Nazi code name used by US military

The United States military's codename for a crackdown on resistance in Iraq was also used by the Nazis for an aborted operation to damage the Soviet power grid during World War II.

Operation Iron Hammer this week launched the 1st Armoured Division's 3rd Brigade into the roughest parts of Baghdad to ferret out the attackers.

A Pentagon official said the name was chosen because of the nickname of the 1st Armoured Division was Old Ironsides.

Eisenhammer, the German for "iron hammer", was a Luftwaffe codename for a plan to destroy Soviet electricity generation plants in the Moscow and Gorky areas in 1943.