Unternehmen Verschlinger

Unternehmen Verschlinger
Part of Second Elwynnese Civil War & Warring Islands Conflict
Date 22.IX.1693 – Location Great Western Sea North Island South Island
Belligerents
Benacia Command  Elluenuueq  Unified Governorates  Keltia Command / Normark	Republic of Tarrland (Support)  Calbion  Elwynn and Amokolia
Society for Benevolent Investment	Nova England
Commanders and leaders
Wilhelm Wartensleben	"Rusty"

Unternehmen Verschlinger (22.IX.1693 – ) was a Raspur Pact-led invasion of South Island during the Second Elwynnese Civil War. The purpose of the invasion was to exterminate the Tarr people who had risen in rebellion against the UDF garrison of Station Kaamiozyr, who had been their protectors since their liberation from slavery following the Battle of Chryse. The ingratitude of the rebels, who had aligned with the rebellion in Elwynn and Amokolia and allowed Calbionese ships to refuel and resupply from captured UDF stores, had sealed their fate in the eyes of the Pact's Keltia Command.

Mission

Operational command

Riksamiraler Wilhelm Wartensleben, the former Supreme Commander of Keltia Command, had been appointed to the UDF's Fleet Resurrection Command following the Battle of Rockwind Passage and the transfer of lead nation status on Keltia from Elluenuueq to Nouvelle Alexandrie. With replacement hulls still undergoing construction in shipyards scattered across Nouvelle Alexandrie, Sanama, Sathrati, and the UGB, the force available to his command consisted of the twelve Seafox-class corvettes and such displaced naval personnel as had been gathered together and dispatched to Florencia. For the purpose of conducting the invasion of "Tarrland", the Riskamiraler would have at his disposal a whole fleet sortie conducted by the Maritime Forces of the Black Legions, and a considerable landing force that included two full legions.

Primary objective

The mission handed to Riksamiraler Wartensleben was an admirably succinct one. With the entire force at his disposal he was to cross the Great Western Sea, converging upon Station Kaamiozyr with as much of the force as survived the crossing, and there to land all personnel aboard his ships capable of bearing arms with the purpose of eradicating the rebel population and restoring Elwynnese sovereignty over the station. This action to be undertaken and concluded before the close of 1693 AN.

Secondary objectives

With the involvement of the UGB came a number of additional goals that were only tangentially relevant to the recovery of Station Kaamiozyr. These now found their way into the remit of the vastly expanded mission.

The Command Executive of Benacia Command, long distrustful of the increasing number of inhabited atolls in the Great Western Sea coming under the control of other colonial powers had been particularly agitated when Phinbella and the Thraci Confederation had begun to establish stations amongst the islands. The spread of Umraism to Benacia was something that they wanted to avoid at all costs and its promotion amongst the islanders was deemed to be a potential vector for the ideological infection of that religion to spread.

The so-called Great Tour of 1693 had trailed the flag of Calbion around the Great Western Sea, and even the rebuff given by the Batavians had not diminished the raising of the profile of Prince of the Calbain and the Governor-General of Calbion, nor the extent of their future colonial ambitions, in the region. To this end a riposte was called for, one that would see the Raspur Pact conduct a series of "port calls" and visits to the inhabited atolls, sending a fruit basket and cordial expressions of good wishes to any island where a recognised power's flag flew, but hanging the nearest available native chieftain or leader amongst the pirate and smuggler bands where not.

Finally the deteriorating situation in the Warring Islands had been of concern for some time. The former Szodan of Benacia, Jeremiah Avon-El, who retained an influential position in the echelons of Benacia Command, had long been forward with his investments and projects in the isles of the Great Western Sea, lately supported in these by the Society for Benevolent Investment. The outbreak of lawlessness, and the efforts of Nova England, supported by the South Sea Islands, to suppress these criminal gangs, threatened the infrastructure that had been built up in the Warring Islands. To that end, the services of the Maritime Support Group had been engaged to provide security for Hempton Bay and Hemptonwic. Accordingly the great sortie, although focused on South Island, would provide the cover under which the Sea-Reavers would be reintroduced onto the Warring Isles.

Actions

After several months of preparation, the task force departed the naval stations of Capitolia, Klymdown, New Blackstone, Sabatini, Sagittarius, and Slomxala on 22.IX.1693 AN. Whilst Task Force 1693.2, having sailed from New Blackstone, busied itself with patrolling activity in the Boreal waters between the Madison Isles and Faya Veronique Island, Task Force 1693.1, formed of three task groups, concentrated on an island hopping campaign, investigating the atolls that were scattered across the Great Western Sea between Benacia and Kelta, saluting the flags of recognised powers, and executing the inhabitants of unauthorised settlements where they were encountered and detained.

Action of 12.X.1693 AN

Isor Isor, the former Viceroy of Chryse, a fugitive of the justice of Elluenuueq and a deserter from the resistance against the Raspur Pact led by rebel Elwynn and Amokolia, had gone to ground after deserting his post in Fieldburg. Although he had long been clear in his intent of fleeing the conflict zone of North Benacia and gaining sanctuary with his mother on the island of Sant Paula, and had enlisted the service of experienced people smugglers to get him there, the fury of both combatant factions, as well as the hostility of the neutral Batavians towards all things Verionist. As such it had taken a year of avoiding Home Guard checkpoints and roadblocks, as well as delays caused by persistent rumours of a joint ESB and UDF kill-squad dispatched by his wife that was on his trail, before Isor had made it into Batavia disguised as a refugee travelling on papers provided by the Red Orchid Society. It had taken a month for him to arrange his escape from the Batavian internment camp, and another week of travelling before he had made it into the Batavian port city of Krieksburgh.

To arrange passage out of Batavia had been another matter to address. By this stage Isor had little more left to pay his way with than by promises of good will and boundless gratitude for whomsoever would see him brought alive before Regina Verion on Sant Paula. His deliverance was from an unlikely source - the tramp steamer "Niemen", a beat-up old merchantman that changed its port of registry and flag whenever the ship's captain caught scent of the creditors whose dogged pursuit had now haunted him across many a year, had long been engaged in the perilous activity of running supplies up to the Batavian Commune and was by now beginning to doubt the movement's long term prospects. With Batavia becoming daily less welcoming and less lucrative, the prospect of a commission that would put the captain in good stead with the Princely Exploration and Trading Company was one to be entertained.

So it was that the Niemen put to sea from Kireksburgh on the night of 24.IX.1693 AN, having had the misfortune to do so at a time when the Sea-Reavers were abroad in greater numbers than at any time since the War of the Casks.