Normark-Cerulea war of 1727
| Operation Northern Mist | |||||||
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| Part of Wars of the Disinherited | |||||||
 Civilians amidst the ruins of the main railway station in Kaledonija, circa V.1727 AN. |
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| Belligerents | |||||||
 Raspur Pact
|  Cerulea
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| Units involved | |||||||
| Keltia Command
| People's Armed Forces
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| Strength | |||||||
Personnel: 321,614
| Personnel: 295,598
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| Casualties and losses | |||||||
North Caledonia
Air war over Stoličnaja Krlska
Siege of Kaledonija
| North Caledonia
Air war over Stoličnaja Krlska
Siege of Kaledonija
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Background
- 17.XIII.1726 AN: With immediate effect from midnight on the morning of the 17th, all adult male subjects of Normark between the ages of sixteen and forty-five were prohibited from leaving the country. Concurrently, all male members of the House of Einhorn between the ages of fifteen and sixty-five were instructed to return to Elijah's Rest within seventy-two hours of the issuance of the general summons being made.
- 18.XIII.1726 AN: Previously designated border crossings points between Cerulea and Normark are blocked by detachments of the Elian Militia. Ostensibly the closures are to prevent violations of the travel bans instituted on the previous date. Notably these measures were not however implemented on the border between Normark and Mercury.
- 19.XIII.1726 AN: Further declaration of a "National Emergency". The Chief of Operations of the Nordhær instructed 38,417 telecommunications employees and 19,208 postal workers across the realm to send out news of the declaration to the 159 second and third line regiments scattered throughout the far north of Keltia to begin mustering their reservists. The Nordhær requisitioned from Jernbanekompaniet i Normark and Trans-Keltia Railways 5,700 locomotives, 12,500 passenger coaches, and 153,700 freight cars. The mobilisation transports started moving immediately upon their assembly at railway marshalling yards. Effectively disrupting the operation of the Trans-Keltian Express within Normark. Einhorns received at Elijah's Rest by the King: Stefan Einhorn, Valde Einhorn.
- 20.XIII.1726 AN: Amnesty offered by the crown to those living descendants of Riccard Amundsson who would present themselves to the crown as part of the summons of the Einhorns, excluding the sons and daughters of Knotaric, who remained attainted as traitors.
- 21.XIII.1726 AN: Hitherto quiet about events in Normark, the Cerulean government began mobilising its own forces along its long borders with the Green, but with extra focus along the border with Normark and adjacent border areas. Commissar for foreign affairs, Ilia Abram Shvets, decried the Norse provocations and urged calm and peace, as well as a "return to the fruitful cooperative atmosphere that Cerulea and Stormark achieved around the time for the Cerulean Extradition". After that statement, Shvets was asked "Stormark? You mean Normark?", whereupon Shvets replied, "Yes, indeed, but for me, they're pretty much the same. Like Stormark, Normark has a perverse colonial attitude that needs to be stomped out. We need an auspicious occasion to save us from the Stormark-like imperialism we see in Konungsheim."
- 22.XIII.1726–24.XV.1726: Deployments of Nordhær regular forces sees the Red Division and 1st Logistics Brigade of I Corps concentrated at Galvø, whilst the first wave of mobilised reservists were assigned to formations within II (Reserve) Corps and deployed to bailiwicks along the frontier with Cerulea. 30,000 Nordhær personnel, both regulars and reservists, were accordingly assembled at forward deployment points formed out of a series of fortified encampments.
- During a similar period, Keltia Command identified Cerulean formations including the 38th Separate Guards Air Assault Brigade and the 103rd Separate Guards Airborne Brigade as having been moved into northern Caledonia, estimated as having a combined strength of 6,150 paratroopers.
Opposing Forces
Keltia Command
| Formation | Commander | Subordinate Formation | Commanders |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st Echelon | |||
| Red Division | Generalmajor Odin Christianssønn Einhorn | 6th Command & Control Regiment | Oberst Sigmundr Birgir Tarjeisson |
| 3rd Brigade of Foot | Brigadier Ottar Einhorn Mossing | ||
| 4th Brigade of Foot | Brigadier Otto Einhorn al-Osman Kåveland | ||
| 4th Commissariat Regiment | Oberstløytnant Åsgeir Einhorn al-Osman | ||
| 1st Reserve Division | Generalmajor Stefan Einhorn | 10th Command & Control Regiment | Oberst Emil Josef Tarjeisson |
| 1st Reserve (I Slevik) Brigade | Brigadier Oddvar Einhorn al-Osman | ||
| 2nd Reserve (I Jelsinga) Brigade | Brigadier Alexander Einhorn Mossing | ||
| 1st Reserve (I Eikbu) Demi-Brigade | Oberst Áki Friðrik Tarjeisson | ||
| 9th Commissariat Regiment | Oberstløytnant Vidar Einhorn al-Osman | ||
| 2nd Echelon | |||
| Security Police Division | Generalmajor Oddbjørn Gruntland-Einhorn | Regional Security Command Detachment "Normark" | Oberst Torbjørn Einhorn al-Osman |
| Regional Security Command "Nyland" | Oberst Markus Arnoldssønn Einhorn | ||
| Regional Security Command "Østfold" | Oberst Filip Einhorn Dahle | ||
| Regional Security Command "Dalen" | Oberst Arnhöfði Einhorn Tarjeisson | ||
| 18th Vanguard Division | Archon of the Third Degree & General Fredrik Michael Tarjeisson | 1st Einhornselskapet Brigade | Brigadier Auðun Fredrik Tarjeisson |
| 2nd Einhornselskapet Brigade | Brigadier Valde Einhorn | ||
| 3rd Echelon | |||
 Streïkrupp "Normark" |
Salbnan Ulrich Welf | 4 Grenadjärregemente | Ahmst Bræþstranin Viktor Weigand |
| 22 Infanteriregementet | Ahmst Bræþstranin Achim Geissler | ||
| 59 Infanteriregementet | Ahmst Bræþstranin Wernher Porsche | ||
| 24 Ingenjörregemente | Ahmst Bræþstranin Emil Adamsen | ||
| 25 Artilleriregemente | Ahmst Bræþstranin Dan Brahms | ||
| 26 Luftvärnsregemente | Ahmst Bræþstranin Lukas Evensen | ||
| 27 Signalregemente | Ahmst Bræþstranin Eirik Riese | ||
| 28 Trängregemente | Ahmst Bræþstranin Oddvar Reiter | ||
| Expeditionary Air Wing |
Salbnan Albert Tanner | 92 Command & Control Regiment | Ahmst Bræþstranin Bahador Kasabian |
| 16 Air Support Regiment | Ahmst Bræþstranin Hameed Khachaturian | ||
| 24 Air Support Regiment | Ahmst Bræþstranin Jahangir Alinejad | ||
| 32 Air Support Regiment | Ahmst Bræþstranin Parwiz Alinejad | ||
| 40 Air Support Regiment | Ahmst Bræþstranin Ghulam Jamshidi | ||
| 69 Commissariat Regiment | Ahmst Bræþstranin Karim Charmchi | ||
| 124 Inspectorate Regiment | Ahmst Bræþstranin Ghulam Sherazi | ||
| III (Reserve) Corps | Generallöjtnant Jørgen Dahle | 3rd Reserve (I Konungsheim) Brigade | Brigadgeneral Jonas Dahling Einhorn |
| 4th Reserve (II Konungsheim) Brigade | Brigadgeneral Georg Lysne | ||
| 5th Reserve (III Konungsheim) Brigade | Brigadgeneral Carl-Petter Carstensen | ||
| Independent Formations | |||
| Stridsgruppe "Valdemar" | Valdemar Einhorn al-Osman |  Banners of the Green Einhorn |
Ecgmund |
| Landgendarmerie |  Colonel Jean Fournier
| ||
| General Inspectorate of Keltia
| |||
 Vneshneye Nebo Flota |
Gennady Voljakov | ||
Peoples' Armed Forces of Cerulea
| Formation | Commander | Subordinate Formation | Commanders |
|---|---|---|---|
| Headquarters | |||
| Central Garrison | Generál-Leytenánt Anatoly Gogol | 336th Missile Artillery Brigade | Generál-Mayór Zimin Christov Danilovich |
| 465th Missile Brigade | Generál-Mayór Rybalkin Konstantin Maximovich | ||
| 111th Artillery Brigade | Generál-Mayór Ryzhikov Anton Valeryevich | ||
| 188th Engineer Brigade | Generál-Mayór Boreyev Damir Sergeyevich | ||
| Eastern Operational Command | |||
| 11th Guards Mechanised Brigade | Generál-Mayór Valentin Mischkov | 11th Guards Mechanised Brigade Headquarters | Polkóvnik Marinkin Semyon Afanasievich |
| 153rd Independent Guards Communications Battalion | Podpolkovnik Ivazov Christov Tikhonovich | ||
| 9th Independent Guards Reconnaissance and Electronic Warfare Battalion | Podpolkovnik Balakhnov Prokhor Andreevich | ||
| 249th Guards Motorised Rifle Regiment | Polkóvnik Shuysky Maxim (Maks) Gennadiyevich | ||
| 1073rd Independent Material Supply Battalion | Podpolkovnik Isayev Kvetoslav Rostislavovich | ||
| North Eastern Operational Command | |||
| 19th Mechanised Brigade | Generál-Mayór Georgi Ourumov | 19th Mechanised Brigade Headquarters | Polkóvnik Loshchilov Anatoliy Denisovich |
| 97th Motor Rifle Regiment | Polkóvnik Loginov Polikarp Gennadiyevich | ||
| 1081st Separate Material Supply Battalion | Podpolkovnik Usatov Artur Aleskeevich | ||
| 74th Separate Equipment Maintenance and Recovery Battalion | Podpolkovnik Shcherbakov Ludomir Yegorovich | ||
| 38th Separate Guards Air Assault Brigade | Generál-Mayór Stefan Orlov | 38th Separate Guards Air Assault Brigade Headquarters | Polkóvnik Mager Eugeni Yermolayevich |
| 381st Guards Airborne Battalion | Podpolkovnik Vodoleyev Isaak Victorovich | ||
| 382nd Guards Airborne Battalion | Podpolkovnik Menshchikov Berngards Sergeyevich | ||
| 101st Armoured Reconnaissance Battalion | Podpolkovnik Engelgardt Zhenka Zakharovich | ||
| 103rd Separate Guards Airborne Brigade | Generál-Mayór Arkady Koskov | 103rd Separate Guards Airborne Brigade Headquarters | Polkóvnik Charkov Danya Nikolayevich |
| 357th Guards Airborne Battalion | Podpolkovnik Pimenov Arseniy Olegovich | ||
| 572nd Guards Mixed Artillery Battalion | Podpolkovnik Astafyev David Maximovich | ||
| 116th Guards Anti-Aircraft Missile and Artillery Battalion | Podpolkovnik Zuyev Yefim Ruslanovich | ||
| 120th Guards Mechanised Brigade | Generál-Mayór Grischka Meyer | 120th Guards Mechanised Brigade Headquarters | Polkóvnik Nemtsov Artemiy Ilyich |
| 339th Guards Rifle Regiment | Polkóvnik Pirozhkov Gavril Danilovich | ||
| 310th Guards Self-Propelled Artillery Regiment | Polkóvnik Komissarov Ikovle Leonidovich | ||
| 1045th Guards Anti-Aircraft Rocket Regiment | Polkóvnik Kamenskikh Ignatiy Yanovich | ||
Campaign
Invasion of Caledonia
- I.1727
- 22:
- Without the issuance of any prior ultimatum or formal declaration of war, Krlsgorod is bombed by four waves of F-9 Ashavan II aircraft, flying under the insignia of Normark, whilst Nordhær troops cross the frontier into Caledonia from the directions of Eikbu, Galvø, and Slevik.
- Command and control nodes, as well as critical infrastructure such as international airports and railway marshalling yards, in Kaledonija, Krlsgorod, and Škoda were struck by an unidentified type of ballistic missile, presumed to be variants of the S-3 Schlächter provided to Normark by the Benacian Union.
- Surviving members of the largely defunct Nordisketing assembled in Elijah's Rest to hear a proclamation from the throne read by the Prime Minister, Ragnar Filip Tarjeisson. "Having long heard the groans of our Nordic cousins, who languish under the foul tyranny of false egalitarianism, we, mindful of our duties as humanists towards our neighbours, are committed to the liberation of our kin and the establishment of a reorganised nation under our protection and tutelage."
- The Cerulean People's Air Force claimed to have shot down twelve intruding enemy aircraft during the day's series of air raids for no losses of their own.
- 23:
- Bulletin from Keltia Command stated that three enemy aircraft had been engaged and "forced to ground" during the course of the previous day's sorties, in turn acknowledging one allied aircraft as having returned in a damaged condition whilst another had been regretfully lost owing to mechanical failure, with efforts to recover the pilot being ongoing.
- A storm system developing over Lake Caledonia restricted air operations by both sides, with planned air raids against targets in and around Krlsgorod being cancelled.
- 3rd Brigade of Foot, advancing along the Galvø axis in northern Caledonia, reported to be heavily engaged in fighting against border guards under the command of the Cerulean KGB.
- 22:
- II.1727
- 1:
- Elements of the Cerulean 19th Mechanised Brigade, reinforced by mobilised reservists of the Red Guard, begin to concentrate around Kaledonija.
- Impacts from multiple suspected short-range ballistic missiles reported in Jelsinga. Electronic communication and information networks are "throttled" in the immediate aftermath, most probably in an effort to prevent the circulation of images of destruction or news of civilian casualties.
- Detachments from the 38th Separate Guards Air Assault Brigade begin to engage the 3rd Brigade of Foot in forested and wintery conditions, where movement on both sides were impeded by heavy snowfall - a consequence of the previous day's storm.
- Concerns in Keltia Command that the appointment of Einhorn family members to leadership positions in the invasion force meant that the lessons of the Liberation of Dalen had not been learnt.
- 2:
- 2nd Reserve (I Jelsinga) Brigade, reinforced by contingents of Elian Militia, departed southwards into the Green of northern Keltia.
- 38th Separate Guards Air Assault Brigade engaged on its right flank by regimental battle groups of the 4th Brigade of Foot and obliged to withdraw before lines of communication towards Kaledonija was cut off.
- 3:
- Red Guard militia engaged by vanguard of the 1st Reserve (I Slevik) Brigade and obliged to retire towards Kaledonija.
- 357th Guards Airborne Battalion of the 103rd Separate Guards Airborne Brigade moved by road to reinforce the 38th Separate Guards Air Assault Brigade and counter the flanking manoeuvre of the Nordhaer.
- Emergency services respond to a serious fire at a fuel depot attached to the Sårensby Industrial Area. Sabotage suspected.
- 4:
- Further ballistic missile launches from inside Cerulea, this time towards Elijah's Rest, foiled by ABM interceptors fired from Citadele Alexandrin.
- Main lines of resistance bypassed by 1st Reserve (I Eikbu) Demi-Brigade, further threatening the right flank of Cerulean forces in northern Caledonia.
- Defensive positions prepared around Kaledonija occupied by 19th Mechanised Brigade, comprised of two manoeuvre infantry battalions, a motor-rifle battalion and tank battalion, and rear area support elements.
- Elements of the 120th Guards Mechanised Brigade on the road towards Kaledonija from Krlsgorod.
- Logistics convoy of the 9th Commissariat Regiment out of Slevik shot-up by Cerulean attack helicopters. Dozens of support vehicles left burning or abandoned. Land Forces Command angrily demands that the Army Co-operation Corps of Aerospace Forces Command at least try to live up to its name by providing combat air patrols over advancing formations.
- 5:
- Raspur Pact recon assets detected air defence equipment, including surface-to-air launchers, being moved into concealed positions around Krlsgorod, Kaledonija, Lujamaa, and Škoda.
- 1st Reserve (I Eikbu) Demi-Brigade engaged by 357th Guards Airborne Battalion as it attempted to cut into the rear of the 38th Separate Guards Air Assault Brigade from the east. Attacking Cerulean force was comprehensively outgunned at the initial encounter and was subsequently broken up by two pincer-attacks conducted by the second and third regiments of the I Eikbu.
- Reflecting fears of a sabotage campaign within Normark by hostile forces, the ESB (Keltia) Security Division was reactivated by the mutual agreement of Keltia Command and the Honourable Company.
- 6:
- Aerospace Forces Command refused to authorise combat sorties by first line airframes in southern Caledonia until Cerulean air defence network neutralised. Relations with Land Forces Command further deteriorate.
- Armed Forces Headquarters demanded capture of Kaledonija before enemy defensive line can consolidate.
- Alerted to the presence of enemy forces to its rear, 38th Separate Guards Air Assault Brigade attempted to disengage from the 3rd and 4th Brigades of Foot and resume retreat towards Kaledonija.
- 7:
- Red Guard counterattacks against the 1st Reserve (I Slevik) Brigade, lacking artillery and armour support, are repelled with heavy losses for the attackers.
- 8: "Second Echelon" of the invasion, comprised of Elian Militia and 18th Vanguard Division contingents, begin to muster at Jelsinga and Galvø respectively. Aerlan pattern rifles and machine-guns were widely seen amongst the assembling forces.
- 12: Encirclement of the 38th Separate Guards Air Assault Brigade and 103rd Separate Guards Airborne Brigade, along with ad hoc KGB, border guard, and Red Guard units, is completed - resulting in the creation of a pocket of enemy forces trapped by the Nordhaer.
- 16: After four days of continuous bombardment, without resupply, and unable to form viable defensive positions, Cerulean paratroopers broke up into small detachments and attempt to force their way out of the encirclement that had closed about them. The majority would be killed or captured during the course of their night-time attempt at crossing the lines.
- 24: By the end of the month, 4,759 paratroopers, along with a motley assortment of Red Guard militiamen and KGB officers had arrived in Kaledonija. Placed into the Drooningfort and on Braun Cairn Hill south of the River Albanmach as a reserve for the garrison of the town.
- 1:
- III.1727
- 1: Warbands, comprised of mounted contingents and convoys of all-terrain vehicles, travelling under the banner of the Green Einhorns were reported to have begun raiding border communities in the Ashkenazi Autonomous People's Republic.
- 2:
- Benacian Union announced decision to dispatch an expeditionary force in support of Normark's campaign.
- Eastern Operational Command of the Cerulean People's Armed Forces activated in response to raiding from the Green in Ashkenazi Autonomous People's Republic.
- 3: 11th Guards Mechanised Brigade mobilised at Škoda and assigned to the Eastern Operational Command.
- 4: Third echelon formations of the Nordhaer begin to assemble in western Normark. The use of levies taken from Elijah's Rest caused disquiet in the capital.
- 5: Large scale air interdiction and air defence suppression campaign begun by the Normark Air Fleet of Nouvelle Alexandrie and the Army Co-operation Corps of the Nordhaer with the objective of gaining air supremacy over Stoličnaja Krlska.
- 15: The onset of the thaw heralded the beginning of the "muddy season", making off-road movements and the occupation of dugouts into occasions for increased misery.
- 17: Pause in the air campaign. Normark Air Fleet endured heavy losses albeit at the cost of unsustainable losses for the Cerulean People's Air Force and ground-based air defences.
- 20: Gennady Voljakov, Admiral of Caledonia, a figure long accused of being the instigator and beneficiary of piracy on Lake Caledonia, is received in Elijah's Rest as a guest of the crown.
- 21: x43 F-18 Cyclone and x14 C-12 Sojourner assigned to the Wechua Air Fleet and tasked to conduct a strategic air campaign against Cerulea. Haifan airbases made available to allied aviation assets by the Imperial Federation.
- IV.1727
- 4: Benacian Expeditionary Force attached to III (Reserve) Corps, the lead formation of the 3rd Echelon.
Siege of Kaledonija
As the fourth month of 1727 progressed, the formations attached to the first echelon of Normark's invasion force began their steady advance, converging upon Kaledonija in parallel lines of advance from the north. The invaders, with air superiority now established, were able to advance in three separate columns, these being headed, from west to east, by the 1st Reserve (I Slevik) Brigade, the 3rd Brigade of Foot, and the 1st Reserve (I Eikbu) Demi-Brigade, each reinforced by detachments of armour, artillery, and the ever present contingents of the commissariat and inspectorate bringing up the rear and establishing their various posts along the lines of communication stretching all the way back to the frontier.
Initial skirmishes
On the 14th day of the month, the snatch land rovers of the 1st Reserve (I Eikbu) Demi-Brigade's reconnaissance squadron were rewarded with their first view of the landward approaches to Kaledonija from the north. They were duly obliged to retire at the approach of a regiment of ill-dressed brigands playing at the role of red cossacks. They had however been able to note the trenches and earthworks which had been excavated by the defenders of the city in anticipation of their arrival. This report was duly delivered to the commander of the 1st Reserve Division, Generalmajor Stefan Einhorn, at the 47th Agricultural Commune, which his staff had requisitioned for a headquarters. The Generalmajor had been using the brigade leader of the kolkhoz and his family as subjects for his sabre practice out in the barn when the report first arrived, and was obliged to send for a bowl of warm water and towel with which to clean himself as the summary was read in his presence by a somewhat perturbed adjutant. Having enquired how as to how quickly field guns could be brought up, and being evidently unsatisfied with the answer, the Generalmajor directed for an air strike to be requested against the enemy's position.
The request was duly communicated to Joint Operations Command in Elijah's Rest, however the staff officers were embarrassed to discover the absence of any officer at general headquarters sufficiently empowered to authorise an air strike. The Director of Joint Operations, Brigadgeneral Jonas Dahling Einhorn, having departed for the field to take command of the 3rd Reserve (I Konungsheim) Brigade on account of the dearth of officers in the Nordhaer with sufficient rank to command the higher formations when deployed. Ostensibly, this matter ought to have been simply addressed via the means of a simple signal to the headquarters of the brigade where Jonas Dahling Einhorn had taken up command. However, since the units of the brigade were in transit from Elijah's Rest towards the theatre of operations, the communications net was non-functional, the radios and satellite phones being packed away for the journey, and it was necessary to send a motorcycle courier chasing after the column of trucks and armoured vehicles heading towards the frontier.
Fortunately, someone at Joint Operations Command had the presence of mind to call a counterpart in the Elian Militia and place alerts with the regional security commands along the brigade's expected line of march. The Director's staff car was accordingly flagged down at Kongsviken by a militia patrol, and prevailed upon, after some testy exchanges with the militia officers and a telephone call to Armed Forces Headquarters, to pull over at a service station and await the arrival of the courier. Jonas Dahling Einhorn duly read the missive in a spirit of acute agitation, demanding to know why requests for anything so trivial as air support were being brought to him, before pausing and remembering that it had been his own instructions which had established the present decision structure. This realisation did nothing to improve his mood. He duly scribbled a series of instructions on the margins of the crumpled signal print-out and handed it back to the courier, curtly dismissing him from his presence. The Director decided thereafter to requisition a suite at a suitable hotel in Kongsviken, which is to say the least wretched one his adjutant could find after browsing the local directory. The Brigadgeneral duly settled down for the evening, having further requisitioned a bottle of cognac whilst his staff were scattered to the four winds recovering encrypted communications equipment and any plausible NCO from a signals unit so that no further repeat of this debacle could be expected.
The further transposing and relaying of those orders to Aerospace Forces Command had mercifully been a relatively straightforward affair, and at 2 am on 16.IV.1727 four T-5/A-5 Tejón de Miel from the Army Co-operation Corps were airborne from an improvised landing strip in a dismal tract of Northern Caledonia for a flight south-westwards.
Approximately an hour later, two of the aircraft began their run on the designated grid coordinates, each jettisoning two pods filled with an incendiary viscous mixture which detonated at 250 metres above the area a kilometre beyond the release point, and also unfortunately half a kilometre beyond the earthworks which were to be the ostensible target of the strike. It did however make for a spectacular pyrotechnical display, which enveloped an entire row of bungalows on the northern outskirts of Kaledonija, which had however fortunately been already cleared of occupants in anticipation of their being converted into defensive strong-points. This possibility was now thoroughly precluded but there were at least no fatalities from the conflagration. In consequence, just about every battalion and company entrenched around Kaledonija was now aware that an air raid was in progress. As a myriad of positions began firing wildly into the night's sky at the unseen intruders, the batteries of the 1045th Guards Anti-Aircraft Rocket Regiment were roused from their slumber and alerted that they were to be about their work, hastily dashing across to their command modules and powering up their active search radars in search of targets to illuminate – which was unfortunate news for the second pair of T-5/A-5 Tejón de Miel as they began their own attack runs. Two missiles, believed to be bastardised copies of the SA-1 Red Mist, were fired, and two found their mark, resulting in two plunging fireballs falling to earth, scattering a generous field of debris over a wide radius in their wake.
Scouts from the Red Division of the Nordhaer had conducted further reconnaissance missions in the days following the debacle on the 16th day of the month. A picture developed of the enemy's general plan of defence - three courses of entrenchments had been dug around the city of Kaledonija on its landward sides, interrupted only by the westwards course of the River Albanmach flowing into Lake Caledonia. In addition to these trenches were identified two redans, placed so as to control the roads into Kaledonija from the north and north-east, whilst the southern approaches were dominated by earthworks thrown-up on Braun Cairn Hill as well as the fortified structure known as the Drooningfort within the city, which dominated the bridging point over the Albanmach. The redans, situated close by the villages of Priestwick and Quivox, were assessed as bastions of the 97th Motor Rifle Regiment of the 19th Mechanised Brigade and the 339th Guards Rifle Regiment of the 120th Guards, these being the most last formations believed capable of holding off an immediate advance into the city. The remainder of the defensive positions were considered most likely to be held by mobilised Red Guards of doubtful worth.
The command staffs of the Red Division and 1st Reserve Division contrived to arrange for a conference in Monkton, 3 km north of Priestwick, after a rack of cured Caledonian hams had been discovered by a requisitioning detachment of the commissariat, hidden in the rafters of a public house. Generalmajor Odin Christianssønn Einhorn and Generalmajor Stefan Einhorn had scarcely arrived to take their place at table when they were forced to hurriedly seek cover as the village was bracketed by a salvo of rocket artillery fired off by the defenders of Kaledonija. Of the twelve unguided rockets fired, three fell within the Monkton, albeit all three missed the collectivised tavern and thus it was possible to salvage the hams and bear them away in the hurried cavalcade away from the scene.
On the 19th of the month, a reconnaissance patrol of the 4th Brigade of Foot was discovered on the approaches to the Priestwick redan, having become lost during the night and subsequently stranded in a minefield – the Red Guard holding an adjacent section of the line being alerted after the lead NCO in the eight-man patrol had become abruptly relieved of his left foot after treading upon an antipersonnel mine. Thirty minutes of wild firing into the empty countryside ensued in the sector between the Priestwick redan and the shore of Lake Caledonia. With the arrival of dawn, and the assurance of the absence of the enemy, a patrol was sent out which duly brought in the seven surviving Normarkers and the body of the corporal who had been leading them.
Later on in the morning of the 19th, a Greystrike Multi-role fighter, one of a batch of seventy-two which had been ordered by the Nordhær in 1719 AN, departed from the airfield within Citadele Alexandrin, bound for the conflict zone. The aircraft, painted in the livery of Normark albeit flown by a test pilot from Javelin Industries, duly released a locally manufactured glide bomb from outside the assessed engagement range of the local air defences at Kaledonija. Lobbed towards the Drooningfort, as a convenient central aiming point, the bomb had left a commendable crater in the drill square with the additional benefit of wrecking the adjacent barracks accomodation. Sixteen of the garrison within the fort were duly hospitalised with blast concussion and severe lacerations, whilst the body parts associated with a further ten deceased were eventually gathered up in the surrounding area. Thereafter the defenders of the fort felt obliged to spend the majority of their time, when not on duty, in the comparative shelter of dugouts within the perimeter trench lines.
Lines of Communication
As the first echelon formations began to skirmish with the defenders of Kaledonija, the 18th Vanguard Division, supported by the Security Police Division of the Elian Militia, began to assume occupation duties in the wider province, or at least that portion north of the River Albanmach and Lake Caledonia.
A state of siege
Following the incidents of the 14th to the 19th of IV.1727 AN, reported to the Presidium in Krlsgorod as the decisive repulse of an enemy combined-arms attack in strength, a proclamation was issued in Kaledonija declaring a state of "active defence" to be in effect. Entry and exit points to the settlement were to be controlled by the KGB and Red Guard. All foodstuffs were to be requisitioned for the garrison, with inspectors appointed to the task of conducting house inspections and examining any person encountered in the streets for contraband. Men and boys between the ages of fifteen and sixty-five not previously mobilised were now to be impressed into civil defence detachments of the Red Guard. Women and girls, boys under the age of fifteen, and the elderly and infirm, excepting those retained for the essential needs of the garrison, were to quit Kaledonija within forty-eight hours. The draconian decree was signed by all four of the commanders associated with the North Eastern Operational Command, namely Generál-Mayór Georgi Ourumov, Generál-Mayór Stefan Orlov, Generál-Mayór Arkady Koskov, and Generál-Mayór Grischka Meyer, who now styled themselves collectively as the People's Council for the Defence of Kaledonija.
The 20th day of IV.1727 was marked by a significant air raid against Kaledonija. The Army Co-operation Corps contributed two F-19 Greystrike, twenty-one T-7/A-6 Víbora, and sixty-three T-5/A-5 Tejón de Miel, whilst the Normark Air Fleet of New Alexandria put into the sky eighty-four F-9 Ashavan II. The attacking force was supported by four C-12 Sojourners in the air-to-air refuelling role and six F-18 Cyclones flying combat air patrol over Cerulea.
Engagements by ground-based air defences during the preceding two air raids, combined with satellite reconnaissance imagery provided by orbital assets of the Natopian Defense Force, had allowed planners of Keltia Command to identify the eleven launcher emplacements of the 1045th Guards Anti-Aircraft Rocket Regiment south of Kaledonija, and their associated radar modules on Braun Cairn Hill.
Strike formations of this scale were impossible for Cerulean air defences to ignore, and the alerts concerning considerable inbound strikes were duly flashed to the headquarters of North Eastern Operational Command. Crews were hurriedly ordered to their stations at the launcher vehicles and their remote command modules, whilst air raid warning sirens blared in Kaledonija itself.
At forty kilometres north-west of Kaledonija, flying over Lake Caledonia, first wave of twenty-one F-9 Ashavan II's fired off their initial salvo of forty-two S-2 missiles before turning sharply towards the north-east. Of the forty-two fired, twenty-three flew true towards their designated aiming points. As the missile barrage approached within twenty-five kilometres of their targets, each of the launcher vehicles salvoed four SA-1 missiles in response, with twenty-eight successfully detonating in proximity to the inbound twenty-three, neutralising the attack. However this was only the first wave, as the next squadron of Ashavans flying under the colours of Normark now duly began its attack, launching forty-five kilometres north of Kaledonia before dumping flares and turning sharply about. Again the numbers game would play out. Another forty-two S-2 missiles were inbound, with this time a mere thirteen managing to maintain an accurate track towards their designated target. Again the ground-based launcher vehicles would fire off another four interceptors, meaning that they were at this point half-way depleted, and scoring nineteen hits. Already the third wave of S-2s, this time from the north-east, were inbound, of which sixteen were on a course that would place them anywhere near their target. These were met again by the wave of interceptors, which recorded twenty-two proximate detonations. Finally the last wave was inbound from the east, however the cruel jape in this instance was that the final squadron of Ashavans carried four S-2 missiles configured for ground attack instead of the two carried by the aircraft of the preceding strike packages. This time, eighty-four missiles were inbound, and the Cerulean defenders only had forty-four SAMs left in their launch cells, with no opportunity to reload. Thirty-eight of the inbound S-2 missiles kept their correct flight trajectory, and these were met by the final forty-four SAMs lofted in response. Twenty-four interceptions were recorded, but moments later impacts began to register all around the positions held by the 1045th Guards Anti-Aircraft Rocket Regiment. The main radar array was initially fortunate to survive a near miss from an S-2 ploughing into the earth two-hundred metres from its position, only to struck full-on by an air-burst from the next. Five of the eleven launch vehicles would similarly be violently decommissioned by proximity air-bursts by the remaining twelve S-2 missiles which had made it through to their assigned targets. Forty-one fatalities would be recorded amongst the defenders alongside sixty-three wounded severely enough to be hospitalised.
Nor was this the end of the attack. The two Greystrikes had now each delivered two glide-bombs with eight-hundred kilogram warheads against the Drooningfort, with its main standing structure, the ancient tower within the parade ground, used as the aiming point. Dispiritingly for the defenders, the glide-bombs followed their gentle trajectory down onto target with a greater degree of reliability than the previous barrage of Benacian manufactured missiles had demonstrated. All four detonated on impact with their aiming point, and what had once been a sturdy monument of ages past was now a smoking crater filled with tumbled down shards of cyclopean masonry. As the tower had been a convenient structure upon which to install an array of radio antennae, the communication network of the entire North Eastern Operational Command was at once brutally interrupted. Another eighteen of the defenders had been recorded as fatalities, with seventy-one hospitalised with a mixture of concussions, lacerations, and burns.
It was similarly the beginning of a bad day for the defenders of the prominent redans which had been established at Priestwick and Quivox as anchors in the defensive line established around the city.
A wing of sixty-three T-5/A-5 Tejón de Miel conducted a shallow dive bombing run against the Priestwick redan, each releasing four 240kg general purpose unguided bombs, fitted with tail retarding devices to slow their fall until the attacking aircraft had passed over the target. Whilst the surface to air missile defences had been neutralised by the initial waves of the attack, the 97th Motor Rifle Regiment had been fully alerted to the scale of the air attack underway, and accordingly every man-portable air defence system and heavy-calibre machine-gun capable of being elevated skywards, had been fully crewed, with spotters ready to call in the altitude and direction of incoming intruders. Of the sixty-three aircraft that went into the attack, thirty-seven were struck by return fire from the ground, eighteen of which were subjected to critical damage. Seven of the damaged aircraft were destroyed outright, albeit the crews of four of which were able to eject successfully. One-hundred and twenty-four of the unguided bombs released over the target area fell within the redan, and of these fifty-nine obliged by detonating upon impact. Ninety-three of the defenders perished during the pummelling of the redan whilst a further three-hundred and fifty-two were grievously wounded. The 97th MRR was accordingly left with seven-hundred and fifty-five effectives after its first significant encounter. Thirty-five of the forty-one armoured fighting vehicles allocated to the regiment were also either destroyed outright or rendered inoperable as a consequence of the air-strike, as a number of these had been parked on raised platforms abutting from the main line of the earthen ramparts so as to constitute defensive bastions on the corner angles of the redan. Polkóvnik Loginov Polikarp Gennadiyevich, commander of the 97th, would finish the day in the custody of the KGB – being charged with gross negligence in the preparation of defensive works and the dispersal of his forces along the assigned frontage guarded by his regiment. It was not considered acceptable for a single unit to have suffered such high losses in manpower, and importantly in materiel, from a single instance of enemy action. Podpolkovnik Menshchikov Berngards Sergeyevich, formerly commander of the 382nd Guards Airborne Battalion, was duly appointed to take command of the 97th, receiving the acting rank of polkóvnik as a sweetener. Detachments of the recently impressed workers' militia were also assigned to reinforce the weakened sector.
A single squadron of T-7/A-6 Víbora light attack aircraft were tasked with strafing the Quivox redan. Each of the twenty-one aircraft carried eight 70 mm unguided rockets in two pods, with the option of following up by shooting-up everything that remained out in the open with their eight wing-mounted M1693 medium machine guns. Compared with the havoc wrought over at the Priestwick redan, the impact upon the defenders of Quivox was markedly less pronounced. Thirty-six dead and seventy wounded, along with thirty-three wrecked trucks. Set against that however, the experience of being pounded with rockets was hardly conducive for the morale of the troops of the 339th Guards Rifle Regiment stationed in the redan. Fifteen of the attacking light aircraft were struck by ground fire, of which four were downed, with all eight aircrew lost, and one damaged beyond repair.
Assault on the redans
The Red Division moved out towards Priestwick from the direction of Monkton on the night of 20.IV.129 AN, but made poor progress. The column of Brigadier Ottar Einhorn Mossing's 3rd Brigade of Foot got lost in the dark. Although Brigadier Otto Einhorn al-Osman Kåveland's 4th Brigade of Foot arrived on time, he was ordered to wait for Mossing so that all of the infantry could advance upon the Priestwick redan in a pincer. Eventually the infantry crossed by 3:40 a.m. on 21.IV.1729 and were ordered to move forward against the enemy's defensive lines at daylight. By 7 a.m., both the 3rd and 4th Brigades had encountered pickets of enemy militia, but were stopped from further advance by poorly aimed but heavy bursts of machine-gun and mortar fire. Mossing meanwhile has hesitated at the sight of the formidable, albeit now bomb scarred, earthworks of the redan, whilst al-Osman Kåveland also felt that the Cerulean defences were too strong and that he could not move forward unless Mossing'a brigade attacked in conjunction with him. Mossing demurred, telling al-Osman Kåveland that he would attack but that both of the brigades should await the arrival of Horjins to provide direct fire support. The infantry of the two brigades had meanwhile begun to clump up behind areas of cover.
Sergeyevich, the acting commander of the Cerulean 97th Motorised Rifle Regiment, concerned by the destruction of the bulk of his armoured support on the preceding day, requested the full measure of available artillery be brought to bear against the developing attack before the assaulting forces were able to close the distance to his positions. Sporadic shellfire began to result in near hits for the bunched up groups of attackers, doing little for their overall morale, tempting many to try to quietly edge backwards out of harms way. Regimental officers of the Red Division, supported by their senior NCOs were duly obliged to go out to beat the laggards into some semblance of a skirmish line. Oberst Sigmundr Birgir Tarjeisson of the 6th Command & Control Regiment arrived on the scene by 8 a.m. to make an assessment of the situation and demand an explanation as to the lack of progress. Mossing and al-Osman Kåveland in turn defended their decision to halt, citing the absence of promised armoured support.
By midday three Horjins had arrived, however these were seen off by one of the surviving Cerulean MBTs dug in hull down on the flanks of the redan. The two brigades accordingly drew back, focusing most of their efforts on gathering up those who had decided to absent themselves from the field and upon establishing a rudimentary line of foxholes within the nearest areas of forested cover.
During the night of the 21st both sides established forward pickets and sent out scouts in raiding parties. The effect was to ensure that everyone concerned in that sector had a miserable and sleepless night.
By the afternoon of the following day, Odin Christianssønn Einhorn had managed to assemble forty Horjins and thirty-seven M1701 towed rocket launchers, along with fifty-seven Razkampfwagen and a squadron of armoured scout vehicles with which to support the Red Division. It would be a sufficient quantity of armoured vehicles to deliver two cohorts of infantry to the Priestwick redan.
The attack would take a further day to prepare, and in the meantime the 1st Reserve Division was directed to stage attacks against the second redan, held by the 339th Guards Rifle Regiment.
Attempts by the 1st Reserve Division to send forward assault groups under the cover of fire provided by loose skirmish lines were badly cut up, with repeated efforts to rally and renew the attack by working their way forward through cover afforded by dead ground, proved ultimately to be unsuccessful. With nothing to show for their efforts by dusk, the attackers withdrew a short distance out of the range of the defenders of the redan. Under the cover of darkness the Nordhær reservists managed to dig a dozen or so mortar pits and two lines of shallow firing positions in a crescent around the outworks of the redan.
During the night of the 22nd, Arnhöfði Einhorn Tarjeisson, Åsgeir Einhorn al-Osman, and Böðgæðir Thorgils Tarjeisson arrived at the headquarters of headquarters of the Red Division, accompanied by an armed retinue formed of close protection details provided for the trio by the Einhorn Society, Honourable Company, and the Fyrð of the Holy Order. An equerry of the King of Normark had arrived with the three men, and delivered the instructions of his majesty. They were to earn their spurs by participating in the assault upon the Priestwick redan. It was noted by the slightly incredulous staff officers that their newly acquired, but quite unsought, guests had arrived in a convoy of nine Ahvaz land cruisers. These at least could prove useful, and the gallants were accordingly instructed to attach themselves to Brigadier Ottar Einhorn Mossing's 3rd Brigade of Foot.
From dawn on the 24th, the Priestwick redan was struck over the course of a full hour by two hundred and ninety-six vencejo missiles fired by the massed batteries of M1701 launchers placed eight kilometres back from the area of the engagement. Under the cover of this bombardment, the attacking force, attached to the 3rd Brigade of Foot, moved up to attack the redan from the west.
For the purpose of the assault, the attacking formation had formed up into an armoured wedge, with the Horjins on the tip, the Razkampfwagens on the flanks, and the lightly armoured and unarmoured vehicles bringing up the rear.
One Horjin struck a presumed anti-tank mine, forcing its hurried abandonment by the crew and embarked infantry squad. Another slid ignominiously, and sideways, into a concealed pit where it came to rest upended. The Razkampfwagens fared far worse, being caught in battlefield obstacles and picked off the surviving hull-down tank on the Cerulean redan. The remainder pressed on, with the Horjins engaging those defenders so ill-advised as to peer over the lip of the redan earthworks with a generous dose of direct fire from their 40 mm auto cannons. The surviving Razkampfwagens, fanning out in parallel to the earthworks, also began to lay down a suppressing fire with their heavy calibre machine-guns. Whilst this fusillade was ongoing, the embarked infantry from the selected assault cohorts were hurriedly disembarked into the edges of the Cerulean defensive system.
Breakthrough and exploitation
The bloody assault on the Priestwick redan was the tipping point. Normark's forces, led by armoured spearheads and backed by withering artillery barrages, having established their lodgement, finally cleared the formidable earthworks after days of bombardment. Cerulean defenders fled or surrendered en masse as the momentum decisively shifted.
With the city's northern defences collapsing, Kaledonija's fate was sealed. Normark poured reserve units from the third echelon through the breach, relentlessly pounding the remaining fortifications with airstrikes and rocket artillery. The deafening bombardment shattered Cerulean morale and communications. With the defensive lines broken, the defenders of the perimeter were obliged to withdraw into Kaledonija, lest they be envelopes from their exposed flanks.
Moreover the lines of retreat out of Kaledonija towards Krlsgorod were cut by patrols of the 1st Reserve (I Eikbu) Demi-Brigade which had moved to the southwest of Kaledonija, establishing positions overlooking the main highway. This left Lake Caledonia itself as the sole means by which reinforcements could be delivered to Kaledonija or the defenders evacuated.
As Kaledonija was encircled, its remaining defenders were subjected to the grim privations of an unrelenting siege. Starvation set in, and the levied militiamen of the Red Guard cowered in basements as their homes were razed building by building. After weeks of resistance, the last defenders finally laid down arms amid the smoldering ruins.
Reaving of Cerulea
Whilst the siege of Kaledonija developed, Valdemar Einhorn al-Osman had been dispatched to take command of the roving bands of the Green Einhorn who had entered the White Mountain region at the invitation of the King of Normark. This predatory and barbarous rabble, who had acquired an infamous reputation fighting on the opposing side during the Liberation of Dalen, had been given a licence to undertake their own free booting razzia against the Cerulean population. Valdemar's mission was to take them in hand and to organise them into a force capable of tying down the Red Guard whilst collecting "contributions" from communities that would be given the choice between either paying towards their conquest voluntarily or enduring the horrors of a sack during which all properties would be plundered and every civilian would be subjected to whatever horrors the Einhornists could devise.
Valdemar would be supported in his endeavours by gendarmerie and inspectorate formations organised by Keltia Command. Cerulean propagandists would subsequently claim that elements of the 300th Air-Land Combined-Arms Army were operating inside the country, however the Vice-Premier of Nouvelle Alexandrie, Maximilian de Almagro would go on the record on 12.V.1727 to deny that there were any Alexandrian boots on the ground ("This remains a Normark-led operation, comprised of Normarkers, and we wish them well.").
Since the earliest raids on outlying shtetls in the Ashkenazi Autonomous People's Republic, the presence of the Green Einhorn warbands had been opposed by local contingents of Red Guard, supported by the Cerulean KGB and the 11th Guards Mechanised Brigade. One boon that Valdemar brought with him, which would ultimately encourage the Green Einhorns into acquiescing to his leadership, was the presence of a small team of forward air controllers embedded with the General Inspectorate's field detachment. For what were essentially glorified bands of armed vagrants on ponies, whose main firepower hitherto had been machine-guns mounted on the back of pick-up trucks, the ability to request close air support, and to receive in a timely manner, was a powerful force multiplier.
With the main strength of the enemy bottled up in Kaledonija, the Green Einhorn warbands fanned out like locusts, pillaging and terrorising Cerulean towns and villages. No atrocity was off limits as they took sadistic vengeance, wanted by Normark for unleashing mayhem while its forces secured the north. Reinforcements from Krlsgorod were annihilated piecemeal by the raiders in coordination with air strikes conducted by the air arm of the Nordhær.
Armistice
With resistance crumbling across Cerulea, the battered Cerulean high command watched helplessly as Normark's spearheads began the final push towards the capital Krlsgorod. Facing escalating depredations by the Green Einhorns already at the city's outskirts, they sued for armistice to stop the bloodshed.
Normark's terms were predictably draconian - demobilisation, reparations, dismantling of the communist regime, and subordination to Konungsheim's dominance. But having gambled desperately by making their stand at Kaledonija and having lost, the Cerulean leadership had no choice but to accept the terms so as to avoid complete annihilation.
As the ink dried on the armistice in that devastated city hall in Kaledonija on 2.XII.1727, a pall of silence fell over a broken and occupied land. Tens of thousands lay dead, and Cerulea's dream of independence was shattered, forced to exist as a client state tethered to its Normarker conquerors.
Chaos reigned as Nordhær troops moved in, with the unruly Green Einhorns continuing their depredations until divisions from the third echelon pushed into the White Mountain region and restored order.
Aftermath
Direct New Alexandrian military assistance for the Nordhær in Cerulea would continue until the general election of 1729 saw the Federal Humanist Party ousted from government after 18 years by a Progressive Alliance headed by the Federal Consensus Party.
The Benacian Streïkrupp "Normark" was installed in Krlsgorod, alongside the 3rd Reserve (I Konungsheim) Brigade of the Nordhær, in order to enforce the armistice.
The first echelon forces, which had borne the brunt of the fighting in Caledonia were withdrawn back into Normark proper and demobilised, whilst the paramilitary formations of the second echelon were replaced by contingents from the Elian Militia.
Demilitarisation proceeded slowly during 1728 AN but was insisted upon with greater urgency by Keltia Command in the following year after Cerulea somehow got itself entangled in a conflict with neighbouring Aerla. The General Inspectorate of Keltia would subsequently oversee the dismantling and decommissioning of the remaining Cerulean air defence assets in the south of the country.
Demobilisation would be a gradual process. Red Guard members were required to surrender their weapons and sign a declaration of parole undertaking to make no attempt to resume hostilities lest they and their families be made subject to reprisals. Members of the regular armed forces were obliged to remain confined to their barracks after the surrender of their arms. The government of Normark generously undertook to meet their arrears of pay and to ensure that they would receive a discharge bonus as they each took their turn to be cashiered from the People's Armed Forces.
No such consideration was shown to the KGB, they, along with the commissars, the ubiquitous political officers embedded in the armed forces by the communist party, were to be interned for the duration of the armistice, pending a final determination of their fate. In practice, the general populace of Cerulea was strongly encouraged to undertake their own brand of direct and popular justice against members of the communist party and the security services.
International reaction
Aerla: The news of war between Normark and Cerulea was a call for concern for the government in Noursala, always paranoid of regional instability reaching their doorsteps. Curiously enough, several Noursala Military-Industrial-marked crates of weapons and ammunition were observed being transferred over the Normark and Aerla's shared border near Port Aerla.
- Soon after the outbreak of the war, Boreas Program early warning stations were placed on high alert for any unidentified foreign aircraft or missiles entering Aerlan airspace.
- In III.XV.1727, a Voice of Aerla report stated that several Cerulean families were apprehended by Republican Border Service officers at checkpoints in the Six Parishes attempting to seek refuge from the war. The Commissioner of the RBS, Dillon Lowe, stated that these families would be considered as "foreign alien refugees", and would be sent to processing centers for temporary accommodation.
Floria: Floria has called for a peaceful resolution to the conflict and would provide refuge to those affected. Floria also refused to provide military and logistical support to Normark despite still being members of the Raspur Pact after a membership referendum which resulted in the Florian public voting for the nation to leave the pact.
Mercury: Mercury has temporarily suspended border crossings to and from Normark, including those of the Trans-Keltian Express.
Moorland: Moorland has pledged its support to Normark, considering the communist regime in Cerulea a totalitarian threat to the free will of its people and a danger to regional stability.
