Once the crew had sufficiently collected their wits, the tank would move forward again until it hit the next mine.
The Soviets' effort to breach the mine field caused the Iranians to redouble their own efforts against the mine rollers and plows. Hits were scored, but for the most part without effect. The T-80s' special armor easily absorbed the 105mm. rounds and allowed the rollers and the plows to continue their job. The only result of the Iranians' efforts was to give away their positions to the over watching Soviet tanks. By the time the mine field was breached, the Iranian positions were silent. On order the 3rd Battalion moved through the mine field and formed into battle line as it moved against the Iranian positions. The black pillars of smoke from the burning diesel and rubber of destroyed Iranian tanks served to keep the attackers oriented on their objective.
Vorishnov looked at his watch. In less than thirty minutes the regiment had gone from the brink of defeat to a smashing victory, a victory made possible by the 3rd Battalion. With a little luck, they would go through the Iranian position and be able to continue on to Tehran.
The flash of impacting artillery followed by the crashing of the explosion reminded Second Lieutenant Cerro of a thunderstorm. In the distance, it had been mildly interesting to watch; as he and his men climbed closer, excitement built up. Cerro wondered how effective the artillery was. Sergeant Arnold didn't think the 105 howitzers would do much good against well-prepared positions that the Iranians, no doubt, had on the mountaintop.
Cerro paused for a moment to catch his breath, looking up the steep mountainside. If nothing else, the artillery was at least proving to be a convenient aid to navigation. So long as the artillery went in, Cerro knew where to head.
The first two days in Iran had been hard. The 17th Airborne Division had managed to secure the airfield and the naval base and port facilities there. Organized resistance had collapsed, but there were still a great many groups of anywhere from four to ten Iranians wandering around, setting up ambushes or holding key positions throughout the town and the surrounding countryside. Each group had to be found, pinned and taken out.
One of Second Lieutenant Cerro's men had made the casual observation that someone must have issued to every male born in Iran a rifle and forty rounds of ammunition.
The process was simple but nerveracking, especially the first part, finding them. Sometimes the point man was able to detect telltale signs of an ambush or a hidden position. The Iranians, though brave, were not professionals, leaving loose dirt or exposing dirt of a different color near their dug-in positions, using the wrong type of vegetation or simply not covering up their weapons or themselves. Other times, the first hint of trouble was a burst of automatic rifle fire or the explosion of a grenade.
When that happened, the men would automatically begin to fire in whichever direction their rifles happened to be pointed. Cerro had the damnedest time getting them to stop and trying to figure out what was really happening.
Once the enemy had been located, part of the platoon would deploy and lay down a base of fire to pin the enemy and cover the movement of the platoon's maneuver element. It was the job of the maneuver element to find an exposed flank or surround the Iranians while the rest of the platoon covered the movement with fire. When the Iranians were trapped, everyone would cut loose until the last Iranian had surrendered or died. Most Iranians preferred the latter. Now that the airfield had been secured, the Sheridan armored assault vehicles arrived and simplified the process with their 152mm. main guns and their machine guns. The paratroopers used the Sheridan like a mobile pillbox to destroy Iranian positions. If a pocket of resistance was hit and there was a Sheridan nearby, someone would summon it. Often all that was needed to break resistance was a burst of machine-gun fire and a menacing maneuver by the ugly tracked vehicle. When true diehards were encountered, a high-explosive round from the main gun quickly decided the issue.
When word came that the battalion was to move up to seize a place called Kuh-e Genu, the men welcomed the opportunity to end the deadly cat-and-mouse game they had been playing with the small groups of Iranian fanatics. Their enthusiasm evaporated, however, when they found out that Kuh-e Genu was the name of the mountain that rose to nearly twenty-four hundred feet above them. Genu dominated the entire area. Until it was secured, it posed a threat to air and port operations in and around Bandar Abbas. The task of seizing the mountain was made even more difficult by the fact that helicopters were not yet available for an air assault operation against the mountaintop. The entire operation would have to be conducted on foot. On the afternoon of 7 June, the battalion moved forward to climb Kuh-e Genu and begin the process of expanding the airhead.
The halting and frustrating progress that had characterized the first days of the invasion had given way to rapid and unrestricted advances wherever the 28th Combined Arms Army went. After the tank battle north of Mianeh, the greatest delay the army had experienced had been a monumental traffic jam in the town of Mianeh as the two divisions advancing from the west ran into the two advancing from the north.
After days of frustrations and delays, no one expected the Iranians to collapse as completely as they did. Plans for organizing the pursuit of shattered Iranian forces were therefore incomplete when the units of the 28th CAA were ordered to execute them.
The 68th Tank Regiment, though badly mauled during the tank battle on 6 June, was the vanguard for the army simply because it was the first unit through the town and didn't stop. The regiment, initially shaken and gun-shy after that battle, overcame their caution and rushed forward with few reservations. All were determined to be the first to reach Tehran and have the honor of parading down the broad avenue to the former Royal Palace of the Shah. Despite the heat, the lack of sleep, the irregular meals and the incessant dust, the men were, for the moment, happy to be moving forward at full speed.
Major Vorishnov, working with the regimental staff, had the task of ensuring that his battalion, the lead battalion, kept moving. Although he was the first officer of the battalion and usually concerned himself with only operational matters, the task of securing fuel, food and other necessary items to keep the drive going was beyond the capability of the battalion's supply officer. In addition, Vorishnov's rank helped, on occasion, to overcome bureaucratic inertia. When his rank failed to impress the rear-echelon supply people Vorishnov had no qualms about using his vast size and a not-too-subtle hint of violence to get what he wanted. After watching men fight and die to make the breakthrough possible, he was not about to let a pencil-pushing supply officer stop his battalion. They would reach Tehran ahead of everyone else, procedures be damned.
On his way to the rear in search of fuel trucks that had failed to make it to the battalion the night before, Vorishnov stopped at the division command post. It wasn't much of a command post: several armored cars and personnel carriers, configured as mobile command vehicles, clustered together with canvas spread between them to provide shade for the working officers. The first officer of the division was glad to see Vorishnov. He was having trouble keeping track of the lead unit's progress and could not get accurate reports on the condition of the roads and bridges, what few there were, and other details of what lay ahead. The lead regiment was moving so fast that communications often failed. Therefore anyone coming from the front of the column was pumped for information.