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Volume 2 takes up the account after Iraq withdrew from Khuzestan
and is based upon material from both sides, from US Intelligence
data, British Government documents and secret Iraqi files. Iraq's
withdrawal exposed the great southern city of Basra to Iranian
attack but it was shielded by fortifications based upon a huge
anti-tank ditch, the so-called Fish Lake, which the Iranians tried
to storm in the summer of 1982. This bloody failure left Tehran in
a position where prestige prevented a withdrawal into Iran but the
armed forces lacked the resources to bring the conflict to a
favourable conclusion. During the next four years the Iranians
tried to outflank the Fish Lake defences initially through the
marshes in the north and finally through an attack on the Fao
Peninsula which increased national prestige but was a strategic
failure and paved the way for Iraq's massive victories in 1988.
This followed a series of successful defensive battles in which the
Iranians were driven back with great loss. This account describes
the battles in greater detail than before and, by examining them,
provides unique insights and ends many of the myths which are
repeated in many other accounts of this conflict.
Nominally at least, the bloody and ruinous eight-year war fought
between Iran and Iraq was a confrontation dominated by operations
on land. The traditional impression is that the resources devoted
to naval warfare were minute in comparison to those of its major
land battlefields. As so often, the reality is almost diametrically
opposite. Certainly enough, the horrendous casualties incurred in
major land offensives make the Iran-Iraq War one of the bloodiest
conflicts of the 20th century. It escaped public attention that the
mass of what was happening on these battlefields was decided by
naval warfare and that indeed, the consequences of that naval
warfare led to the 1990 invasion of Kuwait, and the country's
subsequent downfall into chaos and civil war. During the first year
of the Iran-Iraq War, Iranian naval activity began to prove
decisive for the country's ability to continue waging the war. Not
only was its primary point of exporting crude oil - Khark Island -
in the northern Persian Gulf, but Iran became heavily dependent on
hauling reinforcements and supplies from ports in the lower and
central Gulf, foremost Bandar-e Abbas and Bushehr, to the modern
and huge port of Bandar-e Khomeyni in the north. This in turn
prompted the Iraqis to attempt interrupting both of these flows.
Iraqi deployed the full spectrum of their arsenal including the
Aeorspatiale AM.39 Exocet anti-ship missile, which saw its first
combat deployment at least six months before its use during the
Falklands War. However, much of this story this has remained
unknown beyond superficial insight into the 'Tanker War'. The first
part of Volume 1 of this mini-series concentrates on providing the
background and context of the conflict, and of the naval
capabilities of the two belligerents: through a detailed study of
both navies, but also the two air forces. It provides a precise
analysis of their capabilities and intentions, and sets the scene
for the naval warfare of the following eight years. The second part
covers the first months of the war, including the famous air and
naval Operation Morvarid, undertaken with the aim of destroying the
two primary Iraqi oil-loading terminals in the northern Persian
Gulf. Based on extensive first research with help of previously
unavailable documentation and interviews with veterans, and richly
illustrated, this volume provides unique insights into modern-day
naval warfare, including many lessons-learned still valid in the
present day.
The Iran-Iraq War was one of the bloodiest conflicts of the 20th
Century and accidentally created the current nightmare of Islamic
fundamentalist terrorism. There have been many books on the
conflict but this is the first detailed military history using
materials from both sides, as well as materials obtained from US
Intelligence circles and British Governmental archives. It provides
a unique insight into a war which began through miscalculation and
rapidly escalated into the longest conventional conflict in the
post-Second World War era. Part 4 in this mini-series coversthe
warfare between Iran and Iraq on the Central and Northern Fronts.
Difficult terrain made it problematic for either side to assemble
overwhelming superiority. Following initial Iraqi attacks that
seized some territory, the Iranians began gradually nibbling back
until achieving some success in the centre, in 1982. Subsequently,
the Central Front saw only minor conventional battles until Iraq
launched several major blows in 1988. In the north, fighting
primarily revolved around several Kurdish insurgencies in northern
Iraq, and culminated in the horror of the Halabcheh gas attack. The
final campaign of the war saw Iraq-supported Iranian emigres
launching a spectacular, but also a swiftly-crushed, invasion of
their homeland.
The Iran-Iraq War was one of the bloodiest conflicts of the 20th
Century and accidentally created the current nightmare of Islamic
fundamentalist terrorism. There have been many books on the
conflict but this is the first detailed military history using
materials from both sides, as well as materials obtained from US
Intelligence circles and British Governmental archives. It provides
a unique insight into a war which began through miscalculation and
rapidly escalated into the longest conventional conflict in the
post Second World War era. The first volume looks at the background
and describes in detail how Saddam Hussein decided to invade but
hamstrung the Iraqi Army to restrict its greatest success to a
narrow strip of territory in Iran's southern province of Khuzestan.
This left the Iraqis unable either to advance or withdraw and
exposed them to ever greater and more successful Iranian
counter-strokes which drove them out in May 1982 in the ferocious
Battle of Khorramshahr.
The Iran-Iraq War was one of the bloodiest conflicts of the 20th
Century and accidentally created the current nightmare of Islamic
fundamentalist terrorism. There have been many books on the
conflict but this is the first detailed military history using
materials from both sides, as well as materials obtained from US
Intelligence circles and British Governmental archives. It provides
a unique insight into a war which began through miscalculation and
rapidly escalated into the longest conventional conflict in the
post-Second World War era. The third volume covers the last two
years of the war on the Southern front, where Iranians made their
last supreme effort to break through Iraqi lines during the winter
of 1986-1987. Iraqi defences just about held. For a year, there was
an ominous silence, but then Iraq launched a series of devastating
blows that recovered the Faw Peninsula, pulverised weakly-occupied
Iranian positions, and drove the frontlines back to the
international border. Iran was left with no option but to sue for
peace.
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