Battle of the Marshes
| Battle of the Marshes | |||||||||
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| Part of Iran–Iraq War | |||||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||||
 Iraq
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 Iran
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| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
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Hossein Kharrazi (WIA)
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| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
| 4,000 killed 6,000 wounded Unknown loss of materiel |
20,000 killed 20,000 wounded 49 helicopters shot down (air-to-air combat) |
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Iranian pyrrhic victory
The Battle of the Marshes (Arabic: معركة الأهوار, Persian: نبرد نیزارها) was a part of the Iran–Iraq War.
After the mostly indecisive Dawn operations in 1983, Iran opened a new, surprise amphibious offensive in the lakes of the Hawizeh Marshes in Iraqi Tigris–Euphrates river system.
After heavy losses at the beginning due to human wave attacks, 15,000 casualties and little progress, Iran began developing new tactics, involving amphibious assault, and deployed a regular army division, the 92nd Armored Division. Although the Iranians suffered heavy losses against the Iraqi artillery, tanks, air strikes and gunboats, Iran eventually managed to invade the oil rich Majnoun Islands with Operation Kheibar and nearly break the Iraqi lines before being driven back to the marshes and Majnoon Island.
Iraq heavily used chemical weapons (mustard gas) during the battle.
After the mostly indecisive Dawn operations, Iran attempted to change tactics. Iran had launched numerous operations in 1983 around Basra and southern Iraq using massed human wave attacks, but they faced limited successes in the face of the Iraqi static defenses. In addition, the Iraqis began launching counterattacks. In the face of increasing Iraqi armament and manpower as well as increasing problems on their own side, Iran could no longer rely on outnumbering Iraqi troops. While the infantry and human wave assaults would remain key to their attacks throughout the war, Iran began to rely more heavily on deception surprise attacks, as well as light infantry warfare. In contrast to Iraq's static defences and heavy armour, Iran began training troops in infiltration, patrolling, night-fighting, marsh warfare, and mountain warfare. They also began training thousands of Revolutionary Guard commandos in amphibious warfare, as southern Iraq is marshy and filled with wetlands. Iran used speedboats to cross the marshes and rivers in southern Iraq, landing troops on the opposing banks, where they would dig and set up pontoon bridges across the rivers and wetlands to allow heavy troops and supplies to cross. Transport helicopters were used as well, ferrying troops to the battlefield. Unlike Iraq, Iran could not use its air force in these last stages of the war, so it relied mostly on helicopters to support its troops.
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Wikipedia