Sure enough, Wang Dong's worries became a reality.

After a night of calm, just after five o'clock in the morning, the rebels concentrated their shelling of the bridgehead on the north bank, dropping thousands of shells in just over an hour.

It's just that most of them are mortar shells, and they are mainly high-explosive shells.

After fighting for so many days, the rebels must have used up almost all of their ammunition, especially the shells of 155-mm howitzers.

The shelling was fierce, but far from covering the bridgehead.

The frontal width of the bridgehead defensive position was about three kilometers, the depth was between 500 and 800 meters, and there were four lines of defense distributed in stages, with hundreds of fortresses built with sandbag barriers, dozens of half-buried fortifications, and these fortresses were connected by trenches with a total length of nearly five kilometers.

Of course, barbed wire was set up at the outermost periphery of the line, and it was also laid in sections between several lines of defense.

In order to crush the defenders of the bridgehead by artillery bombardment, at least three artillery battalions equipped with M109 were needed for several hours of continuous shelling.

Just a few mortars, apparently not enough to crush the defenders.

In fact, in the shelling, which lasted for more than an hour, not many of the defenders were killed, because the defenders had built enough anti-artillery holes.

At night, for fear of a sudden attack, only a few officers and men stood guard on the positions, and most of them spent the night in the anti-artillery holes.

The artillery bombardment by the rebels was sudden, and in addition to waking up the defending officers and soldiers, some of the fortifications were blown up.

More than an hour of artillery bombardment was enough to cheer up the officers and men of the defenders and prepare for battle.

Last night, Lei Dong and others snatched a rebel main battle tank, which greatly encouraged the defending officers and soldiers and made more officers and soldiers believe that they could hold their positions.

The shelling ended, and the rebel ground forces went on the offensive.

Almost simultaneously, the officers and men of the defenders entered the surface positions.

Probably learning the lesson of yesterday, the rebels set up more than a dozen machine-gun positions in front of them before the attack, and used heavy machine guns to provide cover for the attacking troops.

Of course, it is still tanks and infantry fighting vehicles that are at the forefront.

Advancing to the edge of the position, about 600 meters from the defenders' first line of defense, the rebel mortars opened fire again.

Obviously, the rebels were clearly wary of the defenders' anti-tank missiles, so they used artillery fire to suppress them.

With artillery support, the attacking troops increased their advance, and the heavy machine guns, which had been covering in the rear, began to move forward to increase their support.

It must be admitted that the rebels have fully learned their lesson and fought in a disciplined manner.

It's just that the RA-12ER has a range of 4000 meters, so there is no need to deploy at the front, and the anti-tank team can stay in the last line of defense.

In fact, the rebel tanks and fighting vehicles came out of the ruined city and came into missile range.

No immediate fire was fired, but only to bring the enemy closer, destroy the infantry accompanying the advance of the tanks and combat vehicles, and kill and wound the living forces of the rebels.

It was only when the rebel tanks were still 200 meters from the first line of defense that Churkin gave the order.

Two anti-tank groups opened fire almost simultaneously, with two RA-12ER anti-tank missiles each locking onto one tank, and both in top-attack mode.

It's so close, less than 1000 meters!

In the blink of an eye, two M1A1s were hit by missiles and exploded into a ball of fire.

That's the firing signal.

Without giving an order from anyone, the officers and men on the defensive line opened fire on the rebels at the same time, and several machine guns and dozens of rifles fired lethal bullets at the same time.

The rebels did not retreat and continued to advance.

In total, there were six M1A1s, and six M2A3s, while the defenders had only two RA-12ER launchers, and it would take at least thirty seconds to reload the missiles.

At this time, the artillery fire of the rebels began to extend behind the defensive line.

Only mortars can suppress anti-tank missiles.

Quite simply, the anti-tank shooters operating the RA-12ER were hiding on the anti-slope plane, not exposed to the rebels, and therefore could not eliminate them with direct fire.

Although the rebel artillery fire did not pose a threat to the anti-tank group, since after the missile was fired, the anti-tank group left the firing site and moved to another pre-set position, the anti-tank group would have had to spend more time reloading under the influence of the shelling.

However, the rebels did not expand the range of shelling.

After artillery fire on the already exposed anti-tank positions, the shells fired by the rebels fell on the positions, in front of them to be exact.

Not a high-explosive bomb, but a smoke screen!

The rebels began to throw smoke bombs at the front of the positions to cover the attacking ground forces.

Very clever and effective tactics.

Due to the smoke screen, at least the officers and soldiers guarding the defensive line could not see the enemy clearly.

For the anti-tank group, even if there is an infrared imager, the target must be found first, and then the target can be locked onto and the missile can be launched.

Obviously, it is not an easy task to search for targets with high-magnification sighting equipment.

In addition, the rebels have long known what kind of anti-tank missiles the defenders are using.

After the smoke screen cleared, the rebel ground forces did not continue to advance, but set fire to the front of the position!

The six M2A3 infantry fighting vehicles were not carrying infantry, but containers of multiplier fuel, which the rebels used to set fires.

As a result of the fire, the RA-12ER's infrared imaging sight became an ornament.

You know, no matter how good the infrared detection equipment is, it will not be able to detect the target behind the high-temperature heat source, and the fire is enough to mask the infrared radiation of the tank fighting vehicle.

At this time, the artillery fire of the rebels began to extend towards the defensive line.

It was still a smoke screen, and the intention of the rebels was obvious, to cover the ground forces with a smoke screen and allow the ground forces to smoothly advance near the line of defense.

Once you get closer, the rebels' strength advantage will come into play.

As long as they enter the white-knuckle battle stage of fighting for positions, the rebels will be able to take the bridgehead in one go by virtue of the superiority of several times the strength of the defenders.

Obviously, a mere infantry battalion could not hold its position at all.

As for Churkin and others, even if they are very combative, they can't parry a large number of enemies in a melee, and they will always be hit by bullets fired by the enemy.

In fact, in close combat, special forces are no better than ordinary soldiers.

Fortunately, the rebels overlooked a key issue.

It's early in the morning!

Nasiriyah was west of Lake Hamar, southwest of the Persian Gulf, with southwesterly winds blowing in the early morning, and the bridgehead was on the north bank of the Tigris, where the rebels attacked from north to south.

That is, the rebels are in the downwind direction!

As a result, the smoke screen created by the rebels began to drift northeast under the influence of the morning wind.

Between the rebel ground forces and the positional line of defense, there is still a blank area of about a hundred meters.

As the wind strengthens, the smoke screen quickly drifts away.

In addition, there is a two-meter-high barbed wire fence in front of the defensive line!

It was not the infantry that rushed out first, but tanks and unloaded infantry fighting vehicles, followed by infantry advancing in stragglers.