Operation Fath ol-Mobin (Iran-Iraq War)

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Operation Fath ol-Mobin (Iran-Iraq War) - 1982 (Iran-Iraq War 1980-1988).

Operation Fath ol-Mobin was an attack by Iran on Iraq.

Theres not a lot of information about the battle for a number of reasons and so this will take a while to take shape. In particular it appears that many of the leaders involved are now dead, Iran is fairly closed and many of the official Iraqi documents were destroyed in the Iraq/UN war. There are however a couple of books including the The Longest War: The Iran-Iraq Military Conflict which was written by a war reporter and the not yet released The Iran-Iraq War published by Harvard University Press which is 580 pages. As such it might be a long haul getting accurate units details or even geogrpahic movements.

It essentially appears to have been a pincher movement on the Iraqi forces that had advanced as far East into Iran as Shush. I might have centered the map wrong as the action will probably end up to the West.

Known Iranian units appear to be Pasdaran and Basij as well as regulars and militia for Iran and the 77th Mechanized Infantry Division.

The Times reffers to Iraq retreating its Fourth Army Corp to new positions. They had been entrenched in positions to the West of Dezful and Sush. Iran described the Fourth Army as having been comprised of 3 Divisions and said that it had destroyed it. Correspondents were given a helicopter tour over the battlefield which showed scores of destroyed tanks and armoured personnel carriers confirming reports that there had been feirce fighting across the previous 10 days. The Times report states that although the Iraqis never crossed the Karkheh River they were able to shell the city and its vital Vahdati air base.

The Wikipedia on the Iraqi Army details the IV Corp comprising the 10th Armored Division, 14th Infantry Division and 18th Infantry Division although that was January 2003 but I can imagine that that was pretty much the same structure as 20 years earlier.

Iran Forces - I have made a start based on the Wikipedia details but im sure theres more to it, especially armour. Im fairly sure from somewhere that the 77 Mechanised Division was involved although a Wiki reference describes it as an infantry division. However, that just didnt look like enough armour and so I have made a total guess and put in the 92nd Armoured Division which has 3 full strength/sized Armoured Brigades plus a dinky Armoured Cavalry Battallion. I have given it a speed of 7 just to maybe reflect its cavalry status although thats just artistic licence. I think its safe to say the Iranians had more than 1 armoured brigade and for such a big initiative I suspect they would have had at least 1 full armoured division, but I really dont know. They might have had more. i did recieve my Iran book, mentioned below but unfortunatly its a bit sparse on this battle. I think it has a paragraph on it in passing, and I thik thats where it mentions the 77 Mech Div, but other than that its just a nice new expensive book that has a picture of Sadam on the front and smells nice.

Iraq Forces - I am making it up but calling it the 4th Corp with 3 divisions, 1 armoured and 2 infantry. I have ordered The Iran-Iraq War: A Military and Strategic History by Williamson Murray, Kevin M. Woods and hope to get a better idea of the forces that were there. The Iraqi forces are in play but I will probably add a few extra units, especially artillery. Just to make it a bit bisier I have added two additional Divisions from the 2 Corp, the 2nd and 4th. They are exactly the same as the 14th Division as i just copied their units. If thats grossly over the top then I can remove them but the numbers were under the Wikipedia reference and im sure the Iraqis must have had a bit of cannon fodder other than the 4th Corp. I have also added the 3rd Armoured Division that the book by Murray and Woods mentions that hd been called in to reinforce the area.

I think theres much more to do on this, including adding air power. I have given both sides air power but havn't really looked it up so I dont really know if the Iraqis had Mirage fighters, and after reading Revolutionary Iran, link below have given Iran F4's and F5's.

I will also need to add a lot of artillery. Not sure how im going to do this as I suspect that the artillery was attached to each unit that already exists, so, for example, for every Iranian Pasdaran unit, and there are a lot og them, I think there should be at least an artillery company or battalion which means a lot of units. Its worth noting that the Iranians had very little armour at this stage and their strategy in this battle was artillery fire with waves of infantry assaulting. As such, currently, the artillery is not represented.

see Wikipedia

see Wikipedia for order of battle at start of Iran-Iraq war.

see Tebyan

see "Baghdad strategy summit after Iran victory." Times [London, England] 1 Apr. 1982: 6. The Times Digital Archive. Web. 17 Nov. 2015.

see Wikipedia (Iraqi Army)

see Revolutionary Iran: A History of the Islamic Republic

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Units (Iran)

77-Mech-Div-1st-Armored-Brigade - Armour (20-20-6)

77-Mech-Div-1st-Mechanized-Brigade - Mechanised Infantry (18-718-6)

77-Mech-Div-2nd-Mechanized-Brigade - Mechanised Infantry (18-18-6)

Pasdaran-Infantry-Brigade - Infantry (13-13-3)

Pasdaran-Infantry-Brigade - Infantry (13-13-3)

Pasdaran-Infantry-Brigade - Infantry (13-13-3)

Pasdaran-Infantry-Brigade - Infantry (13-13-3)

Pasdaran-Infantry-Brigade - Infantry (13-13-3)

Pasdaran-Infantry-Brigade - Infantry (13-13-3)

Pasdaran-Infantry-Brigade - Infantry (13-13-3)

Pasdaran Infantry Brigade - Infantry (13-13-3)

Pasdaran-Infantry-Brigade - Infantry (13-13-3)

Pasdaran-Infantry-Brigade - Infantry (13-13-3)

Pasdaran-Infantry-Brigade - Infantry (13-13-3)

Pasdaran-Infantry-Brigade - Infantry (13-13-3)

Pasdaran-Infantry-Brigade - Infantry (13-13-3)

Basij Infantry Brigade - Infantry (13-13-3)

Basij Infantry Brigade - Infantry (13-13-3)

Basij Infantry Brigade - Infantry (13-13-3)

Basij Infantry Brigade - Infantry (13-13-3)

Basij Infantry Brigade - Infantry (13-13-3)

Basij Infantry Brigade - Infantry (13-13-3)

Basij Infantry Brigade - Infantry (13-13-3)

Basij Infantry Brigade - Infantry (13-13-3)

Basij Infantry Brigade - Infantry (13-13-3)

Basij Infantry Brigade - Infantry (13-13-3)

Iran-92-Armoured-Div-1st-Brigade - Armour (20-20-6)

Iran-92-Armoured-Div-2nd-Brigade - Armour (20-20-6)

Iran-92-Armoured-Div-3rd-Brigade - Armour (20-20-6)

Iran-92-Armoured-Div-283-Armoured-Cavalr - Armour (4-4-7)

Iran F4 - Air (3-3-20)

Iran F4 - Air (3-3-20)

Iran F5 - Air (3-3-20)

Pasdaran Infantry Brigade - Infantry (13-13-3)

Basij Infantry Brigade - Infantry (13-13-3)

Basij Infantry Brigade - Infantry (13-13-3)

Pasdaran Infantry Brigade - Infantry (13-13-3)

Pasdaran-Infantry-Brigade - Infantry (13-13-3)

Iran F5 - Air (3-3-20)

Iran Unspecified Air Defense Regiment v2 - Air Defence (6-1-3)

Iran Unspecified Air Defense Regiment v2 - Air Defence (6-1-3)

Iran Unspecified Air Defense Regiment v2 - Air Defence (6-1-3)

Iran Unspecified Air Defense Regiment v2 - Air Defence (6-1-3)

Iran Unspecified Air Defense Regiment v2 - Air Defence (6-1-3)

Iran Unspecified Air Defense Regiment v2 - Air Defence (6-1-3)

Iran Artillery Batallion - Artillery (11-2-3)

Iran Artillery Batallion - Artillery (11-2-3)

Pasdaran-Infantry-Brigade - Infantry (13-13-3)

Pasdaran-Infantry-Brigade - Infantry (13-13-3)

Pasdaran-Infantry-Brigade - Infantry (13-13-3)

Pasdaran-Infantry-Brigade - Infantry (13-13-3)

Basij Infantry Brigade - Infantry (13-13-3)

Units (Iraq)

Iraq 4 Corp 14 Division 4 Art Batallion - Artillery (11-2-3)

4-Corp-14-Division-4-Commando-Batt - Infantry (5-5-3)

4 Corp 14 Division 4 Eng Regiment - Engineers (5-5-3)

4th Corp 14 Division 14 Brig-Infantry - Infantry (13-13-3)

4-Corp-14-Division-16-Mot-Infantry - Motorised (13-13-6)

4-Corp-14-Division-17-Mot-Infantry - Motorised (13-13-6)

4-Corp-14-Division-48-Mot-Infantry - Motorised (13-13-6)

Iraq 4 Corp 18 Division 4 Art Batallion - Artillery (11-2-3)

4-Corp-18-Division-4-Commando-Batt - Infantry (5-5-3)

4 Corp 18 Division 4 Eng Regiment - Engineers (5-5-3)

4th Corp 18 Division 14 Brig-Infantry - Infantry (13-13-3)

4-Corp-18-Division-16-Mot-Infantry - Motorised (13-13-6)

4-Corp-18-Division-17-Mot-Infantry - Motorised (13-13-6)

4-Corp-18-Division-48-Mot-Infantry - Motorised (13-13-6)

4-Corp-10-Div-34th-Armored-Brigade - Armour (20-20-6)

4-Corp-10-Div-35th-Mechanized-Brigade - Infantry (18-18-6)

4-Corp-10-Div-36th-Armored-Brigade - Armour (20-20-6)

4-Corp-10-Div-37th-Mechanized-Brigade - Motorised (18-18-6)

Iraq 2 Corp 2 Division 4 Art Batallion - Artillery (11-2-3)

Iraq-2-Corp-2-Division-4-Commando-Batt - Special Forces (5-5-3)

Iraq 2 Corp 2 Division 4 Eng Regiment - Engineers (5-5-3)

Iraq-2-Corp-2-Division-14-Brig-Infantry - Infantry (13-13-3)

Iraq-2-Corp-2-Division-16-Mot-Infantry - Motorised (13-13-6)

Iraq-2-Corp-2-Division-17-Mot-Infantry - Motorised (13-13-6)

Iraq-2-Corp-2-Division-48-Mot-Infantry - Motorised (13-13-6)

Iraq 2 Corp 4 Division 4 Art Batallion - Artillery (11-2-3)

Iraq-2-Corp-4-Division-4-Commando-Batt - Special Forces (5-5-3)

Iraq 2 Corp 4 Division 4 Eng Regiment - Engineers (5-5-3)

Iraq-2-Corp-4-Division-14-Brig-Infantry - Infantry (13-13-3)

Iraq-2-Corp-4-Division-16-Mot-Infantry - Motorised (13-13-6)

Iraq-2-Corp-4-Division-17-Mot-Infantry - Motorised (13-13-6)

Iraq-2-Corp-4-Division-48-Mot-Infantry - Motorised (13-13-6)

Iraqi Mirage - Air (3-3-20)

Iraqi Mirage - Air (3-3-20)

Iraqi Mirage - Air (3-3-20)

3 Armoured Div Armour Unknown Brigade - Armour (20-20-6)

3 Armoured Div Mechanised Unknown Brigad - Mechanised Infantry (18-18-6)

3 Armoured Div Armour Unknown Brigade - Armour (20-20-6)

3 Armoured Div Mechanised Unknown Brigad - Mechanised Infantry (18-18-6)

Iraq Unspecified Air Defense Regiment v2 - Air Defence (6-1-3)

Iraq Unspecified Air Defense Regiment v2 - Air Defence (6-1-3)

Iraq Unspecified Air Defense Regiment v2 - Air Defence (6-1-3)

Iraq Unspecified Air Defense Regiment v2 - Air Defence (6-1-3)

Iraq Unspecified Air Defense Regiment v2 - Air Defence (6-1-3)

Iraq Unspecified Air Defense Regiment v2 - Air Defence (6-1-3)