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This article was written by the company commanders of 1/2 to document the efforts of the Marines who fought at An Nasiriyah. Eighteen Marines paid the ultimate price and 14 others were wounded in 3 hours of intense urban combat.
by the Company Commanders, 1st Battalion, 2d Marines
The battle for the bridges of An Nasiriyah was one of the most important engagements of Operation IRAQI FREEDOM and also one of the most misunderstood. Even now, newspaper and magazine reports describe the battle as an ambush. Nothing could be further from the truth. While an Army convoy was attacked after mistakenly driving through An Nasiriyah that morning, the action that followed was a deliberate attack against an enemy stronghold. The only miscalculation was in how tenaciously the enemy was expected to resist. However, the men from 1st. Battalion, 2d Marines (1/2) who attacked north to seize the bridges were prepared for a fight. At the small unit level there were no expectations about capitulation or surrender. As always, the individual infantryman couldn't afford to make such reckless assumptions. What followed that day was a pitched battle in the streets of the city. On one side was a paramilitary force that had already bloodied an American unit and learned that Americans hadn't the stomach for a real fight. On the other side was a group of Marines who were determined to win despite the enemy, despite the cost.
The battle was fought in and around An Nasiriyah, a large city in southern Iraq that guarded key supply routes to the north. The battalion began its movement to contact north at 0400 (all times are local) on 23 March with tanks and a combined antiarmor team (CAAT) forming the vanguard of the column. The battalion was fatigued from driving almost nonstop from the Iraqi border 2 days before. Most Marines had not eaten or slept as the sun slowly replaced the gray dawn. In their approach north the battalion's lead element suddenly encountered machinegun fire and nearby explosions from bracketing mortars as Iraqi paramilitary forces south of the city attempted to halt the battalion's advance.
Although the enemy force had suffered some attrition from desertion, it was essentially three brigades defending in depth along a 12-kilometer...