"Karbala 5:The Bloodiest Battle of the Iran-Iraq War" Topic

"During the middle of the Iran-Iraq War—one of the 20th century's deadliest conflicts—Baghdad acquired state-of-the-art weapons from East and West. In terms of modern firepower, Iraq had a clear advantage.

To make up for this difference, Iran relied on huge amounts of older heavy weapons—and counted on loyal generals to deploy wave after wave of infantry in frontal assaults. Tehran's commanders also parroted state-religious propaganda that emphasized spiritual reasons for their victories.

Ghassem Soleymani—today the head of the Quds Force and Iran's top agent in Syria and Iraq—was one of those commanders…"
Full article here
link

Amicalement
Armand

No, you did not get it: the guns were a gift of god. All falls in place then.

Anyone have wargame this battle?

Amicalement
Armand

If you look on google earth around Basra near the Iran-Iraq border you can still see the remnants of the triangular defenses mentioned in the article.

They stretch for miles and are arrayed in successive lines. Must've been a real bloodbath.

The Arabs are far from being the clowns theyre often painted as round here. I dont know much about the iran/iraq war apart from memory of news broadcasts but yeah mustve been horrific, a hi tech Somme and they stuck it out.

I agree, neither side generally never showed any real tactical genius, understanding of modern combined arms warfare, etc. … And yes, a high tech Somme sounds about right to me. Both sides were fueled with nationalism, among other things along with some/many being blinded with religious zeal, etc. … Truely the recipe for a blood bath … Both sides fought with "medieval" ferocity it appeared at times … Great for a wargame … horrible for reality …

There was a theory at the time that a Soviet attack on west Germany would've gone the same way if NATO had held on just long enough to stall the Pacts initial offensive. All the fancy weapons run out of their fancy ammo and everyone digs a trench. Well at least until hq runs out of patience and drops the big one.

A true "nightmare scenario" if such events had come about … Albeit unlikely, still … no day at the beach …