Tens upon thousands of US and British troops were early this morning poised barely inside the Kuwait-Iraq border, waiting for the order that will send them speeding towards Basra and Baghdad, writes Jack Fairweather on the Kuwait/Iraq border
Amid clouds of swirling desert sand and dust, they made their dash to the frontier yesterday in what most believed were the final hours before war.
The order was given for the 180,000 British and US troops based in the northern Kuwaiti deserts to pack up their camps and be on a four-hour stand-by for military action.
Many of the soldiers are now waiting in the 200-mile-long demilitarised zone, which had been patrolled by United Nations observers until they withdrew at the weekend.
US military units were yesterday moving within a short distance of Kuwait's western border with Iraq. The deployment of the troops to the edge of the border suggests that a land invasion will follow a shorter than expected air war.
Military analysts had predicted a two-to-three day aerial bombardment to "soften up" Iraqi ground defences, but in the words of one senior US officer: "We've been hitting them so hard in southern Iraq over the past few weeks in our patrol of the southern no-fly [zone], we are not expecting the Iraqis to put up much resistance."
The confidence on the part of the US military would appear to be justified as British regiments have already reported Iraqi soldiers attempting to surrender in the border zone.
There are also reports that deals have been struck with Iraqi generals commanding three divisions based in and around Basra. The morale of the Iraqi army in southern Iraq is already known to be "shaky".
A British officer said: "We would of course like it if the Iraqi soldiers laid down their arms without fighting. We are, however, prepared for the scenario that they do not."
As troops deployed yesterday it was clear that British and US forces had been given two different sets of objectives when war begins.
Columns of British tanks, armoured personnel carriers and bulldozers moved into the north-eastern corner of Kuwait, a short distance from the port of Umm Qasr which they are expected to take in the opening hours of the campaign before moving on to the key city of Basra.
In the western Kuwaiti desert elements of the US 3rd division, given the task of capturing Baghdad, could be seen moving into position.
Both British and US forces will launch a simultaneous assault, however, with the US 101st airborne division invading from the north.
One officer involved in the deployment said: "We're pleased to have finally been given the order to deploy. It means we can set about our task of liberating the Iraqi people before returning home to our families."