About 20 kilometers upstream of Sinafyeh, in a relatively secluded river bay.

After waiting for the helicopter to fly away, he waited patiently for a while, and after confirming that there was no abnormal situation around, Lei Zhenting asked his subordinates to start the rubber motorboat.

After coming out of the bend, three rubber motorboats have been sailing close to the right bank of the river.

On these 3 motorized rubber boats, there are a total of 39 special forces, which happens to be 3 combat assault squads.

No one spoke, even the motor was faint.

Because it goes downstream, it doesn't need a fast motor to reach speeds of up to 20 kilometers per hour.

The mission of this force is to capture the bridge of the Euphrates River in Sinafyeh!

To be precise, he actually participated in the battle to seize the bridge, and carried out the most dangerous sneak attack mission.

Locate and defuse remote-controlled bombs placed on the piers of the bridge by the Iraqi army before the arrival of the air assault force to prevent the Iraqi army from destroying the bridge by other means, i.e., blowing up the piers. If you have the ability, you will also try to capture and control the bridgehead to the north.

Thunder was also sent to the coalition headquarters three days earlier, after the start of the combat operation against Bagh X, and learned from Ding Zhennan that in order to successfully take the Euphrates River bridge near Shinafyeh, an elite special forces force was needed to act as a pioneer.

Otherwise, the Military Intelligence Bureau would not have sent Thunder and Thunder here.

Thunder is now in the service of the Military Intelligence Agency, even before serving the Military Intelligence Agency, he worked for almost 10 years in the "Tiger Camp", that is, the special forces of the Imperial Army.

Of course, no matter where they serve, these special forces are still Imperial soldiers.

Moreover, the Military Intelligence Agency itself is a military intelligence agency, which is under the name of the General Staff, under the management of the Ministry of National Defense, and is directly responsible to the Chief Assistant.

It can be seen that the personnel of the Military Intelligence Agency are all active military personnel.

When he arrived at King Khalid Military City, Lei Zhenting learned from Ding Zhennan that the coalition forces had begun planning to seize the Euphrates River Bridge at the end of July.

In addition, whether or not the Euphrates River Bridge can be successfully won will determine whether or not it can successfully enter the Bagh X.

For the same reason, Bagh X is north of the Euphrates, next to the Tigris River, so it is necessary to cross the Euphrates River in order to attack Bagh X.

There is no bridge, and it is difficult to support the large corps in the battle by relying only on boat bridges and pontoon bridges.

Theoretically, the traffic capacity of 6 mechanized boat bridges is comparable to that of 1 two-lane four-lane highway bridge, and the passing capacity of pontoon bridges is even worse.

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

Crucially, this is the rainiest time of the year, and the water level of the Euphrates is constantly changing, and the water flow is very fast.

In the upper reaches of the Euphrates River, there are dozens of reservoirs, large and small.

To put it simply, the Iraqi army can artificially raise the water level of the Euphrates River by opening the floodgates to deal with the boat bridges erected by the coalition forces.

Theoretically, it only takes several large reservoirs to release water at the same time to wash away the pontoon and boat bridges on the Semavo side.

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

Even if the flood can't wipe out the coalition forces, it can cause a lot of problems for the coalition forces, such as slowing down the coalition army's advance and making it take more time for the coalition to attack Bag X.

According to the original plan, the coalition forces put the operation of launching a ground war and recovering Kuwait at the end of the year, that is, in the dry season, in order to avoid unpredictable factors, ensure the smooth completion of the encirclement operation, and encircle and annihilate the Iraqi army invading Kuwait through a campaign-level detour.

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

At that time, many staff officers believed that all the bridges over the Euphrates and Tigris rivers in Iraq should be destroyed during the air strike phase to prevent the Iraqi army from moving southward and reduce the burden on the ground war phase. Ding Zhennan is very firm that a few bridges must be preserved. Although at that time, the reason given by Ding Zhennan was to let the Iraqi army go south in order to completely destroy Iraq's national defense forces, but now that Ding Zhennan had already thought at this time that the Bosa Bay War would not end after the liberation of Kuwait.

Among those that are preserved is the Euphrates Bridge in Sinafyeh!

In addition, boat bridges and pontoons require regular maintenance.

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

All in all, unless the army marches north of Lake Hamar after taking bus X, and has been advancing north of the Euphrates towards Bag X, it is necessary to capture a bridge.

The problem is that north of Lake Hamar is swampy, with only a few low-grade roads of poor quality, and the one on the west bank of the Tigris is close to the border, one of which is less than 30 kilometers from the Polish mainland and within the range of long-range artillery and rocket artillery.

Worse still, north of Lake Hammar was the main battlefield of the Iran-Iraq war, and in the latter part of the war, that is, in the last years, it was the place where the Iraqi army died in battle.

There are minefields all over the area, and millions of mines have not been cleared to this day.

In addition, Highway 1 is south of Lake Hamar!

Ideally, you would be able to follow Highway 1 and cross the Euphrates River near Nasiriyah.

Unfortunately, the Iraqi forces guarding Nasiriyah blew up the bridge over the Euphrates before the Iraqi forces at Bus X surrendered.

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

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

This is a railroad and road bridge, and there was only this railroad before Bus X and Bag X, so in order to prevent the enemy from increasing troops in the southern area, the coalition forces sent attack aircraft to blow up the bridge's No. 3 pier with laser-guided bombs shortly after the start of the war.

Since then, the bridge has been in a state of paralysis.

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

Further upstream, there is the bridge in Shinafiya.

Although at the end of September, that is, after the combat operation to attack Bag X was determined, Ding Zhennan chose the Shinafye Bridge, but as early as more than a month ago in July, Ding Zhennan had the idea of seizing the bridge, and the coalition forces have not destroyed the bridge.

If anything, Sinafye is indeed an ideal place to cross the river.

Sinafye is a small town with fewer than 50,000 permanent inhabitants and an area of just a few square kilometres, far from the populous big cities.

Of course, there are problems.

There is only one road from Sinafye that is in very bad condition, and only the mountain road that can be passed by crawler vehicles leads to Gaymas to the north.

In order to find 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 this mountain road can be passed by wheeled vehicles up to 25 tons as long as the necessary maintenance is carried out.

Of course, in a few sections of the road it is necessary to station engineering troops.

Crucially, the mountain road is only about 30 kilometers long, so even if you want to send engineering troops, you don't need to use too many troops.

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

Upstream of Shinafiyah, is Najay X.

It is a medium-sized city with hundreds of thousands of inhabitants, the capital of Naj X province, and the southern gateway to the Great Bag X region.

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

If nothing else, just to occupy and control Najay X would require thousands of troops.

In fact, the farther north you go, the closer you get to Bag X, the more difficult it is to cross the river.

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

It is precisely because of this that in the air strikes that lasted for more than two months, the coalition forces have not been ruthless against the bridge, but in order to prevent the Iraqi army from using the bridge, they have blown up a section of the bridge deck, and since then they have maintained a considerable level of suppression, making the bridge unusable.

As for repairing the blown bridge, it is not a difficult task.

Because the bridge deck span, that is, the distance between the two adjacent piers, is less than 100 meters, theoretically, only two large mechanical bridges with a span of 100 meters can be used to restore the bridge to traffic and reach the design capacity, which is the fastest speed.

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

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

Due to many factors, the Iraqi military has not paid much attention to the bridge, and it is unlikely that coalition forces will be able to cross the river from here.

Among them, there is another very crucial reason.

The Shinafye Bridge is more than 40 years old, built during the colonial period, and has been designed to very low standards, such as allowing up to 40 tonnes of vehicles.

This alone greatly reduces the military value of the bridge.

Do not forget that in the main battle equipment of the coalition forces, the ZT-99B is close to 60 tons in a fully draped state, the total combat weight of self-propelled howitzers and long-range rocket artillery is more than 45 tons, and even infantry fighting vehicles, after hanging explosive reactive armor, reach 36 tons.

In fact, as long as the tanks can't cross, the bridge is of little value.

It is precisely because of this that the Iraqi army has not blown up the bridge, and intends to make a fuss here, such as luring coalition forces to attack the bridge.

Of course, the Iraqi army is also fully prepared.

For example, hundreds of kilograms of explosives were installed on all the piers, as well as remote-controlled detonators, to ensure that the bridge could be blown up if necessary.

Blowing up a pier would make the bridge a dead end.

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

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

This special bridge, which weighs 100 tons on the deck alone, needs to be carried by three tracked bridge erecting vehicles, and it takes several hours to prepare before erection, connect the bridge deck divided into two sections, and then use special bridge erecting equipment to lay the bridge deck.

It was really cumbersome, but after it was erected, it could provide a carrying capacity of up to 70 tons, allowing the passage of all the main battle equipment of the Imperial Army.

It's just that if the span is more than 100 meters, then there is nothing that can be done.

As for the other bridge decks, the passage capacity can be increased by reinforcement.

Even if it can't be improved, you can build a boat bridge to allow tanks and other weights to cross the river towards the main battle platform of more than 40 tons, after all, there are not many heavy combat vehicles.

As long as a 25-ton transport vehicle can be allowed to pass, it will be enough.

This is also the reason for looking for Thunder to come over.

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

In order to avoid interference, a wired remote control is used.

In addition, the Iraqi army guarding the bridge regularly sends soldiers to inspect the piers for explosives and remote-controlled detonators.

In fact, in order to clarify the situation, the coalition forces have been monitoring the bridge.

Throughout the month of September, a reconnaissance plane flew by the neighborhood every day, sometimes flying back and forth several times, and the photographs taken were analyzed by professional intelligence officers from the Military Intelligence Agency.

It was through this one-month surveillance that the pattern of the activities of the Iraqi army was mastered.

To put it simply, there is a blank period about an hour before dawn.

During this one-hour period, the officers and men guarding the bridge at night had already gone to the cafeteria, and at most a few soldiers would be left at each end of the bridge to be responsible for handing over the officers and soldiers who came to change shifts. The point is that the soldiers who remained were equally exhausted and would not have bothered to check the explosives on the piers.

It is only after dawn that the officers and men of the changing shifts will go to the bridge.

In some cases, there will be a delay.

In addition, the bridge guards also did not immediately check the piers for explosives after the shift change.

If you're lucky, you'll have about 3 hours to get the Thunderbolt to dismantle the detonator and capture and take control of the bridge.

Subsequently, the army's air assault units will be killed.

That's the point.

According to the captured prisoners of war, among the troops guarding the Shinafye bridge, there was a professional engineering platoon, whose task was to destroy the bridge if necessary.

To be on the safe side, the engineers installed several remote-controlled detonating devices on each pier.

To put it simply, as long as one of the remote-controlled detonators is not removed, the bridge can be blown up!

Worse still, some of the remote-controlled detonation devices must have been radio-controlled, and they were very secretive.

As a result, not only the remote-controlled detonator had to be removed, but all explosives had to be removed.

Obviously, this is not an easy task.

At least 1,500 kilograms of explosives were installed on the three piers in the center of the river, some of which were loaded inside the piers by blasting.

It is not difficult to load explosives into blasting holes.

However, it is not easy to get the explosives out of the blast holes.

Crucially, the explosives had to be moved away from the bridge.

It is precisely because of this that Lei Zhenting led 3 teams and 3 rubber motorboats. In order to avoid being discovered by the enemy, the landing site was also selected 20 kilometers upstream, and three special combat helicopters were dispatched to send 39 special forces and three rubber motorboats there.

The biggest advantage of going down the river is that when approaching the bridge, you can turn off the engine and quietly approach the bridge under the impetus of the river.

Of course, it is also possible to go ashore in advance.

To be precise, it is to approach the bridge by diving, and after controlling the bridge, let the demoman in charge of the bomb disposal approach in a rubber motorboat.

In addition, the defense of the Iraqi army, guarding the bridge, was focused on the downstream direction.

As for whether he could complete the task, Lei Zhenting actually didn't think much about it, because it was useless to think about it.

Besides, he hasn't failed in the last 10 years.

As for this time, Lei Zhenting is also full of confidence.