Operation Nasr

Iran (Iran-Iraq War 1980-1988)

1982

Ghods

Dezful

Salehdavood

Eslamabad

Saleh Moshatat

Shahrak-e

Imam

Shush

Benut-e Bala

Sendal

Hamzeh

Hafttapeh

Shikh Ali Asgar

Hosseinabad

Khamat

Iran

Main Ab

Iraq

River Karkheh

Bostan

Rofayyeh

Borvayeh

West Susangerd
(city 30[-30])

Susangerd
(city 30[-30])

Abou Homeyzeh

Qaisariyeh

Albaji

Hamidiyeh

Khamasi

Mahur

Ahvaz

Operation Nasr - 1982 (Iran-Iraq War 1980-1988).

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This is the Iranian assault of Iraqi position in January 1982. It was a major failure.

The assault was supposed to be a surprise attack to liberate Abadan further south but to get there the Iranians had to travel a long way and were spotted after they crossed the River Karkheh in wet land.

The assault started with two diversionary attacks further north. One on 6 January 1982 at Qasr e-Shirin and another at Mehran.

A third diversionary attack attack took place at Ahvaz which you can see in the south eastern part of the map. THe Iranian's wanted to push the Iraqis all the way west but failed.

The main assault came from the north. The Iranians built a pontoon bridge over the River Karkheh and attempted to drive down the road to the west of the river. They were depending on surprise, however, they were spotted by Iraqi helicopters.

They were forced off the road and into the wetlands which were bad going from the rain. The Iraqis dug most of their tanks in and attacked the the Iranian tanks as they advanced. To reflect this I have given most of the Iraqi armour a 13 defence factor.

The Iranian attack came in three waves. The first was a brigade of armour. They didn't have infantry or artillery support and were mostly destroyed by the Iraqi forces.

The following day the Iranians committed another brigade of armour who were also destroyed. THis arrives on board on turn 6.

On the third day, 8 January 1982, the Iranians committed a third brigade, turn 12 along with the 55 Paratrooper Brigade.

They were also mostly defeated. The pontton that they crossed over was destroyed (cant replicate that yet) but the Iranians rebuilt it and managed to retreat.

The Iranians lost huge amounts amour and fighting vehicles. The Iraqis also took losses, but because they held the field they were able to recover a fair amount as well as capturing Iranian tanks which they formed their own units with.

On 8 January, the third wave, the Iraqis reinforce their positions with infantry, anti-tank units, artillery and armour.

The Iraqis get an air unit on turn 9. Both sides had helicopters, but the Iranian helicopters did nothing and the Iraqi helicopters had minimal impact do I have not included them.

This was essentially the largest tank battle of the war, I think. Read the Wiki article for fuller information.

This game features pontoon building. It is suggested that the Iranian players builds the pontoon over the river River Karkheh with the engineering unit on the first turn.

see Wikipedia