The fierce battle lasted until after 10 o'clock.

The first one to arrive was not the second air assault force sent by the 17th Armored Division, nor the 17313th Aircraft Battalion promoted on the south bank of the Euphrates River, nor the 171st Armored Brigade and the 177th Aircraft Infantry Brigade, but the infantry company sent by the 7th Armored Division to come from Nuhaib.

This battle fully illustrates a problem: the morale of the Iraqi army has not yet declined to the point of collapse.

In the downstream direction of Shinafiye, the Iraqi army was actually prepared.

According to the prisoners of war, after Semavo crossed the Euphrates River, Major General Havani, who was guarding Shinafiye, drew several infantry battalions and fortified in stages on the north bank of the downstream. In order to avoid being discovered by the coalition forces, these troops were operating at night and were immediately deployed in dispersed manner after arriving at the defense zone.

The key is that it is all infantry units.

Although the combat effectiveness of the infantry troops is not strong, in contrast, the infantry troops are very concealed.

Even if it is exposed, it may not be hit.

No matter how powerful the coalition's technical means are, they cannot distinguish between the soldiers dispatched in groups and the refugees who fled in groups.

Besides, after eight years of fighting between Iran-Iraq War, at least 500,000 guns were scattered among the people, and they were mainly scattered south of Bagh X.

During the battle against Bus X, we encountered many armed civilians.

The key is that the Posa Bay War has not yet developed to the point of firing on refugees.

In addition, after entering the deployment state, the officers and soldiers of these troops rarely go out to move and most of the time they hide in buildings.

As a result, until the battle to march into Shinavye began, the coalition forces did not discover these secret Iraqi troops deployed on the north bank of the Euphrates River.

After the first air assault unit was frustrated, neither the coalition command nor the 17th Armored Division was vigilant.

At that time, including Fu Weimin, everyone believed that it was just a defeated force that was scattered on the north bank of the Euphrates River in the previous battle.

After the second air assault unit was blocked again, Major General Fu Weimin of the 17th Armored Division realized the trouble and then ordered the assault to be abandoned.

At this time, it was already past 7 o'clock.

Although the 17th Armored Division has several reserve teams and has been ready for combat and can be dispatched at any time, in the face of complex battlefield situations, even if the officers and soldiers of grassroots troops move forward bravely, Fu Weimin will not let his troops die, let alone a meaningless sacrifice.

Given the circumstances at that time, even if the 17th Armored Division sent a third air assault force, it would not be able to arrive in Shinavye.

On the south bank of the Euphrates River, the 17313th Jibu Battalion also encountered trouble.

It was not the Iraqi army that blocked the progress of the 17313th CBt, but the large minefields!

Because he knew that he could not defend the Euphrates Bridge, Major General Havani did not deploy defense forces on the south bank, but used tens of thousands of mines to set up more than 10 minefields along the south bank road, at least one third of which were anti-armored mines.

If you want to say, the Iraqi army is the most inseparable mines!

According to incomplete statistics, during the Iran-Iraq War, the mines used by both sides exceeded 1 million!

Now, the border areas of southern Iraq and the Lowland Province of Bou-Iran are forbidden areas for life, with hundreds of thousands of mines buried.

During the Iraq-Iraq War, Iraq spent hundreds of millions of gold and imported a large number of land mines.

In addition, more mines were produced on their own.

The imported mainly include anti-armored mines that Iraq cannot produce, just for use in sub-compartment bullets, just for small mines that are spread through rockets.

As for self-production, it is actually modification, and most of it is handled by front-line combat troops.

The most common thing is to install a pressing or pulling fuse on the shell, and then bury it by engineers, which is usually used on major traffic roads or frontiers of positions.

Because it is easy to modify and bury, it is very simple to install, and there is no requirement for shells, from 203mm large-caliber grenades to 60mm mortar shells, so these modified mines are widely used on the battlefield, so it is impossible to count the accurate number.

That's right, no one knows how many landmines the Iraqi army has.

Of course, the power of landmines cannot be underestimated.

In the Iran-Iraq War, landmines suffered 300,000 casualties, second only to artillery bombardment!

I won’t say much about anti-personnel landmines. No matter who step on it, even if you are not killed by the bomb, you will have to spend the rest of your life in a wheelchair.

The key is anti-armored mines.

According to the information provided by the Military Intelligence Bureau, the Hussein authorities purchased about 300,000 anti-armored mines from the Torman Empire and Xiluosha in multiple batches during the eight years of the Iran-Iraq War, and only 30% were used up before the end of the war, and the remaining more than 200,000 were stored.

These anti-armor mines are all big killing weapons!

Don’t forget that the Tyman Empire and Xiluosha must face the Oriental Group directly. Even if they maintain the offensive momentum, they dare not expect to completely defeat the Liangxia Empire. In the end, they must turn from offense to defense, and they must withstand the steel torrent of the Oriental Group during the strategic defense stage.

The key is that Xilu Group will definitely give up its initiative only when it cannot continue to attack.

In other words, during the strategic defense stage, the armored forces of the West Road Group will inevitably be very small, and they will not expect to rely on armored forces to defend the front line.

To put it bluntly, it means that you can end up in the end.

So, how can we defend the front line while we are at the end of our lives?

It's a landmine!

That's why West Road Group has always attached great importance to landmines, especially anti-armored landmines used to deal with tanks.

Because of different tactical needs, the Tauman Empire and Xiluosha chose two completely different technical routes when developing anti-armor mines.

The anti-armored mines of the Tauman Empire pay more attention to deployment performance and are more flexible in tactical use. For example, the MW-1 aviation spreader equipped by the "Storm Wind" fighter can load hundreds of anti-armored mines, while a "Storm Wind" IDS can carry two at the heavy load point of the belly. Just dispatch a team of four "Storm Wind" IDSs to set up anti-armored mines on the front of a defense line up to 10 kilometers wide.

In order to improve the tactical flexibility of landmines, the Tauman Empire also developed anti-armor and anti-personnel dual-purpose landmines.

Because it is necessary to create fragments to achieve anti-personnel effects, and at the same time reduce the quality and increase the spread density, the anti-armor effect of this type of dual-purpose landmine is not very good. It can generally be used to deal with light targets such as infantry fighting vehicles, and it does not pose much threat to tanks.

Xiluosha's anti-armored landmines go to another extreme and pays more attention to power!

Because he faces the Oriental Group directly and faces the Oriental Group's main battle tanks, Xiluosha's anti-armor mines have a hard indicator, which can at least blow up the lower armor of the Liangxia Empire's main battle tank. The thickness of the armor is not less than 500 mm, so more explosives are needed.

Because it is more bulky and more difficult to throw, the Xiluosha Army is equipped with special mine-building equipment, such as rocket mine-burning vehicles.

Of course, the anti-armored mines of the Tauman Empire and Xiluosha can be said to have their own advantages.

For Iraq, it is obvious that the characteristics of these mines will not be cared about.

In fact, during the Iraq-Iraq War, Iraq also obtained some anti-armored mines from the Liangxia Empire through oil-producing countries on the southern bank of the Posha Bay such as Saudi Arabia. However, the number was not large, and the anti-armored mines of the Liangxia Empire were very average and their performance was not outstanding.

On the most important ground battlefield, that is, the continental battlefield, the Imperial Army relies not on landmines, but on strategic depths of thousands of kilometers.

In addition, from a strategic perspective, the Imperial Army only focuses on defense in the early stages of war, and will launch a counterattack after stabilizing the front.

It can be seen that blocking the enemy by laying mines will inevitably cause trouble for yourself during the counterattack stage.

That's why the Imperial Army attaches more importance to mine-sweeping capabilities.

In addition to purchasing and measuring advanced mine-sweeping equipment, the Imperial Army has also developed some non-special mine-sweeping equipment through investment.

The most representative one is the temperature-pressure bomb.

This kind of ammunition that produces a range-killing effect through high temperature and high pressure was initially used to clear mines, that is, the high pressure generated by the explosion could detonate mines, thereby clearing mines in the entire explosion area at one time. Unfortunately, to generate a sufficiently high pressure, the temperature-pressure bomb cannot be made too small to be made into shells or rockets, so it was first provided to the Air Force to make an aviation bomb.

During the test, the Air Force discovered that the thermocompression bomb was very suitable for dealing with enemies in a strong shelter.

In the 17313th Mechanical and Instrument Battalion, there is an engineer platoon equipped with several minesweepers, the main force is three rocket minesweepers transformed from BZ-68. This minesweeper uses rockets to pull and throw blasting cables, and then uses blasting index to detonate landmines to clear out safe passages that allow tanks and vehicles to pass through.

But the problem is that there are too few engineers in a platoon.

As for naval aviation to provide support, even if the naval attack aircraft can carry and throw temperature-pressure bombs and throw temperature-pressure bombs, it cannot be arranged for the time being.

At that time, almost all attack aircraft were on the north shore, clearing obstacles for the air assault forces and covering the 171st Armored Brigade assault on Shinavye.

As a result, by noon, the 17313th Cyber ​​Camp was almost 15 kilometers away from Shinavye, and only a few kilometers were advanced in one morning.

Because he was responsible for the heavy responsibility of receiving the 171st Armored Brigade and the 177th Aircraft Brigade and covering the support force for transporting materials, the 17313 Aircraft Battalion did not dare to make a rash move, so he could only advance honestly and steadily to open up a safe passage for the follow-up logistics support force.

In fact, in the initial combat plan, the 17313th Battalion was not arranged to assault Shinavye, let alone assisting special forces in capturing and controlling the Euphrates Bridge.

The armored troops attacked on the North Shore were not only threatened by the Iraqi army, but also had logistical support issues.

In fact, after dawn, the 171st Armored Brigade had to stop moving forward because it needed to replenish tanks and tanks. It was not until noon that the supply operation was completed. It was already past 2 pm when the vanguard troops arrived in Shinavye in the evening.

Fortunately, Ding Zhennan had expected it.

Before 7 o'clock, HNA increased its investment in Shinavie.

When the Iraqi army launched its third counterattack, four "Occurrence-5H" arrived in time and dropped about 30 tons of bombs in just a few minutes!

This fierce round of bombing directly defeated the morale of the Iraqi army.

It has proved once again that fire strikes are the most effective means to destroy the enemy.

If you want to say, this is the value of a heavy attack aircraft!

Light attack aircraft such as "Ocamp-6F" generally only carry 2 tons of bombs when performing combat radius toward battlefield support missions with a combat radius of more than 500 kilometers to ensure that they can obtain at least half an hour of air stagnation without air refueling, and return to the starting base after completing the mission. If you replace it with heavy attack aircraft such as "Ocamp-5H", in the same case, the bomb can be carried up to 6 tons. If you don't have to stay above the battlefield, you will launch an attack after arriving, drop the bomb and return to the flight, and increase the load capacity to 8 tons. In extreme cases, "Ocamp-6H" can carry 12 tons of bombs to attack targets 2,000 kilometers away. However, at least three aerial refueling must be carried out during this period, and 24 tons of fuel will be obtained from the refueling machine, otherwise you can only fly one way.

However, attack aircraft is not omnipotent.

Before 9 o'clock, the 17th Armored Division launched a long-range fire strike operation, which fired hundreds of long-range rockets to a covered shelling of the Iraqi barracks in Shinafiye by a long-range rocket battalion of the 174th Artillery Brigade, which caught up with the 171st Armored Brigade.

Because the error of the rocket launcher is too large, it is impossible to perform close-range suppression missions.

This round of fierce shelling took half an hour.

By 9:30, HNA was able to draw attack aircraft to support special forces guarding the bridge.

Under the continuous fire strikes, Shinafiye's Iraqi army has not launched a threatening counterattack and has never been able to attack the bridgehead.

At 10 o'clock, the fierce battle came to an end with the arrival of the 7th Armored Division's reinforcements.

Although there was only one company of troops and the infantry company was still the company, the accompanying armed helicopters completely shattered the fighting spirit of Iraqi soldiers.

After the last counterattack was repelled, the Iraqi army began to retreat, which was actually a retreat.

Due to the lack of armored forces, the special forces also suffered heavy casualties. After calling for air strikes and asked HNA to deal with the retreating enemies, Lei Zhenting handed over the position to the officers and soldiers of the 7th Armored Division, and took his officers and soldiers, and left Shinavye by helicopter with the bodies of the fallen special forces.

His actions also caused a small trouble for Ding Zhennan.

According to the previous arrangement, Shinavye should be controlled by the 17th Armored Division within the occupied area of ​​the 17th Armored Division, and he handed over the bridge to the infantry company of the 7th Armored Division. When the 17313th Armored Battalion arrived, the 7th Armored Division's armed stance company was unwilling to hand over the position.

At that time, the officers and soldiers on both sides almost fought over this matter.

Later, after Ding Zhennan issued an order in the name of Shi Suliang, Lu Liaoyuan issued an order to the infantry company occupying the Euphrates River Bridge, handing over the bridge to the 17313th Mechanical Infantry Battalion, and immediately returned to Nuhaib to participate in the combat operation to attack Bagh X.

Fu Weimin also made a promise that he would do his best to provide logistical support for the 7th Armored Division.

In fact, Fu Weimin knew very well. It was precisely because the 17th Armored Division was not strong in the bridge capture operation that Lu Liaoyuan of the 7th Armored Division did not want to hand over the bridge. After all, whether the bridge could operate normally was related to the life and death of tens of thousands of officers and soldiers of the 7th Armored Division!

After taking down the Euphrates Bridge in Shinafiye, the action to march into Bagh X officially began.
Chapter completed!