Deliverance of the District of Moorland

The Deliverance of the District of Moorland was a campaign of the Hurmu Peace Corps to rescue the 29th Port and Maritime Regiment, along with collaborating members of the native population, from the colonial settlement of Newhaven in Moorland following the loss of the territory to the Confederacy of the Dispossessed in 1717 AN.

Background

In the face of an active campaign of native subversion, and in view of the geographical distance of the district from the mother country, the difficult decision was made by the Cabinet of Jamshid-e Osman to order the evacuation of Moorland.

Before the Evacuation could commence however, the HPC garrison would be required to reassert control, to take the Commissioner appointed by Temüjin into custody, and to expel the Green Einhorns from the territory.

Initial skirmishes

The 29th Port and Maritime Regiment, upon being ordered to arrest Mantric, found themselves under a sustained and withering fire from concealed tribal fighters from the moment a squadron contingent had formed up to leave the cantonments on the outskirts of Newhaven for the government residency. Of the lead troop to exit the cantonment gates, nineteen perished immediately to the deadly fire of the unseen marksmen, whilst every other man in the vanguard troop sustained a wound. The squadron detachment has effectively been ambushed and is obliged to retire within the gates.

Buoyed by their initial success, the tribal fighters attempted to rush the gates. Fortunately the rebel attack failed abysmally. The entire garrison of the Cantonment has been roused by fusillade at the gate, and the defences there, as well as along the perimeter, had swiftly been fully manned. The reckless charge had seen the rebel tribesmen run headlong into withering rifle, carbine, and sub-machine gun fire. Of the two hundred rebels in the rush on the gate, one hundred and sixty would perish.

Hurmu responds

In response to the emerging crisis, the Hurmu Executive formed a special cabinet committee to oversee the former functions of the Minister for Moorland. Contracts were awarded to the Nova English Salvage Company and the Maritime Support Group to organise chartered vessels for the relief and then the evacuation of the garrison at Newhaven as well as any dependents and emigres who requested resettlement.

The Great Siege

1718 Truce

To the incredulity of some, but following legal advice received by the Order of the Holy Lakes concerning its obligations to the membership of the order under international humanitarian law, a truce was unilaterally declared in the first weeks of 1718 AN to allow for registered members of the Green Einhorn families to participate in the 1718 Hurmu general elections.

The siege is renewed

Following the end of the truce, attacks upon the cantonments at Newhaven resumed. The Green Einhorns aligned to the rebel cause resorted to using conscripted levies taken from tottering Ostland to mount a series of grotesque human wave assaults against the HPC garrison whilst preparing a flotilla of captured small craft and merchant vessels with which to enforce a blockade of the port.

Minimal assistance from the Benacian Union garrison in the Warring Islands is limited to a monthly supply ship, escorted by the Maritime Support Group, carrying a barely adequate volume of ammunition, food, and fuel with which to sustain the defenders, and the evacuation of the wounded on the return journey to Port Esther. Reinforcements, who arrived at Port Esther in small contingents via the Gate Network, also began to be delivered to Newhaven via a charted merchant vessel from the Nova English Salvage Company. However these numbers were not sufficient to replace the mounting casualties, as volunteers for the evidently doomed Moorland posting were few and far between.