Normark-Cerulea war of 1727

Operation Northern Mist
Part of Wars of the Disinherited
Civilians amidst the ruins of the main railway station in Kaledonija, circa V.1727 AN.
Date 22.I.1727 AN – Location Cerulea • Normark Status Ongoing
Belligerents
Raspur Pact  Raspur Pact  Normark (Lead nation)  Nouvelle Alexandrie (Combat aviation and logistical support)  Benacian Union	Cerulea
Units involved
Keltia Command  Nordhaer  Federal Forces of Nouvelle Alexandrie	People's Armed Forces People's Army People's Air Force People's Navy Red Guard KGB
Strength
Personnel: 321,614 Active service: 106,138 Reserves: 215,476	Personnel: 295,598 People's Army: 51,835 People's Air Force: 18,600 People's Navy: 16,500 Red Guard: 208,645
Casualties and losses
North Caledonia 2,330 KIA + WIA Air war over Stoličnaja Krlska 81 F-9 Ashavan II shot down 43 KIA 38 POW Siege of Kaledonija 2 T-5/A-5 Tejón de Miel shot down 5 KIA 7 POW	North Caledonia 9,766 KIA + WIA 14,275 POW Air war over Stoličnaja Krlska 49 aircraft shot down Siege of Kaledonija 162 KIA 502 WIA 35x AFV, 1x mobile radar module & 5x SAM launchers lost

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

Banner Group North

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

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.
• 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.
• 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

Nordhær personnel of the 1st Echelon, assembled at a staging area before the resumption of the advance on Kaledonija, IV.1727 AN.

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.

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.