Chapter 1168 Airborne
The moment the Iraqi soldiers emerged from the tunnel, they were drenched in flying mud. The originally dull explosion sound became particularly clear in an instant. The ground was shaking, the artillery fire was roaring, and the flames of napalm bombs were everywhere. Black smoke and gunpowder mixed with rain and darkness filled the entire Kumchat Mountain.
At this moment, the moonlight lost its color.
Thousands of American soldiers dispersed and moved towards the Iraqi positions. They wore helmets, bulletproof vests, night vision equipment, and guns in their hands. They were armed to the teeth. They walked along the gentle slope and hid in the craters beside them from time to time to avoid.
Throughout the battlefield, the continuous falling shells rolled up a lot of mud and exploded on the positions. Some trenches had been destroyed and could only reach the knees. The shells fell with a piercing whistle, and the roar continued to explode. Mud continued to fall on the helmets of the Iraqi soldiers.
The Iraqi machine gunners set up machine guns and fired underground. Iraqi soldiers took rifles and fired at the figures underground.
The diffuse smoke blocked everyone's sight, and the soil rolled up by the continuous explosions and the darkness made the soldiers' battlefield look unclear.
The artillery shells of the joint forces fell like raindrops, and the flames of war were everywhere.
"Boom boom boom~~" The soldiers picked up grenades, pulled the fuses and threw them underground, and the explosions continued.
The grenades exploded, and the broken shrapnel splashed everywhere, splashing on the bulletproof vests of American soldiers. The bulletproof vests helped them to relieve most of the force, but still pierced into their flesh and blood, making them scream.
The cruel mountain attack was vividly displayed at this moment.
Even if the US military has air superiority, firepower advantage, and elite soldiers, it is not conducive to the attacking side to attack from above.
Facing the fierce firepower of the Iraqi army, the attacks from the west and north were repelled. The Iraqi army replenished its troops and ammunition. If they were hungry, they would eat beef jerky or compressed biscuits and drink some water.
Not long after, the US military took a short rest and used artillery fire to plow the Iraqi army's surface positions again, and once again assembled two battalions of troops to launch an attack.
"Boom~~"
Shells fell continuously, and the rolled-up soil was scattered.
Some shells also fell into the trenches, and some soldiers were killed.
In this situation, Iraqi soldiers shot at the bottom one after another, and then waited to the back, threw grenades at the enemy again, pointed the muzzle at the enemy, and poured bullets at the enemy.
The Iraqi army continued to repel the enemy's attacks, and the US military organized wave after wave of attacks.
In the contest between the two sides, the sky in the distance was white.
The sky was about to dawn.
The battle was finally over, and the Iraqi army began to clean up the battlefield, and the wounded were bandaged by medical staff!
Although it was daybreak, the joint forces' artillery was still fiercely bombarding the Kumchat Mountain position. From 3:30 to now, the joint forces' artillery had not stopped at all.
Finally, it was daybreak!
When the sun slowly rose, the joint forces assembled four battalions of troops and launched another fierce attack on Kumchat Mountain under the cover of a large amount of artillery fire, tanks, armored vehicles and aircraft.
At this moment, the US military was rampant and fierce!
The tanks could not go up, so they continued to bombard the Iraqi positions on the gentle slope. The US heavy machine guns kept firing, one by one, forming a long chain of fire to attack the Iraqi defense positions.
The US heavy artillery made a piercing scream in the sky. After the napalm bomb exploded, the entire Iraqi position quickly formed a sea of fire. After a brief test in the early morning, the US military's most violent attack came.
All positions were fiercely attacked by the US military.
At the same time, 240 armed helicopters and strategic transport planes of the United States flew close to the Iraq-Syria border, transporting soldiers, and then soldiers and equipment were airdropped.
In three days, the US military airdropped the 101st Airborne Division and the 82nd Airborne Division of the 18th Airborne Army into Iraq.
The airborne division was to cut off the Iraqi army's reinforcements. Otherwise, the Iraqi army had a steady supply of troops and weapons and ammunition, and it was afraid that it would not be able to defeat the Iraqi army's defensive positions.
When Rashid learned that the United States was airdropping troops, he immediately mobilized troops to encircle and destroy these two isolated troops.
Rashid's rear troops were sufficient and elite. Although the 101st Airborne Division and the 82nd Airborne Division of the United States were elite and had air fire support, they could not destroy the Iraqi army that was several times larger than themselves for a while.
At this time, the news that the joint forces dispatched ground troops to attack the Iraqi defense line quickly spread all over the world, shocked the world, and attracted global attention.
News from the battlefield kept coming out, some true and some false. Some said that the powerful ground forces had broken through the Iraqi defense line and were attacking the northern theater of the Iraqi army, and were about to destroy the northern theater of the Iraqi army. Some said that the US military was marching straight into the Iraqi capital Baghdad.
Of course, there were also reports that the Iraqi army had severely damaged the joint forces and blocked the joint forces' attack.
The focus of the world could not help but be on the Iraq War.
Even Liu Tao was paying attention to the Iraq War every day.
Once the US military tore open Iraq's northern defense line, then with the joint forces' strength and weapons and equipment advantages, Iraq's million-strong army would find it difficult to resist the joint forces.
And once the US military's attack was blocked, it would be a heavy blow to the joint forces.
Liu Tao was still shocked by the US military dropping two airborne divisions at one time, because this was an organized airdrop, not only personnel, but also weapons and equipment, which is very commendable.
It has to be admitted that the US military is indeed the world's largest air force, and this ability to carry out large-scale airdrops through strategic transport aircraft is shocking.
"The 82nd Airborne Division deserves to be called the 'First Airborne Division of the US Army', and the 101st Airborne Division deserves to be called the 'Howling Eagle' and 'Eagle Division'!" Liu Tao was full of praise.
The 82nd Airborne Division is the 'First Airborne Division of the US Army', and its organization includes a division headquarters, 3 brigade headquarters, 551-type 'Schliemann' light tanks, a combat aviation brigade, division artillery (commanding 3 M119 105mm towed howitzer battalions and an 'Avenger' surface-to-air missile battalion), a reconnaissance and electronic warfare battalion, a communications battalion, an engineering battalion, a military police company, a company for protection against weapons of mass destruction, and a division logistics headquarters, with a total of 13,000 troops.
The 101st Airborne Division is well-equipped and is also known as the 101st Air Assault Division. Because there is a howling eagle head on the armband, the division is called the "Eagle Division". Its motto is "Always ready to fight anywhere". It consists of a division headquarters, three brigade headquarters, nine air mobile infantry battalions, two aviation combat brigades, division artillery, a surface-to-air missile brigade, a reconnaissance and electronic warfare battalion, a communications battalion, an engineering battalion and a medical battalion, a military police company, a weapons of mass destruction protection company, a logistics headquarters, and a deep reconnaissance squadron. The entire division has 17,000 people! (End of this chapter)