Combat· Iraq War (Op IRAQI FREEDOM)
House from Hell
The "House from Hell" was the name Marines gave to a fortified house in Fallujah that became the scene of one of the most harrowing close-quarters fights of the Second Battle, when a squad entering the building was caught in a deadly ambush by insurgents waiting inside.
The defenders, dug into prepared positions within the house, opened fire at point-blank range, and the Marines found themselves in a desperate room-to-room struggle within the structure, taking casualties as they fought to extract their wounded and reduce the position. The brutal engagement, which required the Marines to bring the house down around the defenders, became emblematic of the lethal danger of clearing fortified buildings in Fallujah, where any structure might conceal a prepared killing zone. The fight produced acts of conspicuous heroism amid the carnage. It stood as one of the defining small-unit actions of the battle, a stark example of the cost of urban combat.
Record no. 757