The upstream of Shinafiye is about 20 kilometers, inside a relatively secret river beside it.

After waiting for the helicopter to fly away, he waited patiently for a while. After confirming that there was no abnormality around, Lei Zhenting asked his subordinates to launch a rubber boat.

After coming out of the river bay, three rubber motorboats sailed close to the right bank of the river.

There are a total of 39 special forces on these three motorboats, which happen to be three combat assault teams.

No one spoke, even the motor sounded very faintly.

Because it goes downstream, there is no need to let the motor run quickly, and the rubber boat can reach a navigation speed of 20 kilometers per hour.

The mission of this army is to capture the Euphrates Bridge in Shinafiye!

To be precise, it is actually participating in the bridge-grabbing battle, and performing the most dangerous sneak attack mission.

Before the air assault forces arrive, find and dismantle the remote-controlled bombs placed on the bridge piers of the Iraqi army to prevent the Iraqi army from destroying the bridge in other ways, that is, blowing up the bridge piers. If you have the ability, try to seize and control the bridgehead in the north.

Lei Zhenting was sent to the coalition headquarters three days ago after the combat operation to attack Bag X began. He learned from Ding Zhennan that in order to successfully capture the Euphrates Bridge near Shinafiye, an elite special forces needed to act as the pioneer.

Otherwise, the Military Intelligence Bureau would not have sent Lei Zhenting and the others here.

Lei Zhenting is now serving the Military Intelligence Bureau. Even before serving the Military Intelligence Bureau, he worked in the "Hu Ben Camp", the Imperial Army Special Forces for almost 10 years.

Of course, no matter where they serve, special forces such as Lei Zhenting are still imperial soldiers.

Besides, the Military Intelligence Bureau itself is a military intelligence agency, organized under the name of the General Staff, is managed by the Ministry of National Defense, and is directly responsible to the Chief Auxiliary.

It can be seen that all the personnel of the Military Intelligence Bureau are active-duty soldiers.

When he arrived at Khalid Military City, Lei Zhenting learned from Ding Zhennan that the coalition forces began to plan the operation to seize the Euphrates Bridge at the end of July.

In addition, whether the Euphrates Bridge can be successfully captured will determine whether it can enter Bagh X smoothly.

The reason is that Bagh X is north of the Euphrates River, next to the Tigris River, so you have to cross the Euphrates River to attack Bagh X.

Without a large bridge, it is difficult to support large corps combat by relying on boat bridges and floating bridges.

In theory, the passability of the six mechanized boat bridges is comparable to that of one double-line and four-lane highway bridge, and the passing ability of the pontoon bridge is even worse.

To maintain 6 mechanized boat bridges with a length of 2,000 meters, at least 3 engineering battalions are required.

The key is that it is the most rainy season of the year, and the water level of the Euphrates River has been changing, and the water flow is very turbulent.

There are dozens of reservoirs of all sizes in the upper reaches of the Euphrates River.

Simply put, the Iraqi army can artificially increase the water level of the Euphrates River by opening the gates and release water, and deal with the boat bridges built by the coalition forces.

In theory, it is only necessary to release water at the same time to destroy the pontoon bridge and boat bridge in Semawo.

The key is that no matter how hard the coalition forces can fight, they will not be able to overcome the flood.

Even if the flood cannot eliminate the coalition forces, it can cause a lot of trouble for the coalition forces, such as delaying the coalition's advancement speed, making the coalition forces spend more time on attacking Bagh X.

According to the initial plan, the coalition forces placed the operation to launch ground wars and restore Kuwait at the end of the year, that is, the dry season, in order to avoid unpredictable factors and ensure the smooth completion of the encirclement operation. Through combat-level detours, they encircled and annihilated the Iraqi army invading Kuwait.

Ding Zhennan's strategic vision was also revealed at this time.

At that time, many staff members believed that they should destroy all bridges on the Euphrates and Tigris Rivers in Iraq during the air strike stage, prevent the Iraqi army from moving south, and reduce the burden on the ground war stage. Ding Zhennan was very firmly convinced that several bridges must be retained. Although at that time, Ding Zhennan gave the reason to let the Iraqi army go south to completely destroy Iraq's national defense power, now, Ding Zhennan had already thought at this time that the Posa Bay War would not end after the restoration of Kuwait.

What is preserved include the Euphrates Bridge in Shinafiye!

In addition, the boat bridge and pontoon bridge need regular maintenance.

Of course, the safety factor of the boat bridge is not high enough.

In short, unless you march from the north of Hamar Lake after taking off the bus X, and push towards Bagh X all the way toward the north of the Euphrates River, you must seize a bridge.

But the problem is that there are swamps on the north side of Lake Hamar, with only a few low-grade roads of poor quality, and the road located on the west bank of the Tigris River is still close to the border. One of them is less than 30 kilometers away from the Bouil country, within the range of long-range artillery and rocket launchers.

The worst thing is that the north of Hamar Lake is the main battlefield of the Iran-Iraq War. In the late period of the war, that is, in the last few years, it was still the place where Iraqi troops fought to the death.

Mines are everywhere here, and millions of mines have not been removed so far.

In addition, Highway 1 is located south of Lake Hamar!

The ideal choice is actually to advance along Highway 1 and cross the Euphrates River near Nasirier.

Unfortunately, before the Iraqi army on Bus X surrendered, the Iraqi army guarding Nasirier blew up the bridge on the Euphrates River.

In addition, defensive positions were set up on the north shore.

As for the bridge on Semawo, it was blown up by the coalition forces in late July.

This is a railway and highway bridge, and there is only this railway before Bus X and Bagh X. In order to prevent the enemy from increasing troops to the southern region, shortly after the war, the coalition forces sent attack aircraft to blow up Pier No. 3 of the bridge with laser-guided bombs.

Since then, the bridge has been paralyzed.

Otherwise, the 5th Marine Division would have crossed the river after occupying Semavo and seized and controlled the bridgehead north of the bridge.

Further upstream is the bridge in Shinavye.

Although Ding Zhennan chose the Shinafiye Bridge at the end of September, just after the combat operation to attack Bag X was confirmed, Ding Zhennan had the idea of ​​seizing the bridge in July more than a month ago, and the coalition forces did not destroy the bridge.

To be said, Shinavye is indeed an ideal place to cross the river.

Shinavye is just a small town with less than 50,000 permanent residents, and the urban area is only a few square kilometers, and it is far away from large cities with a large population.

Of course, the problem exists.

There is only one road from Shinavie, which is in very bad condition, and only the mountain road through which the tracked vehicles can pass lead to Gemas to the north.

In order to figure out the situation of this mountain road, Ding Zhennan also asked the Military Intelligence Bureau for help.

After repeated investigations, it was finally confirmed that as long as necessary maintenance is required, wheeled vehicles within 25 tons can be allowed to pass through.

Of course, engineering troops are required to be dispatched on a few sections of the road.

The key is that this mountain road is only about 30 kilometers, so even if you want to dispatch engineering troops, you don’t need to use too much force.

As long as it is properly handled, the logistical support issues can be solved.

Upstream of Shinavye is Naj X.

This is a medium-sized city with hundreds of thousands of residents, it is also the capital of Naj X Province, and it is also the southern gateway to the Greater Bagh X area.

Obviously, for coalition forces with limited troops, it is necessary to avoid cities with large populations as much as possible.

Not to mention anything else, just occupying and controlling Naj X would have to invest thousands of troops.

In fact, the closer you get to Bagh X, the more difficult it is to cross the river.

It can be seen that the Shinafiye Bridge is a good choice.

This is why during the air strike that lasted for more than two months, the coalition forces did not take any harsh measures against the bridge. They just wanted to prevent the Iraqi army from using the bridge and broke a section of the bridge deck. Since then, they have maintained considerable suppression, making the bridge unable to be used normally.

As for repairing the broken bridge deck, it is not difficult.

Because the bridge deck span, that is, the spacing distance between two adjacent piers is less than 100 meters, theoretically, it is necessary to use two large mechanical bridges with a span of 100 meters to restore the bridge to traffic and achieve the designed load capacity, that is, the fastest passing speed.

At the end of September, the Army sent three sets of large mechanical bridges over.

Of course, the biggest problem is actually to seize the bridge.

Affected by the many factors ahead, the Iraqi military has always not paid much attention to this bridge and feels that the coalition forces are unlikely to cross the river from here.

Among them, there is another very critical reason.

The Shinafiye Bridge has a history of more than 40 years and was built during the colonial period. The design standards are very low, such as only 40 tons of vehicles are allowed to pass through at most.

This alone greatly reduces the military value of the bridge.

Don’t forget that among the main combat equipment of the coalition forces, the ZT-99B is close to 60 tons in full-cloaked state, and the total combat weight of self-propelled howitzers and long-range rocket launchers exceeds 45 tons. Even infantry fighting vehicles have reached 36 tons after being hung with explosive reaction armor.

In fact, as long as the tank cannot pass, the bridge will not be of much value.

That's why the Iraqi army has not blown up the bridge and plans to make trouble here, such as seducing coalition forces to attack the bridge.

Of course, the Iraqi army is also ready.

For example, hundreds of kilograms of explosives and remote detonators are installed on all bridge piers to ensure that the bridge can be blown up when necessary.

Just blow up a bridge pier and the bridge will be completely destroyed.

The reason is also very simple, there is no technology to build a mechanical bridge with a span of more than 100 meters!

In fact, most mechanical bridges have a span of about 50 meters, and only the Imperial Army in the world has spared no expense to develop mechanical bridges with a span of 100 meters.

This special bridge weighs 100 tons alone, and needs to be carried by three crawler-type bridge rigs. It takes several hours to prepare before erecting, connecting the bridge decks divided into two sections together, and then using special bridge rigs to lay the bridge decks.

It is indeed very troublesome, but after setting up, it can provide a load capacity of up to 70 tons, allowing all main combat equipment of the Imperial Army to pass through.

However, if the span exceeds 100 meters, there is nothing we can do.

As for other bridge decks, the ability to pass can be improved through reinforcement.

Even if it cannot be improved, a boat bridge can be built to allow tanks and other weights to cross the river to the main battle platform that exceeds 40 tons. After all, there are not many heavy combat vehicles.

As long as 25 tons of transport vehicles can pass through, that is enough.

This is also the reason why Lei Zhenting came here.

According to the information provided by the coalition command, hundreds of kilograms of explosives were found on each pier of the bridge, which was also detonated by a separate remote control.

In order to avoid interference, wired remote control is used.
To be continued...