Strait of Haifa Campaign
The Strait of Haifa Campaign began on 08.XI.1655 AN (insert Palliscian date here) following substantiated reports of pirate attacks on coastal shipping approaching the Natopian port of Riddersborg in the demesne of Elijah's Rest. Concurrent with the Keltian Cod War and the Brettish Campaign, it represented an escalation in the confrontation between Sxiro-Natopian and USSO-aligned maritime forces in the Keltian theatre of operations. The campaign would go on to form the heart of the War of the Harpy, an unconventional conflict between Natopia and the Haifo-Pallisican Imperial Trade Union.
Natopian perspective
As a demesne of the Bovic Empire, a subject of the Elian Union, the defence of Elijah's Rest from external attack is primarily the responsibility of local committees of defence supported by the naval and orbital assets of the Natopian Defense Force. Military actions undertaken by Natopian and allied forces in the region fall under the purview of Keltia Command, whose headquarters were established in the region.
With groups of hostile insurgents actively campaigning within the territories claimed by the Bovic Empire in Normark, the Gulf of Jangsong, and the Strait of Haifa, internal counter-insurgency operations are the responsibility of the Natopian Security Forces raised by the Minister of Security. Additional support to security forces is provided by Imperial Natopian Constabulary whose primary responsibility is the preservation of law and order, in consequence of which the constabulary contends with bandits and paid foreign agents whilst the NSF combats armed insurgents.
Outside the borders of Elijah's Rest, partisan operations, including ambushes, abductions, and targeted assassinations, are undertaken against the Jogi Regiment and followers of the Stripping Path by the Tuktuvut Confederation and the Order of the Super Secret Stripper Seekers, a very particular, if not peculiar, band of the Bovic Church Militant[1].
Citizens of Elijah's Rest are periodically subjected to absurd and outlandish claims put about by affiliates of the Haifo-Pallisican Imperial Trade Union to the effect that single-mindedly murderous religious fanatics have somehow penetrated every aspect of civil society, the military and the intelligence and law enforcement communities, in spite of never giving a satisfactory explanation as to the how and the why of these miraculous accomplishments. Actual attempts at infiltration on the ground by foreign subversives have been somewhat less spectacular. A stub-nose dressed in moccasins was caught trying to crawl amongst the pickets of the Fox-Tail Clan during the Full Moon of the 7th month in the year 1656. After the wretch was tied to a fir tree, scalped and doused in petrol, he subsequently made an interesting confession about speculating in shares issued for ventures whose nature and success were ephemeral at best. The video of his confession, and of his subsequent burning, has been shared widely on social media platforms in the Bovic Empire. Despite the extreme popularity of the snuff-video, which happily coincided with a public-relations campaign aimed at assuring the public of demesne's vigorous defence of its borders, pressure continued to mount on the government which faced calls to curb the marauding of the Stripping Path followers based in Ardclach, Jangsong and Dragevik.
Ardclach and Jangsong have separately been subjected to orbital strikes by the Natopian Defense Forces with the aim of degrading the military and economic infrastructure hurriedly deposited in the region by the New Zimian War League and the Foreign Ports of the Stripping Path[2][3]. Concurrent enemy air strikes against civilian settlements in government controlled areas have also occurred whilst the two sides wrestle for air supremacy over the Gulf of Jangsong.
Experiencing a disconnect between reported subversive efforts of the Bassarid government in Elijah's Rest and their own experience - of periodic air raids and atrocities committed against outlying rural communities - the region's citizens experience a certain apprehension, that might elsewhere lead to mistrust and even paranoia. To this extent, some scholars have speculated that the fabric of society in Elijah's Rest may be inexorably harmed or destroyed by the continuation of conflict in the Gulf of Jangsong. Those scholars are accused, however, of ignoring the reality that Elijah's Rest enjoys a high degree of ethnic and cultural solidarity in its Normarker and Reindeer Herder communities, the heirs to a proud kingdom and citizens of a great empire, who have endured, by virtue of their environment, a harsh upbringing that inculcates them with stoicism and a certain resilience in the face of adversity. The repeated attacks however have stirred in the Normarkers their native patriotism and a desire for vengeance against the Haifan and Outlander aggressors, whose settlers and prospectors sometimes only realise the extent of their folly as the glinting knife gouges out the first eye of a screaming victim.
In contrast to the Shirerithians, the Natopians entered the war as a relatively unmilitarised society, relying for the most part on the navy and the space fleet to provide deterrence and fly the flag for the Bovic Empire on Micras and in the Atos system. Having found itself embroiled, in a conventional two front war in the Apollonian Theatre, and now a brutal asymmetrical war in northern Keltia, the local Demesne Defence Forces found, to their discomfort, that they were obliged to do most of the heavy lifting in the bitter ground war. Nonetheless, the embittering process of the war, hardened resolve, even - in the case of the Normarker community, undermining the ancient bonds of sympathy with Nova England as it was itself menaced by an approaching Shirerithian armada.
The Haifo-Pallisicans, having grown comfortable in the occupied enclaves claimed by Natopia, and seemingly shrugging off the initiation of an antimatter warhead over the settlement of Jangsong (ignoring the 26 thousand casualties reported by the War League following the attack), persist in depicting the build up of Natopian forces, which do not have recourse to instantaneous capitalisation such as the USSO seems to be blessed with, as representing a complete loss of control over the territory of Elijah's Rest, when in truth, aside from raiding outlying settlements, attempting crude psy-ops operations, and undertaking shore bombardments with naval vessels not notably well suited to the role, the enemy has undertaken no specific action against any defended settlement that could warrant its pretensions of extending its influence further west, any more than the Natopians, who have yet to undertake more than skirmishing actions in the general direction of Jangsong, can claim to have advanced in the opposite direction. As such the towns with named garrisons of militia, organised by their own self-defence committees, remain under Natopian control, and any attack undertaken against them would be notified to Keltia Command exposing the attacking forces to retaliation.
As the situation last stood, with Natopian general orders mandating aggressive anti-shipping patrols over the Gulf of Jangsong, and the newly arrived Pallisican air assets joining the attacks on Natopian settlements, albeit including those areas where Natopian forces have yet to follow up on the cartographers by raising the flag, the likelihood of air to air combat occurring must be reckoned as extremely high. Were such an engagement to occur it might be considered that the Pallisican advantage in numbers is met by the Natopian technological edge, which remained, in spite of being seriously diminished by the defection of Professor Hazelrigg in 1655.
