"God, I'm afraid that such a scene has only been created by the Whip of God and the Mongols back then!" When a German reconnaissance plane flew near the Huaxia armored forces, the situation on the ground gave him a heartfelt shock! Thousands of tanks, armored vehicles and trucks were marching in columns toward the west. From the air, the dust raised on the roads and the wilderness can be seen from more than a dozen kilometers away. Through the dust, the pilot could see what was like a matchbox-sized vehicle in a column that stretched out like a dragon as far as the eye could see. In the air, formed fighter jets are constantly circling, providing cover for the vehicles below. The other party did not hide his whereabouts, and exposed all his strength in front of the other party as a dignified teacher!

If the marching Huaxia armored forces are just shocking, then when these dragons attack, it feels terrifying! The pilot of another long-range reconnaissance plane witnessed the scene of a vanguard unit in China breaking through a line of Austro-Hungarian troops.

Even though the distance between the two sides is more than ten kilometers, the scene is still terrifying when the other side's rocket artillery volleys are fired, and countless shuttle-shaped tail flames rise from the ground, forming waves of flames. The shells arced in the air, and then smashed into the positions of the Austro-Hungarian troops like a waterfall of flames, and for a time, the flames and smoke screens from countless explosions covered the entire position. The other side did not seem to need much precision, because they had plowed almost the entire position with artillery fire. The amount of instantaneous projection is simply beyond imagination. After a full ten minutes, the long-range artillery located behind the line tried to return fire, but was quickly suppressed by the attack aircraft hovering in the air. After waiting for the smoke to clear, looking from the air to the ground, a black belt ran through the entire defense line, and the original Austro-Hungarian minefields, anti-tank trenches, various trenches and pillboxes were destroyed under the dense artillery fire. The subsequent onslaught of the Chinese armored forces became insignificant, and almost in the posture of an armed march passed through the entire line of defense. The German pilot reported with trepidation.

Although the Huaxia Air Force tried its best to drive away the approaching reconnaissance planes, with the help of the Luftwaffe at any cost, the army still had a certain understanding of the speed of the Huaxia advance. Just as the Chinese Army was advancing wildly, it was on the line of Baghdah in the southern part of the Two Rivers Valley to Kifri. The Germans' four panzer divisions were also advancing in echelons, and eventually the German units under the command of Manstein and Rundstedt would spread out on the Kivri line and then attack the flanks of the Chinese forces.

Contrary to what outsiders thought, the main forces of the German armored forces on the southern front were not in a hurry to take the initiative, and the Germans calculated an account. The 2 armored divisions on the northern front will invest a little later, and Kirkuk's Austrian-Turkish ** team will have more than enough defense and lack of mobility. Limited offensive capabilities. Then Huaxia can completely concentrate a Chinese armored division, an Iranian armored division and about two mechanized infantry divisions from the middle and south roads to fight against the German army, plus the air force is not strong now, it is really difficult to say who has the advantage if the two sides meet together.

"If the opposing forces Kirkuk attack. Then the only battlefield where the opposing forces can be dispersed is in Sulaymaniyah. This place is stuck on the transportation line of Huaxia. If left unchecked, their rear will be very unstable. Rundstedt said, staring at the map. So our only chance at the beginning of the campaign was that Sulaymaniyah's Austrian-Turkish ** team could entangle a part of the Chinese troops, and then the four German Panzer Divisions on the southern front would attack.

One might say, why not wait until the two German Panzer Divisions on the Northern Front were ready to go on the offensive? The reason is very simple, the Germans have reinforcements, and China also has them, as long as China is given time, at least two more armored brigades can be transferred to the battlefield in Iran, and from the current point of view, the German Army may not have a greater advantage over time within a month, plus if the German army does not move. What if Kirkuk's Austrian-Turkish team can't stop it? Although the tank unit is known to be mobile quickly, the tank itself also has a travel limit. It was also limited by supply lines, and although the Germans had more tank vehicles, they also needed more transport vehicles. In the case that the air umbrella is not so stable, the Germans still choose to fight steadily, not seeking to defeat the opponent at once, and slowly take advantage of it little by little!

The Germans calculated very well, it is indeed impossible for Huaxia to leave Sulaymaniyah without fighting, and it is true that a part of the troops will be temporarily dispersed, but on the timetable of Huaxia. Huaxia will use the fastest speed to eliminate this fish bone that is lying in the throat of Huaxia! The speed is beyond the imagination of the Germans! So much so that it is unlikely that the Germans would like to use this time to make a time difference.

"Although this battle will be dominated by field battles, Sulaymaniyah in the border area between the two countries is a city that must be breached, and this is also the largest heavy group of Austrian-Turkish ** teams except Kirkuk, which has about one division of Austro-Hungarian troops and three regiments of about 6,000 Turkish troops. With a total strength of about 20,000 men, they built a deep and wide defensive line based on the city. Xu Huaide and Zhou Xuan's armored forces will continue to advance and occupy suitable starting positions. Tian Yong's 4th Mechanized Infantry Division and General Gallen's Russian Division will be responsible for capturing the city, and you only have 4 days to get to Kirkuk with Zhao Sicheng's 3rd Mechanized Infantry Division and Iran's 1st Armored Division. "While the other troops are marching all the way to the west, Tian Yong's troops need to fight a tough battle!

Although, on paper, the main force of both sides in the battle of Sulaymaniyah was a mechanized infantry division. In terms of the level of equipment and the quality of the soldiers, China is even more superior, but the other side is in a defensive state, waiting for work. Moreover, one of the three Turkish regiments that assisted in the defense was an anti-aircraft artillery regiment with a large number of anti-aircraft guns. What's more important is the need to lay the city in 4 days. There can't be too many casualties, and at the same time, time is also very short, and it can't be consumed slowly with water grinding effort. This would have been difficult to do before.

But this time, Tian Yong got the above hint that there is no need to consider some moral things when attacking the city, if the attacking side does not consider the destruction of the city or civilian casualties, then a lot of things will be saved, of course, such a thing will not be touched by the troops directly under Huaxia as much as possible, isn't there still Russians? The main task of these Russian regiments, which are counted as Iranian troops in terms of establishment, is to fight street battles. After clearing the outer obstacles, Huaxia mainly provided fire support for the attacking troops. The troops sent by General Gallen were specially designed for street fighting, and were heavily equipped with automatic weapons, mortars, and various lightly armored vehicles equipped with machine guns. The worst plan is to completely bulldoze this small city with artillery, which is not too far from the rear anyway. The supplies are still relatively sufficient.

And so the first tough battle of Operation Babylon began in Sulaymaniyah!

"What the hell are the Austrians up to?" After repeatedly verifying the information provided by the reconnaissance unit and the aviation unit, Tian Yong discovered a very strange thing, that is, where did the heavy weapons and vehicles of an entire division of the Austrian mechanized infantry division go. The scale of Hillmania is not very large, although aviation reconnaissance can only look at the surface, but the scale of several hundred tanks of various types in a division disappears like this. It is also difficult to hide such a large-scale installed cluster in time. Compared with the information gathered before the war, the layout of the buildings in this city has not changed much, which means that unless the other party quietly digs a large garage that can accommodate hundreds of chariots in the ground, these cars will not be able to hide at all. Obviously, this assumption does not hold. Then the only possible reason is that a large number of combat vehicles of the other side are not in the city, the only possibility is that they are outside the city, or this mechanized infantry division is just a crippled division. Only anti-tank guns were left for defense.

It was also possible for the Austrians to use the second tactic, after all, there was no air supremacy in the Central Powers of Hillmania, and any vehicle movement during the day would be exposed to the blows of the air force. If you are only carrying out pinning and defensive tasks, you really don't need a lot of vehicles. A limited number of armored forces will be enough to plug the gap, and the rest of the tanks may have been transferred to other units. According to Tian Yong's understanding, the outer defense line is just to consume the opponent, and the really difficult thing to fight is the street battle.

But this time. Tian Yong's judgment and the actual situation are very different, Tian Yong underestimated the positioning of the Austro-Hungarian Empire on Hilmania, which not only wanted to use it as a support point, but also intended to allow the defenders of Hillmania to take the initiative to attack at the right time, so the combat vehicles of this mechanized infantry division were not only not reduced, but appropriately strengthened! And the division that Tian Yong didn't expect even more, the Austrians actually dug out tank bunkers one by one on the position, and then let the tanks drive in and camouflage! At the same time, because camouflage operations were carried out at night and in the early hours of the morning, and the tank bunkers began construction months earlier, the movement was not very large. Even if some clues were found, they treated it as a reinforcement support point, completely ignoring the fact that there would be a tank inside.

Schrager is not a mediocre man, after carefully studying the actions of the armored forces after breaking through the defensive line in previous campaigns, combined with the experience of real combat exercises. He found that there was a gap between the armored troops after breaking through the opponent's first line of defense and the follow-up troops to consolidate their positions, and the tank troops needed to expand the results of the battle and reorganize the formation on the one hand, and the follow-up troops had not yet been deployed in place. If your armored forces can attack suddenly, then it is easy to inflict heavy damage on the exhausted opponent, or even launch a short assault to attack the follow-up infantry. Because according to the standards of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the general German infantry divisions, the anti-armor weapons of the infantry units were relatively few, and most of them were towed artillery, and the combat effectiveness in the state of movement was extremely poor.

It's a good idea, but the most important question is how to get your armored forces into the battlefield at the right time when the opponent is regrouping? Especially when the other side still has air supremacy? It is important to know that the distance between the battle lines is 5 to 8 kilometers, and even if the armored forces feel the breakthrough point from the second line of defense from the moment the opponent enters and recuperates, then the actual distance traveled will be more than 8 kilometers. After all, you can't walk in a straight line, and in off-road situations, by the time your troops arrive at the battlefield, the opponent may have already gathered and reorganized.

At that time, what awaits the counterattack troops is a combined strike by anti-aircraft artillery and tanks. In order to shorten the attack distance, Schrager took a trick when deploying defenses, hiding a certain number of tanks and assault guns in the interval of the defensive line, which should have been empty. Fortunately, due to the limited terrain, the place where the armored troops can be deployed is not large, and the circular defense line is not a long linear defense, so the vehicle at an ambush point can take into account several defense positions.

Compared with the more balanced performance of German tanks, Austria-Hungary preferred tank destroyers, and they did better than their German counterparts in terms of firepower, in this battle they took out a trump card that had been hidden for a long time, that is, the Vespa tank destroyer equipped with the 88MML56 gun and the No. 3 tank destroyer with the 75MML48, the latter was an original German product, and the former was made by Austria-Hungary itself, but because this gun was too big, Therefore, the Vespa tank destroyer is very similar to the historical German Rhino tank destroyer, both of which are open-topped, strong attack and weak defense vehicles. Although the front of the vehicle and the gun shield defense are sufficient, the lack of a roof still makes the actual protection of this vehicle not as strong as it appears on paper.

"All the Europeans were well maintained, and their tank bunkers not only hid their tanks well, but also had some shelters around them for the infantry, which were directly connected to the tank bunkers, and had ample reserves of supplies and ammunition. It can almost be seen as a well-established line of defense, except that this line of defense is not used for defense, but as a starting point for attack. "After the war, through the investigation of the defense line of the Austro-Hungarian army, the Chinese military gave a high evaluation of the Austrian fortifications. And Schrager's ingenious deployment did cause some trouble for Huaxia in this battle, and in all fairness, in the absence of long-range firepower and air force, the Austrians fought very well. But in the actual battle, the miscalculation of the Austro-Hungarian defense forces had an even greater impact on the Allied command!

Thanks to the book friend zhouyu1976 for the reward ~~~~~, as well as the book friend Bold 100, Dragon Tiger 987654321, njluyujiang, Big Fat Bookworm, and Kongchen's monthly ticket support ~~~~~. (To be continued.) )