Operation Phantom Fury by Dick Camp

Author:Dick Camp
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: MBI
Published: 2010-12-08T16:00:00+00:00

D-day (7 Nov 04)

TF Wolfpack (3 LAR)

• Attack, secure the peninsula, and isolate Fallujah from the west.

• Secure and hold north and south bridges (2 and 3)

36 CDO

• Attack and secure the Peninsula Hospital (1)

Major General Natonski designated RCT-1 as the attack’s main effort. “Our main effort on the west side of Fallujah was RCT-1 led by Colonel Mike Shupp. I told him I wanted a penetration into the Jolan District, division objective one (regimental objective B), which we felt was one of the enemy’s major command and control nodes.” Shupp argued for a multiple-axis attack, north to south, with three battalions—3/5 (Darkhorse) on the left flank, 2-7 Cav (Shadow) on the right; with 3/1 (Brahma) following in trace—and a heavily reinforced task force attacking up the peninsula and sealing off the city from the west. His plan called for a carefully choreographed assault, making full use of supporting arms, tactical control measures, and support by fire positions. Shupp felt very strongly that RCT-1 would deliver a “death blow to the enemy.”

At dusk on the evening of November 7, light armored vehicles of Task Force 3rd Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion (3rd LAR [Wolfpack]) kicked off the attack by establishing blocking positions on the eastern side of the peninsula, along the Euphrates River overlooking the city. Team Mech, which included Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 503rd Infantry; an army tank platoon; and a Bradley company, took up positions on the western side of the two bridges (the northern bridge was referred to as Blackwater Bridge, Brooklyn Bridge or Old Bridge; the southern bridge was referred as George Washington or New Bridge) to block them off from all traffic into and out of the city. Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 23rd Marines, took positions along the western side of the peninsula, completing sealing it off. Immediately following the heavy combat units, two companies of the Iraqi 36th Commando Battalion and their special forces advisors in seven-ton trucks roared up to the Fallujah General Hospital on the northern neck of land at a bend in the river. The commandos quickly dismounted and stormed into the facility. Richard Oppel wrote in the November 8 New York Times, “Ear-splitting bangs rang out as troops used a gunlike tool called a doorbuster, which uses the force from firing [a] blank .22-caliber cartridge to thrust forward a chisel to break heavy door locks.” The Iraqis hustled patients and doctors out of the rooms, flexcuffed them with plastic zip-ties, and put them under guard in the hallways. Sattler was delighted that the attack went so well. “The first attack up the peninsula was executed flawlessly, to include the take down of the hospital,” he declared.

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