Heavy Metal: A Tank Company's Battle to Baghdad is a book by U.S. ArmyCaptain Jason Conroy and Ron Martz, published in 2005 by Potomac Books. The book provides a personal account of the fighting that took place during the 2003 invasion of Iraq, following Charlie Company from its home base at Fort Stewart, Georgia, to training in the deserts of California and Kuwait, and through the battles on the road to Baghdad. The book describes the challenges that Conroy and his soldiers faced, such as supply shortages, intelligence failures, and difficult weather conditions. It also details the tactics used by Iraqi militias and Fedayeen Saddam, including suicide attacks, to try to stop the tanks.
The book recounts how Charlie Company engaged in a battle with Soviet-made T-72 tanks at point-blank range near Baghdad, a tactic that was not part of Army doctrine and for which the soldiers were not trained.
The book also includes information about the Iraqi National Museum in Baghdad, how museum employees and others hid most of the artifacts before the fighting began, and how the number of stolen items was exaggerated by a member of the museum staff in interviews with international media.
Authors
Captain Jason Conroy, a 14-year veteran of the U.S. Army, was the Charlie Company Commander, 1st Battalion, 64th Armor Regiment.
Ron Martz writes on defense issues for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He was named writer of the year by the Atlanta Press Club and Cox Newspapers and finished second to the staff of Time Magazine in the National Headliner Awards for his coverage of the war in Iraq. He is the co-author of three previous books on military history.
The Iraqi Republican Guard was a branch of the Iraqi military from 1969 to 2003, which existed primarily during the presidency of Saddam Hussein. It later became known as the Republican Guard Corps, and then the Republican Guard Forces Command (RGFC) with its expansion into two corps. The Republican Guard was disbanded in 2003 after the invasion of Iraq by a U.S.-led international coalition.
This is a timeline of the events surrounding the United States-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.
Lion of Babylon is the name of a project undertaken by the Iraqi military in the late 1980s, under which Ba'athist Iraq attempted to locally produce the T-72, a Soviet-made main battle tank. The tanks were to be assembled at a factory near Taji in the Baghdad Governorate.
The Battle of Baghdad, also known as the Fall of Baghdad, was a military engagement that took place in Baghdad in early April 2003, as part of the invasion of Iraq.
Sadr City, formerly known as Al-Thawra and Saddam City, is a suburb district of the city of Baghdad, Iraq. It was built in 1959 by Prime Minister Abdul Karim Qassim and later unofficially renamed Sadr City after Ayatollah Mohammad Mohammad Sadeq al-Sadr.
The 1st Infantry Division is a combined arms division of the United States Army, and is the oldest continuously serving division in the Regular Army. It has seen continuous service since its organization in 1917 during World War I. It was officially nicknamed "The Big Red One" after its shoulder patch and is also nicknamed "The Fighting First." The division has also received troop monikers of "The Big Dead One" and "The Bloody First" as puns on the respective officially sanctioned nicknames. It is currently based at Fort Riley, Kansas.
The Baghdad Zoo is a 200-acre (81 ha) zoo originally opened in 1971 and located in Baghdad, Iraq, in the Al Zawra’a Gardens area along with the Al Zawra’a Dream Park and Zawra'a Tower. Before the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the zoo housed 650 animals. After being nearly destroyed during the 2003 Iraqi war, when only about 35 animals survived, the zoo was reopened in 2003 and now houses about 1,070 animals.
The Iraqi Ground Forces, or the Iraqi Army, is the ground force component of the Iraqi Armed Forces. It was known as the Royal Iraqi Army up until the coup of July 1958.
The Battle of Abu Ghraib was a battle between Iraqi Mujahideen and United States forces at Abu Ghraib prison on April 2, 2005.
The Battle of Nasiriyah was fought between the US 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade, aided by the British military, and Iraqi forces from 23 March to 2 April 2003 during the US-led invasion of Iraq. On the night of 24–25 March, the bulk of the Marines of Regimental Combat Team 1 passed through the city over the bridges and attacked north towards Baghdad. However fighting continued in the city until 1 April when Iraqi resistance in the city was defeated.
The Battle of Ramadi was fought during the Iraq War from March 2006 to November 2006, for control of the capital of the Al Anbar Governorate in western Iraq. A joint US military force under the command 1st Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armored Division and Iraqi Security Forces fought insurgents for control of key locations in Ramadil. Coalition strategy relied on establishing a number of patrol bases called Combat Operation Posts throughout the city.
Babylon's Ark, The Incredible Wartime Rescue of the Baghdad Zoo (2007) is a book by South African conservationist Lawrence Anthony, with writer Graham Spence. The book tells of the struggle to save the Baghdad Zoo during the US-led Coalition invasion of Iraq.
Dora is a neighborhood in Al Rashid administrative district, southern Baghdad, Iraq. Before the 2003 invasion of Iraq, it was home to the city's largest concentration of Christian Assyrians, as well as Mandaeans and Muslim families.
The 2008 Iraq spring fighting was a series of clashes between the Mahdi Army and allies and the Iraqi Army supported by coalition forces, in southern Iraq and parts of Baghdad, that began with an Iraqi offensive in Basra.
The siege of Sadr City was a blockade of the Shi'a district of northeastern Baghdad carried out by U.S. and Iraqi government forces in an attempt to destroy the main power base of the insurgent Mahdi Army in Baghdad. The siege began on 4 April 2004 – later dubbed "Black Sunday" – with an uprising against the Coalition Provisional Authority following the government banning of a newspaper published by Muqtada Al-Sadr's Sadrist Movement. The most intense periods of fighting in Sadr City occurred during the first uprising in April 2004, the second in August the same year, during the sectarian conflict that gripped Baghdad in late 2006, during the Iraq War troop surge of 2007, and during the spring fighting of 2008.
The Battle of the Karbala Gap occurred during the 2003 invasion of Iraq. The Karbala Gap is a 20–25-mile wide strip of land with the Euphrates River to the east and Lake Razazah to the west. This strip of land was recognized by Iraqi commanders as a key approach to Baghdad, and was defended by the Medina and Bakhtnisar Divisions of the Iraqi Republican Guard. American forces attacked Iraqi forces in the area with massive air attacks followed by concentrated armored thrusts which resulted in the Iraqi units being surrounded and annihilated.
The Battle of Karbala took place during the 2003 invasion of Iraq as U.S. troops fought to take control of the city from Iraqi forces. The city had been bypassed during the advance on Baghdad, leaving American units to clear it in two days of street fighting against Iraqi irregular forces.
The Good Friday Ambush 2004 was an attack by Iraqi insurgents on April 9, 2004 during the Iraq War on a convoy of U.S. supply trucks during the Battle of Baghdad International Airport. It happened in the midst of the Iraq spring fighting of 2004, which saw intensified clashes throughout the country.
The M1 Abrams main battle tank has been in service since 1980. Since then, it has gone through dozens of upgrades and been the baseline variant of several vehicles.
The Battle of Haditha Dam took place in 2003. During the 2003 invasion of Iraq, United States Army Rangers seized the Haditha Dam on 1 April in order to prevent it from being destroyed. Destruction of the dam would have significantly affected the functioning of the country's electrical grid and could cause major flooding downstream from the dam.
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