"In front of our battalion, there are no tanks!"

In just eight words, it is heroic! It's a trumpet! It is the strongest cry of the Chinese armored troops!

With the telegram that made Li Jin and the Chinese armored soldiers famous all over the world, the southern gate of Ahvaz was completely opened. When the telegram spread to the troops, the first landing force swept through the entire province of Khuzestan like a sandstorm.

After annihilating Lavinsky's KV1 tank regiment, the first battalion and infantry battalion of the 22nd Independent Armored Regiment of the Chinese National Defense Army led by Li Jin only rested for half an hour, and then together with the two battalions of the 6th Motorized Infantry Division that arrived later, they brought the captured 17 KV1 tanks and forcibly launched an attack on Shadaigan. In the face of Shadaigan's Soviet artillery and twenty BT7 tanks, Li Jin covered the infantry with 17 KV1 tanks, and then broke up a battalion into platoons, taking advantage of the flat terrain to attack the Soviet troops from all sides at the same time.

Although the Soviet 70th Infantry Division stationed here struggled to resist, it had no choice but to have insufficient anti-tank means and lost air supremacy, and finally had to raise a white flag and surrender when the artillery battalion was destroyed by naval dive bombers and tanks, and the two legs could not outrun the tanks.

In just five hours, an armored battalion first set up an ambush to completely annihilate a heavy tank regiment, and then an armored battalion and three infantry battalions completely annihilated a reorganized infantry division of the Soviet Army, killing more than 1,000 people and capturing as many as 7,000! Is there anything more shocking than this? So much so that even Song Ziqing in Beijing thought it was a joke after receiving this war report, and asked the former finger to confirm it again before he dared to believe it.

At the same time, the 2nd Battalion of the 22nd Regiment led by Zhao Sanbiao also encountered the Soviet T34 Tank Regiment and the 235th Infantry Division from Ahvaz to the east of Abadan. Compared to the slow and bulky KV1, the T-34 is much more difficult to deal with. Fortunately, the firepower and armor of the early T-34 were still insufficient, and the frontal protection was equivalent to 120 mm of homogeneous steel plate in the face of the same sloping armor layout. There were also 60-mm Type 31 tanks on the sides, and Soviet tanks could only gain numerical superiority. In the end, in the melee in the evening, the 2nd Battalion destroyed 39 T34s and captured 11 in one fell swoop at the cost of 8 vehicles, and the remaining 14 vehicles took advantage of the night to release smoke and escape back to Ahvaz.

After losing the cover of T-34 tanks, the wheeled armored battalion of the 21st Infantry Division, which had come ashore from Alwind, made a great deal of effort, with thirty-six LZ33 Hound wheeled armored vehicles, four Type 35 Tiger hunting tank destroyers as cover, and fire support from four 155-mm towed howitzers and three frigates. Three infantry battalions and one combat engineer battalion were put into operation, taking over the second battalion to launch an attack on the Soviet 235 Infantry Division.

Although the two Soviet infantry divisions trapped in Abadan went out of the city several times to cooperate with the flanking attack, they were desperately blocked by the 120-mm naval guns of the three territorial sea-class frigates on the river and the second battalion of Zhao Sanbiao. Finally, by dawn the next day, the Soviet 235th Infantry Division collapsed on all fronts. With the surrender of the 235th Division, the road from Ahvaz to Abadan was cut off. Iran's southwestern oil and strategic city of Abadan was completely surrounded.

On August 6, 1939, while using Port Rig as a bait to lure the Soviet army to reinforce eastward, the Chinese National Defense Army's Persian Gulf Army suddenly landed on the beach in the Alvand area at the mouth of the Shatt al-Arab River with an armored regiment and an infantry division, and surrounded Abadan and occupied Shadaigan and Behebehan in only one day. By the next morning, after the port of Rig was also captured by the 21 Infantry Division. The total number of offensive forces invested has increased to five divisions.

On August 7, the 3rd Battalion of the 22nd Separate Armored Regiment, led by Ran Nanxuan, rushed to Sadaigan after handing over Behebehan to his brother troops. Li Jin, who had two armored battalions and an infantry regiment, did not hesitate to immediately attack Ahvaz, thirty kilometers away. Naval aviation also deployed 112 warplanes to complement the army. By three o'clock in the afternoon. The first battalion had already broken through the Soviet defense line on the southern outskirts of Ahvaz, and the third battalion had even gone around to the north, and in conjunction with the light infantry regiment delivered to Gissander by transport planes, in one fell swoop, five Soviet divisions were surrounded in the city of Ahvaz, which was less than 15 square kilometers.

The news that Abadan and Ahvaz were surrounded at the same time shook Moscow. Stalin even sent a telegram directly to Chemezov, deputy commander of the Persian Front, demanding that all Red Army commanders and fighters on the southern front of the Persian Front must fight to the death. At the same time, Konev was strictly ordered to mobilize heavy troops to the south to support the southern front. Pravda, known as the mouthpiece of the Kremlin, also issued a statement on the same day, demanding that the Wehrmacht immediately withdraw from Iran, otherwise the millions of Red Army troops would respond with the fiercest blow.

Beijing also showed no weakness, and at the national education dinner that night, Gu Weijun, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of China, solemnly affirmed in front of dozens of Chinese and foreign reporters that the Soviet army must immediately and completely withdraw from Iran and Afghanistan! The persecution of the peoples of Central Asia must stop! Allow the peoples of Central Asia to become independent! Otherwise, the war will not end!

The high-level leaders of China and the Soviet Union who competed against each other pushed the Persian war to the most extreme! On the morning of 8 August, the 47th Mixed Wing of the Air Force, consisting of 336 warplanes and transport planes, arrived at the Saudi Al-Hofuf Air Base via Kabul. At the same time, the first batch of 36 Snake B combat attack planes and 22 Air Force ghost car dive bombers were stationed at the Sadaigan field airfield.

The forward deployment of the Air Force, announcing the full-scale outbreak of the Battle of Ahvaz.

"Support, support, we need support!"

"Party member vanguard group! Officer! All go to the front line. Naval gun! Thundered. ”

Under the scorching sun, the Abadan artillery roared, and the headquarters of the Soviet 65th Army set up in the Anglo-Iranian oil company's Abadan building was in chaos, and as soon as Lieutenant General Sellenkov angrily dropped the telephone, the guards threw him to the ground. Shells from the surface of the Shatt al-Arab River fell next to the command headquarters, and the violent explosion shattered all the fine decorations left by the British, and large clouds of ash fell from the ceiling.

Three territorial sea-class frigates that went up the river to protect infantry landings launched a fierce attack from 12 kilometers away, clouds of smoke rolling, fires everywhere, and ruthless reaper lives.

The territorial sea class is only a standard low-end anti-submarine escort warship, and in order to reduce the cost, all civilian ship structures are adopted, and only 60 mm protective steel plates are installed at the main bridge position. The standard displacement is 1100 tons, the maximum is 1500 tons, and the front and rear are each equipped with a 120 mm / L45 high-level dual-purpose naval gun, two twin 40-aircraft guns and two 25 single-barreled machine guns, and torpedoes can be installed as an option if necessary. This is a warship designed for anti-submarine and escort missions, equipped with depth charges, complete mine guides, wide hull, good seaworthiness, and long endurance, but the maximum speed is only 26 knots.

But these three frigates still made the Abadan Soviet army helpless.

Schelenkov gritted his teeth. He was the commander of the 65th Army of the Soviet Red Army, and the commander of the Southwest Military District during the Civil War. This time, in order to defeat the imperialist threat to the heart of the Caucasus, the 65th Army was personally appointed by the General Secretary and was transferred from Stalingrad (Tsaritsyn) to Abadan, the southwestern gateway of Iran.

But he, like everyone else, did not expect that the war was not at all what it was back then.

Ground-air synergy! Air and sea synergy! Land and sea synergy! Butan synergy! Compared with the Wehrmacht on the other side, the Soviet Red Army, which was supposedly powerful in numbers, looked like the army of the last century, and in the face of advanced multi-service coordinated tactics, it was completely unable to come up with any effective means of confrontation.

Also emotional, there is also Vice Admiral Wavell, the commander-in-chief of the British Middle East, who was standing on the top of the destroyer's mast and was almost injured by mistake. The short battle of more than 50 hours made him and all the British officers who watched the battle feel a lot of emotion.

In the line of sight, two Snake B fighter attack planes were close to the ground and swooped down at an ultra-low altitude to the Soviet anti-tank gun position blocking the tank's advance. Compared to the Snake, the British Hurricane-like fighter-attack aircraft has been replaced with new 1,500 hp water-cooled engines, and four 12.7mm machine guns have been replaced with four 25mm aviation cannons. Although the range could not be increased, the armor was thicker, and it could be equipped with three 120-kilogram bombs or eight 90-mm ground-to-ground rockets, making it a multi-purpose combat attack aircraft.

At the same time that the Snake B fighter-attack aircraft swept over the position, four bombs hit the position one after another, and the sand and dust kicked up by the explosion obscured the vision, but Wavell understood that this firepower point without air defense coordination would definitely not be able to survive. Sure enough, by the time the plane came back from a circle, the four Type 31 tanks had already broken through the firing point and continued to advance towards the depth of Abbataan.

"General! Heavy cruisers. ”

In the adjutant's reminder, Wavell twitched the corners of his mouth a few times, only to see that the heavy cruiser Changsha of the 22nd Fleet of the Republic of China Navy actually entered the Shatt al-Arab River.

Although the Soviet Union lacked coastal defense forces, the navy would not normally let the capital ships sail into the narrow river, and this time the Changsha took the initiative to come in, obviously to take Abadan as soon as possible to avoid long nights. This scene made Wavell sigh in his heart, understanding that Abadan had completely lost his chance with the British, so he waved his hand to the adjutant and said helplessly: "Please General Quinan stop acting, there is no need." ”

The addition of nine 210-mm heavy guns announced the destruction of the Soviet army in Abadan. Schelenkov, who was called a model for the Soviet army by Stalin, was killed in the first place by the fire of the heavy cruiser. After losing only the command, the Soviet army became even more chaotic, and finally had to surrender under the leadership of a deputy division commander in the afternoon of the same day.

After the capture of Abadan, the 4th Panzer Division of the Persian Gulf Army, which had been roaming the estuary, finally had a foothold. No sooner had the three RoRo wheels docked than hundreds of tanks, armoured vehicles and trucks laden with heavy soldiers scrambled towards Ahvaz, the last stronghold in southwestern Iran.

On the afternoon of August 9, in the face of inexplicable air superiority, the five Soviet infantry divisions surrounded by Ahvaz suffered heavy casualties, and finally under the encirclement of the 4th Armored Division, the 6th Motorized Infantry Division, and the 73rd Infantry Division of the Chinese Persian Gulf Army, there was no hope of disarming and surrendering for help. On the same day, the 21st Infantry Division and an armored regiment, which came ashore from the port of Rig, quickly liberated the important towns of Kazeren and Shiraz in the Iranian province of Fars, under the cover of naval carrier-based aircraft, and opened the gates to Isfahan.

In just four days, 12 Soviet divisions, 292 aircraft, 472 tanks, 1,300 trucks of various types, 13,000 war horses, and a large amount of baggage and ammunition stationed in the provinces of Hormuz, Fars, Ahmadi, and Khuzestan on the Persian Gulf coast were swept away, and Lieutenant General Chemezov, deputy commander of the Soviet Persian Front, was wounded and captured