The Killing Ground

Schwarzkopf believes terrain can work in his favor. The tigris and the Euphrates rivers join at Al-Qurna, just north of Basra, to form the Shatt al-Arab, which then flows into the gulf. Its delta on the Fao Peninsula is a wilderness of marshes; the Republican Guards' tanks cannot escape that way. Similar obstacles face them to the north, where the Euphrates meanders east to Al-Qurna through swampland and a great lake, the Hawr al-Hammar. If the United States cuts the bridges over the Euphrates and the Shatt al-Arab, the Republican Guards' only escape would be west, along the Euphrates.

That is where Schwarzkopf wants to create his killing ground. To beat U.S. tanks, the Iraqi corps commander would have to keep his forces concentrated. But if the tanks bunch together, they can be hit by U.S. aircraft. If they disperse again to avoid this aerial assault, they will be carved up by Schwarzkopf's ground forces, supported in the air by A-10 tank-killer aircraft, and apache helicopters.

Schwarzkopf has put together two other corps--self-contained groups of forces, each over two divisions strong. In the east there are the U.S. Marines, now representing the biggest amphibious assault force since the Inchon landings. After the Iraqi defense line in Kuwait has been pulverized by bombing--and only then--the Marines' task could be to power through the lines, probably to link up with a simultaneous Marine amphibious landing farther north up the coast of Kuwait, supported by the 16-inch guns of the battleships Wisconsin and Missouri in the Persian Gulf.

Schwarzkopf's second force is the XVIII Airborne Corps, consisting of he 82nd Airborne Division, the 101st Air Mobile Division, the 24th Mechanized Infantry Division and part of the Third Cavalry Regiment. This force, assisted by French, Egyptian, Saudi and Syrian forces, may act as a "pinning" force, engaging the Iraqi lines in order to prevent them from moving out to block the U.S. end run. The First Cavalry Division would remain in theater reserve.

Strike force:

Precisely where Schwarzkopf intends to penetrate the Iraqi defenses and make his run north is a closely guarded secret. "He has several choices, some more ambitious than others. Which he chooses depends on how many divisions he sends," says one official. Much also depends on how much time he is given to ready his strike force. This explains the pleas of Schwarzkopf and his deputy, Lt. Gen. Calvin Walker, for more time. In October Schwarzkopf convinced the president that his plan could work only with the divisions form Germany. They have been practicing AirLand Battle for a decade, and have a long experience of working intimately with the American and British Air Force units sent form NATO to the gulf. But these forces arrived only on Jan. 15, and are still a month away from reaching top form in desert conditions. Col. Jimmy Hitt of the 11th Aviation Brigade said last week that a quarter of his helicopter crews were still at the "walking" stage of readiness.