This ti, it was still an Abrams tank and a Humvee.
The tank took the lead, its thick armor offering the most protection.
The Humvee followed behind, tasked with observation due to its good field of vision.
The cook joked to Song Heping, "Look at those rich Aricans, constantly fueling such expensive machinery. They treat tanks like they cost nothing, ready to replace one after another if they get blown up."
Song Heping found it incredible as well.
The Sword Battalion was the first elite armored battalion under a chanized armored brigade trained personally by the US Army.
Logically, their combat effectiveness and tactical level should be quite high.
But from what he saw now,
It was really hard to describe.
Song Heping put himself in the shoes of Lieutenant Colonel Mandres, considering that from the start, he shouldn't have sent two armored vehicles to take the lead.
Without the cooperation of infantry, whether it's an Abrams, a Bradley, or a Humvee, they're all just tal coffins.
He would have deployed the forces along the road at the entrance to Mosul and used the tank's cannon to bombard the warehouses and buildings nearby, aiming for the windows to let the shells explode inside, and, during the bombardnt, he would send out infantry vanguard teams to take control of the buildings by foot.
After securing the buildings at the entrance, they could establish defensive positions relying on the architecture, covering the slow entry of the armored forces on the ground.
When the tanks rolled in, with the support of the infantry inside the buildings, it would have been much safer, and they wouldn't have been vulnerable to RPG ambushes from the sides, significantly increasing the safety factor.
But Lieutenant Colonel Mandres didn't do that.
He actually let the Sword Battalion send a lone tank and Humvee deep into enemy territory.
In Song Heping's view, the lieutenant colonel didn't consider the Illigo soldiers as real soldiers and didn't value the tanks and Humvees provided to support the native Illigo forces.
They didn't care about the equipnt, just their safety.
They watched from afar, waiting for the Sword Battalion to act as bait for an attack, and then with a grand summoning spell, call in the Warthog attack aircraft for a bombardnt.
There!
That was indeed quite safe.
Song Heping looked at the Illigo soldiers who had narrowly escaped with their lives and felt bad for them.
With that thought, he glanced unintentionally at Samir beside him.
Samir's face was grim as he watched everything unfold.
In fact, he was the one in the "Musician" squad with the most complicated feelings.
He looked down on the people from the Sword Battalion but despised the Aricans for not treating their own people as human beings. Yet, he was helpless against all of this.
"Let's go! Let's follow them," he said.
This ti the tank entered without being attacked.
They managed to stop successfully at the edge of the small square.
It seed the nearby ard fighters had truly withdrawn.
The Sword Battalion's convoy of armored vehicles started to slowly move into the city, while Warrior Camp's troops still watched from outside.
Without being certain that inside was one hundred percent safe, Lieutenant Colonel Mandres was not going to order his n to go in and face certain death.
Seal Team parked their vehicle beside a warehouse that had been bombed down to two walls, parking close to the wall.
Song Heping also had Samir and their group park next to them.
Since his people were there to assist Vincent and his team, they naturally followed.
Moreover, being fifty ters from the small square, they didn't crowd together with the vehicles from the Warrior Camp and the Sword Battalion. This offered an advantage; it wouldn't get congested if they needed to maneuver later.
What's more, parking the vehicles here could also be safer because if the militants were to launch an attack, it was evident that the dense collection of tanks and armored vehicles on the small square was a more attractive target.
In front of the small square, there were three intersections, making a total of three roads that went through the entire Section 5; the rest were crisscrossed by alleys that were impossible for vehicles to navigate.
After entering the urban area, the tanks and armored vehicles of the Sword Battalion quickly spread out, forming three convoys, each occupying an intersection to construct a defense line.
According to today's plan, once a forward position was established on the small square, the Sword Battalion and Warrior Camp would divide into three groups and slowly advance, clearing the area bit by bit.
After the Sword Battalion had established a foothold near the small square, completely controlling the intersections, and dispatching infantry to inspect the nearby buildings, Warrior Camp's convoy finally started to slowly roll into the city like stars walking the red carpet.
Song Heping and the others followed behind the Seal Team on foot into the city.
They split into two teams, inching along the buildings on either side of the street.
The ground was now full of gravel, the result of the recent bombing.
The soldiers from Warrior Camp and Sword Camp began searching the nearby buildings.
The first tank to enter the city, which had been hit, had been dragged to the side of the road by other tanks that ca in later; the Humvees were also towed away.
Engines roared everywhere, and the air was filled with the sll of diesel exhaust.
Vincent stopped by the small square.
He looked around, his gaze finally resting on the tallest building nearby.
"Chris, Raul, you two go to that building and set up a sniper point. Griffel, follow them, be cautious when you go in, and clear it properly," he said.
He pointed to a six-story building about sixty ters ahead.
Chris was the team's sniper, ard with a TAC-50 sniper rifle weighing 11.8 kilograms, with an effective range of an astonishing 2000 ters. It was more precise than the Barrett M82A1 but was used by Special Forces rather than being as common as the M82A1 and harder to acquire.
Raul was the team's assaulter, doubling as a spotter during missions.
Griffel was the team's machine gunner, wielding an MK-48 light machine gun to provide fire support.
This trio was capable of providing long-range and dium-close range fire support and could also perform fire suppression in ergencies.
anwhile, Vincent, accompanied by Mist and Jamie, two other team mbers, would advance with an infantry platoon from Warrior Camp.
Vincent and Mist were assaulters, while Jamie was the team's second sniper, ard with an MK11 MOD0 sniper rifle specifically for the Seal Teams.
Whichever route the clearing team was ambushed on, they would find the nearest suitable building, enter it quickly, and find a commanding point to take control.
One advantage of Jamie's MK11 sniper rifle was that it evolved from the SR-25 sniper rifle prototype, making it much lighter than the TAC-50, and it utilized a semi-automatic firing mode, with a standard magazine capacity of up to 20 rounds.
This ant that if they encountered a sudden enemy attack while searching the streets alongside infantry, Jamie could temporarily use his MK11 sniper rifle as a semi-automatic rifle, which was more flexible in attack than the bolt-action, single-fire TAC-50 and Barrett M82A1.
Chris's group entered the designated building smoothly.
There weren't many residents left in the building, just two families holding out.
The war had caused most civilians to evacuate Mosul, leaving only half of the original population.
After ensuring that these two families were safe and unard, Raul's group climbed to the roof of the building next to the small square.
The rooftop was a drying yard, with makeshift laundry racks made of sticks, and sheets and clothes hanging all over.
The breeze brushed across the rooftop, lifting the sheets and obscuring their view.
Raul simply tore the sheets down and threw them fiercely to the ground.
Griffel crouched on the ground, swapping a new drum of ammo for his MK-48 light machine gun, which would give him more sustained fire in the upcoming exchange.
Chris, anwhile, was looking around for a suitable spot to set up his rifle.
There was a one-ter-high concrete fence on the rooftop, and the western-facing side of the fence had a hole the size of a washbasin, possibly made by so weapon.
This was indeed a good spot.
He walked to the hole, looked out, and could get a partial view, seeing most of the buildings on the ground troop's search route.
So, Chris turned around to call out to Raul, wanting to tell him that he planned to use this hole as a sniper position.
"Raul..."
As he turned back, he saw Raul wrestling with a sheet that the wind had blown around him, cursing nonstop: "Damn Illigo people, how many beds did they wet last night, drying so many sheets..."
Pop—
A gunshot, not too harsh, reached Chris's ears.
Then, he saw a bullet hole appear on Raul's forehead, and like a puppet with its strings cut, he instantly collapsed to the ground.
Blood seeped from the bullet hole, dripping onto the snow-white sheets, shockingly red.
"Hunter!"
Chris shouted, quickly dropping down to find cover.
He felt every hair on his body stand on end.
That sniper was still watching this place, never having left!
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