The groves were thicker to the north, but thinned out to the south, opening on flat cultivated ground. All was still quiet until the engineers arrived and started that busy work of bridging the river. Trucks brought in the floating bays, and the men got them positioned. Training on the Arkansas River had seen them build a 300 meter floating bridge, but here the crossing was only about 157 meters, and so it got done quickly enough. Just after midnight, that bridge was in place and anchored to the far side, and Neal was one of the first men to saunter back across with Sanchez. In little time, the drivers were all back on the west bank, and the Humvees thrummed to life again. Recon was on the move.
It wasn’t until they had pushed a little over three kilometers on that they ran into the first sign of enemy units. 1st Regiment of the Iranian 84th Lorestan Division, which had crossed into Iraq days ago and moved as far as Baqubah, about 20 kilometers to the northwest. That regiment was really more a battalion in actual strength, and it had been coming down Highway-2 towards Baghdad, scouting ahead of the rest of the troops mustering at Baqubah. It once had six tanks with it, but they were all destroyed by coalition air strikes in the last couple days. Now it was mostly an infantry force in trucks, with a few towed guns and lighter scout vehicles.
The light troops formed up, and then got the order to engage and stop the Iranian column. They broke the silence of the night, lighting up the leading vehicles with those heavy MG tracers, and causing quite a bit of chaos. Behind the light troops, the Stryker and Bradley mounted squadrons were already crossing the river, so it was not long before they got strong support. In a sharp attack, 1/7th Cav pushed the Iranian troops east off the road, seeing them flee into the darkness across a narrow irrigation canal.
The 2nd Regiment of that Iranian division had taken the secondary road due south from Baqubah, called “Baghdad Street,” with orders to reach and occupy a small airfield near the town of Khan Bani Sad, but the third regiment came down Highway-2 behind the first.
It was King’s troop, scouting up the road, that first spotted them.
“Got us another column Sarge,” said Neal when they stopped to peer through night optics ahead. Sergeant King wasted no time calling it in.
“Harrier this is Falcon-1. We have a column again, about two miles out on Highway-2, Over.”
“Roger that, Falcon-1. Relay estimated grid coordinates.”
That order always meant an air strike was brewing, and it wasn’t long after that before they saw a series of big explosions on the road. They thought that would be the end of it, but that column just kept on coming. King reported the enemy was moving to contact, and they had tanks.
They were actually six Type 80 Chinese built self-propelled AA Guns. The vehicle was a Type 59, with a twin anti-aircraft autocannon mounted on the chassis of a Chinese Type 69-II main battle tank, an old warrior dating from the 1980’s. Those twin 57mm cannons could tear up a Humvee pretty bad, and when King saw them, he thought it was time to be elsewhere.
“Time to egress,” he said, and he called for the Bradleys, the only vehicles in the battalion that had armor and guns enough to deal with that threat. They were lucky that was all that came down that highway that night, for there was another Iranian division, the 77th Khorasan, settling in at Baqubah.
Time, however, was favoring the US forces, and the Combined Arms Battalions of the 1st BCT began to cross that bridge and expand the bridgehead. This put heavy armor east of the Tigris for the first time, and pretty much ruled out any chance of an effective counterattack by the Iranians in that sector.
The tentacles of the Coalition military were now surrounding the Iraqi capital on all sides. South of the city. EUROCORPS had pushed north from Alexandria and engaged the Hammurabi Division. The US had already battered the Al Medina Division with its 3rd I.D., and now it was preparing to engage the Qusay Division between Fallujah and Al Taji. The only reserve that remained in the city was the Baghdad Republican Guard Division.
Seeing the steel trap closing around the city, Qusay, his brother Uday had already made an escape to the east, taking nondescript pickup trucks and keeping to secondary roads to avoid air strikes. By the time this happened, they were already in Tikrit wrangling with the Chinese authorities in Beijing to send help. That promised, their plan now was to take a circuitous route into northern Iraq, rally the tribes, and organize the defenses there. So even if Baghdad fell, Qusay’s plan was still in effect, and the greater part of Iraq would remain unconquered.
In the north, the battle for Baghdad still lay ahead, and General Bakir’s predictions of what would happen seemed to be coming true. South of the city, the British, French, and German brigades were going to be more than a match for the Hammurabi Division. West of the city, the Al Medina Division was already worn down to 50% nominal strength, and the Qusay Division was next for that buzz saw. Now, with the Americans moving two armored cavalry brigades across the Tigris north of Baghdad, he would have to send his last reserve division to watch that flank.
These were the last cohesive units he considered of any decent caliber in the army. In Northern Iraq, there was still the Mosul and Erbil Divisions, and a good number of Iranian troops, but none were the equal of the force he had there at Baghdad.
“Do you want these divisions destroyed here?” he had asked Qusay Hussein before the President left the city. “That is what will happen if we try to defend Baghdad.”
“What is the alternative?” said Qusay.
“We can yield the city, and take these good divisions to join those we still have in the north. In that instance, we might still have something we can remotely call an army left, but if I lose the Republican Guards at Baghdad, then the North will surely fall as well.”
“Can they not fight like tigers in Baghdad? We can fight house to house, street by street, and cause them a world of pain.”
“Perhaps, but in the end, we will lose, and they will still have Baghdad, only that fighting will destroy those streets and neighborhoods, including all the palaces, museums, hospitals and government buildings. There will be chaos!”
“Isn’t that what we want?” asked Qusay. “Let them try to impose order on 7.6 million Iraqis in Baghdad, and see what happens.”
“And what if they simply ransack all our government buildings and then leave? Who will impose order on the country then? Do you think you could do that with the Mosul Division… With the Erbil Division… With the Tribes? And remember there will be Iranian troops all over the country, licking their chops to settle in on a permanent basis. They will be setting up little fiefdoms and spreading their Shiite blasphemy. We made Peace with them to satisfy the Chinese, but where are they now?”
“The Chinese? You will see, General Bakir. Yes, you will see. Their troops have moved into Iran they will come to Baghdad soon. Then let us see how long the Americans wish to reap the whirlwind they have stirred up here”
He smiled…. But he was wrong.
Chapter 24
General Wang Fanlong was a conservative man, short and stocky, dark haired even into his later 50’s, and a believer in protocol and performance when it came to the units under his command. The Western Theater forces would often train in Xinjiang Province, where the Gobi and Taklamakan deserts created terrain very much like the deserts of Iraq. So he knew his men would not be intimidated by the harsh terrain, and he knew he had trained them well. In the latest Sino-Siberian War, his 21st Army had fought along the Songhua River near Mulan, and his 13th Army near Lake Khanka. Though they arrived late, they still got good experience in mobilizing, moving to assembly, and deployment for battle, with many defensive engagements fought in those operations.