Review Coalition Armor vs Iraqi Forces, Iraq 2003-06

McNab, Chris, Coalition Armor vs Iraqi Forces, Iraq 2003-06, Osprey, 2024

 

Coalition Armor vs Iraqi Forces, Iraq 2003-06 is part of Osprey’s versus series of books where they discuss a major confrontation between two weapons systems. Here the focus was much broader covering American and British forces fighting the Iraqi army during the 2003 invasion and then militias and the insurgency afterwards. It’s a mix of technical reviews along with combat stories.

 

All of the books in the series follow the same format. It goes over the battleplan for the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the two sides, some of the main vehicles used such as the American Abrams tank, the British Challenger 2, and the Iraqi T-72. It finishes with stories from the invasion and then fighting afterwards such as the Battle of Fallujah. The vast majority of Coalition Armor vs Iraqi Forces is on 2003.

 

One of the main points was that the Iraqi army was completely unprepared for the onslaught of American and British forces during the invasion. The Iraqi military did very little training, much of its equipment was inoperable because of sanctions since the 1990 invasion of Kuwait, and Saddam Hussein diverted men and material into side projects like the Baath militia or the Fedayeen Saddam. The army was run from the top down that deprived units and officers of initiative with everything having to be okayed by the top commanders.

 

The Iraqis were outclassed in equipment as well. The book compares the Coalition’s 1980s-90s fighting vehicles with the Iraqis who were using ones from the 1950s-70s. Baghdad had several hundred T-72s but most of its armor was made up of aging Russian T-55s and Chinese Type 59s and Type 69s. Iraq had modified all of them but they lacked the armor and most importantly the computerized targeting systems of the British and Americans. It meant when the two forces met it was an unequal battle.

 

Another major issue was that the Iraq war challenged American doctrine about the use of armor. The U.S. was prepared to fight major conventional opponents such as the Soviet Union and China. Those tactics worked against the Iraqis in 2003 but was completely lost when the insurgency and militia revolts started. The Americans didn’t even have a doctrine for using armored vehicles in urban areas where most of them were deployed. Despite all their modern armor some vehicles were knocked out using old equipment like RPGs but also massive IEDs. This led to a new strategy and tactics having to be developed and more improvements made to the vehicles to deal with the emerging threats. Much has been made about how unprepared the Americans were for the occupation of Iraq. McNab brings up another wrinkle to this story.

 

Coalition Armor vs Iraqi Forces is a very quick read. It’s obviously aimed at amateur war historians and those interested in armored vehicles. There are plenty of pictures and maps and a lot of information included in a short volume. The firsthand accounts of combat are interesting. I’m not sure the invasion and occupation should’ve been thrown together in one book because the second half is a bit brief. Still, this is just an introductory overview of things and could lead to further investigations.

 

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