Battle of 73 Easting

Battle context

The Battle of 73 Easting on 26 February 1991 was a major armored engagement between Coalition and Iraqi armored forces during the ground phase of the Gulf War. Named for the UTM north–south grid line used by Coalition forces as a phase line to measure their advance through the desert, the battle illustrated the operational momentum that Coalition armored units sustained across the theater. The engagement took place several hours after a smaller tank battle at Al Busayyah, indicating the intensity and tempo of armored contact during this phase of the campaign. Iraqi forces suffered approximately 1,000 casualties against a Coalition force of around 4,000. A participant later characterized it as 'the last great tank battle of the 20th century,' a description that points to its scale relative to subsequent conflicts and to the decisive conventional armored warfare that defined the Gulf War's ground campaign.