Chapter 416 416 Destroying the Withering (II)
On the morning of the third day of Operation Sabre in the Desert, the 18th Airborne Corps prepared to continue its advance to Basra, Iraq's second-largest city, to the east. Before full-scale fighting can begin, the army must first seize the airports of Telil and Jelibai, which are still in Iraqi hands. Since the U.S. 24th Mechanized Division was located close to the two airfields at the end of the previous day's fighting, this task was assumed by the division. At 6 a.m. that day, the U.S. 24th Mechanized Division sent the 1st Brigade to support the 2nd Brigade in attacking Jerribhai Airport, while the 197th Infantry Brigade attacked north to capture Talil Airport. By 10 a.m., Jelibhai airport had been seized by the Multinational Force. Soon after, the Tyliller airfield also fell into the hands of the 197th Infantry Brigade of the United States.
At 12 noon, the 101st Air Assault Division arrived at the newly built Viper Forward Operating Base, which had just been captured by the 2nd Brigade of the 101st Air Assault Division at 10 a.m. and was located 200 kilometres east of the Cobra Forward Operating Base. The U.S. 101st Air Assault Division moved from here, and two helicopter gunships first reached the Hamal causeway, northwest of Basra, and launched a fierce attack on all kinds of Iraqi army vehicles on the causeway. The wreckage of the destroyed Iraqi army vehicle quickly blocked the Iraqi army's escape route, making the follow-up attack of the US army more unimpeded. Soon after, another two battalions of helicopter gunships crossed Lake Hamal northwards to attack Iraqi vehicles that had already passed through the causeway.
The 7th Army launched a large-scale joint offensive operation against three armored and mechanized divisions of the Iraqi Republican Guard (Tawakarna, Medina, and Hammurabi). As soon as the offensive began, the US 1st Mechanized Division, located on the southern flank of the army front, immediately began a fierce battle with the Iraqi troops after overtaking the US 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment in front of it. On the left flank, the US 1st and 3rd Armored Divisions, with the cooperation of the US 1st Cavalry Division, also launched a strong offensive against the Iraqi Republican Guard.
In this operation to encircle and annihilate the Iraqi Republican Guard, the 7th Army for the first time put its entire combat strength into battle. Originally, there was still the 127th Division, a heavy force of more than 20,000 people along the way, but the small abacus of the US army crackled, and finally the Chinese army was eliminated from this ranks. The US 1st Cavalry Division, which had recently joined the 7th Army, had rapidly advanced to the left flank of the army's offensive zone, thus greatly increasing the combat strength of the 7th Army. The 1st Cavalry Division suffered the loss of the 113th Division in Korea that year, and some people originally suggested that the two armies should cooperate to show that they would release their previous suspicions, but it was obvious that neither the 1st Cavalry Division nor the 113th Division were interested in this, and still regarded each other as enemies.
From left to right, the 7th Army deployed the US 1st Cavalry Division, 1st Armored Division, 3rd Armored Division, 1st Mechanized Division, 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment and British 1st Armored Division. During the offensive, the GPS receivers equipped by the multinational forces have been instrumental in maintaining contact and mutual identification between the forces and their neighbours. The successful application of the Beidou system and the GPS system has given the world a new understanding of military precision positioning in the new era.
The 2nd Brigade of the 3rd U.S. Armored Division launched a fierce attack on the 12th Iraqi Armored Division, and after a fierce battle, the brigade broke through the Iraqi defensive positions and entered Kuwait. At dusk, the US 3rd Armored Division launched another attack, first dispatching AH-64 helicopter gunships to penetrate into the rear of the 10th Armored Division of the Iraqi Army to carry out strikes under relatively bad meteorological conditions. These intersperses and transfers directly undermined the coherence of the Iraqi army's defense, prompted the Iraqi army to cause chaos, and forced them to abandon their positions and a large amount of equipment. Subsequently, with the support of multiple rocket launchers, the 1st Brigade and the 3rd Brigade of the 3rd Armored Division of the United States attacked the frontal defending Iraqi army, forcing the front-line troops of the Iraqi army to retreat, so that they mixed with the rear troops, causing chaos. This joint combat operation of the multinational forces and arms of the armed forces smashed the Iraqi army's attempt to reorganize its defense and completely collapsed the Iraqi 10th Panzer Division.
At the same time, the US 1st Panzer Division fought fierce battles with the Iraqi Republican Guard's Tawakarna, Medina and Adnan Divisions. Its 2nd Brigade destroyed 61 tanks and 34 armoured vehicles of the Medina Division of the Iraqi Republican Guard. The U.S. 1st Mechanized Division, located on the right flank, also achieved great success, first crushing the resistance of the Iraqi 12th Panzer Division, and then cooperating with the U.S. 3rd Panzer Division to annihilate the Iraqi 52nd Panzer Division, and finally inflicting heavy losses on three Iraqi infantry divisions. In order to achieve the grand goal of completely annihilating the Iraqi Republican Guard, Schwartzkov readjusted the deployment of the 7th Army, planning to encircle the Republican Guard on both flanks with the 1st Cavalry Division as the left flank and the 1st Mechanized Division as the right flank, so as to intercept the Iraqi army, which was completely retreating to the north, in this encirclement.
Subsequently, the 7th Army continued its advance to the east. The US 1st Mechanized Division established a blocking position on the north-south highway connecting Basra and Kuwait City, completely cutting off the Iraqi army's northward escape route and turning the Iraqi army into a turtle in an urn. In the early morning of 28 February, the artillery unit of the 7th Army used various long-range fire support weapons, such as artillery and tactical missiles, to carry out artillery preparations on a considerable scale at the Iraqi positions, and the helicopter gunships of the multinational forces repeatedly attacked suspicious targets in the Iraqi positions. The Iraqi army is like a rag doll that is about to be broken, and the big man who has been repeatedly picked by his murderous chest hair keeps ****.
On the other side, the 2nd Marine Division on the left flank of the US 1st Marine Expeditionary Force began the fourth day of combat operations on the ground. On this day, the division was tasked with holding the captured positions and making contact with the combined forces of the northern front on the left in order to ensure the early entry of Arab forces into Kuwait City. At 5 a.m., the U.S. military made contact with the Egyptian forces. Four hours later, the combined forces of the Northern Front crossed the positions of the US 2nd Marine Division in columns. The Marine Division remained in the area of the Mutla Ridge and the "Bear" adjustment line until the end of the war. The U.S. 1st Marine Division on the right flank of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, after consolidating the occupied area, eliminated the last few Iraqi troops left by the Chinese friendly forces in the vicinity of Kuwait International Airport and still resisted, and joined up with the Chinese troops who had already arrived in Kuwait City ahead of schedule. The Saudis' leading Arab coalition on the Eastern Front joined the ranks.
At 9 a.m., Egyptian troops crossed the U.S. 2nd Marine Division's attack and approached Ali Salem airport outside Kuwait City. At the same time, Kuwait's "Shaheed" Brigade and the Royal Saudi Ground Forces' 4th Armored Brigade also crossed the US Marines and approached Kuwait City and seized the "hotel" target. The Syrian 9th Armored Division behind His Royal Highness used 1 brigade to guard the Iraqi prisoners of war captured by the joint forces on the northern front, and Qi Yiming's Red Alert Rapid Counter Brigade also played this role. Another Syrian brigade continues to protect the lines of communication of the cluster. On this day, the division was responsible for shielding the Saudi border area, and the other brigade advanced northeast to join the main force of the division. The Syrian army's "Telli" regiment was ordered to enter Kuwait City and prepare to occupy the western part of the city.
After the Eastern Combined Force, located on the eastern flank of the Multinational Force front, captured the last targets in the offensive, its vanguard entered Kuwait one after another and joined up with the Combined Forces on the Northern Front, which had entered Kuwait City from the west.
By the fourth day of the ground operation, the Iraqi army's defense system had been completely destroyed by the multinational ground forces, and the road for the Iraqi army in the Kuwaiti theater to retreat to the mainland had been cut off. Only the Iraqi Republican Guard divisions and the armoured units with relatively light losses held back the advancing multinational ground forces, but were quickly annihilated or routed by the overwhelmingly superior multinational forces. By the end of the third day, the organized resistance of the Iraqi army in the entire Kuwaiti theater of operations was no longer there, and its strength was almost disbanded, with only a few diehards still resisting sporadically. Despite the rapid advance of the Multinational Force, some Iraqi troops were able to escape before the encirclement was closed and returned to their homeland through the blockade zone.
When the order to halt the offensive of the multinational forces came into effect at 8 a.m. on the fourth day, the 18th Airborne Corps plus the 113th Division had completed its advance into Iraqi territory, cutting off the Iraqi army's retreat and participating in the final annihilation of the Iraqi Republican Guard. During the operation, the US 82nd Airborne Division continued to wipe out Iraqi troops from "red" targets, "golden" targets, and "orange" targets. The 101st Air Assault Division continued to operate along Route 8 to secure the forward operating bases of the Cobra and Viper, while cutting off the road north of Basra for the Iraqi army to return north. At 8 a.m. on the 4th, the vanguard of the U.S. 24th Mechanized Division stopped along the adjustment line west of Basra, only 50 kilometers from the city, which was also the final offensive stop line of the 18th Airborne Corps.
On the battlefield on the central front, the divisions continued their offensive in the early morning of the fourth day, with the main goal of destroying the remnants of the Iraqi divisions in the west of the bus. During the offensive, the US 1st Armored Division and the US 3rd Armored Division occupied the established combat targets under the resistance of the Iraqi army, and destroyed more than 250 Iraqi tanks and armored vehicles.
The British 1st Panzer Division continued eastward, clearing the Iraqi forces near its intended target. After annihilating the remnants of the Iraqi Republican Guard, the U.S. 7th Army, with its 1st Mechanized Infantry Division and 1st Armored Division, established blocking positions along the supply line from Jahra to Basra. During the 90 hours of continuous fighting, the US Seventh Army dealt a devastating blow to the most elite units of the Iraqi army, annihilating more than 10 divisions of the Iraqi army, destroying about 1,300 Iraqi tanks, more than 1,200 armored vehicles, more than 280 artillery pieces, and 100 sets of air defense weapon systems, and capturing nearly 2 Iraqi officers and men. 20,000 people.
Such a huge battle, originally with the participation of the Chinese army, but Schwarzkov saw through the resistance of the Iraqi army is no longer a problem, and the Chinese army is not inferior to the US army in tactical tactics, and even slightly stronger, in such a war, Schwarzkov could not see the Chinese steal all the limelight, so he deliberately transferred the 127th Division to the battlefield on the Eastern Front in advance, and the US army and a British army were the main forces to attack the main forces of the Iraqi army.
On the day after the ground offensive, the US 1st Marine Expeditionary Force remained in a defensive position outside Kuwait City and did not take any major operational action, and the US 3rd Marine Air Wing, which was formed within it, was also ordered to stop the attack, only provide helicopters to deliver supplies and other logistical supplies to the forward troops, and carry out air combat patrols in the Marine Corps' combat area.
In particular, the 127th Division, which had basically not fought any battles after holding back its fire, even refused the order of the Joint Operations Command to stand still, but instead mobilized the Chinese generals in the Joint Operations Command to urge the 127th Division to act together with the Arab forces to strike the last blow at the Iraqi Army.
On the last day, the Arab coalition forces on the Eastern Front ceased their offensive operations and consolidated their positions south of the Seventh Ring Road in Kuwait City. A special forces contingent of Saudi Arabia seized the Saudi embassy in Kuwait. A unit of the Royal Saudi Marines, escorted by the Chinese Navy's amphibious assault ship Fujian, successfully landed and captured the port of Minasawud. Other units of the Joint Forces on the Eastern Front continued to purge the remnants of the Iraqi army in the area of operations. At the same time, the advance of the combined forces on the northern front also stopped. The Egyptian Mission, which was part of its formation, occupied the Egyptian Embassy. The 6th Brigade of the 4th Egyptian Panzer Division was ordered to clear the Iraqi army in the western sector of Kuwait City. The 3rd Mechanized Division of Egypt was on alert duty north along its position in Abraq.
The not very dense exchanges of fire in the city were all in the process of clearing out the remnants of the enemy, and Kuwait was finally captured by the multinational forces at this time.