An Extract of Memories of Nosratollah Mahmoudzadeh

The Importance of Building Road in the War

Faezeh Sassanikhah
Translated by Ruhollah Golmoradi

2023-1-3

Destiny of the operations were determined by the roads that Jahad [Sazandegi] (Jihad of Construction) would build in the up and downs of the region’s mountains; roads in which delivering troops, ammunition, supplies, and on the way back, delivering the wounded and martyrs in a 30 km distance determined consolidation of heights that were seized by Basij forces.

Iraq had concentrated most of its power in the region on the Galan heights. The battalion which was assigned to capture this height had been incapacitated. Iraqis strengthened the trap from Mawat and police station which was located in the western side, and had prevented Basij forces advancing through firing by machine gun and 60 mm mortar shells.

The sound of a bulldozer that had reached near Kulan height made the warriors determined to capture the height. An engineering team repaired the bridge over Qal-ah Chulan River, and the passage of heavy vehicles became possible. It was almost morning when trucks of ammunition, troops, and supplies arrived after the bulldozers one after the other. Artillery fire increased moment by moment and the area took on a different state. The warriors were advancing from the downhill to the summit. The Iraqis from the summit fired all the way with several machine gun and tried to stop them from advancing. The heights of Galan consisted of several peaks where some warriors were able to reach the first peak, which was lower than the other.

The close combat intensified. The fighters extinguished the Iraqi trenches one by one by throwing grenades. The bodies of two martyrs, whose bodies were pierced by bullets, attracted attention of one of the Basij members. The Basij member prepared the RPG and aimed at the trench in which the machine gun was located. The conflict escalated more and rain of mortar shells from the Iraqi side increased. But this intense fire did not prevent advancing and the warriors continued to climb the peaks. The battle had reached a critical stage and if the Iraqi resistance was not broken, the fighters would be extremely vulnerable under the Iraqi barrage in the daylight.

It was difficult to get the ammunition to the top of the peak and people were out of breath. Even though they used a number of mules to carry the load, these facilities were not sufficient for the amount of consumable ammunition and they themselves had to go down the height, carry the ammunition, and go back to the upside. The barrage of Iraqis from the top of the peak did not stop for a moment and forced them to move in a crouched manner. The bodies of several Basij fighters who were killed by mortar shrapnel and bullets were on the ground. The other warriors were only looking at the summit and were moving towards it regardless of the heavy fire.

They had to capture the highest summit of Galan before the dawn. The battalion commander's worried look at the Jihad engineering bulldozers encouraged the bulldozer drivers to work harder. They had to connect the road to the top of the peak. A part of the road that had several turns was in direct view of the Iraqis. The cannonballs hit several cars crossing the road and fired them. The fire was so heavy that the road was closed for several hours. Several cars were destroyed, and in the meantime, a number of fighters died a martyr. Since then, that part of the road became known as “Pich-e Shohada (turn of martyrs)”.

The final attack of the warriors started from several axes. Several Iraqi trenches were exterminated at the same time by throwing grenades. Destructing the machine gun that bombarded the main groove leading to the summit, some fighters climbed up the groove and reached the peak.

The bulldozers were still destroying the downhill and moving towards Galan height. From the very first hours of the operation, when they started their work from the side of the river, they followed other forces, cleaving the mountain and moving forward.

Suddenly, the enemy's fire covered the entire peak. The Iraqis fired at them from the ground and the air. The warriors built a trench on the top of Galan with several sacks of soil and prepared themselves for the final battle. The intensity of the fire did not allow them to come out of the trench. At once, on the southern route, they noticed Iraqis pulling themselves up from the grooves around the peak. The heavy mortar fire was still concentrated on the peak and did not allow anyone to move.

As the Iraqis approached, the fighters came out of the trench and shot some of them, but due to not having a shelter, they went behind the peak for a short time after heavy barrage of the Iraqis and returned again. Iraqi’s commando forces continued to advance and tried to recapture the peak. A DShK was deployed by the soldiers in the part overlooking the trench, and blocked the passage of the Iraqis from that axis. It didn't take a few minutes that DShK location to come under heavy fire from the Iraqis. Two shooters had died a martyr and lay motionless next to the DShK. Assuming that they had captured that part of the peak, the Iraqis were climbing easily. The hot tube of the DShK had not yet cooled down when the other two people who had just reached the top brought themselves breathlessly to the DShK, and put the corpse aside. The Iraqis would fall on the ground from where they were shot and rolled to the bottom of the peak. Some of them got stuck on trunks of the trees on the way. the Basij member took his hand from the trigger of the DShK and stared at the two martyrs and the warm blood that reddened their faces fully. The small trench, in which they had put the DShK aside, was in the form of a circle whose height reached up to their waist.

The sound of approaching several helicopters made the two Basij members worried and they lay down on the ground. The helicopters reached the peak in front of Galan, which had not yet overturned, and launched their missiles at the fighters. Since then, the fighters stationed at the peak, in addition to noticing the mortars and the advance of the Iraqi commandos, caring also the missiles that the helicopters fired towards them. They aimed the peak in such a way that it completely destroyed even the small trenches.

Jihad's bulldozer drivers used all their power, and at the same time of Iraq counterattack, they approached the summit. Their spiral movement in the downhill had gained momentum, and behind them, ambulances and vehicles with supplies and ammunition were moving. That day, the mules had walked as much as they could, and were passing the distance where the road had not been built. Every time a mortar hit the ground around them, they raised their heads and legs spontaneously. Due to intensity of the conflict, the warriors put more pressure on them and pulled on the reins of the mules. At those moments when the mules tired of hummock of the mountain and were unable to move, Basij members hurriedly climbed up to the summit; that was only their iron will that made it possible for them to reach to the top of summits with a height of nearly 2500 meters. Even though they were all of a sweat and moved breathlessly, when their eyes fell on the peak full of fire, they were reinvigorated and continued their movement.

Some mules were lying on the ground and remained motionless. They had climbed up as much as they could, but they could no longer continue in the last hundred meters. The warriors unloaded the ammunition boxes from the back of them and they themselves carried the ammunition towards the peak.

A number of Basij members who had been wounded rode the mules and moved towards the smoke rising from Jihad's bulldozers. Those with deep wounds and quivers had remained in their bodies, their pain reached its maximum when the mule went down the mountain, and sometimes some of them shouted. Maybe that’s why some of them died a martyr before reaching the ambulance.

The ambulances only went as far as the bulldozers advanced, and because of this, the fighters saw with a different view at the Jihad engineering bulldozer that was destroying downhill of the mountain and advancing. They knew when communication was established, not only they would receive enough and on time ammunition, but also the martyrs and the wounded would be easily transported by the ambulance to the emergency room at the bottom of the mountain.

The conflict had escalated. Number of martyrs and wounded in DShK trench had reached ten people. Every time someone was injured or died a martyr, the next person replaced him. The wounded were lying in a circle all around the trench, staring at the DShK. Seeing the wounded who fired the DShK a moment ago, Every Basij member who controlled the DShK not only did not quail, but also bombarded the Iraqis in such a way that he did not let the trigger go until the last person fell to the ground.

While plaintive, the view of that DShK trench became one of the best scenes of that day. The Basij forces had harassed Iraqi commandos with their resistance and steadfastness, and any troops who came up from the groove, they rolled down dead or wounded.

Every time the shooter's eyes fell on the martyrs around the trench, he was transported for a moment, and whispered some prayer. But suddenly his whisper would stop and anger would cover his entire face, and turn the area around the groove into a hell of fire for the Iraqis.

Iraqi helicopters continued to fire the peaks with missiles and did not allow the fighters to maneuver. Suddenly, another sound resonated in the mountains, which was different from the sound of helicopters. When the troops raised their heads, they saw an aircraft coming towards the height. When the pilots reached at the top of the peak, they threw all their bombs and returned to Iraq.

The explosion of cluster bombs was so intense that small quiver fell on the comrade’s heads like rain. The Iraqis tried to help their commandos by using aircrafts so that they might be able to get closer to the top of the peak. Little by little, the close combat started and the fighters had to use grenades. This measure prevented the advance of the Iraqi commandos for some time. The explosion of the grenade in the heart of the groove got the Iraqis into a panic and forced them to stop.

Now when the aircrafts arrived above the fighters dropped their bombs in the first round and then shot the entire summit. The lack of defense on the summit allowed them to bombard the ridge of the peak, which was the place of resistance of the warriors, and easily move away from the battlefield.

At dusk, the soldiers saw a smoke from back of the peak. What could this smoke be? There was sound of a bulldozer. Jihad's bulldozers had reached the summit, and behind them some cars were moving, which carried a number of fresh troops and all kinds of ammunition.

Fresh troops arrived at ridge of the peak under heavy fire, and in response, they fire the Iraqis heavily too. Shooting RPG missiles had panicked the Iraqis so much that in a short time it caused them to drop their weapons and run down the valley. The few machine gun that the fighters had placed at the top of the peak did not allow any of them to reach the bottom of the valley and they buried the Iraqi commando brigade in the same grooves.

Ambulances that reached the top of the height took the injured to the emergency room. A mortar shell next to one of the Jihad bulldozers, which was working ahead of the others, exploded and the people around it immediately lay down on the ground. The shrapnel passed over their heads howlingly and hit several parts of the bulldozer and disabled it.

One of the quivers had amputated hand of a Basij soldier from the wrist, but he calmly took the severed hand with his other hand and walked towards one of the ambulances. Those who were watching coolness of this handless Basij member didn’t know whether to help him or not!

That Basij member had said in answer, “to do your work. Nothing happened to me.” His hand was still bleeding to the ground and made the height of Galan more stable.

The resistance at the top of the peak took a new form and the Iraqi counterattack was completely neutralized, and although the bulldozer was passing the last turn of the neck, it was disabled by a mortar hit and the Jihad engineering team commander quickly replaced it with another bulldozer, and they continued to advance again.

There was a fighter in clerical clothes among the Basij members. The clergyman view at the battle scene was surprising. He had reached the top of the peak without stopping. It was evident from his face that he loved the scene of the battle on the summit. As if he needed morale more than the Basij members. With the explosion of several mortars around them, the Basij guys were worried about him and invited him to go to the trench. The clergyman was left wondering why they were not worried about themselves!

At that moment, the views reviewed the deepest lessons and raised important issues. The clergyman’s look had got the Basij members thinking, and the Basij member’s concern had also worried the clergyman warrior. It was not the seminary discussion meetings, but the Galan height and all that enemy fire!

Why couldn't they take the words out of their mouth?

There was an uproar of love for God inside them, which at that moment they expressed only with their eyes.

At one point, the clergyman smiled and said: “I wish I also to drink some of that syrup [of martyrdom]?” He had said a sentence that was the best way to end their internal discussion.[1]