Empire Conquest-Chapter 915 - 127: Seizing the Bridge (Part 2)

To put it bluntly, it means reaching the end of the line.

So, how can one hold the line in such a situation?

Mines!

Exactly, the West Continent Group has always placed great importance on mines, especially anti-armor mines used against tanks.

Due to different tactical needs, the Tiaoman Empire and West Luosha chose two entirely different technical routes in developing anti-armor mines.

Tiaoman Empire’s anti-armor mines focus more on deployment performance, making tactical use more flexible. For example, the MW-1 aerial dispenser carried by "Storm" fighters can be loaded with hundreds of anti-armor mines, and a "Storm" IDS can carry two on hardpoints under the fuselage. Just four "Storm" IDSs can deploy an anti-armor minefield across a 10-kilometer-wide defense line.

To enhance the tactical flexibility of mines, Tiaoman Empire also developed dual-use mines for both anti-armor and anti-personnel purposes.

Due to the need to create shrapnel to achieve anti-personnel effects while reducing weight to increase scattering density, the anti-armor effect of these dual-use mines isn’t very good. They are generally only effective against light targets like infantry fighting vehicles, posing little threat to tanks.

West Luosha’s anti-armor mines take the opposite extreme, focusing more on power!

Facing the Eastern Group head-on, directly opposing the main battle tanks of the Eastern Group, West Luosha’s anti-armor mines have a hard criterion, needing to penetrate at least the frontal and lower armor of Liangxia Empire’s main battle tanks, with a penetration thickness not less than 500 millimeters, requiring more explosives.

Due to being bulkier and harder to deploy, the Luosha Army is equipped with specialized mine-laying equipment, such as rocket mine-laying vehicles.

Of course, the Tiaoman Empire and West Luosha’s anti-armor mines have their respective merits.

For Iraq, it’s clear they wouldn’t care much about the characteristics of these mines.

In fact, during the Iran-Iraq War, Iraq even acquired some anti-armor mines from the Liangxia Empire through oil-producing countries on the southern shores of Boss Bay like Saudi Arabia, though not in large quantities, and the Liangxia Empire’s anti-armor mines were quite ordinary, not particularly outstanding in performance.

In the most crucial ground battlefield, the continental battlefield, the Empire’s Army relies not on mines but on strategic depth extending thousands of kilometers.

Moreover, from a strategic viewpoint, the Empire’s Army primarily focuses on defense at the start of the war, launching a reprisal after stabilizing the line.

It’s evident that using mines to block the enemy will inevitably cause problems during the reprisal phase.

Therefore, the Empire’s Army places more emphasis on minesweeping capabilities.

Besides procuring and equipping advanced minesweeping equipment, the Empire’s Army has also invested in developing some non-specialized minesweeping equipment.

The most representative is the thermo-baric bomb.

This ammunition, which generates wide-area damage through high-temperature and high-pressure, was initially used for minesweeping, with the high pressure from the explosion capable of detonating mines, thus clearing all mines within the blast area at once. Unfortunately, to produce sufficiently high pressure, the thermo-baric bomb cannot be made too small and cannot be turned into shells or rockets, so they were first provided to the Air Force, made into air bombs.

During tests, the Air Force discovered that thermo-baric bombs are very suitable for dealing with enemies in fortified bunkers.

The 17313 Mechanized Infantry Battalion has an Engineer Platoon equipped with several mine-sweeping vehicles, primarily consisting of three rocket mine-sweeping vehicles modified from BZ-68s. These vehicles use rockets to deploy exploding cord, which detonates the mines, clearing a safe path for tanks and combat vehicles.

However, the problem is that one engineer platoon is too few.

As for seeking Navy Air Force support to sweep mines by dropping thermo-baric bombs, even if the Navy’s attack aircraft could carry and drop thermo-baric bombs, it couldn’t be arranged temporarily.

At that time, almost all attack aircraft were on the north bank, clearing obstacles for the Air Assault Forces and covering the 171 Armored Brigade’s assault on Sinafiye.

The result was that by noon, the 17313 Mechanized Infantry Battalion was still about 15 kilometers away from Sinafiye, having advanced only a few kilometers that morning.

Because it was responsible for supporting the 171 Armored Brigade and the 177 Mechanized Infantry Brigade, and protecting the logistics support units transporting supplies, the 17313 Mechanized Infantry Battalion dared not advance lightly, so it steadily progressed, opening a safe corridor for the following logistics support units.

Actually, in the initial combat plan, the 17313 Battalion was not arranged to assault Sinafiye, let alone assist the Special Forces in seizing and controlling the Euphrates River bridge.

In the armored forces attacking on the north bank, not only did they face the threat of Iraqi troops, but there were also logistics support issues.

In fact, after dawn, the 171 Armored Brigade had to halt to replenish fuel for its tanks and combat vehicles, and only resumed movement at around 2 PM after completing resupply, reaching Sinafiye’s vicinity by evening.

Fortunately, Ding Zhennan anticipated this.

Before 7 o’clock, the Sea Air enhanced its involvement over Sinafiye’s area.

When the Iraqi forces launched their third reprisal, four "Attack-5H" arrived in time, dropping about 30 tons of bombs in just a few minutes!

This round of fierce bombing directly shattered the morale of the Iraqi forces.

It again proved that firepower strikes are the most effective means of destroying the enemy.

Indeed, this illustrates the value of heavy attack aircraft!

"Attack-6F" light attack aircraft, when performing battlefield support missions with a combat radius exceeding 500 kilometers, usually carries only 2 tons of bombs to ensure at least a half-hour loiter time without aerial refueling before returning to the departure base after completing the mission. In contrast, heavy attack aircraft like the "Attack-5H" can carry up to 6 tons of bombs under similar circumstances. If no mid-air loitering is needed, they can attack as soon as they arrive, drop bombs, then return, increasing payload capacity to 8 tons. In extreme scenarios, "Attack-6H" could carry 12 tons of bombs to strike targets as far as 2000 kilometers away. However, this would require at least three aerial refueling sessions, obtaining 24 tons of fuel from tankers; otherwise, it could only fly one way.

Nonetheless, attack aircraft are not omnipotent.

Before 9 o’clock, the 17th Armored Division launched a long-range fire strike operation. The Long-range Rocket Artillery Battalion of the 174 Artillery Brigade, which caught up with the 171 Armored Brigade, fired hundreds of long-range rockets, conducting a saturating bombardment on the Iraqi military camp at Sinafiye.

Due to the large deviation of the rocket artillery, close-range suppression tasks could not be executed.

This round of fierce artillery fire bought half an hour of time. 𝐟𝕣𝕖𝐞𝐰𝕖𝚋𝐧𝗼𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝗰𝐨𝐦

By 9:30, Sea Air was able to dispatch attack aircraft to support the Special Soldiers guarding the bridge.

Under successive firepower strikes, the Iraqi forces at Sinafiye never launched a threatening counterattack and never managed to ascend the bridgehead.

By 10 o’clock, with the arrival of reinforcements from the 7th Armored Division, the fierce battle ended.

Although there was only one company of troops, and it was an infantry company, the helicopter gunships accompanying them completely crushed the fighting spirit of the Iraqi soldiers.

After the final counterattack was repelled, the Iraqi forces began to retreat, effectively fleeing.

Due to the lack of armored forces, and after suffering heavy casualties among the Special Forces, after calling in air strikes to let Sea Air deal with the retreating enemy, Lei Zhenting handed over the position to the officers and soldiers of the 7th Armored Division, and left Sinafiye with his men and the bodies of the fallen Special Soldiers by helicopter.

His action created a small bother for Ding Zhennan.

According to the previous arrangement, Sinafiye was within the occupation zone of the 17th Armored Division and should be controlled by them. However, he handed the bridge to an infantry company of the 7th Armored Division. When the 17313 Mechanized Infantry Battalion arrived, this company from the 7th Armored Division was unwilling to hand over the position.

At that time, the soldiers from both sides nearly fought over this matter.

Later, after Ding Zhennan issued orders in Shi Shouliang’s name, Lu Liangyuan instructed the infantry company occupying the Euphrates River bridge to hand over the bridge to the 17313 Mechanized Infantry Battalion and immediately return to Nuhayb to participate in the combat operations against Baghdad.

Fu Weimin also assured that he would do his utmost to provide logistical support to the 7th Armored Division.

In fact, Fu Weimin was fully aware that the reason Lu Liangyuan from the 7th Armored Division was reluctant to hand over the bridge was that the 17th Armored Division wasn’t effective in the bridge seizure operation. After all, whether this bridge could operate normally was a matter of life or death for the tens of thousands of officers and soldiers of the 7th Armored Division!

After taking the Euphrates River bridge at Sinafiye, the advance to Baghdad officially began.