Normark campaign (1717–1720)

Normark campaign (1717–1720)
Part of the "Wars of the Disinherited"
Date 11.IV.1717 AN–18.XIV.1720 AN Location Dalen (also known as Jangsong) Result Destruction of Dalen  · Pacification of the North (1721)
Belligerents
Raspur Pact  Normark Support  Benacian Union  Natopia  Nouvelle Alexandrie	Confederacy of the Dispossessed  Jangsong
Commanders and leaders
Phakchay Chaupin (1717–1719)  Yupanki Tupaq (1719– )  Tarjei Thorgilsson (1717–1719)  Arnold Christianssønn Einhorn (1717–1719)  Fredrik Michael Tarjeisson  Alf Einhorn  Jonas Dahling Einhorn  Royston Anders†  Oddbjørn Gruntland-Einhorn	Knotaric
Units involved
Keltia Command Banner Group Normark  Nordhær  18th Vanguard Division  Elian Militia  ESB (Keltia) Security Division / Alexandrian Expeditionary Force Benacian Expeditionary Force	Leagues of Haifan Keltiania (remnants) League of the Northern Strait Vaeringheim Division Hatch Ministry Division
Strength
(VI.1717) ~ 15,600 regulars ~ 28,800 reservists (I.1720) : 533,669 : 136,800 : 28,800 : 14,359	(VI.1717) Jangsong Muster' – 117,513' Northern Rising – 58,757 (I.1720) / : 748,198
Casualties and losses
(1717–XIII.1719) : 84,716 men 2,540 AFVs 194 artillery pieces 14 ships 1,287 aircraft	(1717–XIII.1719) / : 108,329 men 6,786 AFVs 1,784 artillery pieces 19 ships 877 aircraft

The Normark campaign (1717–1720), known within Normark as the Liberation of Dalen, began as a campaign by the Nordhær of Normark to restore Norse government, sovereignty and administration in Dalen, after the Haifo-Pallisican–Bassarid occupation of Dalen (Jangsong) appeared to have collapsed.

Initial forces

• Banner Group Normark
  •  Nordhær (I Corps)
    • Life Guards Brigade
    • 1st Field Engineering Brigade
    • 7th Commissariat Regiment
  • Special Mission Group "Dalen"
    •  18th Vanguard Division
    • Security Police Division

An optimistic prospectus

The impetus for the campaign appeared to have originated with Arnold Christianssønn Einhorn, the Prime Minister of Normark, who concurrently held the office of Överbefälhavaren in spite of supposedly resigning his commission in order to take up his appointment by the King. The King, Tarjei Thorgilsson, meanwhile, gave every indication of believing himself to be Överbefälhavaren. Certainly the Amicable Grant of Sovereignty in Relation to the Kingdom of Normark, issued in 1703 AN by the Congress of Chryse, appeared to endorse this interpretation, whilst the Constitution of Normark had remained silent on the matter. Regrettably however, Tarjei had on repeated occasions shown himself to be more interested in philandering with the staff of the various institutes established to ensure the continuity of his lineage than in actually taking up the onerous duties of governing his realm. Which all left Arnold Christianssønn Einhorn with the burden of service, and the reward for dutiful service was, as always, yet more duty.

The course of the campaign

A reconnaissance-in-force

Amongst the immediate problems encountered by the Nordhær, upon being tasked with the mission of liberating Dalen, was the quality and quantity of the equipment held in its depots. Indeed the majority of vehicles and armaments appeared to be hand-me-downs abandoned in place by the Union Defence Force following its departure from Normark in 1702 AN / 1703 AN – with many items uncovered having been in storage at facilities established by Keltia Command in the aftermath of the War of the Harpy sixty-years prior. To compliment these, the Sårensby Arsenal had resumed a limited production of those weapons and vehicle types for which it still had the requisite machine-tooling. Yet, while this revival of manufacturing had taken place in a period between 1706 AN and 1713 AN, there had not been any effort to integrate the manufactured articles into the establishment of the Nordhær, with the result that the finished products where themselves consigned to forgotten warehouses in Sårensby.

The lack of available hardware in turn placed definite limits on the size of the force the Nordhær could assemble for the task of taking possession of Dalen.

The Calamity at Dalen

Whilst the old Bassarid garrison had numerically outmatched the Nordhær and its predecessors in the years subsequent to the War of the Harpy it had been hoped that the chaotic unravelling of the Bassarid dominion in Keltia would have led to a perceptible melting away of the League of the Northern Strait, the opposite effect appeared to have occurred - with the distant restraining hand of Corum removed many warbands now felt emboldened to begin to organise, and the attempt by the Nordhær to conduct a reconnaissance in strength into the Jangsong Pocket served as the trigger for a general rising of the dispossessed in the boreal regions of northern Keltia. Of the estimated 105,807+ regulars and 151,152+ reservists maintained by the New Zimian War League, 176,270 armed and motivated fighters would ultimately answer the call to arms made by the piratical elders of Jangsong. Worse yet, of those fighters, roused to fury and their own ambitions of conquest, it would subsequently transpire that a full 117,513 of these so-called dispossessed were already within the enclave and underarms when the first armoured vehicles of the Nordhær crossed the frontier. Distressing reports that would swiftly reach Elijah's Rest brought the dire news of risings and massacres gripping the northern coastal regions and boreal islands of the Kingdom, as long concealed fighters and cultists shed their cover and came out into the open, their hearts set upon the most joyful slaughter of their unbelieving neighbours. The nightmare that had been the War of the Harpy was set to replay once more - all thanks to the reckless folly of Tarjei Thorgilsson and Arnold Christianssønn Einhorn trying their luck against a foe of whom they had remained fundamentally ignorant until it was too late. With the refugees that would subsequently stream into the capital came estimates that anywhere between fifty and sixty thousand rebel fighters were loose in the countryside, raising havoc.

In the meantime however, the Life Guards Brigade had crossed the frontier into Jangsong on 11.IV.1717, encountering sporadic resistance from the very first moment, but as noted, the armoured column, spearhead by the Regiment of Hussars, swiftly encountered the vanguard of the Dispossessed spilling out of Jangsong. The lead Horjins of the Hussars were confronted by 13,057 ravening warriors emerging from the treeline to their front, obliging them in turn to halt the column and send forward their own infantry contingent to form a skirmish line. The enemy vanguard had turned out to be a lure, and no sooner had the column come to a halt than the Hussars had found themselves bracketed by deadly artillery fire laid down by a multitude of 152 mm howitzer batteries which had been pre-sighted on the ambush spot. The mix of air burst high explosive shells and drone directed precision rounds fired against specific stationary vehicles had a devastating on the column, which soon lost seven Horjins and sixty fighters. That 261 of the enemy also laid dead along the treeline scarcely mattered. Their sacrifice had allowed the Bassarids to "count the guns" available to the invaders, and they had been greatly heartened by the evident disparity of firepower in their favour.

The commanders of the Nordhær had been horrified by the strength of the resistance, and by the recognition that it had allowed one of their finest regiments to blunder into a prepared ambush site. A difficult choice awaited them, to halt the advance immediately and pull back to a defensible position, or to press on.

Although considered by all present to have been a shameful admission of failure, the decision was swiftly made to fallback to their starting position and form a defensive leaguer.

The Dispossessed meanwhile, emboldened by their success began to deploy their forces into a battle line as the prelude for a general advance. By force of numbers alone they would envelope the smaller Normarker force, and then with their superior artillery, pummel it into capitulation.

International assistance sought

Having eventually grasped, after six ignominious months, the extent to which they were comprehensively outmatched by the forces of the disinherited, the Government of Normark dispatched appeals to the Benacian Union and Nouvelle Alexandrie for military and financial assistance.

The stocks of material requested by Normark, as expressed in the form of a memorandum submitted to the Joint-Military Council of the Raspur Pact on 6.XI.1717 AN, were considered to be remarkably ambitious, if not indicative of desperation:

• Support vehicles: 38,000
• Armoured fighting vehicles: 1,200
• Rocket artillery: 800
• Towed artillery: 800
• Self-propelled artillery: 600
• Light attack aircraft: 1,200
• Transport rotorcraft: 120
• Multi-role strike aircraft: 72
• Training aircraft: 72

In response the Benacian Union permitted Normark to recruit volunteers from amongst the protected persons of the Union-State. The High Presidium of the Benacian Union made some vague undertaking to organise shipments of such armaments as were available during the course of 1718 AN.

Nouvelle Alexandrie meanwhile, distracted by its own campaign against the Confederacy of the Dispossessed in the regions bordering the Sea of Storms, undertook to finance the deployment of forces raised by the Honourable Company to defend the Sårensby Arsenal and to provide an advisory support mission. The Federal Assembly in Nouvelle Alexandrie also advanced a series of government sponsored bills to get defence manufacturing onto a wartime footing, but there would be an appreciable lead time before any materiel would be available for dispatch to Elijah's Rest.

In both instances, the government of Normark was left frustrated by the quality of aid offered by its two closest allies in the Raspur Pact.

It therefore made an overture to the Prime Minister of Hurmu, Jamshid-e Osman, to arrange the release of the Regiment of the Blackfriars' from service in Amaland and Karnamark and their hiring into the service of the Kingdom of Normark. The matter was duly passed to Isabella III Günthersdohtor Merrick, the Hurmudan Secretary of State for Peace, to negotiate with Mei Ling, who handled most practical matters of business in regards to the Blackfriars on behalf of her husband, Anthony al-Osman. The negotiating hand of the Blackfriars was greatly strengthened by the interest shown by the Suren Confederacy to reinforce its frontier during the defensive phase of the Norasht campaign.

Keltia Command, concerned by the faltering performance of the Nordhaer, began to quietly earmark rapid reaction forces attached to the combined arms corps of the Federal Forces of Nouvelle Alexandrie for deployment to Elijah's Rest and Sårensby in the event that either location was menaced by a breakthrough of the Dispossessed.

Revby

Attempts by Normark to stymie the influence amongst the Green Einhorns of Knotaric culminated in 1718 AN with the recruitment of a large warband to serve as reinforcements for the Nordhaer. This force, advancing northwards through eastbank Normark from the Green was intercepted by a sizeable force of Bassarids at Revby, giving rise to a pitched battle there on 8.X.1718 AN.

The Disinherited counteroffensive reaches Sårensby

By the time the counteroffensive had exhausted itself in XIII.1719, the opposing forces had both managed to burn through the accumulated store of war materials that they had inherited and carefully conserved from as far back as the War of the Harpy. The disinherited however still possessed at the end of the fighting 247 armoured fighting vehicles in some semblance of operability, and with these, and a superiority in manpower, they would make one last lunge towards Sårensby. If the disinherited and the treacherous Green Einhorns could capture the Sårensby Arsenal, then the prospect of renewing the offensive towards Elijah's Rest with the materiel taken from there was a real one. As it was, time from this moment on would count against them - if the Nordhær was allowed enough of a respite in which to re-equip and to reorganise, then the Confederacy of the Dispossessed would find itself in the position of being slowly constricted and ground-down by the Raspur Pact's overwhelming superiority in manufacturing capacity.

Allied intervention

The collapse of defences on the approaches to Sårensby finally prompted a full scale allied intervention. Natopia and Nouvelle Alexandrie pledged the deployment of rapid reaction forces whilst the Benacian Union set aside its formerly lukewarm policy of dispatching mercenary dregs to bolster the faltering forces of Normark, and now instead would deploy the bulk of the Black Legions via the Boreal Air Bridge at the earliest opportunity.

The cost for this allied assistance was the removal from power of the main liability for Normark, namely its King, who was dispatched into a disgraceful exile on the boreal island of Los Bananos.

The arrival of allied airpower, particularly the contributions of Natopia and New Alexandria, blunted the advance of the Disinherited, wrecking their lines of communication, and necessitating a disorderly withdrawal towards Sjøsborg. The broken condition of the Nordhær had however made an effective pursuit impossible. The Elian Militia accordingly shouldered the burden of harassing the disinherited during their eastwards withdrawal, whilst the rapid reaction forces dispatched by the Natopian Defense Force and the Federal Forces of Nouvelle Alexandrie, acted as a screening force along the Galvø–Sårensby axis whilst the Benacian Expeditionary Force deployed around Elijah's Rest and took the remnants of the Nordhær in hand.

The Sjøsborg battles (I.1720–III.1720)

Sjøsborg, with its pre-war population of 601,333, was an important urban bailiwick of Normark, if it were to be fully occupied by the Disinherited it would have potentially become a staging point for offensive operations towards Sårensby and Elijah's Rest once the Confederacy and their Green Einhorn allies had regrouped and recovered their strength.

Having been bypassed during the retreat of the Nordhær, the city was held by local contingents of the Elian Militia whilst the surrounding countryside had become infested with enemy warbands, which had devoted their energies to plundering undefended villages and isolated farmsteads. The progress of these raiding parties could be marked every night with glow of new fires on the horizon, as another property was ransacked and consigned to the flames.

The Alexandrian Expeditionary Force, comprised of the 1st Armoured Division, two brigade task forces of airborne infantry, and attached Natopian units, was given the task of securing the city ahead of the retreating mass of the enemy. Commencing from the start of the new year, 1720, the entire Expeditionary Force had reached its new positions within seventy-two hours of the new directive from Keltia Command being received.

To remove the equivalent of an entire corps in this way, covertly whilst under the gaze of a vigilant enemy, was a worthy achievement for the allied forces, the origins of which laid in the commendable planning and staff work of the Normark Banner Group. The complex series of actions necessary for its effect were undertaken without a hitch: artillery positions were abandoned by the Alexandrians and smoothly taken over by Benacian units; as Alexandrian regiments moved out at night, their Nordhær replacements moved in — and all without any indication that the Dispossessed had any inkling of what was afoot.

Allied Counteroffensive

Meanwhile, Knotaric had received incontrovertible word of the combined attack being prepared upon him. As soon as he heard this news, he garrisoned his cities everywhere; and wherever the defensive bastions and ramparts had fallen into ruin he had new earthworks dug and evil traps laid. In every seaport he stationed reliable men who could be trusted to follow his commands. What is more, below the waterline in the Gulf of Jangsong, and across the northern reaches of the Strait of Haifa, he caused weighted barrels, housing infernal machines of destruction tethered to the seabed by anchors, to be laid in barrages in such a way as to force ships to navigate under the open sights of concealed guns ashore. Along the beaches he caused wrought iron pillars, as thick as telegraph poles, clad in lead and capped in steep, to be laid at protruding angles so as to rip open the hulls of any small craft that attempted to come in to land. Every man of military age in the towns and islands under his sway were conscripted; the boys and women meanwhile were sent to the workshops were new horrible contrivances were wrought under the hateful supervision of Bassarid overseers. All this work was undertaken, with a defence in depth extending all the way back from the water's edge to the centre of Dalen; and then Knotaric awaited the enemy's coming.