RE: [SG2] Cover Penetration Question for all you Armour Experts

Excerpted from "Victory Misunderstood: What the Gulf War Tells Us About
the Future of Conflict"
By Stephen Biddle
>From International Security, Vol. 21, No. 2 (Fall 1996)

First, Iraqi defensive positions were very poorly prepared. The "Saddam
line" at the Saudi border was haphazard at best (although given the poor
quality of its conscript garrison, it is unclear how significant this
was). More important for the outcome, the Republican Guard blocking
positions were no better Western armies dig their fighting positions
into the earth below grade, and hide the soil removed in excavation. The
Guard, on the other hand, simply piled sand into loose berms, or mounds,
on the surface of the ground around combat vehicles and infantry
positions.(64) This gave away the defenders' locations from literally
thousands of meters away, as the berms were the only distinctive feature
of an otherwise flat landscape, without providing any real protection
against the fire this inevitably drew.(65) Loose piles of sand cannot
stop modern high-velocity tank rounds. In fact, they barely slow them
down. U.S. crews in 73 Pasting reported seeing 120 mm tank rounds pass
th!
 rough Iraqi berms, through the Iraqi armored vehicle behind the berm,
and off into the distance.(66) No U.S. tank crew would leave itself so
exposed.

--Binhan

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Allan Goodall [mailto:agoodall@att.net]
> Sent: Wednesday, August 28, 2002 2:06 PM
> To: gzg-l@csua.berkeley.edu
> Subject: Re: [SG2] Cover Penetration Question for all you 
> Armour Experts
> 
> 
> On Wed, 28 Aug 2002 12:54:54 -0700 (PDT), John Atkinson
> <johnmatkinson@yahoo.com> wrote:
> 
> > But a proper tank fighting position is something else
> >entirely.
> 
> Would a proper position (made from packed earth, I take it?) be mostly
> impervious to anti-tank fire or completely impervious?
> 
> Sand is completely useless? Not surprising, but quite 
> interesting. I'll take
> that into account.
> 
> 
> Allan Goodall 		 agoodall@hyperbear.com
> http://www.hyperbear.com
> 
> "We come into the world and take our chances
>  Fate is just the weight of circumstances
>  That's the way that Lady Luck dances
>  Roll the bones." - N. Peart