Time Travel 04: I Fight the US in the Middle East

Newspaper office in the center of Sadr City.

"Has our rescue convoy arrived yet?" Lieutenant Colonel Gary Wallersky asked anxiously, looking at the map.

"Yes, because they were in such a hurry to rescue people, they ran over a roadside bomb..." said Major Joseph McDonald, the deputy commander.

"The M1 tank's tracks are damaged? Damn it, get someone to fix it right away..."

Even if a tank doesn't run over a roadside bomb, its tracks are still easily damaged. Therefore, tanks on the battlefield would automatically carry extra track plates. During World War II, tanks would attach track plates to the front of the hull for an extra layer of protection.

As for the American M1 tank, it is usually mounted on the side of the turret, along with the track plates and road wheels, since the road wheels may be destroyed when it runs over a bomb.

"No, the tank exploded..."

"What?!" Lieutenant Colonel Gary Wallersky was instantly dumbfounded. "How is this possible? It's just a roadside bomb!"

He believes it's possible to destroy a Humvee, but to say it can destroy an M1 tank... even Saddam's government forces couldn't do that last year!

"The roadside bomb made by Death God Jubart uses the principle of a shaped charge warhead and can burn through the chassis of a tank..."

Lieutenant Colonel Gary Wallersky clenched his fist: "As expected, Death Juba is with the Mahdi Army. We must wipe them out completely! By the way, has the helicopter arrived yet?"

"The helicopter unit should be arriving soon..."

The roar of helicopters echoed over Sadr City. The first two were angular Apache helicopters, while the three behind were rounded Black Hawk helicopters. At this critical moment, they finally arrived at the battlefield!

"Street fire spotted! It looks like it's on Elos Road!" the pilot of the lead Apache helicopter shouted.

"Continue advancing, maintain aerial vigilance over the battlefield, and upon spotting the enemy, immediately return fire, regardless of whether civilians are hit!"

Those damned Mahdi Army soldiers will use civilians as cover!

In our eyes, any Arab is a suspect, so we kill them without hesitation!

An Apache helicopter hovered over Elos Road, and the weapons operator vigilantly surveyed the rooftops around them.

Armed helicopters sound impressive, but in reality, they are limited in many ways. In low-altitude combat, not to mention those damned Stinger anti-aircraft missiles, if you're not lucky, you might even get shot down by an Apache. See... Black Hawk Down!

"Safety confirmed, no Mahdi forces detected so far!"

"Airplane landing! gogogo!"

With two Apache helicopters circling overhead, three Black Hawk helicopters slowly hovered on the rooftops of three small buildings on either side of the street. Ropes were lowered, and the Blue Platoon of the 1st Battalion of the 227th Aviation Regiment skillfully rappelled down to the rooftops!

Platoon leader Snook waved his hand, and thirty soldiers left the landing point to search downwards.

"Clear!"

"Clear!"

The sound kept ringing out.

Everything here is clean!

"Help! Help!" Just then, desperate cries rang out from the street!

The blue platoons took turns providing cover and quickly moved down to the side, where they saw the side of the first M978 tanker truck. Frank Barkers was sitting on the ground, leaning against the truck tire, his eyes filled with fear.

"Frank, what happened to you guys? Are you alright?" Snook recognized him and stepped forward to ask.

"not good!"

"What's wrong?"

"They put a grenade under my butt, so it would explode whenever I lifted my butt..."

If it were the 3rd Mechanized Infantry Division, they would definitely know that there's something strange about the grenade under that butt!

but……

Snooker didn't seem to care and strode over: "Easy, we'll work together later. I can help you control the grenade under your butt and then throw it out..."

The 227th Air Regiment of the U.S. 1st Cavalry Division is a unit specifically designed for helicopter operations. Its 1st to 3rd Battalions are helicopter assault battalions responsible for entering the battlefield aboard Black Hawk helicopters.

Those who can enter this unit are naturally the elite of the First Cavalry Division!

They fought in many battles, and even trivial matters like deflecting grenades were a piece of cake for them!

As he spoke, Snooker walked over, squatted down, and reached under Frank Barkers's buttocks, finding the metal lump and the grip.

"Okay, you can get up now!"

Frank Barkers felt a surge of joy; his will to survive made him stand up abruptly.

Swish!

"Oh no!" Snooker suddenly shouted and tried to tackle Frank Barkers, but it was too late!

It's easy to stuff a grenade under Frank Barkers's butt in just a few minutes, but it's not so easy to plant a second booby trap under the grenade!

The Caliph did not make the mistake of dogmatism; he simply tied a thin rope to Frank Barkers' belt, with the other end of the rope attached to the pull ring of a grenade under the truck's fuel tank!

As soon as Frank Barkers stood up, he pulled the cord, releasing the grenade's safety. The grenade, whose delay had been adjusted in advance, was deactivated without any delay.

boom!

An explosion was heard, and the fuel tank of the M978 burst open!

It's easy to siphon fuel out of the tank, since there's a ready-made refueling nozzle. But getting fuel out of the M978's own tank is not so easy; only the oil thieves of the East are good at it!

If the fuel tank were full, the grenade might not have been able to detonate it. However... after driving for a while, the fuel tank was only half full of diesel, and it was covered with evaporated diesel vapor that had already mixed with the air!

With the explosion, the outer casing of the fuel tank was destroyed, and the diesel vapor inside instantly ignited into a massive fire! The blast wave caused diesel fuel below to spill out, mix with the air, and ignite…

From the outside, it looks like a huge fireball spreading outwards at an alarming rate!

Frank Barkers, with his back against the wheel and less than a meter from the fuel tank, was instantly engulfed in flames from the explosion. His entire body... turned into a burning torch, almost like he had committed suicide by self-immolation!

Snooker, who was nearby, reacted quickly and rolled on the ground, but unfortunately he still couldn't dodge it. He was doused with a large amount of diesel oil and then burst into flames!

Amidst the flames, he loosened his grip on the grenade.

boom!

The grenade exploded, sparing him further pain!

The flames continued to spread, affecting several soldiers who had rushed to the scene. They rolled around on the ground, quickly extinguishing the flames, and winced in pain as they looked at their burned skin.

"Quick, morphine! Inject me with morphine!"

The 1st Cavalry Division's strongest unit had landed less than five minutes ago when its platoon leader was killed in action! The other two were wounded! And they hadn't even seen a glimpse of the enemy!

Seeing the other two FSC soldiers turned into booby traps, they were truly terrified. What to do? Rescue them? That might endanger them as well; not rescuing them would be inexcusable!