Chapter 29 Bloody Battle with the Golan Heights

The Syrian army's offense was not sharp, but it was very determined.

In Qi Kaiwei's view, the biggest problem of the Syrian army is that it is dull and attaches too much importance to dogma. For example, in the combat plan, it stipulates that the artillery preparation time is two hours, but all the Syrian army that had entered the offensive position remained unmoved, rather than taking this opportunity to move forward.

The direct result of this was that after the Syrian army launched an attack, it was immediately subjected to fierce counterattack from the Israeli army.

According to the combat records of the Israeli army, during the guard battle, a company commander of the 7th Armored Brigade drove the "Mekava 5" main battle tank and destroyed five Syrian tanks in a row within ten minutes. One of them had a combat distance of up to 3,800 meters, and the other four had a combat distance of more than two thousand meters.

Within more than two hours before dawn, the Syrian army lost at least 300 main battle tanks, and the two main divisions were almost crippled.

However, the Syrian army did not stop.

Shortly after dawn, the 3rd Armored Division, who had been on the bench, broke through the outer defense line of the Israeli army, and encircled and annihilated a tank battalion of the 7th Armored Brigade in the early morning battle, destroyed nearly 30 "Mekawa 5" main battle tanks, and seized a failed main battle tank.

It can be said that fortunately Qi Kaiwei deployed and directed the battle.

Because he knows the Syrian army very well, when deploying, Qi Kaiwei placed the Third Armored Division and the Seventh Armored Division behind as the second echelon, and the two armored divisions mainly equipped with T-72 and 0s. To put it bluntly, he used these two armored divisions as victims, consumed the ammunition of the Israeli army, and at the same time promoted the front as much as possible. After reaching the near Israeli defense line, the Third Armored Division and the Seventh Armored Division were allowed to fight to shorten the assault distance between the two main armored divisions as much as possible.

There are also reasons for this deployment.

In the Fourth Middle East War, the problem of T-Series tanks was exposed, that is, the pitch angle of the tank gun was too small and not suitable for combat under complex terrain. In comparison, the dip angle of the Type 24 and Type 04 tank guns reached a negative fourteen degrees and the elevation angle reached 37 degrees. Not only was it far beyond the T-Series main battle tanks, but it was only slightly less than the "Mekava 6" model in the fourth generation. In other words, after breaking through the Israeli army's peripheral defense line and entering the Golan Heights, Type 24 and Type 04 can play a more effective role.

Of course, the most important thing is to shorten the assault distance of the main force.

Although the area of ​​the Golan Heights is not large, the road is very tortuous, and the assault distance of armored troops is often several times the straight line distance between the two places. Only by shortening the assault distance of armored troops as much as possible can we have sufficient assault ability after breaking through the Israeli defense line.

It can be said that this is a crucial tactical issue.

The Golan Heights are Israel's defense barrier on the northern border, and it can even be said to be the last line of defense for Israel. Compared with the direction of the Sinai Peninsula, Israel's northern border defense line has no depth. As long as the Syrian army breaks through the Golan Heights, it can directly attack the core area of ​​Israel. To this end, Israel has worked hard in the Golan Heights for decades and has set up thousands of permanent fortifications. There are more than 20,000 anti-tank firepower points and tank mobile defense positions alone, and tens of thousands of infantry firepower points are densely distributed. In a sense, the Golan Heights is a whole defense zone, rather than a defense system composed of multiple defense lines.

In this way, if the Syrian army wants to capture the Golan Heights, they must do their best and must not waste too much time on the offensive. If they only capture part of the positions but fail to quickly capture the entire Golan Heights, the situation will reverse as Israel's reserve forces arrive. In the Fourth Middle East War, the 7th Armored Brigade and the 188th Armored Brigade almost fought to the point where they were exhausted. In the end, the reserve forces arrived in time to defeat Syria's armored troops and killed them all the way outside Damascus. If you make such a mistake again, I am afraid that Israel will not have stopped horses outside Damascus as before, and will capture Damascus.

In this way, ensuring the sustainability of the offense becomes a crucial issue.

In the deployment, Qi Kaiwei did not send the two main armored divisions together, but asked them to attack in turn, leaving four main infantry divisions and four reserve infantry divisions in the rear, and also arranged two independent armored brigades. He only arranged one task for the Third Armored Division and the Seventh Armored Division: continue to advance forward, regardless of the issue of occupying the position, which is the responsibility of the rear troops.

In the first ten hours, the two main armored divisions strictly abide by the plan formulated by Qi Kaiwei.

It was not until the afternoon of the fifth... that the 7th Armored Division, which had already rushed to the front, encountered the 188th Armored Brigade of the Israeli Army, that the situation changed.

Although in history, the 188th Armored Brigade was not as good as the 1st Infantry Brigade and the 7th Armored Brigade, in the Fourth Middle East War, the 188th Armored Brigade fought to the last man, and became famous in one battle, becoming the most famous armored force in the Israel Defense Forces.

In Balam's words, wherever there is the most dangerous place, there will be the 188th Armored Brigade.

This time is no exception.

At that time, the Syrian army had advanced more than 30 kilometers on the Golan Heights, and the vanguard had arrived in Delceres, less than ten kilometers from the Galilee Plain. As long as we entered the Galilee Plain, the Syrian army could cut off the Israeli army's logistics supply line and encircle and annihilate the defenders on the Golan Heights.

At this critical moment, the 188th Armored Brigade, who was transferred by Balam, came on stage.

The reason why Baram lets the 188th Armored Brigade serve as a reserve is very simple: among the three ace brigades, only the 188th Armored Brigade is equipped with the "Mekava 6" main battle tanks, while among the 1st Infantry Brigade and the 7th Armored Brigade, there are only a few "Mekava 6", mainly "Mekava 5". In this way, in front-line mobile defense operations, the 188th Armored Brigade is definitely not as good as the other two ace troops. In positional defense wars, especially when facing a large number of enemies, the 188th Armored Brigade can play a more role.

In fact, through this deployment, Balam's tactical intentions can also be seen.

At that time, except for the 188th Armored Brigade in the rear, the 7th Armored Brigade was in the north of the highlands, directly facing Syria's offensive forces, and the 1st Infantry Brigade was in the south of the highlands. Because the main highways were concentrated in the north of the highlands, the 7th Armored Brigade had the greatest defense pressure. Baram knew very well that fighting with the Syrian army on the outer defense line was the stupidest choice. Only by putting the Syrian army in and fighting could there be hope of winning with more. That's why the 7th Armored Brigade did not fight desperately, but just held several main positions. According to Baram's deployment, after the main force of Syria broke through, the 7th Armored Brigade closed the gate. The 188th Armored Brigade attacked the Syrian flank from the south, trying to eliminate or drag the Syrian army's reserves, and the 188th Armored Brigade defeated the Syrian assault troops head-on.

It can be said that this is a very good combat plan.

However, there are three problems. One is whether the Seventh Armored Brigade can close the door, the second is whether the First Infantry Brigade can successfully defeat the Syrian reserve team, and the third is whether the 188th Armored Brigade can defend the position. As long as one is not reached, the Israeli army will not be able to achieve complete victory. If none of the three problems are solved, the Israeli army will not only fail to defend the Golan Heights, but also likely to fight for three ace brigades in the war of attrition.

After the 188th Armored Brigade entered the battle, the 7th Armored Brigade and the 1st Infantry Division immediately launched a counterattack.

The problem is that the situation is far from as ideal as Baram expected.

During the interweaving operation, the Seventh Armored Brigade encountered the withdrawn Third Armored Division of the Syrian Army, and ended up encountering a stronger armored force. More importantly, the Third Armored Division was not concentrated together, but scattered on several positions, and the Seventh Armored Brigade did not concentrate on assault, but carried out assault at the battalion-level scale. In other words, the assault side did not form an advantage, and the defense side did not concentrate on troops.

Fighting like this is tantamount to consuming.

Unfortunately, the Israeli army has no equipment advantage. The "Mekava 5" cannot take advantage of the "Mekava 5" in the face of Type 24, especially in mountainous battles, the pitch angle of the Type 24 tank gun is larger than that of the "Mekava 5", so the Syrian army can use the occupied Israeli positions to effectively block the Seventh Armored Brigade.

To the south, the First Infantry Brigade also encountered trouble in its counterattack.

Although the Israeli army encountered the Syrian infantry division in this direction, it was the main infantry division and was equipped with a lot of Type 04 main battle tanks.

Compared with the Seventh Armored Brigade, the First Infantry Brigade's assault operations were more concentrated.

As a result, the Syrian army's defense line was quickly broken through, but it failed to form deep interweaving because the First Infantry Brigade was not responsible for interweaving.

By the time Baram reacted, the Syrian army had reorganized the defense line.

Using infantry anti-tank firepower, the Syrian army quickly consolidated the defense line south of the Third Armored Division, and used the defensive positions built by the Israeli army to withstand the First Infantry Brigade.

Obviously, Baram never expected that the defensive positions that the Israeli army had worked hard to manage would be used by the Syrian army.

On the night of October 5, the focus is on Delséris.

The 188th Armored Brigade was indeed extraordinary. It used many permanent fortifications to repel five attacks from the 7th Armored Division within four hours. With only more than 30 main battle tanks lost, it destroyed nearly 100 tanks, and most of them were Type 24 main battle tanks with more advanced performance.

Of course, the Syrian army is not a vegetarian.

In many locations, the combat distance is less than 500 meters, and the protection advantage of Type 24 cannot be exerted at all. The anti-tank position built by the Israeli army played a more critical role. Of course, the Israeli army's tenacious fighting spirit is also crucial, and the Israeli army almost fought to the last person on some key positions.

This evening, both sides were fighting desperately for the small town.

On the morning of the sixth, the 188th Armored Brigade repelled more than ten attacks of the Syrian army and successfully defended its position.

Unfortunately, shortly after dawn, the Seventh Armored Brigade, which was responsible for interspersed missions, fought the last tank company on the 3rd Armored Division of the Syrian Army and the two infantry divisions who came to reinforce. With less than ten "Mekava 5" left and nearly 2,000 casualties, the Seventh Armored Brigade had to take the initiative to retreat and retreat to the defensive position on the north side of the highway, and the Syrian Army was also free from entanglement.

At noon, the Third Armored Division arrived in Delcereth.
Chapter completed!