this the "Mother of all Wars." Iraq controls twenty-five percent of the world's daily oil output. Prices soar as the Soviet Union moves to fill the void. The world's first oil war has begun and wreaked havoc on global trade. Fighting around Medina and the Islamic Holy sites turns medieval. Memories of World War I trench warfare return. Will the 101st Airborne be able to stop the Republican Guard from throwing America and the remnants of the Saudi Army into the Red Sea? High above the skies of the desert, Iraqi MiG-29s, flown by Soviet advisors, battle against F-15s and F-14s for supremacy of the skies. Egypt deploys its military to join forces with Great Britain and the US to hold the line in Oman. King Abdullah of Jordan rallies to the Haus of Saud, increasing Arab legitimacy to remove Saddam. Desert Shield kicks off in earnest. America deploys the largest contingent of forces abroad since the Vietnam War. The world holds its breath as more than one million soldiers prepare to clash. You'll love this second book in the Crisis in the Desert series as we look at a war that could have been. Grab your copy now.
An expertly written, illustrated new analysis of the Desert Storm air campaign fought against Saddam Hussein's Iraq, which shattered the world's fourth-largest army and sixth-largest air force in just 39 days, and revolutionized the world's ideas about modern air power. Operation Desert Storm took just over six weeks to destroy Saddam Hussein's war machine: a 39-day air campaign followed by a four-day ground assault. It shattered what had been the world's fourth-largest army and sixth-largest air force, and overturned conventional military assumptions about the effectiveness and value of air power. In this book, Richard P. Hallion, one of the world's foremost experts on air warfare, explains why Desert Storm was a revolutionary victory, a war won with no single climatic battle. Instead, victory came thanks largely to a rigorously planned air campaign. It began with an opening night that smashed Iraq's advanced air defense system, and allowed systematic follow-on strikes to savage its military infrastructure and field capabilities. When the Coalition tanks finally rolled into Iraq, it was less an assault than an occupation. The rapid victory in Desert Storm, which surprised many observers, led to widespread military reform as the world saw the new capabilities of precision air power, and it ushered in today's era of high-tech air warfare.