It wasn't until dawn that Ding Zhennan received reliable news.

The assault force under the command of Liu Zunshan had reached the outskirts of Semavo and was met with stubborn resistance from the Iraqi army and had to stop advancing.

The main thing is that the accompanying machine steps have not kept up.

Without infantry cover, allowing tanks to attack the city directly is tantamount to sending them to death.

Although after the end of the Polish-Iraqi War, the Imperial Army never fought urban warfare again, and even in the Polish-Iraqi War, it did not fight several urban warfare, and most of the time it was fought in the field, but the joint exercises over the years have all proved without exception that urban warfare pays more attention to infantry and tank coordination.

In fact, the Imperial Army had long made a similar rule, and tanks could only enter urban areas with difficult terrain after receiving the assistance of infantry.

If there were no infantry, the armored units would have to stay outside the open city.

Jibu Lian didn't keep up because of the sandstorm.

According to information from the front, nearly two-thirds of tanks and combat vehicles have failed, and almost all of them have air filters blocked by sand.

In addition, all the faults were tank fighting vehicles that had been sent over the previous month.

These tanks, which were hidden after being sent to the front line, were not tested for the unique environment of the Posha Bay area.

As a result, they did not use the soil methods that Liu Zunshan and the others came up with to solve the problem of excessive dust.

The solution is as simple as welding a pipe with an opening facing down on the air intake of the engine, and then putting several layers of nylon stockings on it, and the long socks worn by women in the summer can filter out 95% of the sand and dust, thus increasing the filter replacement interval to 1000 kilometers.

If you don't make this change, you would have to change the air filter after 300 kilometers.

Of course, it's all minor issues.

After replacing the air filters, the tanks departed before dawn and were expected to arrive in Semavo at around 10 a.m.

Strictly speaking, the offensive operation did not go beyond plan.

In fact, from the morning of the 17th to the early morning of the 18th, the main battlefield was on the Kuwaiti side.

Throughout the day, coalition forces bombed Kuwaiti territory and Iraqi troops withdrew from Kuwait, turning Highway 3, which connects Kuwait to Basra, into a bloody hell.

After suffering heavy losses one after another, the Iraqi army's breakout operation was changed to night.

As a result, naval aviation spent the night sending additional combat forces in the direction of Kuwait to bombard Iraqi troops fleeing from Kuwait.

In order to increase the striking force, the Air Force sent dozens of bombers that night to carpet bomb the Iraqi army on Route 3.

Because the coalition ground forces had already invaded Kuwait during the day, and the Imperial Marines had landed on the west bank of the two rivers north of Kuwait City, at the mouth of the two rivers, the Iraqi forces that had invaded and occupied Kuwait would certainly be annihilated if they did not find a way to break through.

It was in this way that the battle that night was fought very fiercely, one can even say crazy.

On both sides of the road, which is less than 30 kilometers long, there are about 30,000 officers and soldiers of three divisions, as well as thousands of tanks and combat vehicles of various types.

The crackdown continued until just before dawn.

After getting the photos taken by the reconnaissance plane, Ding Zhennan was extremely surprised.

The entire highway was destroyed, burned to the point of only the skeleton of vehicles, many of which were civilian vehicles looted by Iraqi soldiers in Kuwait!

In addition, there are dense craters.

In order to enhance the bombing effect, or the intensity of the strike, naval aviation used not only conventional bombs, but also a large number of submunitions.

In some areas, fuel air bombs were even used!

As for the outcome, there is no suspense.

Before lunch, Ding Zhennan got a detailed battle report.

After more than 10 hours of wanton and indiscriminate bombardment, more than 1,400 sorties were sorties, and three Iraqi divisions that had broken through and retreated from Kuwait, one of which was still an armored division of the Republican Guard, achieved the results of destroying more than 30,000 enemy personnel and destroying thousands of tanks and armored vehicles.

In addition, coalition ground forces had already entered Kuwait City that morning.

At the forefront was a royal guard commanded by Prince Abdullah, the crown prince of Kuwait, in addition to the combined forces of Mu'a countries such as Saudi Arabia.

Because the Iraqi army had been routed and had withdrawn from Kuwait City ahead of schedule, the coalition forces encountered no resistance when they entered Kuwait City.

But that's not all.

Before retreating, the Iraqi army set fire to all the oil wells in Kuwait and laid a large number of mines near some of them!

On the outskirts of Kuwait City, coalition forces are already running into trouble as they try to extinguish fires in several oil fields.

It's a big problem.

In fact, in the past month or so, in response to the air strikes of the coalition forces, the Iraqi army that invaded Kuwait had already set fire to some oil wells.

Actual combat has proved that the smoke and dust produced by the combustion of oil can effectively deal with all kinds of precision-guided munitions and reduce the efficiency of air strikes by several orders of magnitude.

If you want to say, under the cover of smoke and dust, there is no way to launch an air strike!

At that time, the Military Intelligence Agency issued an alert that the Iraqi army, in a desperate situation, was likely to take the extreme method of lighting oil wells to create problems for the coalition forces.

In this regard, Ding Zhennan also attaches great importance to it.

The problem is, there's no way to solve this problem.

In order to avoid accidental damage, the coalition forces have been trying to avoid bombing military targets near the oil fields during the early air strike phase.

Obviously, it was impossible to prevent the Iraqi army from destroying the oil fields by bombing.

What Ding Zhennan can do is actually to take precautions in advance, such as ordering a batch of firefighting equipment in advance, and asking the Air Force to modify more than a dozen tactical transport planes in order to load these non-standard size equipment and send them directly to the field airfield near the burning oil well.

The main thing, of course, is to organize the fire brigade.

According to the request made by Ding Zhennan, to be precise, from the Allied Forces Command, the Imperial Ministry of Defense has summoned thousands of reserve engineering officers and soldiers, obtained a lot of professional equipment, and even set up a special department responsible for related matters to deal with possible disasters.

It's just that these professional teams can't be sent over until after the battle.

As for now, the oil wells that were ignited by the Iraqi army can only be allowed to continue to burn.

By the evening, the effects were already being felt.

Because the smoke and dust from the burning of the oil wells drifted into Saudi territory with the wind, the coalition forces had to cancel part of the bombing mission that night.

Obscured by smoke and dust, there is no way to accurately bomb ground targets.

In addition, ground forces were affected.

The coalition forces, which were supposed to move north at night, had to stay in Kuwaiti territory to deal with the mines planted by the Iraqi army near the oil wells and try to extinguish the fires.

The "oil rain" that fell like rain also had a serious impact on the troops, with the result that a large number of troops were unable to move, so that they could not continue the offensive.

In addition, it is the treatment and evacuation of civilians.

Although a large number of Kuwaitis managed to flee to Saudi Arabia following the occupation by Iraqi forces, more than 2 million Kuwaitis have not been able to escape.

Now, these Kuwaitis need help.

Just maintaining order is a nuisance.

According to previous estimates, within half a month after the counteroffensive, hundreds of thousands of tons of humanitarian relief supplies must be sent to Kuwait and distributed to refugees in need in order to ensure the stability of social order and carry out reconstruction work in a timely manner after the end of the war.

Although the Imperial Marines had successfully landed north of Kuwait City, at the mouth of the Two Rivers, there were only two infantry battalions in total, and they did not carry much ammunition and supplies for the feint mission, and even if they could launch an attack, it would take a lot of time to prepare.

The ground forces attacking from the south did not advance towards Basra as planned, and it is not known when they will be able to do so.

If the situation on the Kuwaiti side is not brought under control, I am afraid that this offensive line in the east will have to be abolished.

Although in Ding Zhennan's battle plan, the eastern road is also a feint, in addition to the Kuwait royal guards, which have no combat effectiveness, and the Saudi royal army, which is also worried about combat effectiveness, and the coalition forces of the Mu'a country, it is actually an armored brigade of the Gaoju Kingdom that fights the main force on the eastern road.

Before that there was also an armored brigade of Pakistani Railway.

However, after the outbreak of the war, out of consideration for the security of the homeland, especially the Van Luo country has increased its combat readiness, Pakistan Railway transferred this brigade back.

Relying on one brigade, it is obvious that the climate will not be successful.

But the problem is that the importance of the offensive on the eastern route is not low, or it is necessary to rely on this offensive to contain the Iraqi army stationed in Basra.

It would be great if it could attract the attention of the Iraqi army.

The eastern route was stagnant, and all operational pressure had to fall on the middle lane, where there was only the 5th Marine Division.

With a single Marine Division, it would have been impossible to advance all the way from Semavo to Basra when logistical support might not be able to keep up.

It was in this way that after dinner, Ding Zhennan made arrangements and sent a major staff officer to Kuwait City by helicopter.

It's not to deliver orders, but to oversee the war.

Tell the commander of the Tall Armored Brigade to continue its advance north before dawn anyway and attack Basra as planned.

Of course, Ding Zhennan also made adjustments to the deployment.

Let the Air Force mobilize transport planes, deliver a batch of heavy equipment to Kuwait City, and arm the infantry battalions of the two marines responsible for the feint.

The main thing is infantry fighting vehicles.

Of course, the officers and men of the infantry battalion can only control and control infantry fighting vehicles, because there are no tankers, so even if they are given main battle tanks, they cannot play with them.

By providing equipment, the Marine Infantry Battalion can reach the combat effectiveness of the Army's Infantry Battalion.

The Army's infantry fighting vehicles, even if they are somewhat different from the amphibious fighting vehicles of the Marine Corps, are not difficult to handle the officers and men of the Marine Corps. The point is that infantry fighting vehicles and amphibious combat vehicles use 30 mm machine guns, and the sighting equipment and fire control equipment are basically the same.

After that, these two battalions will accompany the High Giant Armored Brigade to the north to attack Basra to solve the problem of the lack of mechanized infantry cover in the High Giant Armored Brigade.

Of course, it will be possible to arrive before the attack on Basra.

After making arrangements, Ding Zhennan also left King Khalid Military City and rushed to Semavo on an observation plane.

Obviously, Ding Zhennan did not put his hope on the East Road.

Fundamentally, in fact, the armored brigade cannot be trusted.

Although in the understanding of outsiders, the Gaoju Kingdom is second only to the Liangxia Empire in the Eastern Bloc, but for the combat capability of the Gaoju royal army, the imperial soldiers will not have much hope, or they do not expect to be able to get the help of the Gaoju army.

The reason is the same, during the Polish-Iranian War, the performance of the army of the High Giant royal family is enough to tell the problem.

In this war, which lasted for more than ten years, the Kingdom of Gaoju sent about 200,000 officers and soldiers to participate in the war, and suffered more than 50,000 casualties.

It was very disastrous, but the results that could be achieved were not proportional.

One of the most representative battles took place in Bandar Abbas.

At that time, the port was guarded by two infantry divisions of the Tall Giant Kingdom, with a total strength of nearly 30,000 troops, and they were able to obtain sufficient ammunition and supplies by sea, as well as the support of the fleet. As a result, after holding out for less than 1 month, the Gauju army was routed by an enemy who lacked heavy weapons.

In the end, it was under the cover of the Imperial Navy that it was withdrawn by sea.

The scene during the retreat, it was a disaster!

Due to organizational problems, a group of wounded were not able to evacuate, and all of them were captured by the enemy, and it took more than a decade to return to the Kingdom of Golju through a neutral third party. A few years ago, the Kingdom of Gaoju made a TV series adapted from this incident to promote the tenacious and unyielding spirit of Gaoju soldiers. What's even more incredible is that the TV series is not only popular in the Kingdom of Goju but also in other countries.

This TV series also has a very loud name: Children of the Sun.

The loss of Bandar Abbas threatened the shipping routes in and out of Posha Bay, making it impossible for the Empire to maintain hundreds of thousands of combat troops.

After holding out for more than 1 year and losing a large number of ships, the empire had to withdraw its troops from the Boi country.

To put it bluntly, it's good that the High Ju army can not lag behind.

Of course, the level of equipment of the High Giant army is not bad at all.

Thanks to its friendly relationship with the Liang Xia Empire, the Kingdom of Gaoju was able to obtain new weapons in the first place, and there were almost no restrictions on the import of weapons.

To a large extent, the Kingdom of Gaoju relied on relatively strong military power to maintain its position as the second leader in the Eastern Bloc.

In other respects, the Kingdom of Tall Ju is actually not outstanding.

For example, the total population is less than 75 million, while the Sayi Imperial Kingdom has exceeded 100 million, and Pakistan has exceeded 200 million a few years ago.

In terms of land area, natural resources and strategic geography, the Kingdom of Gaoju is even more unranked.

Even with the industrial standards that it was proud of before, with the rapid development of the Sayi Imperial Kingdom after the war, and the rapid development of Dongluosha in the wave of modernization, the Gaoju Kingdom has also been distanced, at most the fourth in the Dongfang Group, and will definitely be surpassed by Pakistan Railway in the near future. If Austria is counted, then the overall strength of the Great Kingdom will be lowered by one place in the group.

If I want to say, Ding Zhennan's impression of Gao Ju's army is not very good.

Not only him, but all the imperial soldiers looked down on the Gaoju Kingdom and the army of the Gaoju royal family.

Officially, he came to the front.

If the High Giant Army is not reliable, then it can only hope for the 5th Marine Division to see if it can speed up the assault on the central front.

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