Chapter 1066 Guerrilla Warfare
"Boom, boom, creak, creak" As the sound got closer, the ground seemed to tremble.
The guerrillas were hiding in a place, and they raised their heads first. The first thing they saw was the two iron plates that kept moving forward. As they moved, they rolled up half a meter of sand. The creaking sound was the sound made by the two tracks contacting the ground during the movement.
The guerrillas immediately recognized the tank.
M1 tank!
The M1 tank is the main battle tank of the United States. It began to be developed in December 1971, put into production in February 1979, and was first equipped to the troops in January 1982. In memory of General Abrams (a four-star general), the most successful tank commander in World War II, who served as the Chief of Staff of the US Army from October 1972 to September 1974, the tank was named "Abrams".
The M1 tank has a combat weight of 54.5 tons. The turret and the hull are mostly welded with steel plates. It has an excellent bulletproof appearance. The thickness of the armor of each part varies, with the thickest part reaching 125 mm and the thinnest part being 12.5 mm. The front of the tank is equipped with Chobham armor. The main gun is a 105 mm M68E1 rifled gun with a base number of 55 rounds, of which 44 are installed in the rear compartment of the turret. There are 6 M250 smoke grenade launchers on both sides of the front of the turret. The M1 adopts a command-style fire control system. The optical main sight and the gun/turret are independently stabilized. The gun/turret tail is electro-hydraulic driven and follows the main sight, giving the M1 the ability to fight on the move.
The M1 tank is the first tank in the world to use a gas turbine as its main power. The advantages of its AGT-1500 gas turbine are simple maintenance and high efficiency of the cold cutting system. The disadvantages are high fuel consumption rate and cost. The tank uses the X-1100-3B fully automatic transmission and improved torsion bar suspension, with good maneuverability and acceleration performance, a maximum speed of 72 km/h, and an acceleration time of only about 7 seconds from 0 to 32 km/h.
The entire US military is equipped with a total of 2,374 basic M1 tanks!
According to the US military plan, all 2,374 basic M1 tanks were originally retired in September 1996, but this retirement plan was vetoed by Clinton, so these 2,374 basic M1 tanks have been in service ever since.
The guerrillas carried anti-tank missiles and aimed at the two M1 tanks.
These guerrillas only have hatred for the Americans. During this period, the US military air strikes on Afghanistan have brought a heavy blow to Afghanistan, and many Afghans have died in the American air strikes.
They evacuated the city and entered the mountains to deal with the Americans as they did with the Soviets.
They believe that they took 10 years to drive away the Soviets, and they can definitely use 10 years to drive away the Americans.
Compared with the past, the guerrillas' weapons and equipment are much more powerful.
The Americans mobilized four major aircraft carrier battle groups, including four aircraft carriers, 47 frigates and destroyers, two nuclear-powered attack submarines, 300 carrier-based aircraft, and a total of 24,000 naval personnel.
In addition, more than 200 F16 fighters, more than 100 F15 fighters, more than 50 bombers, and a large number of KC-135 and KC-10 aerial refueling aircraft were deployed.
The ground forces of the coalition led by the United States are as many as 130,000.
In addition, the United States has also won over the anti-Taliban coalition armed forces, which are said to have 15,000 people, including 3,000 newly recruited soldiers, and all weapons and equipment are provided by the United States.
On the guerrilla side, the main force is the Taliban armed forces, with a total of 198,000 armed combatants, 650 tanks and armored vehicles, more than 250 aircraft and artillery. Standard infantry weapons include Soviet-made "Kalashnikov" submachine guns, AK47/56 semi-automatic rifles or Type 63 automatic rifles, heavy machine guns, rocket launchers, recoilless guns and grenade launchers, as well as hundreds of artillery, heavy mortars and vehicle-mounted multiple rocket launchers.
In addition to the captured Soviet army and the captured Afghan government forces supported by the Soviet Union, a large part of them were funded by the Americans at that time.
And these will become weapons against the Americans.
In addition, they found the places where the Soviet Union buried arms in some mountain forests or caves.
In addition, the guerrillas also have Bin Laden's armed forces, which are independent of the Taliban. The two are allies with more than 20,000 troops.
These 20,000 people are distributed in more than 80 places in Afghanistan, and there are also more than 2,000 people in Pakistan, distributed in more than 30 places. Now the US Army's vanguard, the 10th Mountain Division, has entered Afghanistan.
The 10th Mountain Division of the US Army is a combined arms force with light infantry as the main body, including air assault forces. All the equipment of the division can be quickly deployed by air transport. It is a rapid response force for the US Army to perform emergency combat missions. It is also a special mountain special operations force in the US Army.
The two sides have already exchanged fire.
This time, the guerrillas ambushed the US military's transportation route, and these two M1 tanks became the guerrillas' attack targets.
"Boom~~"
The two M1 tanks were destroyed in the face of anti-tank missiles!
This is not the first time that the guerrillas have destroyed M1 tanks. Through this guerrilla warfare, they constantly interfere with US military transportation, attack US troops, and use familiar terrain to fight with the US military.
After destroying two M1 tanks, the guerrillas deployed mines and began to evacuate quickly.
One of the essences of guerrilla warfare is to win with one strike and never fight to the end!
The US military can occupy cities, but it cannot occupy vast rural areas.
What's more, because the traffic was bombed, the ground progress of the coalition led by the US military was not fast, and it was constantly attacked by guerrillas, which made the US military frown.
Afghanistan is mountainous, with plateaus and mountains accounting for 4/5 of the country's area. The north and southwest are mostly plains, and there are deserts in the southwest. The average altitude is 1,000 meters. The largest Hindu Kush Mountains in Afghanistan run diagonally from the northeast to the southwest.
Moreover, the traffic is extremely poor. Now that the traffic has been bombed again, the coalition led by the US military has to build roads while advancing.
But often the roads that have just been built will be destroyed by guerrillas.
As for railways, there are no railways in Afghanistan at all!
This forced the Americans to use a large number of transport vehicles and military transport planes for airdrops, and the loss rate here is very high.
From the beginning, the U.S. military found that air strikes were very exciting, but when it came to ground forces attacking, it was not very smooth.
Although the U.S. military also killed and wounded many guerrillas, its own losses were not small.
The tanks and armored vehicles of the coalition led by the U.S. military could not withstand the guerrillas' anti-tank mines, anti-tank missiles, anti-tank guns, and anti-tank rocket launchers!
Moreover, the coalition led by the U.S. military began to suffer from acclimatization, and soldiers fell ill from time to time due to acclimatization.
This made the commander of the coalition a little scalp numb, and felt that Afghanistan was not a good place.
Except for some Afghans, many Afghans are hostile to the U.S. military, and they hate it together with the U.S. allies.
Even in the United Kingdom and other Western countries participating in the coalition, vicious bombings were organized.