Hammish Civil War
| Hammish Civil War | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 The Prime Minister's Residence bombing, via local TV station in New Kirrie. |
||||||||
|
||||||||
| Belligerents | ||||||||
 National Provisional Authority |  Hammish Republican Army
|  National Salvation Front
|
||||||
The Hammish Civil War is an armed conflict taking place in Hamland. The unrest grew out of the sudden disappearance of multiple government officials and leaders across the country, namely the Seneschal Juan Teaodir and Prime Minister Lewis. It escalated to armed conflict after the Minister of the Homeland and Governor-General of Monovia, Donat Ravaillac, and various supporters suspended the Constitution and installed themselves as the new government of Hamland. The conflict was nearing its end until the assassination of Donat Ravaillac led to the rise of martial law under General Augustus Eliphas.
The war is being fought by several factions: the National Provisional Authority and its various supporters and groups throughout Hamland; an alliance of rebel groups from Israat, Anglia and San Luis de Hamlandia (including the National Salvation Front); groups loyal to the Ravaillac family led by Regina Ravaillac, daughter of Donat Ravaillac (including the Hammish Republican Army and the National Congress of United Monovia).
The NPA, having begun the war with control of the National Armed Forces and the state security apparatus, appeared to enjoy an overwhelming advantage in personnel and military hardware. This advantage, however, was offset by low morale in the regular army, the hostility of a large part of civil society and the inherent advantage of surprise and the initiative enjoyed by guerrilla fighters amongst the rebel cadres.
Within the first month of the uprisings and civil war at least 10,000 personnel defected from the armed forces to the HRA, with still more deserting and elsewhere units serving with such reluctance that they were deemed non-effective and unsuited for counter-insurgency operations. Instead, the NPA increasingly relied upon the paramilitaries of the Home Guard and the ruthless application of air power.
The Hammish Air Corps was a large, albeit increasingly tending towards obsolescence, air arm by Micras standards, comprising of 919 3rd generation jet-fighters and 1,094 Canberra bombers and Tornado strike aircraft, in addition to which were a motley assortment of maritime patrol and transport aircraft, some of which, such as the venerable Short Sunderland flying boat, belonged in the scrapyard or museum.
The factions receive substantial support from members of the international community. Shireroth has provided support to the National Provisional Authority. Traditional Hammish allies like Alexandria and Stormark have provided only humanitarian and medical aid to the National Provisional Authority, but has also extended some funding to the Ravaillac Loyalists. Passio-Corum is providing support to the National Salvation Front. Humanitarian organizations have accused the National Provisional Authority, the Hammish Republican Army and the National Salvation Front of severe human rights violations and many massacres. Over the course of the war some peace initiatives have been launched, including the Weanburg Conference and the Geneva peace talks led by Alexandria, but fighting continues.
Background
Disappearance of the Seneschal and Prime Minister, National Provisional Authority
Hamland entered a period of chaos and instability with the disappearance of the Seneschal Juan Teaodir and Prime Minister Lewis. The country has enjoyed an uninterrupted period of peace and stability until the disappearance of key national and regional leaders led to a power vacuum.
At the behest of all the political parties in Hamland, the military and regional governments, the sole surviving member of the Hammish Government, the Minister of the Homeland Donat Ravaillac, issued a state of emergency across Hamland and suspended the Constitution.
While there was some armed opposition over what some groups believed to be a coup d’état, Ravaillac’s state of emergency was welcomed, and it established the Council of State for the Salvation of Hamland. The Council of State for the Salvation of Hamland was folded into the National Provisional Authority, which would act as Hamland’s new government with Ravaillac as Interim Prime Minister.
Under Ravaillac’s brief tenure as Interim Prime Minister, unrest broke out in parts of Haifa, Israat and Neo Patrova. Through mediation, the unrests in Israat and Neo Patrova were quelled. Ravaillac assured that new elections for Parliament and constitutional reforms would be proposed to replace Juan Teaodir as Seneschal, which was not provided in the Hammish Constitution, and ensure that the state would never again be endangered.
Ravaillac soon encountered fierce resistance from military leaders, notably General Augustus Eliphas, on the promises made to hold new elections. Ravaillac’s government survived a series of armed revolts by the Order of Rochefort, secretly funded and instigated behind the scenes by a misinformation campaign by Hammish top military brass under the direction of General Eliphas to bring down Ravaillac.
However, when Ravaillac met with the Order of Rochefort in New Kirrie, the revolt came to an end after assurances were made that elections for a new Parliament would move forward. The Ravaillac-led government opposed the heavy-handed tactics of the Hammish military in the securing of Haifa and other parts of the country, which led to severe clashes inside the government.
The delicate balance between civilian and military leaders in the government was undermined with the suspicious death of Gerardo Lopez, a popular leader from San Luis de Hamlandia, who was serving as one of the top negotiators and advisors to Ravaillac. After the death of Lopez, the cadre of military officials were really the ones running the country with Ravaillac serving as the unwilling face of the operation.
Assassination of Donat Ravaillac, Rise of General Augustus Eliphas
A smaller wave of unrest began in Anglia and Israat after the death of Gerardo Lopez. The Hammish military had been obstructing Ravaillac’s independent investigation of Lopez’ death, which increased political tensions throughout the country.
The wave of unrest in Anglia and Israat threatened to reignite tensions around the country, and discussions on how to handle the problem became a point of contention inside the National Provisional Authority, especially inside the Council of State for the Salvation of Hamland.
Ravaillac and his loyalists in the government advocated for a measured approach consisting of negotiation and speeding up the promised elections and constitutional reforms. Hardliners in the government, led by General Augustus Eliphas, advocated military action and postponing the elections until the security situation in the country was stabilized. They also advocated for a new Constitution, to be written by the National Provisional Authority and approved by the future Parliament.
At a military review held in New Kirrie to commemorate the pacification of Haifa and to send off troops to ensure peace and safety in the country, Ravaillac was protected by four layers of security and twelve bodyguards. As Air Force jets flew overhead, distracting the crowd during his speech, a sniper shot Ravaillac. Several bombs detonated throughout the city of New Kirrie that destroyed the Prime Minister’s Residence and took out some of the roads leading outside of New Kirrie.
Ravaillac and ten others were killed outright or suffered fatal wounds, including the Alexandrian ambassador to Hamland, Josef Droz. Security forces were momentarily stunned but reacted within 45 seconds. Ravaillac was airlifted to a military hospital, where he was declared dead on arrival.
The Council of State for the Salvation of Hamland met at a secure location in the city of New Kirrie and declared General Augustus Eliphas as the new Interim Prime Minister and leader of the National Provisional Authority.
Socioeconomic Inequality
Socioeconomic inequality increased significantly after the disappearance of key government officials like the Seneschal and the Prime Minister. Government policy was set on an “auto-pilot” during the time, placing an emphasis on the service sector. These policies benefited a minority of the nation's population, mostly people who had connections with the government, and members of the merchant class of New Kirrie and other large Hammish cities.
This has coincided with the most intense waves of droughts and heat ever recorded in Hamland that have resulted in widespread crop failure, increases in food prices and a mass migration of farming families to urban centers.
Through the Alliance Fund established by the Council of Free Nations, Hammish allies like Alexandria and Stormark have been supplying humanitarian aid consisting of medicine, food and other supplies to ensure that the National Provisional Authority can cope with the mass migration of farming families to urban centers. Shireroth's Agricultural Mission has been providing direct support and assistance to Hammish agriculture, while helping the National Provisional Authority restore order.
Armed Insurgency, Sectarian Divisions
After the assassination of Ravaillac, a small paramilitary force that provided support and assistance to the National Provisional Authority defected, aiming to remove General Eliphas from power with united opposition forces, abolish the monarchy and create a United Republic of Hamland. Hammish Air Force units at Kirnoa Air Base defected to the HRA in what was a crushing blow to the National Provisional Authority. This was followed by a nationwide crackdown nicknamed “the Bloody Massacre", which resulted in the death of at least 142 people and hundreds of injuries.
National Salvation Front was created in response to the creation of the Council of State for the Salvation of Hamland, initially as a political organization that hoped to serve as a check and balance to the CSSH and help usher a restoration of democracy and normalcy. Defiance to the martial law heightened and the group formed a strong military wing, supported by incoming fighters and assistance from the neighboring Green. Other Armed Forces defectors, encouraged by the unification of efforts to bring down General Eliphas in the east, joined the National Salvation Front, with support from the Greater Pallisican Trade Assocation, the National Labour Association and a newly emboldened Order of Rochefort.
Initially the Hammish Republican Army and the National Salvation Front were working together in their common goal to take New Kirrie and remove General Eliphas from power. Infighting and regional rivalries ended what was dubbed the “Grand Hammish Alliance” and both groups split from each other.
Led by Regina Ravaillac, the Ravaillac Loyalists and the National Congress of United Monovia aimed to be a peaceful political group that would attempt to bridge the sectarian divides between the National Provisional Authority and opposition groups, and between the opposition groups themselves. The Ravaillac Loyalists wanted above all to implement the Ravaillac Plan. The Plan would call for national elections for a Constituent Assembly, draft a Constitution, ratify it by a national referendum, and begin a transition back to democracy and stability. The Loyalists draw on vast financial resources, mostly from the massive Ravaillac family fortune and access to Alexandrian financial markets.
Weanburg Conference
Representatives of the National Provisional Authority, the Hammish Republican Army and the National Salvation Front met in the city of Weanburg for a peace conference that was mediated by the Alexandrian ambassador to Hamland, Josef Droz, and Regina Ravaillac.
The Weanburg Conference descended into bickering and disunity. Soon, the groups attending the conference began to prepare to withdraw. In the last night of the conference, a member of the Weanburg Militia, Gene Letdorff, attempted to kill Regina Ravaillac and the Alexandrian ambassador to Hamland, Josef Droz.
The Weanburg Militia was formed by a self-declared Generalissimo Ignace Denueve. In the chaos that ensued the Weanburg Conference, they seized control of the city and chased out weakened government forces. Fearing an insurgency at the heart of the pacified territories, the National Provisional Authority entered an accord with the Weanburg Militia where the Militia would provide assistance and intelligence to the National Provisional Authority in exchange for impunity for its looting and criminal activity.
Operation Morning Dawn
National Provisional Authority forces stormed major urban centers and regions under opposition control in the east and the west in what was dubbed “Operation Morning Dawn”. Soon the Hammish Navy became involved in the military crackdown for the first time in the Siege of Ersoy. Gunboats fired heavy machine guns at waterfront districts in Ersoy, as ground troops and security agents backed by armor stormed several neighborhoods.
After the launch of Operation Morning Dawn, the National Salvation Front started to receive active support from the government of Passio-Corum, and it mounted an offensive to take the city of Macsen, a weakened government stronghold.
Macsen campaign
In early February, the National Salvation Front (NSF) began an offensive to take the city of Macsen. The attack combined infiltration tactics with a campaign of sabotage and car bombings that targeted hospitals, schools, and a civilian neighbourhood, killing 1,645 and injuring 780, including children. This had the effect of unhinging the Army of Attirus, whose regiments of light infantry were neither appropriately trained nor sufficiently equipped to offer a timely response.
On the 4th of February, the Hammish Police Service's Counter Terrorism Task Force (CTTF), led by Brigadier Ormonde Johnie Paul, cornered NSF field commander Fabio Dukes, near Macsen. Dukes blew himself up, and Brigadier Paul reported to General Eliphas that the brains behind the Macsen offensive had been removed from the equation. However, at 4 in the morning on the following day, NSF convoys of pickup trucks, each carrying eight fighters, entered Macsen by shooting up the city's police checkpoints. Although Macsen's outer defensive perimeter was supposed to have been manned by 4,000 soldiers from the 41st Regiment, the rate of desertion had soared since the end of January and only about half that number were available. Worse still, the majority of the armour and artillery assigned to the defence of the city had been pulled back across the Caledon River to defend New Kirrie against the rising of the Hammish Republican Army (HRA) in the west of Hamland proper. The Land Forces left in the city, therefore, had little more than light machine guns and grenades with which to repel a determined assault.
Additionally, the tactics of the NSF were designed to engender fear and panic amongst the defenders. At the first outpost overrun by attackers carrying the NSF's oriflamme banner they hanged, burned, and crucified the terrified soldiers they had captured during in the assault. These atrocities were all filmed on hand held devices and clips were sent by the militants to the entire contacts list of the mobile cellphones belonging to the murdered captives. The effect on the moral of the remaining defenders was precipitous and dramatic. What remained of the 41st Regiment dissolved into a panicked rout, with officers leading the headlong flight northwards or across the city to the river ferry terminals.
As dawn rose on the 5th of February, martial law and a curfew were imposed on the city. Outraged, General Eliphas personally ordered the attack helicopters of the Riverine Forces to strafe the militants with rocket and cannon fire and to sink any boats seeking to cross the river, resulting in the sinking of four boats, the burning of the ferry terminal and the death of at least 105 fleeing civilians and deserters. Even with the collapse of the 41st Regiment, at least 27,500 employees on the Ministry of Security payroll remained in the city, these being:
36th Regiment (Army of Attirus): 4,000 infantry
110th Regiment (Corps of Logistics): 4,000 soldiers
Counter Terrorism Task Force (Hammish Police Service): 1,800 officers
Macsen District Police Force (Hammish Police Service): 11,045 officers
Macsen Detachment (Facilities Protection Service): 700 guards
Macsen Civil Defence Brigade (Civil Defence Corps): 5,955 watchmen
The attacking column of militants however only totaled 2,000 fighters, outnumbered by the defenders by 14 to 1. Two car bombs exploded, in Tanworth, a village near the city, killing twelve civil defence watchmen. After that attack, the fighters retreated into the countryside before reinfiltrating the local population in an adjacent district.
On the 8th of February, a column of one-hundred vehicles entered Macsen, carrying at least four hundred fighters. Sleeper cells hidden within the city were activated and began to rally the disaffected in the city, taking over entire neighbourhoods and leading mob lynchings and assassinations of known police and civil defence officers, leaving the city's defenders leaderless and terrified.
The attackers followed up on the 9th of February with a bomb attack on the police barracks of the CTTF. The attack itself was a novelty, the bomb was delivered by a hydraulic excavator whose driver's cabin and engine compartment had been covered in improvised steel armor, and the bomb itself was packed into the bucket attached at the end of the excavator's hydraulic boom. Under heavy, but ineffective, small arms fire from the barrack's desperate defenders, the excavator rammed its payload of acetone peroxide into the barrack's gatehouse, triggering a detonation that demolished the gatehouse, killing eight CTTF officers, burying dozens more and killing the driver of the excavator, who had been decapitated by flying debris as he had panicked and jumped from his armoured cab as the bomb detonated - creating, unintentionally, the NSF's first suicide bomber, who would subsequently be lauded in the movement's propaganda and be held up as an example to emulate.
On the 10th of February, the NSF executed 15 captured police officers. Concurrently, NSF fighters armed with assault rifles and grenade launchers, stormed the provincial government offices in the city. Lacking plans and ammunition, the surviving officers of the CTTF, by now the last remnant of the security forces not to have defected or run away, under the leadership of Brigadier Paul, made preparations to retreat northwards out of the city. On the same night, as they began their evacuation, the NSF began their final assault, causing heavy fighting as fleeing security forces were pursued by exultant militants. The Hammish Land Forces had crumbled in the face of the militant assault, behaving so cravenly as to, in many reported instances, abandon their weapons and attempt to disguise themselves as civilians to blend in with the population.
By midday on the 11th of February, the city of Macsen had fallen entirely under the sway of the NSF.While capturing the city, the group freed nearly 1,000 political and civil prisoners, some of whom were subsequently recruited by the fighters. The oriflamme was flown over government buildings. Numerous accusations of war crimes followed the takeover. The accusations included targeting and killing civilians, public executions of political opponents and captives, throwing prisoners off high-rise apartment buildings, fighting in hospitals, the execution of suspected government soldiers found in hospitals and clinics and using ambulances to move militants around the city while avoiding attack by government helicopter gunships.
The humiliating collapse of a garrison of nearly 30,000 men facing a force a fraction of their size, was a desperate humiliation for the regime of General Eliphas and the NPA as a whole, emboldening the various rebel groups throughout the Commonwealth. In retaliation, from the 12th of February through to the 23rd of the same month, the city was subject to day and night bombing sorties by the Canberra bombers of the Hammish Air Corps, as well as marauding overflights by Apache helicopter gunships of the Riverine Forces, which would shoot-up vehicles moving on the streets, including ambulances once the militants ruse became common knowledge. The bombing sorties would typically leave behind a mixture of incendiaries; delayed action fused explosives and cluster munitions, all designed in combination to make entire neighborhoods uninhabitable.
After the 23rd the rate of air attacks would begin to slacken as assets were called away for the developing battle for control over the Lordship of the Islands in the delta estuary of the Caledon river.
Neo Patrovan Campaign
The Gabbnorship of Neo Patrova, a neglected and overlooked portion of the Commonwealth, had remained in the hands of the Ravaillac Loyalists since the beginning of the civil war.
That however was soon to change when a force of seven hundred small boats escorted by twenty-seven floating gun-platforms, eighteen armed trawlers and fifteen merchant vessels, all flying the Hammish flag, came into the vast estuary of the northwards flowing Camoleo river on the night of the 18th of February. Their target was a Hammish naval base and coastal artillery fort which faced towards East Gerenia on the opposite banks and dominated the river traffic that sailed from Jingdaoese and Senyan ports on Lake Lamantia bound for the Northern Sea.
The armada was in position by midnight whereupon all engines were stopped, the troops given a meal and then, in an orderly fashion, embarked onto the small boats.
The outer forts of the rebel held base were bombarded on the 19th of February and a number of small islands in the Camoleo estuary were occupied as a base. Treacherous weather delayed operations but at midday the 80 mm field guns bolted to the decks of the gun-platforms opened up a steady bombardment of the naval facility and barracks.
The first landings were made to the north of the naval base. Owing to navigational errors, the "little ships", confiscated yachts, pleasure cruisers and packet steamers, had begun to land troops in an area that consisted mainly of steep sandy cliffs, rising from the sea to a height of 30 to 90 metres. Noting the unexpected difficulties of the terrain, two regiments were left to hold the beach while the main force reembarked and, by four in the afternoon, began a second landing south of the base.
Despite being unaware of the enemy's dispositions and ignorant of the terrain the volunteers, comprising the 2nd NPA Army Corps, were brought ashore in strength. Each regiment, once landed, had to make its own decisions until the communications network had been established, with the result that one regiment, though only separated a short distance from the next, could be unaware of what their comrades were attempting. The revised landing zone was bisected by a rocky headland further complicating the command and control situation. Nonetheless, six regiments were put ashore over the next four hours, a total of 7,200 men, who then began the arduous scrabbling up the mountainous headland overlooking the naval base that was to be their objective.
Meanwhile the naval force supporting the landings made further efforts to secure the Camoleo river estuary. The armed trawlers, equipped with heavy calibre machine guns were deployed laying mines in the estuary channels.
By three-thirty that evening the loyalist shore gun emplacements had almost all been battered into silence. The rebels however, gained some signal successes in retaliation. A mobile rocket launcher had fired off a salvo which struck the merchantman 'Aigle' amidships. Fires were soon burning uncontrollably and by three-fifty five the order to abandon ship was given. The trawler Nepomuceno, attempting to come alongside to rescue survivors, was struck by an anti-tank missile fired from the shore and was obliged to abandon the rescue effort.
By eight o'clock that evening the first wave ashore had secured the headland and moved off in a night march to attack the loyalist naval base from the landwards side. Surging downhill and crossing the bed of a dried river brook, three regiments, were committed to attack on the base, and approached from the adjacent settlement which had evidently housed the base's officers, dockyard workers and their families. The volunteers were obliged to advance through a tangle of metal, concrete rubble and dismembered bodies, in the wake of the sustained hours long bombardment that had presaged the main attack. The few stunned men, women and children who had not fled offered no resistance. By about ten at night the attackers had reached the perimeter of the artillery fortress which defended the dockyards of the naval base.
The ramparts and parapets of the fortress were protected with massive barbed wire entanglements. Hammish soldiers from the garrison as well as the naval ratings began to rally after enduring the day long torments of the bombardment and, once the alarm was raised, took up positions from which to resist the attackers. As the volunteers attempted to climb the gently sloping glacis towards the first rampart, they encountered the wire obstacles in the darkness and found themselves the target of snipers who had taken up station on the parapet. Enduring heavy losses, the attackers gradually cut their way through the entanglements only to reach the precipitous drop into the deep ditch that stretched for a distance of eighteen metres between the counterscarpe, which they now held, and the first rampart, which remained in the hands of the enemy. As the volunteer regiments took stock of their position they came under heavy machine-gun fire from the ramparts and were further subjected to the lob-firing of rifle grenades by the defenders crouching behind their own parapets.
In addition to the ramparts, parapets and ditches, which ringed the artillery fort, the position also consisted of a number of reinforced gun-emplacements and, although these had been wrecked by bombardment from floating gun-platforms, there remained five concrete pillboxes with two heavy machine guns in each. With the volunteer regiments now being subjected to a withering hail of machine gun fire, casualties were passing the point of what was deemed tolerable and whistles were blown to signal the withdrawal. The first night attack had been a failure.
Nonetheless, the artillery fort's gun emplacements had been bracketed by a heavy bombardment, effectively silencing them, the river Camoleo had been mined, and the volunteers were ashore and in possession of a beachhead.
At about 7am, four days after the landings had begun, an unidentified MiG-29K, whose insignia had been painted over and transponder had been turned off, flew a low altitude reconnaissance sortie over the beleaguered Samerican garrison trapped in the naval base. Below him the pilot saw a scene of utter devastation. The sandstone plateau beneath the NPA occupied headland was pitted with shellholes, and the shells had smashed the thick walls and concrete pillboxes of the artillery fort which was the defender's main bastion. The dockyard of the naval base and its attendant hangers and fitting yards had also been smashed into an indeterminate jumble of rubble. Yet, even in the twilight of morning, the area still swarmed with militia men, who turned their machine-guns skywards in a futile attempt to lash out at the fast flying jet.
The massed soldiers of the NPA's 2nd Army Corps collectively cursed the ill-timed interloper as the mystery jet banked sharply and headed back out to sea on a north easterly bearing. The defenders would now be thoroughly awake and alert. Forty regiments, grouped into four divisions, encircled the defenders, and the first wave of attackers had crept forward during the last hours of darkness to take up positions concealed in a defile beneath the eastern wall of the artillery fort. There was no turning back.
At 7.01 am 300 80mm field gun opened up a heavy barrage on the defenders. The shelling was synchronised so that the gun batteries fired at differing intervals based on their positions so that the high explosive shells struck their target at the same devastating moment. This saturation bombardment lasted for five, maybe ten, minutes and then was over as soon as it had begun. It was followed by the shrill reverberation of innumerable whistles being blown.
The shock on the defenders had been absolute, distracted by the passing naval fighter and caught in the open by a fierce shredding bombardment, they were taken unawares as the NPA troops began to pour out of the defile, the lip of which came to within 50 paces of the ruined rampart and collapsed glacis.
The belt of barbed wire, 12 metres deep in front of the tangle of collapsed walls, partially buried trenches, and lunar landscape of shell craters, remained a formidable obstacle. Cedrist priests, with icons and banners, blessed the volunteers as they passed through the defile, boosting their morale. Within minutes, a wave of troops overran the glacis and covered way. Then, as they had been instructed, the volunteers stormed across the ruined and collapsed masonry of the inner rampart, which had collapsed in and partially filled the ditch which had foiled the previous nighttime assault, before stopping to consolidate.
Stunned by the barrage and the swift attack, many militiamen gave up, but others, particularly around the ruined pillboxes and gun emplacements fought on grimly, withdrawing into the interior of the fort and down into the bunkers beneath it that snaked outwards into the bowels of the earth. There, every attack was repulsed. Under constant shell-fire, attacks with grenades, gas and flame throwers, these few men raked their enemy with machine-gun fire.
For those trapped inside however, conditions, as the day wore on, became increasingly impossible. The small garrison had been swollen by those who had fled from the perimeter seeking refuge. Crowds of wounded and dying men laid huddled together in the half-dark of the barracks and main corridor. Worse, there was a desperate shortage of water.
Relentlessly the attackers forced their way into the fort, using grenades and flamethrowers, but the defenders had barricaded the passages as they were forced to retire, and machine-gunned anyone who tried to clamber over.
Eventually, rather than waste time winkling out these last desperate defenders. The attackers had pumped chlorine gas into the air vents, which they then welded shut. At the same time they rigged explosive charges to collapse the access tunnels and seal in the surviving enemies in their last subterranean bastion, which would become their tomb.
With the fall of the artillery fort, the clearing of the ruined naval dockyards was a simple mopping up operation. However, heavy casualties were endured by both sides, and in the end quarter was neither sought nor given.
With the fall of the fort the road was open for the landward contingent to advance eastwards towards Freedom City.
Failed Countercoup, Purge of the Hammish Armed Forces
Despite the ongoing attack by the National Salvation Front and the Hammish Republican Army on NPA-held territory, the Hammish Armed Forces, the National Provisional Authority as well as military-related industries were subjected to purges by General Augustus Eliphas. The Committee for Public Safety, under its chief Gregory Beauchamps, started a series of purges that initially hit the Committee of National Security, the Committee of Media and Communications and the National Armed Forces. High-level officials began admitting guilt, typically under torture, and then testified against others in the National Provisional Authority.
Because of the investigation and initial purges under Beauchamps, General Augustus Eliphas issued orders for mass arrests based on fabricated charges of “anti-Hammish” activity, sabotage, spying and incompetence.
Several different groups were disenchanted with the purges that had come about. These included those who enjoyed patronage jobs under Donat Ravaillac and had been discharged, army officers who had risen from the ranks and were no longer being favored over officers who had close ties to General Augustus Eliphas, and those who felt threatened by the more violent and erratic atmosphere that Eliphas had begun to create after the fall of Macsen.
Tens of thousands of demonstrators against General Eliphas gathered in New Kirrie and outside Pratchett Hall, while other demonstrations were held in the cities of Weanburg, Petrynsk, Tonar, Keybir-Aviv and Porapa. Some police officers wearing their uniforms joined the anti-Eliphas protests.
In a national broadcast, a young military officer Joseph Abib gave General Eliphas 12 hours to resign and name Regina Ravaillac as the new Interim Prime Minister. The Minister of Finance and Economy resigned in protest.
Military jets were witnessed flying over New Kirrie, and military forces closed all the bridges and highways in and out of New Kirrie. These actions were being taken outside of the chain of command led by Eliphas.
Early reports confirmed that General Augustus Eliphas was safe and secure in a military facility in Porapa, where he was inspecting troops.
The buildings of the state broadcaster, the Hammish Radio and Television Corporation, were seized by military units, but forces loyal to General Eliphas retook it and start pushing military units that were part of the coup plot.
General Eliphas marched triumphantly into New Kirrie and dismissed several commanders, including the head of the Air Force. About 300 commanders were executed and others were sent to Weanburg for confinement. The plot soon fell apart and General Eliphas ordered the mass execution of all arrested in connection with this attempt to overthrow him as “treasonous and subversive”.
