The rise of a great power: starting with military industry

Chapter 1066 Guerrilla Warfare

"Boom, boom, boom, creak, creak" As the sound got closer, the ground seemed to shake.

The guerrillas were hiding in a place. When they raised their heads, they first saw the two iron plates moving forward. As they moved, they rolled up half a meter of sand. The creaking sound was the sound made by the two tracks contacting the ground during the movement.

The guerrillas recognized the tank immediately.

M1 tank!

M1坦克是美国主战坦克，于1971年12月开始研制，1979年2月投产，1982年1月首批装备部队，为纪念二战中最成功的坦克指挥官、曾于1972年10月-1974年9月担任美国陆军参谋长的艾布拉姆斯将军（四星上将），该坦克被命名为‘艾姆拉姆斯’。

The M1 tank has a combat weight of 54.5 tons. The turret and the hull are mostly welded with steel plates. It has an excellent bulletproof appearance. The thickness of the armor of each part varies, with the thickest part reaching 125 mm and the thinnest part being 12.5 mm. The front of the tank is equipped with Chobham armor. The main gun is a 1 mm M105E68 rifled gun with a base number of 1 rounds, of which 55 are installed in the rear compartment of the turret. Six-barrel M44 smoke grenade launchers are installed on both sides of the front of the turret. The M6 adopts a command-style fire control system. The optical main sight and the gun/turret are independently stabilized. The gun/turret tail is electro-hydraulic driven and follows the main sight, giving the M250 the ability to fight on the move.

The M1 tank is the first tank in the world to use a gas turbine as its main power. The advantages of its AGT-1500 gas turbine are simple maintenance and high efficiency of the cold cutting system, but its disadvantages are high fuel consumption and cost. The tank uses an X-1100-3B fully automatic transmission and an improved torsion bar suspension, which has good maneuverability and acceleration performance. The maximum speed is 72 km/h, and the acceleration time from 0 to 32 km/h is only about 7 seconds.

The entire US military is equipped with a total of 2374 basic M1 tanks!

按照美军计划，原本这2374辆基础型M1坦克都会在1996年9月全部退役，但是这个退役计划遭到克林顿的否决，于是这2374辆基础型M1坦克服役至今。

The guerrillas carried anti-tank missiles and aimed at the two M1 tanks.

These guerrillas have nothing but hatred for the Americans. The U.S. military's air strikes on Afghanistan during this period have dealt a heavy blow to Afghanistan, and many Afghans have died in the American air strikes.

They evacuated the city and went into the mountains, ready to deal with the Americans as they had dealt with the Soviets.

They believed that just as it took them 10 years to drive out the Soviets, they could definitely spend 10 years to drive out the Americans.

Compared to the past, the guerrillas' weapons and equipment are much more powerful.

The Americans mobilized four major aircraft carrier battle groups this time, with a total of four aircraft carriers, 47 frigates and destroyers, two nuclear-powered attack submarines, a total of 300 carrier-based aircraft, and a total naval personnel of 2.4 people.

除此之外，还动用了200余架F16战斗机、100余架F15战斗机、50多架轰炸机以及大量的KC-135和KC-10空中加油机。

The US-led coalition ground forces number as many as 13.

The United States has also won over the anti-Taliban coalition armed forces, which are said to have 15000 people, including 3000 newly conscripted soldiers, and all weapons and equipment are provided by the United States.

On the guerrilla side, the main force is the Taliban armed forces, with a total of 19.8 armed fighters, 650 tanks and armored vehicles, more than 250 aircraft and artillery. Standard infantry weapons include Soviet-made "Kalashnikov" submachine guns, AK47/56 semi-automatic rifles or Type 63 automatic rifles, heavy machine guns, rocket launchers, recoilless guns and grenade launchers, as well as hundreds of artillery, heavy mortars and vehicle-mounted multiple rocket launchers.

In addition to those captured from Soviet troops and Afghan government forces supported by the Soviet Union, a large part of these were funded by the Americans at that time.

And these will become weapons against Americans.

Also, they found the places where the Soviet Union buried munitions in some mountain forests or caves.

In addition, the guerrillas also have bin Laden's armed forces, which are independent of the Taliban. The two are allies with a strength of more than 2 people.

The 80 troops are spread over 10 locations in Afghanistan, and there are also more than troops in more than locations in Pakistan. Now the US Army's vanguard, the th Mountain Division, has entered Afghanistan.

The 10th Mountain Division of the U.S. Army is a combined arms force composed mainly of light infantry, including air assault capabilities. All the equipment of the division can be quickly deployed by air transport. It is a rapid reaction force of the U.S. Army to perform emergency combat missions. It is also a force in the U.S. military that specializes in mountain special operations.

The two sides had already exchanged fire.

This time, the guerrillas ambushed the U.S. military's transportation routes, and these two M1 tanks became the guerrillas' targets.

"Boom~~"

Two M1 tanks were destroyed by anti-tank missiles!

This is not the first time that the guerrillas have destroyed an M1 tank. Through this kind of guerrilla warfare, they have continuously disrupted U.S. military transportation, attacked U.S. troops, and used familiar terrain to fight against U.S. troops.

After destroying two M1 tanks, the guerrillas deployed mines and began to evacuate quickly.

One of the essences of guerrilla warfare is to succeed in one strike and never fight to the end!

The US military can occupy cities, but cannot occupy vast rural areas.

What's more, because the transportation was destroyed, the US-led coalition forces' ground progress was not fast, and they were constantly attacked by guerrillas, which made the US military frown.

Afghanistan is mountainous, with plateaus and mountains accounting for 4/5 of the country's area. The north and southwest are mostly plains, and there are deserts in the southwest. The average altitude is 1000 meters. Afghanistan's largest Hindu Kush Mountains run diagonally from the northeast to the southwest.

Moreover, the transportation was extremely poor, and now it had been destroyed by bombings. The US-led coalition forces had to build roads while advancing.

However, the roads that had just been built would often be destroyed by guerrillas.

As for railways, there are no railways in Afghanistan!
This forced the Americans to use a large number of transport vehicles and military transport planes for airdrops, and the loss rate was very high.

From the very beginning, the US military found that air strikes were very exciting, but when it came to ground forces attacking, things were not so smooth.

Although the US military also killed and wounded many guerrillas, its own losses were not small.

The tanks and armored vehicles of the coalition led by the US military could not withstand the guerrillas' anti-tank mines, anti-tank missiles, anti-tank guns, and anti-tank rocket launchers!
Moreover, the coalition forces led by the US military began to suffer from acclimatization problems, and soldiers fell ill from time to time.

This made the coalition commanders feel a little uneasy, and they felt that Afghanistan was not a good place.

With the exception of some Afghans, many Afghans are hostile to the U.S. military, and they hate it along with the U.S. allies.

Even in Western countries participating in the coalition, such as the United Kingdom, vicious bombings were organized.

(End of this chapter)