Dalmacijan Campaign

Dalmacijan Campaign
Part of War of Lost Brothers
Babkhi conscripts posing with abandoned Dolstier I.
Date 12.XV.1654–25.XV.1656 Location Dalmacija / Arboria Result Stalemate
Belligerents
Shireroth Natopia	Jingdao
Commanders and leaders
Magister-Generalissimus Hasimir Mo'll Steffki	Abe Anami, Jiangjun of the Sixth Field Army (1654 - 1656) Tzao Yao, Field Marshal (1656)
Units involved
Apollonia Command 2nd Army Group 4th Army Group 3rd Tactical Air Force	Army District II 6th Field Army 7th Field Army 8th Field Army Yobi-gun
Strength
345,000 Legionaries 810,750 Auxiliaries 428,415 State Troops 125,013 Arborial Volunteers	308,310 IAF 1,572,504 Yobi-gun
Casualties and losses
324,537	Est. 434,000

(WIP)

Overview

By the final month of 1654, the late Natopian entry into the war had opened up a new front. While the war in Floria received a lot of attention, the northern front line proved to be extremely deadly for both sides. Huge losses were counted, while few gains were made. Both sides saw their tactical manoeuvres being halted, often even before the offensive had really started. Mobility was at an all now and made impossible by the destroyed underground. Even the antigrav tanks of the Shirerithians which had been able to levitate across no man's land found that their essential support vehicles, the ubiquitous Horjin AFVs, carrying their supporting infantry, ammunition, and fuel cells were frequently bogged down in the shell-scarred terrain to their rear. The local air supremacy of the Shirerithians hampered the supply lines of the Jingdaoese Armed Forces and hindered Jingdaoese offensives, but the Imperial Shirerithian Air Forces lacked the airlift capacity to keep the mobile legions supplied. A pattern was established whereby the Shirerithian gravimetric armour would achieve a breakthrough, secure a location for a time but then be obliged to withdraw, usually within the 48 hour lifecycle of their armoured vehicles onboard fuel-cells, as their supply situation deteriorated and Yobi-gun human-wave attacks began to eat away at the edges of the hastily established defensive perimeters.

Some breakthroughs and gains were made in 1655, when an incursion by the Exercitus Comitatenses led to the capture of Setouchi and caused the collapse of the western lines as the 2nd Army Group poured auxiliary reinforcements into the corridor opened by the advance of the legions. The 6th Field Army was shattered and its remnants were obliged to fall back towards Port Nevermore, which was now isolated from the remainder of the province now in range of Shirerithian artillery. One consequence of this sudden development was that Jingdaoese command and control structures broke down whilst panic infected the civilian population. Mobs besieged food warehouses or else converged upon the port's harbour district in a frantic scramble for places on the last departing boats. The Tegong was obliged to rush a detachment, reinforced by the 2nd Banner Brigade, via a risky nighttime airlift, into the besieged city to restore discipline by executing looters and "faint-hearts" in the 6th Field Army's command staff. This exemplary and severe punishment had the requisite effect, galvanising the remnants of the 34th and 35th Heavenly Corps, augmented by civilian militia, to hold the outskirts of the city at all costs.

The urban landscape of Port Nevermore proved to be an adverse environment for the Shirerithian Bandersnatches, where the defenders - having despaired of their ineffective 37mm anti-tank guns - resorted to acts of suicidal bravery. One notable tactic was the use of hastily armoured trucks and SUVs packed full with plastic-explosive, jerrycans of petrol and surplus anti-tank munitions, which a martyr-volunteer would then park in an inconspicuous alleyway, disguised as another abandoned vehicle, and wait for enemy hover-vehicles to appear on the main street whereupon the driver would rev up his rigged vehicle and drive it at full speed into the midst of the Shirerithian armoured convoy with the hope of detonating beside or preferably underneath one of the levitating steel behemoths with the hope of using the blast to disable the tank's gravimetric drive or else flip it over crashing it into one of the ruined buildings lining the street.

Ironically most damage to the city's infrastructure, which slowed the Shirerithian advance and aided the defenders by creating a churned landscape of craters and rubble from which to create improvised defensive positions, had been made by the obliteration bombing campaign waged by ISAF Bomber Command after the 3rd Tactical Air Force had gained air superiority over northern Dalmacija. The onset of an unusually severe winter, combined with night harassment raids on Shirerithian supply routes led to the invading force to lose momentum, which allowed the Jing to properly regroup and send in reinforcements.

Although they had come within an ace of capturing Port Nevermore and destroying the 6th Field Army, the Shirerithian Field Army and the Army of Arboria, now found themselves trapped in a war of attrition, losing a third of their established strength to death or injury. Rather than withdraw the decimated cohorts and worn out regiments to reform and retrain, Apollonia Command instead fed in a continual flow of auxiliaries to plug the gaps. Over time the overall fighting quality and professionalism of the legions began to deteriorate. The Jingdaoese defenders, alongside those sent as reinforcements by sea or air, also suffered an appalling rate of attrition.

Rather than relieve Port Nevermore directly, the IAF opted in early 1656 to launch a counter-offensive against the newly formed 4th Army Group, comprised of Arboreal Volunteers and 3rd line infantry brought over from Elwynn and Goldshire, which now held the allied left flank, extending from north-east of Kuomi all the way to the Senyan border. A bitter back and forth battle ensued which had brought both sides back to where they had started. By then, morale in the Jingdaoese trenches had collapsed and calls for an immediate end of the war resounded loudly among most of the men. Leftist revolutionaries, like Yamato Wei, sparked feelings of rebellion among the (mostly Kildarian) soldiers. The arrest of a Kildarian soldier by a Jingdaoese officer for spreading pamphlets of the socialist movement sparked a mutiny.

Forces

Allied

Initial Forces

Item	Quantity	Loses #1654	Loses #1655	Loses #1656
Legionaries	345,000	4,809	102,610	19,006
Auxiliaries	84,000	5,751	26,970	2,051
Arborial Volunteers	24,000	7,298	12,439	384
M1639 Stahlhelm	357,000	.	.	.
Survival Machete	277,200	.	.	.
Combat Knife	376,800	.	.	.
M14 Fragmentation Hand Grenade	1,892,880	.	.	.
M15 White Phosphorus Anti-Lich Grenade	1,892,880	.	.	.
M16 Mustard Gas Anti-Singer Grenade	1,892,880	.	.	.
M18 Red Smoke Hand Grenade	1,892,880	.	.	.
M1525 9mm Pistol	18,480	.	.	.
M1581 7.62 mm Machine Carbine	50,160	.	.	.
M1653 5.5mm Carbine (Semi-Automatic)	163,200	.	.	.
Wren 7.62mm LMG	39,600	762	3,883	1,188
Polybolos .50 HMG	4,320	84	296	248
Tankgewehr 13.2mm Anti-Materiel Rifle	1,440	68	444	93
Hornet Anti-Tank Recoilless Rifle	2,880	.	.	.
Waspsting Anti-Aircraft Missile Launcher	1,440	.	.	.
82mm Mortar	10,560	42	652	257
80mm field gun	500	3	56	26
Katzenklavier	600	1	67	345
Horjin AFV	2,304	184	1,261	167
Horjin APC	6,576	302	2,789	174
Horjin EWV	192	0	3	1
GV(MBT)-1 Bandersnatch	5,568	179	1,550	314
GV(SPG)-2 Jabberwocky	1,536	12	450	146
GV(LU)-3 Boojum	768	0	92	12
GV(CV)-4 Red Queen	1,824	3	554	51
GV(CT)-6 Walrus	1,920	1	115	40
GAV(U)-4 Jackalope (CV)	96	0	12	7
GAV(U)-4 Jackalope (Utility)	960	2	353	18
IMW-2 Spidertank	2,784	252	323	600
IMW-3 Snark	48	1	9	12
SA-1 “Red Mist” SAM	4,608	138	921	354
F-8 Shrike	64	11	2	0
F-9 Ashavan	50	5	0	1
N-1 (1654 only)	80	20	n/a	n/a
B-49 Delta (1654 only)	288	38	n/a	n/a
B-52 Big Badaboom	10	.	.	.
B-66 Vulcan (1654 only)	240	22	n/a	n/a
AH-1 Dromosker	180	7	43	14
UH-1 Mondesian	180	8	60	22

Reinforcements

Item	Quantity	Loses #1655	Loses #1656
Auxiliaries	726,750	26,460	42,184
Arborial Volunteers	101,013	6,363	7,572
Elwynnese Republican Guard	172,800	5,184	8,883
Goldshire Regulars	255,615	15,337	31,236
M1639 Stahlhelm	802,764	.	.

Jingdaoese

Initial Forces

Item	Quantity	Loses #1654	Loses #1655	Loses #1656
IAF Personnel	302,700	.	.	.
M15 Adrian helmet	302,700	.	.	.
P62 Rifle	49,500	.	.	.
P62 Commando	98,400	.	.	.
P62 Rifle w/ Grenade Launcher	37,440	.	.	.
Shirley 9mm Pistol	87,000	.	.	.
80mm field gun	1,440	.	.	.
70mm Type 92 Battalion Guns	3,240	.	.	.
37mm Anti-Tank Guns	216	.	.	.
Heavy Machine Guns	6,210	.	.	.
Dolstier I (MBT)	1,689	.	.	.
Raven IV Model	372	.	.	.
Jan-van-Gent VII Model	246	.	.	.
Kurassha Ku-205	138	.	.	.

Reinforcements

Item	Quantity	Loses #1655	Loses #1656
Yobi-gun	1,572,504	.	.
M15 Adrian helmet	1,720,000	.	.
P62 Rifle	431,111	.	.
P62 Rifle W/ Grenade Launcher	323,333	.	.
P62 Commando	281,159	.	.
P62 Covert	258,666	.	.
Shirley 9mm Pistol	646,666	.	.
P29 Sniper Rifle	116,667	.	.
80mm field gun	8,750	.	.
Dolstier I (main battle tank)	1,229	.	.
Raven IV Model	43	.	.
Jan-van-Gent VII Model	57	.	.
LAC Buladocga	52	.	.

1653

War plans

Jing plans concerning the defence against and possible invasion of Arboria and Hawshire Dura versus invasion plans and war preparations from the Shiro-Natopians.

1654

Building up the defences

Everything quiet on the northern front.

1655

Air supremacy

Successful air offensive almost totally annihilated the entire air fleet of the Jing. The Jingdaoese air-defence and command and control networks were left in total disarray by the sudden loss, however the Sxiro-Natopian forces failed to follow this up with any concerted offensive action, owing to the delays which had accumulated in the mobilisation process as a consequence of the Natopian Abduction Crisis. Moreover, in spite of these successes the allies only had ninety-eight fighter jets and ten strategic bombers available in Arboria for continuing use. The unexpectedly severe losses endured by the high-tech N-1 fighter against the distinctly low-tech Raven, a quarter of the committed force, stymied future Natopian operations. In time the remaining N-1 fighters alongside the majority of assets available to Natopia's Aerospace Command would be called away to the various hot-spots that boiled up during the nebulous and shifting confrontation with Passio-Corum. In the absence of Natopian top cover the Shirerithian Bomber Command was unwilling further to further large scale raids.

As a consequence the 3rd Tactical Air Force was constrained to limit itself to so-called tip and run attacks, usually launching air to surface missiles or glide bombs from the edges of hostile air space. Given time the Jingdaoese command and control structure reconstituted itself and restored its ground based radar networks to the semblance of operability. Nonetheless the surviving Jingdaoese airframes were obliged for some time to operate from the bases of the Fifth Air Support Corps in southern Dalmacija according the Sxiro-Natopian allies complete air supremacy over Northern and Central Dalmacija (above the 22nd parallel). Although they were unable to follow up by going onto the strategic offensive, the Shirerithians were able to utilise attack helicopters and gravimetric vehicles for reconnaissance missions and night-harassment attacks along the line of contact and towards the rear of the enemy field armies' logistical tail. Moreover the elimination of Jingdaoese ballistic missile capability in northwestern Apollonia removed a threat to the important Shirerithian forward supply base on the island of Kezan and allowed for allied forces, especially the newly raised Natopian levies, to assemble and train in comparative safety to the rear of the frontline.

The Jingdaoese response was the dispatch of sending more troops to the coast line in case of a naval invasion. The 6th Field Army in particular was reinforced by a horde of Yobi-gun and recruits levied by the Young Wandering Society. In the absence of further air raids of comparable scale up to a million personnel, many poorly armed and untrained, flooded into the northern portion of Dalmacija during 1655. An attempt meanwhile to reinforce the Third Battle Fleet with White Wolf Pack 1 & 2 and Buffalo Pack 1 & 2 collided the convergence of Shirerithian and Natopian fleets in what became the calamitous Battle of Carama Bay.

Dalmacijan Push

A relative late response by the SANE forces to push through the defences. Attacks are successful and it is feared that Port Nevermore will fall in enemy hands. However, the arrival of the first reserves brings an end to the offensive and a counter attack is held.

Insurrections in the River Warrior's Regio

A full-out offensive is put to a halt until the River Warriors are suppressed. Senya is blamed for supporting rebels.

1656

Arboria Campaign

Attempt of the Jing to start its campaign into Natopia.

First signs of mutiny

Yamato Wei's crusade against the war

The year 1656 proved to be one of several difficulties. The Arboria offensives which were meant to push the SANE forces back on Natopian soil, and split the Natopian territory into two, isolating the troops in New Aquitane from backup in the west, had failed miserably. At enormous costs, the Jingdaoese Armed Forces had retaken their original positions from three years earlier. The offensive into Arboria was anticipated to be, by all means, a fruitless and pointless slaughter. The higher ups were still convinced that the Natopians and Shirerithians would muster their forces on other fronts (in Batavia and against Nova England) and would pay little attention to a front with no real future. None, except for some officers, really believed this.

The supply lines soon started to be overstretched, and the Shirerithian air supremacy hindered any effective offensives. Soldiers at the front, especially new recruits of non-Jing descend, started to get disillusioned. Many of them got the feeling that they were expendable meat shields, used to throw at the enemy without any real plan in mind.

In this political climate several ideologies, which otherwise were harshly suppressed at home by the Tegong, but could now flow freely through the trenches became popular. Some gathered around the rightist group 'Patriotists', while others were fascinated by the charismatic leftist leader, Yamato Wei. Yamato, second son of Tsukono Wei, had been a conscript from the first hour. There was little doubt that his early enlistment was a consequence of his family ties.

In the spring of 1656 Yamato was arrested after a fight between him and a senior officer during his leave. When he was released from prison, after the end of the offensive, he noticed the circumstances had changed: the soldiers who have lived in the trenches had lost hope of a swift victory. The Wei's socialist ideology had taken hold among a lot of people and started to spread.

The Nivelle Mutiny

The execution of corporal Nivelle, a Kildarian officer, for not following orders enrages a part of the men and sparks a mutiny.

Aftermath

Social unrest in Jingdao, especially in the region around Lake Christoph.