M1A1 Abrams tanks and Bradley fighting vehicles were the lead elements of the roughly 500-vehicle convoy that comprised all of 3rd Squadron, 7th Cavalry Regiment’s ground combat power.

Just before midnight, in the streets on the edge of Al Faysaliyph, just west of the Euphrates, the Iraqis struck again. Dozens of militiamen hit the convoy with rocket-propelled grenades and machine guns. The convoy dispersed up side streets, but the leading elements headed for a bridge that seemed to offer an avenue of escape.

The bridge looked like it could handle the cavalry’s heavy armor. And indeed it could — until it collapsed under the 70-ton weight of an Abrams tank, the sixth vehicle in the convoy, which plunged into an eight-foot deep gulch.

The three Bradleys and two tanks ... had made it across the bridge before it collapsed...

Ferrell had no choice but to turn the convoy around and take another path.

In the darkness and confusion inevitable when 500 vehicles try to turn around in the dark on narrow roads while taking sporadic fire, two more tanks rolled into ditches, along with a fuel truck