Hindsight can become foresight if viewed through the right lens. Margin of Victory views the outcomes of five horrific twentieth century battles through the lens of military strategy; force design and modernization, all of which decisively influence the savage fighting on the day of battle. From the house to house fighting in Shanghai, China to the dense forests of Western Russia and the deserts of the Middle East, the recurring theme is powerful: Victorious nation-states accept the pressing...
On 26 February 1991, cavalry troops of “Cougar Squadron,” the 2nd Squadron of the 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment, charged out of a sandstorm during Operation Desert Storm and caught Iraq’s Republican Guard Corps in the open desert along the North-South grid line of a military map referred to as the “73 Easting.” Taken by surprise, the defending Iraqi armor brigade was swept away in salvos of American tank and missile fire in what became the U.S....