Chapter 34 Overcorrection

The 7th Armored Brigade delayed six hours south of the Beca Valley, not only hindering the pushing operation, but also had a serious impact on the Israeli army's overall offensive operations.

After the war, many people believed that the 7th Armored Brigade almost ruined the Israel Defense Forces.

Among many views, there is one that has been recognized by many people, that is, the commander of the 7th Armored Brigade overestimated the combat effectiveness of the Syrian army.

In fact, this is not a problem with the Seventh Armored Brigade, but a problem with the entire IDF.

It can be said that after the Fifth Middle East War, there will be no more than ten Israeli generals who can correctly evaluate the combat capabilities of the Egyptian army and the Syrian army. Although Balam is one of them, and it is very likely that the calmest and most sober one is the one, it cannot change the concept of other Israeli generals.

After the Fifth Middle East War, the Israel Defense Forces spent five years to review and summarize.

At that time, the main conclusion was that the Israeli military and civilians seriously underestimated the enemy's strength from top to bottom, resulting in unforgivable mistakes.

This summary itself is not wrong, but when correcting the mistake, Israel has overcorrected it.

The most direct manifestation is in the procurement of army equipment. At that time, Israel not only improved all m27a1 to the level of a3, but also spent a lot of money to jointly develop a new generation of ground combat systems with the United States when purchasing m27a3 and "Mekawa 7". It seems that only the new generation of ground combat systems can surpass the opponent in performance and enable the IDF to gain quality advantages again. In fact, Egypt and Syria did not obtain the ground war platform of the Chinese Army, and the improvement of existing main combat equipment was not thorough. In terms of equipment performance, m27a3 and "Mekawa 7" are much more advanced than Egypt and Syria. In particular, the "Mekawa 7", as the first main battle tank in the Israeli army and even the West, which uses electromagnetic guns, is not much worse than the ground war platform in firepower.

It can be said that in the fifteen years after the Fifteenth Middle East War, the Israeli army's evaluation of the enemy has been too high.

The direct result of this is that the Israeli army seemed extremely cautious when fighting, and there was no flexibility in the early stages of the Fifth Middle East War.

In fact, the Israeli army's unfavorable attack on the Sinai Peninsula has a lot to do with this.

According to the information disclosed later, when the Egyptian army was fully retreating, most of the Israeli front-line commanders did not issue a pursuit order, and a few of the pursuers were insufficient, so they were soon hit by the Egyptian counterattack. Lieutenant General Clark, who was commanding the Sinai battle, not only did not order the front-line troops to quickly pursue the Egyptian army, but instead ordered steadily advance and no tactical adventures were allowed.

When summarizing this war, many people forgot the performance of the Israeli army on the Sinai Peninsula.

It can be said that if the Israeli army was still the unit fifteen years ago, the war on the Sinai Peninsula would definitely end before November 5.

Of course, in the Beca Valley, this problem is exposed again.

According to the information disclosed later, the Syrian army's strength in the Beca Valley at that time would not exceed 20,000, mainly infantry, and most of them were scattered and there was no clear line of defense at all. More importantly, the main task of these Syrian army was not to resist the Israeli army heading north, but to train Hezbollah guerrillas and assist the guerrillas to control the Beca Valley and create pressure on the pro-American Lebanese authorities.

Obviously, such an army would not cause too much trouble to the Israeli army.

The problem is that the Israeli army really regards this Syrian army and the even more vulnerable Hezbollah guerrillas as a threat.

At that time, the Israeli army even believed that Syria had deployed an armored division and two infantry divisions to the Beka Valley and set up an ambush circle. In the reconnaissance information provided by the Israeli Air Force even mentioned that the heavy troops deployed by Syria in the northwest of Damascus were waiting for the Israeli army to enter the Beka Valley, and then inserted from the Angel Pass, cutting off the Israeli army's rear traffic line, and encircled and annihilated the Israeli army entering the Beka Valley.

In fact, the newly mobilized reserve troops were deployed in the northwest of Damascus at that time, and they had no combat effectiveness at all.

This series of mistakes caused the 7th Armored Brigade to continue to advance unfastly after entering the Beca Valley and failed to recover the lost time in time.

The result was that Baram had to postpone the main attack on the south side.

You should know that according to his arrangement, you must make a breakthrough in the North Road, that is, the direction of the Beca Valley, and then cross the Jordan River.

If the main attack is launched in advance, his tactical intentions will be fully exposed.

The Israeli army's delay in launching a main attack also made Jiang Bowen difficult. Especially on the morning of the 16th, as the Israeli army strengthened its air force, the Syrian reconnaissance planes could no longer reach the West Bank, and Jiang Bowen could not grasp the movements of the Israeli army in the region in time, which gave him an illusion that the main attack direction of the Israeli army was in the Beka Valley, and the West Bank of the Jordan River was moving quickly.

It is not surprising that Jiang Bowen thinks this way.

The reason is very simple. The intention of the Israeli army to deploy in the early stage was too obvious, and there was no secret at all, and an attack of this nature would definitely not be able to win. In this way, the Israeli army would be very likely to use the trick, that is, by gathering troops in the West Bank, creating the illusion of attacking the Syrian army's southern defense line through Jordan, allowing the opponent to focus on the northern part of Syria, and then sending surprise troops to attack Homs from the Beka Valley, cutting off the transportation line between Damascus and northern part of Syria in one fell swoop, and completing the strategic encirclement of the heart of Syria.

If this goal is really achieved, Syria will be not far from the demise of its country.

Fortunately, Jiang Bowen has not been blinded.

When making this guess, he had made a judgment in advance that the Israeli army must have sufficient troops to fight this strategic encirclement and annihilation battle. According to Jiang Bowen's estimate, the Israeli army needs to use at least one hundred brigades, that is, about 500,000 ground troops, to be sufficiently sure to kill Syria before China sends additional reinforcements. The actual situation is that the Israeli army only used about 300,000 ground troops. The conclusion is that the Israeli army's assault capabilities reach at most Damascus, and it is impossible to include Holmes.

Obviously, the focus of the Israeli army is still on the south side.

Of course, Jiang Bowen did not take it lightly. He sent a report to Lieutenant General Yu Shihui that morning, demanding that the domestic request be sent to the country to send the Air Force to the war as soon as possible.

Jiang Bowen has enough confidence in ground operations, but the performance of the Syrian Air Force really disappointed him.

To put it bluntly, if the Syrian Air Force could perform better, Jiang Bowen would not have had so much trouble, at least he could know what the Israeli troops in the West Bank were doing.

At that time, Yu Shihui also realized this problem.

The reason is very simple. When Yu Shihui and Jiang Bowen were on the phone, the Israeli army was bombing Damascus. As a result, before the two of them finished speaking, he was forcibly sent to the underground command center by the guards. Then he received news that the Syrian Presidential Palace, the Chief of Staff’s residence and other important personnel residences were bombed. Fortunately, President Assad had stopped living in the presidential palace, and the Chief of Staff was also in the underground command center.

As a result, after talking to Jiang Bowen on the phone, Yu Shihui reported to Qi Kaiwei.

In the afternoon of the same day, Mu Haoyang approved Qi Kaiwei's request and ordered his mother Qi Tie to provide necessary air cover for the Middle East Legion.

At that time, only air cover was provided.

The reason is very simple. The railway line from China to Syria is mainly responsible for transporting combat materials from the 13th Army. It no longer has the capacity to transport combat materials from the Air Force. Providing air cover only requires air control missions, and the demand for ammunition is not large. Moreover, fuel can be provided by Syria, and at most it can be sent from Iraq. In this way, the deployment can be completed by air transport without occupying railway resources.

In the evening of that day, the first batch of Chinese fighter jets arrived at the air force base in northern Iraq.

That night, the Chinese Air Force dispatched 240 large electric transport aircraft to airlift four fighter wings and a support wing's ground equipment, maintenance materials and ground crews to the air force base in northern Iraq, and transported thousands of tons of ammunition.

In the early morning of the 17th, Chinese fighter jets appeared on the Syrian battlefield.

It can be said that the participation of the Chinese Air Force in the war has greatly changed the direction of the Middle East War.

Of course, what is more interesting is the extremely powerful strategic air transport capability shown by the Chinese Air Force and the resulting combat flexibility. It should be noted that without large electric transport aircraft, the Chinese Air Force will need at least two days to deploy four fighter wings and one support wing to Iraq. For the next battle, these two days are of crucial significance.

Of course, this is all a story.

By noon on the 16th, two infantry divisions of the Syrian Army had reached the south of Homs and set up defense lines in the north of the Beka Valley according to the order.

Until this time, the Israeli army had not yet emerged from the Beca Valley.

Jiang Bowen finally breathed a sigh of relief because this meant that he would not have to continue staring at the Beka Valley. The two assault clusters deployed before could withstand for a while with the assistance of the Syrian army. In other words, even if the Israeli army bets all over the Beka Valley, he still had enough time to adjust his defense deployment, and he did not have to worry about the Israeli army capturing Holmes in one fell swoop, let alone be surrounded by strategic encirclement.

However, what happened later proved that Jiang Bowen also overestimated the combat effectiveness of the Syrian army.

In the evening of that day, after nearly sixteen hours of "long journey", the 7th Armored Brigade of the Israeli Army finally arrived at the north entrance of the Beca Valley.

In fact, in the Beca Valley, the 7th Armored Brigade was only very weak resistance and was not threatened at all.

It seemed that this greatly encouraged the fighting spirit and morale of the Israeli army, and also made the Israeli army commanders no longer regard the Syrian army as a respectable opponent.

As a result, before the sky got dark, the 7th Armored Brigade launched an attack with only the vanguard.

What is even more unbelievable is that the Israeli army's hasty attack succeeded.

Chapter 34 Overcorrection
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