The night of September 25th.
As the last rays of the setting sun vanished in the west, the camouflaged armored vehicles and tanks finally cast off the weeds covering them. Countless figures moved about, busy with various preparations before setting out.
For several days, they had traveled from Ahvaz with their schedules completely flipped, hiding during the day and advancing only at night. Today, they were finally about to reach their destination: Abadan.
Ahead lay the Bahmanshir River. Tonight, they would cross this river to launch a surprise attack on the Iraqi forces entrenched on the outskirts of Abadan, aiming to liberate the city's defenders and drive out the invaders!
Dozens of temporary bridges were swiftly erected, and the various units began crossing the river in an orderly run.
At the very front were several thousand child soldiers, only in their teens.
In Iran, there was no family planning. Although the mortality rate was high, the birth rate remained significant. Poverty and backwardness left many teenagers with nothing to do, wandering aimlessly. As long as one could gather a few dozen people and receive a Mullah's permission to sacrifice themselves for Khomeini, they could become a captain in the Revolutionary Guard, enjoying decent benefits and social status. This was a unique policy in Iran. Furthermore, through the Mullahs' propaganda, these youths were convinced that those who fought bravely and died for their country would go to the paradise where allah resides. They believed this without a shadow of a doubt. Possessing the courage of newborn calves who do not fear tigers, they never feared death during a charge. They were Khomeini's secret weapon, and tonight, they would demonstrate their formidable combat power!
They were unaware that a small, secret unit had been monitoring everything from afar. Streams of intelligence began to converge at the headquarters, and orders were continuously being relayed.
Bright moonlight bathed the land as the armored units at the rear also began crossing the Bahmanshir River, utilizing the heavy bridges constructed by the engineers.
This offensive gathered the bulk of Khomeini's forces, totaling five infantry regiments and two armored brigades, approximately thirty thousand men, along with ten thousand members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard. As for those child soldiers, they had already been factored into the death toll.
Coordinating with the defenders inside Abadan, they were determined to crush the Iraqi forces surrounding the city once and for all!
By the time they reached the outskirts of Abadan, it was already the early hours of the 26th.
Although they hadn't captured Abadan during the year-long siege, the Iraqi army had made thorough preparations to defend against an Iranian counterattack. They had constructed a defensive line on the outskirts of Abadan consisting of multi-layered minefields, barbed wire fences, and tank obstacle trenches ten meters wide and three meters deep filled with oil drums to prevent being attacked from the rear by Iranian forces.
"Attention all units, the Iranians are coming. The Iranians are coming," said Karma, commander of the 10th Armored Division, over the radio inside the various tanks and armored vehicles.
The 10th Armored Division was an elite tank division assigned the role of luring the enemy. After their planned withdrawal, they would also serve as a strategic counterattack reserve. They could not afford heavy losses here; they had to put up strong resistance and then retreat at the precise moment.
What was the most precise moment? It was when they could successfully draw out the defenders from within Abadan!
By now, the night was pitch black, but everyone knew the battle was about to begin.
"allah is great! Long live Khomeini!" Suddenly, countless figures appeared in the dark night. They shouted slogans and, to the astonishment of the defenders, boldly stepped into the minefields.
Boom! Boom! People were constantly blown to pieces or tossed into the air, yet no one stopped. They continued to shout slogans, charging forward recklessly.
This was the charge of the Iranian child soldiers; this was their way to reach paradise. Though their physical bodies perished here, their souls would ascend to heaven!
They were fearless, shouting slogans as they kept advancing.
Witnessing this suicidal charge and the constant roar of exploding mines, the soldiers of the 10th Armored Division on the defensive line were stunned.
Is the enemy insane?
Everyone is made of flesh and blood; which soldier here would dare to walk through a minefield? If they aren't crazy, then what is? They are definitely crazy!
Khomeini wasn't crazy; he simply had no other choice.
The battle in the Susangerd Swamp had resulted in the total annihilation of one of Iran's most elite armored divisions, which was a massive blow to the Iranian Army. The armored units they had managed to scrape together again could absolutely not suffer losses in the initial stages of the offensive. Therefore, under his call, child soldiers were conscripted to use their flesh and blood to clear the enemy's minefields, opening a path for their own troops!
And for the child soldiers, their souls would be purified and ascend to paradise.
The child soldiers, answering the great call, were made fearless by their devotion to allah.
"Fire! Open fire immediately!" Urgent orders were issued from Karma's division headquarters.
The regional command in Basra also received this shocking news, and everyone's heart sank.
They knew that their ability to face the enemy calmly was inseparable from their efforts over the past two months. If they hadn't discovered the Persians' movements in advance, the army besieging Abadan would likely be in grave danger now. Khomeini was actually driving a crowd of such fearless children to clear minefields! It was simply appalling. Had the army been caught off guard, they might truly have been defeated.
Qusay knew that all of this was real. The Iran-Iraq War was a conflict no less brutal than World War II. Even with high-tech weapons appearing, such primitive human-wave tactics were still used, using the blood of countless people to pave the road to victory.
This was an absolute desecration of allah!
Only victory, only by toppling Khomeini's regime, could such tragedies be prevented from repeating!
Behind the defensive positions, the already-ambushed soldiers of the mechanized infantry brigade manned their weapons and fired fiercely at the approaching Persians.
Tanks inside the fortifications began to mercilessly mow down the charging enemies with machine guns.
The oil drums placed in front of the minefield were hit and exploded, instantly creating a sea of fire. Survivors who had made it through the minefield rolled on the ground in the flames.
Several thousand child soldiers now lay dead across the path through the minefield; the ground was littered with corpses.
With their own bodies, they had opened a bloody path through the minefield.
From the rear, led by a small number of tanks, a large force of infantry followed.
Bullets flew everywhere. No one knew if they would be struck down in the next moment. They all charged forward, recklessly. In this moment, they seemed to have become mindless machines, devoid of the fear of death.
The rapid, short bursts of automatic rifles and the continuous fire of heavy machine guns, mingled with the explosions of mortar shells and tank High-Explosive Shells, tore the pitch-black curtain of night into fragments with tracers.
Abadan entered a bloody battle tonight!