Middle Eastern tyrants

Chapter 149 Battle of the Valley (Part 1)

West bank of the Hashim River, Zion frontline command post.

Major General Dov Tamir is briefing Commander Shmuel, who has just arrived at the front.

Shmuel was the former commander-in-chief of Zion on the southern front during the Yom Kippur War, but due to his poor performance in the early stages, he was replaced by Lieutenant General Bar-Lev and demoted to commander-in-chief.

However, he is still among the highest-ranking and most experienced generals in Zion, following General Yeshe Wisconsin.

During the later stages of the Yom Kippur War, Zion promoted a large number of officers with distinguished military achievements. Apart from General Laden of the 210th Division, who committed suicide after his defeat, Zion now has more than twenty officers of the rank of major general or above, reaching a historical high.

It should be noted that during the Six-Day War, Jesavishin, who served as the commander-in-chief of the southern front, was only a major general.

Major General Dov said, "We have detected signs of a large-scale movement of enemy armored forces on the east bank of the Hashim River. Combined with the intelligence previously sent back by Mossad, we have reason to believe that the Arab coalition currently gathering on the east bank of the Hashim River is led by the main force of Shuangzhi, with a size of about five to eight divisions. The commander-in-chief is Amir bin Mohammed, who performed outstandingly during the Sumer campaign, and holds the rank of lieutenant general."

With army groups often numbering in the hundreds of thousands, it's impossible to conceal military intentions when they're mobilized.

Since a month ago, when Mossad learned of the Arab coalition's intention to form a military force, intelligence has been sent to Tel Aviv like snowflakes.

Multiple special forces teams went into Hashim territory in an attempt to destroy major roads and transport nodes, but apart from a few successful cases, most of them returned empty-handed, only slightly delaying the enemy's assembly.

Shmuel, who had just been transferred to the west bank, said, "Tell me about the deployment of the defensive line."

Major General Dover nodded and pointed to the military map: "We have deployed dense firing positions on all the dry, hard sections of the valley, including air defense and anti-tank positions. Even on the muddy sections of the river that are not conducive to armored vehicles, we have laid a mixed minefield several kilometers wide on the bottom of the riverbed."

Meanwhile, the minefield, in conjunction with the machine gun bunkers and anti-tank missile launchers along the coast, forms a crossfire that can completely cover the entire minefield. Any enemy armored forces attempting to cross will suffer heavy losses.

In short, if the Allied forces chose to break through from the easier route, they would have to confront Zion's fortified defenses head-on, inevitably resulting in heavy losses. If they chose to advance from the difficult route, although there would be fewer surface defensive nodes, they would be trapped in dense minefields. Not only would tanks easily get stuck in the mud, but engineers would also be exposed to crossfire while clearing mines.

In either case, Major General Dov was confident he could turn this valley into a graveyard for Arab allied tanks.

Dovsson continued to elaborate on the core advantages of this defensive system: "The greatest advantage of this multi-layered, spiderweb-like node deployment is that it can greatly slow down the enemy's offensive pace. By utilizing terrain and firepower configuration, we can concentrate superior forces when the enemy is in a state of stagnation and effectively destroy their manpower—no matter how many troops the enemy deploys, the result is the same."

At this point, the chief of staff added, "Unless they can fly over the valley or crawl under the minefield, our defenses are practically foolproof."

Commander Shmuel had initially placed high hopes on the defense line, but upon hearing the words "absolutely foolproof," his brow immediately furrowed.

He couldn't help but recall Major General Bar-Lev from last year, who also confidently declared that his defense was "foolproof" and would become Masr's wall of lament.

This sand dam, stretching over 100 kilometers, nearly emptied Zion's treasury and cost tens of billions of dollars, making it arguably the most surreal dam in the modern Middle East.

He even named his masterpiece "Bar-Lev" after himself.

The most ingenious aspect of this defensive line is its use of the loose nature of sand, making it virtually immune to any artillery bombardment. The sand dunes, dozens of meters high, prevent tanks from crossing them. In addition, the base of the Bar-Lev Line is equipped with fuel pipelines, which, once activated, can ignite the entire Suez Canal in just a few minutes.

At first glance, this defense line seemed impenetrable, but Bar-Lev overlooked a weakness.

That is, sand is afraid of water. On the first day of the Yom Kippur war, Masr's army took advantage of the Zion soldiers' leave to forcibly cross the river and used 450 high-pressure water cannons that had been prepared in advance to blast the sand dam.

In just five hours, several breaches appeared in the Bar-Lev Line, and then the Second and Third Masr Armies advanced rapidly, almost causing the collapse of the Sikkim Line.

This also made Zion a laughing stock internationally. Bar-Lev was so criticized after the war that he resigned voluntarily, but his name will be remembered in history along with the "Bar-Lev Line".

"There is no defense that cannot be breached in the world,"

Thinking of this, Commander Shmuel solemnly warned, "Moreover, our opponent this time is that Amir, who has defeated Zion's elite forces four times. Even the Prime Minister considers him a major threat. We can't be too cautious!"

“It’s three and a half times,” the staff officer whispered.

Commander Shmuel glared back.

For some reason, Shmuel felt a vague unease when the name of this young general was mentioned.

Currently, senior Zion military officers have polarized opinions on Lieutenant General Amir bin Mohammed's combat style.
Some generals believe he is extremely skilled in defense, especially in deploying troops based on terrain, and is a master of positional defense and urban warfare; others believe he is better at offense, is currently the top artillery commander in the Middle East, and can tear apart carefully constructed defenses with swift and decisive action and quickly expand the gains.

But in Commander Shmuel's view, Amir's most terrifying quality was his ability to find loopholes.

The opponent seemed to have an innate intuition that allowed them to discern the opponent's offensive and defensive intentions and strike decisively.

This is strikingly similar to their General Yeshavishin.

Upon hearing the commander's instructions, Major General Dov and the chief of staff stood at attention and saluted.

"Keep the reconnaissance troops gathering intelligence. Don't be careless. Report any movement of the opposing army group immediately!"

"Yes!"

However, the chief of staff was still somewhat dismissive. In his view, even if General Yeshe Wisin himself led the troops from the Arab countries, they might not be able to break through the valley defenses.

This is not a problem at the tactical or strategic level, but rather stems from the internal divisions within the Arab world.

To command such a "ragtag army" cobbled together from various countries, it's uncertain whether they can coordinate effectively during actual combat, let alone unleash their full fighting power.

Moreover, this was Amir's first time commanding an army group in combat, which is a completely different concept from commanding a division-level unit.

An excellent general is not necessarily a good commander. Take Erwin Rommel during World War II, for example. His 7th Panzer Division was invincible in North Africa and he was hailed as a "master of tactics". However, as an army group commander, he showed obvious shortcomings in logistics, strategic planning and alliance coordination.

One is the "Desert Eagle," and the other is the "Desert Fox."
The chief of staff inwardly scoffed.

This time, Zion will surely defeat Amir.

(End of this chapter)