Operation Dawn 6 - Prelude To The Operation

Prelude To The Operation

The failures of Iran's five large-scale 1983 offensives to inflict a decisive defeat on the Ba'th regime of Saddam Hussein had angered many in the Iranian government. Only a year before, the Iraqi army had been routed out of the majority of Iran by the regular army and religious militias of the Islamic Republic. The tracts of Iranian territory still held by Iraq in Iran were abandoned on the orders of Saddam Hussein, and the Iraqis retreated to a more defensible line along the old border between the two countries. Many commentators expected that Saddam's army would fall apart as it had done in Iran.

However, the Iraqis, now occupying the significant border defenses, and now fighting for the protection of the nation, as opposed to an offensive into another country, were able to thwart Iranian hopes for a victory in 1983. In fact, with the Iranians themselves on the offensive, Iranian troops were wondering why they were now fighting in another country when they had cleared their own country of a foreign invader (these feelings were not especially pronounced in 1983, but would become apparent as war-exhaustion took its toll in the later years of the war). Also, the Iranians, convinced that victory was imminent, were careless in the way that they conducted their offensive operations. The victories of 1982 had been built on a modest, but solid, co-ordination and co-operation between the regular army of Iran; and the religious militia of the Pasdaran, and the Basij. Human-wave attacks, predominantly by religious fighters, were supported by the tanks, artillery and aircraft that were able to pull off victory. Elan was combined with the necessary support.

However, in 1983, the regular army had been sidelined, and the religious militias were now made the mainstay of the Iranian military. This was because the army had always been seen by the religious government of Iran as a source of possible opposition against the regime, a regime which had only been established in 1979, and which still had plenty of enemies. This meant that, against a formidable Iraqi defence, which should have demanded even more co-operation between the army and the militias, the attack only consisted of World War I-type human-wave attacks; with meagre artillery, tank, and aerial support. In the meantime, Iraq had initiated the first War of the Cities, launching missiles against Iranian cities. The Iranians responded in kind, and this spurned on pressure for an Iranian offensive as soon as possible in 1984.