Pride and Power by Johan Franzén

Author:Johan Franzén
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 2021-05-14T16:00:00+00:00

Human Waves, Cannon Fodder, and Attrition

Iraq’s military strategy, insofar as one could be discerned, was to quickly seize—or “liberate”—the province of Khuzestan. The first step was to capture the old Arab emirate of Muhammarah, which the Iranians had renamed Khorramshahr, and then to take over Ahvaz. Far from the swift military victory Saddam had envisaged, however, the move proved more difficult than expected as the Iranian army offered stiff resistance. A siege was laid to Khorramshahr whilst hundreds of Soviet T-55 tanks pressed up the road to Ahvaz. An Iraqi communiqué announced on 27 September that Ahvaz had fallen to the Iraqi onslaught. That was a ruse; 3 days later the Iraqis were still stuck in trenches 14 miles south of the city, being pounded by Iranian artillery and bombardment from Phantom planes.45 Meanwhile, Iraqi troops were locked in ‘hand-to-hand’ combat in Khorramshahr.46 The Iranians successfully managed to drop paratroopers into the city, further stiffenening the resistance, whilst artillery kept pounding the besieging forces. On radio, President Bani-Sadr called on Khorramshahr’s inhabitants to turn its gates into a ‘slaughter place for all Iraqi invaders’ whilst ordering a ‘general mobilisation’ of the entire population of Khuzestan and urging them to ‘rise up and take part in a heroic battle’ to protect their ‘honor and religion’.47 Despite the reinforcement Khorramshahr fell a few days later. Yet, Abadan, to the south of Khorramshar on the Shatt al-ᶜArab, was still resisting the Iraqi siege, as was Ahvaz.48

Both sides were now carrying out airstrikes against military, economic, and civilian targets. Iraq targeted in particular Iranian oil installations around Abadan, whilst the Iranians retaliated by taking out Iraqi shipping facilities and targeting Iraq’s nuclear development site. Unexpected Iranian prowess in the air may explain why direct aerial engagements largely were avoided by Iraq. The Chief of Staff of the US Airforce General Lew Allen Jr. said the Americans were surprised at the ‘effectiveness’ shown by the Iranian air force and perplexed as to why the Iraqis had been so ‘restrained’ in their approach, refusing as much as possible to take part in air-to-air combat.49 This development, commented Richard Burt in the New York Times, could be indicative of ‘a new type of war in the third world in which ever more destructive military power is applied in an erratic and unrestrained manner’, adding that the fighting between Iran and Iraq with its ‘spectacular air strikes against civilian targets’ had been very different from typical Third World conflicts which normally only involved limited border warfare.50 By seriously miscalculating Iran’s ability to resist an invasion, noted Eric Davis, Iraq had ‘set in motion forces that will damage or seriously retard Iraq’s own economic and political development.’51

Despite the use of highly mobile tank units, Iraq was unable to replicate the German Blitzkrieg of World War II—mainly because it could not provide sufficient air cover for the operation. The invasion soon stalled. Khorramshahr had fallen, but Ahvaz remained resilient even after weeks of siege. More and more resources were put

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