It was further detailed in his book titled “Dereliction of Duty,” which was criticized by high-ranking officers of that time.ĭuring the Gulf War in Iraq, McMaster found himself in charge of E(Eagle) Troop of the 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment against an entire Republican Guard tank Regiment in a prepared and fortified position. The focus of his thesis was the military role in the policies of the Vietnam War. in American History from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Upon graduating from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1984, he was commissioned as a second lieutenant. McMaster got his high school diploma from the well-known Valley Forge Military Academy in 1980.

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Herbert Raymond McMaster during the 2018 Munich Security Conference. His mother was a school teacher and administrator. His father, to whom both his name and profession he would take after, was one of those who fought during the Korean War, where he was a lieutenant colonel of Infantry. Herbert Raymond McMaster was born in Philadelphia on July 24, 1962. As a young Cavalry Captain in the first Gulf War, McMaster led his Troop in one of the greatest tank battles in history. In the Army, Lt Generals are not made in armchairs but on the battlefield. McMaster is a legendary military officer and former National Security Advisor to President Trump. He said the militia 'put them in their tanks and say 'go that way''.Army Lieutenant General H.R. 'They go to their houses and hold a gun to the heads of their families,' he told a news conference at central command. He claimed Iraqi soldiers in Basra were being forced by Saddam Hussein's security forces to get into their tanks and attack the encircling British forces.Īir Marshal Burridge said that the Iraqi troops involved appeared to have been coerced by Ba'ath party militias in the city to fight, and added that there was evidence of 'exemplar executions' to terrify the conscripts. to move tanks around in daylight is suicide.' But the commander of the UK's forces in Iraq, Air Marshal Brian Burridge, had a theory about the motivation for the move. Major Mick Green, the officer commanding the battle room of 40 Commando, which has secured the area on al-Faw peninsula, said: 'We have no idea why this column has come out at the moment. The Iraqi convoy was especially vulnerable after it had left the main road and begun to scatter into open countryside, much of which has been turned into a muddy quagmire after 24 hours of torrential rain. The convoy was heading south-east along roads close to the border with Iran and towards British forces on al-Faw peninsula when it was spotted by coalition helicopters.īritish military chiefs said it was 'madness' for the Iraqis to move in such force on the open desert plains risking air strikes, rather than stay in the relative safety of Basra. From the ground, it was pounded by 155mm AS90 heavy British artillery. US Navy F/A-18 Super Hornets and RAF Harrier ground attack jets dropped precision-guided munitions and cluster bombs on the Iraqi armour. The coalition has usurped some frequencies to broadcast its own messages.Īn RAF source said significant numbers of British aircraft were involved in strikes on the main Iraqi convoy which as well as Iraqi tanks, included type 59 artillery pieces and armoured personnel carriers. Meanwhile, Iraqi state radio and television has been knocked off the air in Basra after British forces destroyed transmitters overnight, effectively isolating Iraq's second city from Baghdad, according to the BBC. One British tank officer said it was 'like the bicycle against the motor car'. The British armour, attacking while moving, destroyed all 14 of the Iraqi tanks thought to be a breakaway group.Ĭaptain Al Lockwood, the British military spokesman at US central command forward headquarters in Qatar, said this morning's tank battle was a 'very quick, short, sharp engagement'.įour armoured personnel carriers were also destroyed by the Challengers, which fire depleted uranium shells at a rate of up to eight per minute. Then early today British Challenger tanks appear to have encountered a squadron of Iraqi tanks that had been dispersed during the earlier attacks.

Iraq war tank battles