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.

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.

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.