Empire Conquest-Chapter 874 - 107: Extreme Measures

It was not until dawn that Ding Zhennan received reliable information.

The assault force commanded by Liu Zunshan had already reached the outskirts of Samawa and encountered fierce resistance from the Iraqi army, forcing them to halt their advance.

The main issue was that the accompanying mechanized infantry company failed to follow.

Without infantry support, having tanks directly assault the city is tantamount to a death wish.

Although the Empire Army had not fought a city battle since the end of the Boi War, and even during the Boi War, there were only a few city battles, as most battles were fought in open fields, joint exercises over the years consistently proved that city battles emphasize the coordination of infantry and tanks.

In fact, the Empire Army had long established a rule that tanks could only enter complex urban terrains with the assistance of infantry.

If there were no infantry, the armored forces would have to remain outside in the open areas.

The mechanized infantry company didn’t follow due to a dust storm.

According to the message from the front, almost two-thirds of the tanks and combat vehicles broke down, mostly due to sand blocking the air filters.

Moreover, all the breakdowns occurred in the tanks and vehicles delivered last month. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝕨𝕖𝗯𝚗𝚘𝕧𝕖𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝕞

These tanks and vehicles were hidden upon reaching the front line and weren’t tested against the unique environment of the Boss Bay area.

As a result, they didn’t utilize the makeshift method Liu Zunshan and his men devised to solve the problem of excessive dust.

This makeshift method was simple: weld a downward-facing pipe to the engine intake and wrap it with several layers of nylon stockings—the kind women wear in summer, which could filter out 95% of the dust, extending the air filter replacement cycle to 1,000 kilometers.

If not modified, the air filter would require replacement after just 300 kilometers.

Of course, these are all minor issues.

After changing the air filters, these tanks and vehicles set off before dawn and were expected to reach Samawa around 10 a.m.

Strictly speaking, the offensive operation did not deviate from the plan.

Actually, from the morning of the 17th to the early morning of the 18th, the main battlefield was on the Kuwait side.

Throughout the day, the Alliance Army bombed within Kuwait’s territory and the Iraqi troops retreating from Kuwait, turning Highway 3 connecting Kuwait to Basra into a fiery hell.

After suffering consecutive blows, the Iraq army shifted its breakout attempts to nighttime.

As a result, throughout the night, the Navy Air Force dispatched forces towards Kuwait to bomb the Iraqi troops fleeing from Kuwait.

To enhance the strike force, the Air Force dispatched dozens of bombers that night to carpet bomb the Iraqi forces on Highway 3.

Since the ground forces of the Alliance Army had already entered Kuwait during the day, and the Empire’s Marine Corps had landed on the west bank of the two rivers mouth north of Kuwait City, the Iraqi troops invading and occupying Kuwait had to find a way to break out, or they would be annihilated.

Such was the case, the battle that night was extraordinarily intense, even to the point of being described as frenzied.

On both sides of this less than 30 kilometer stretch of highway, there were 3 divisions comprising about 30,000 officers and soldiers, along with thousands of various tanks and military vehicles.

The strike actions continued until before dawn.

After obtaining photos taken by reconnaissance aircraft, Ding Zhennan was utterly shocked.

The entire highway was full of destroyed vehicles, reduced to just charred skeletons, many of which were civilian vehicles looted by Iraqi soldiers in Kuwait!

Additionally, there were dense craters everywhere.

To strengthen the bombing effect or strike force, the Navy Air Force used not only conventional bombs but also a large number of cluster bombs.

In some sections, they even used Fuel-Air Bombs!

As for the outcome, it was unsurprising.

Before lunch, Ding Zhennan received a detailed battle report.

After more than ten hours of relentless bombing involving over 1,400 sorties, the complete annihilation of 3 Iraqi divisions retreating from Kuwait was achieved, including 1 Republican Guard armored division, with enemy casualties over 30,000 and the destruction of thousands of tanks and armored vehicles.

Additionally, the ground forces of the Alliance Army had entered Kuwait City that morning.

Leading the charge was a Royal Guard commanded by the Kuwaiti Crown Prince, Prince Abdullah, along with Joint Forces from Saudi Arabia and other Mua countries.

Since the Iraqi army had already been defeated and withdrew from Kuwait City ahead of time, the Alliance Army encountered no resistance upon entering Kuwait City.

However, it didn’t end there.

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

On the outskirts of Kuwait City, Joint Forces attempting to extinguish the fires in several oil fields already encountered difficulties.

This was indeed a colossal problem.

In fact, during the previous month or more, in response to the Alliance Army’s airstrikes, the Iraqi troops invading Kuwait had already set fire to some oil wells.

Combat proved that the smoke from burning oil effectively countered various types of precision-guided munitions, reducing airstrike efficiency by several orders of magnitude.

One could say, under the cover of smoke, there was no way to launch an airstrike!

At that time, the Military Intelligence Bureau issued a warning, suggesting that in desperate situations, the Iraqi army might employ the extreme measure of igniting oil wells to cause trouble for the Alliance Army.

Ding Zhennan also attached great importance to this.