Battle for Dezful, 8 October 1980

This page contains a skeleton scenario for Modern Spearhead. The basis comes from the book “The Iran-Iraq war”, by Pierre Razoux. I have not found any other details so far. A huge help came from Mark Bevis, who has found many details on the battle and the mobilisation status or Iraq and Iran in these early stage of the war.

The situation

It is 8 October 1980. The Iran-Iraq War has just started and Iraqi divisions have already conquered some Iranian soil. South-West of Dezful, the city of Shush has been captured a few days ago (see previous Spearhead Scenario).

Now the Iraqi are running out of steam, i.e. ammunition, fuel and spirit, still they are trying a last leap to capture the area, the cities of Andismeh and Dezful, including the important airbase of Dezful itself.

The Iraqi 1st Mechanised Division, which has fought in Shush, and the 10th Armored Division are available in the region.

Iranian troops in the area

The iranians on their side, have managed to concentrate four Brigades in the region:

• the 55th Parachute Brigade has been airlifted to Dezful to defend the airbase:
  • composed of 5 infantry battalions with jeeps and trucks. Assuming that the organisation is similar to a 1974 infantry Brigade (Micromark list), with maybe a updated AT platoons with TOWs, the organisation for Spearhead might the following:

55th Iranian Parachute Brigade

• Brigade HQ
• Recce Coy: 3 Recce Platoon Jeep/.50” HMG
• Artillery battalion: 3 M101 Howitzers, trucks
• AT Company: 3 Jeep/Tow (may be assigned by platoon to battalions).
• 5 x Paratroop Battalion
  • Bttn HQ (truck, jeep)
  • 9 infantry platoons,
  • 1 Jeep/106mm (or Jeep/ENTAC or Dragon or Jeep/Tow)
  • 2 x 81mm M29 mortars on trucks
  • 1 Battery: 4.2” M30 or 120mm M43 mortars trucks.
  • 1 Recce Platoon: Jeep/.50” HMG

Other units

• 84th mechanised Brigade has been positioned to defend Andismeh, a small city just North-West of the airbase:
  • 1 tank bttn, 1 arty bttn, 3 inf bttns with 48 tanks and 14x 105mm M101.
• two brigades from the 16th Armored Division have been ordered to defend the area including the important city of Dezful.
  • The 16th Armoured Division had Chieftain tanks. On mobilisation it had:
    • 1st Tank brigade: 2 tank bttns, 1 mech bttn, 27 tanks, 19 APCs
    • 2nd Tank brigade: 2 tank bttns, 2 mech bttns, 38 tanks, 23 APC
    • 1st arty Bttn: 16x M109A1
    • 2nd Arty Bttn: 7x M109A1
    • 3rd Arty Bttn: 9x M109A1

Additional artillery (Corp level?) has been commanded in the region. A discussion between Saddam and his generals, found in the book “The Iran-Iraq War”, by Murray and Woods, states at page 119 that an Iranian Amored Division artillery battalion was supported by 4-5 additional battalions. Mark (the declassified CIA document figures in parenthesis) states that in the area there were:

• The 22nd Arty Group had:
  • Artillery battalion: 12x M107,
  • Artillery battalion:5(11 in the CIA doc)x 8″ M115,
  • Artillery battalion:10(18 in the CIA doc)x M46 130mm guns;
  • Artillery battalion:10(18 in the CIA doc)x M46 130mm guns;
  • MRL battalion: 10(11 in the CIA doc)x BM-21-40
• The 44th arty Group had:
  • Artillery battalion: 14x M46,
  • (according to CIA doc an additional Artillery battalion: 12 x 8″ M115)
  • MRL battalion: 12x BM-21-40
• The 55th Arty Group had:
  • Artillery battalion: 9(14 in the CIA doc)x M109A1,
  • Artillery battalion: 10(12 in the CIA doc)x M46 130mm guns;
  • MRL battalion: 12x BM-21-40.

Several Pasdaran Companies are available to defend the battle lines and the cities:

The F-5Es made extensive use of CBUs in 324 sorties over 14 days, giving you an average 23 missions a day, or in MSH terms 6 flights of F-5E/CBU per day.

Still haven’t found anything on airfield AA units. It could be as good as a battery of HAWK SAMs, or as little as a battery of ZU-23-2, with variations in between of 40mmL60 Bofors, 37mm (M39??) and 57mm S60 in between.

Mark just found that airfields were defended by Rapier and Tigercat SAM systems. Whilst the former is very good and the latter pretty basic, they are short range systems so shouldn’t dominate the airspace over the overall battlefield. Perhaps allow 1 stand of each, with a dug-in 37mm M39 AA stand to represent assorted light flak. 

Iraqi troops in the area

The last gamble that Saddam is trying is a push to capture the airbase, by a concerted attack of three Brigades.

We may assume that the whole Armored Division in the area is attacking, since it was not involved into the fighting for Shush.

10th armoured Division has

• 17th armoured brigade (2 battalions T72, 1 battalion BMP1)
• 42nd armoured brigade (3 battalions T62, 1 battalion OT64, 2 artillery battalions)
• 24th mechanised brigade. (3 battalions UU-11 Urutu, 1 battalion T55, 1 artillery battalion)

A salvo of Frogs is also available in the theatre to damage the airbase before the attack.

• 1 Frog-7 battalion.

Other photo shows Iraqi SA342 Gazelle in use over Dezful, so perhaps they can have 3 stands of them, armed with 20mm cannon it seems.

The terrain

The terrain is similar to the Shush region, with irrigation plants and flat country on the Iraqi start line and the initial Iranian defences, with irrigation ditches which may also conceal tanks in hull down positions.

Going towards the two cities the terrain raises by few tens of metres higher ground, with mainly open country in the center and east, while the western part (West of Andismeshk) raises even more and contains some rough high ground.

The scenario

the scenario itself concentrates on the attack by the three Iraqi brigades towards the airbase.

the terrain is limited to the area between the two cities of Dezful and Andimeshk, with the main attack coming from the road coming from Shush along the North-South axis, then leading directly to Andimeshk.

The area containing the 634 elevation point, west of Andimeshk, is high ground, very rough, where the satellite images with potential iranian dugouts have been found (see below).

Many assumptions have to be made here, since it is not known exactly the composition of the three Iraqi Brigades. I will assume that in attack, two of these Brigades would be Armoured and one mechanised. I would assume that the tanks would be T62 for the armoured Brigades and T55 for the Mechanised one. One Brigade might be BMP1 based while the others would contain a mix of other APCs, like OT64, EE11 Urutus for example.

The Iraqi would be supported by artillery, probably the full complement of a Division, plus a Frog salvo available to be targeted to the airbase. The artillery is massive but very low in ammo, so maybe 3 attacks would be allowed per artillery battalion and a single Frog salvo.

The iranian airbase should have some relevant anti-air defences, so probably the Iraqi did not have close ari support.

The iranian will use the combat power of the parachute brigade to defend the airbase. Maybe one or two tank battalions would be available to reinforce the lines. Some mechanised infantry would be available as well, probably one or two battalions.

The tanks and mechanised infantry might be either already deployed in defence of the airbase or ready to support the paratroops from one of the two cities.

The artillery available from the iranians might be what available to defend the two cities, very close by, plus the corp artillery. In this case I would give to the iranians more ammo, maybe six turns per battalion. the corp level artillery might be from an M110 or M107 battalion.

Missing information

A lot of the above details are just conjectures based on the available information, which is very few. Any details on:

• an 1980 iranian parachute brigade TOE.
• air defences of the Dezful base.
• any additional details on the battle itself, either in composition or the position of the iranian defences would be very welcome. From a quick look at the contemporary satellite images, it is possible to find dug-in positions, probably for artillery and for hull down tank positions. Images below have been taken on the rough ground commanding the road to Dezful, on the south-west of Anidmeshk.