Fall of Walstadt (1647–1648)

1647

XII.1647

• 09: Abduction and murder of Empress Asara. “Declaration of Independence” in Walstadt.
• 20: Declaration of a Blockade against Walstadt by the Court of the Verdant Gardens.
• 22: Proclamation of Adam's son as “Emperor”.
• 23: The Vicereine assumed power in Lindstrom. Motion for a minute's silence in the Frenzy turned into a resolution for the execution of Adam by burning.

XIII.1647

• 09: Ceremony of Sacrifice – Lindstrom. Motion to Aid Natopia debated by the House of Ayreon-Kalirion.
• 11: Tsar Zakyyr arrived in Lindstrom. Shelling of Coastal Batteries in Walstadt by 4th Exploratory Group.
• 12: Continuous naval bombardment commences. Air strikes on outlying settlements.
• 13: Storish “Shock and Awe” strike on Walstadt municipal buildings, 23 Gungnir IV cruise missiles launched from the HKMS Vestsjælland (DDG20).
• 20: Adam flees towards Highfield via Protectorate of Hammish Monovia and Flaschenhals. Minor border kerfuffle.
• 21: Airmobile units deployed from carriers and assault ships off-shore attack fleeing "refugee"/"insurgent"/"bandit" columns. Cruise missiles fired from the NDS Graveacre hit Hammish Monovian cross-border smuggling communities. (To be further narrated). Air strikes continue to target border crossings into Monovia, to deter fugitives from following the example of their leader.

XIV.1647

• 07: Search and destroy operations, begun on the 21st of the previous month, are paused.
• 08: Mobilisation of the “Tapferite Army of Vengeance”.
• 11: Commandeered commercial shipping assembling in West Bay (Kingdom of Uppland).
• 12: 4th Exploratory Group reports munition stockpiles exhausted. Pause in bombardment.
• 13: Blockade of Walstadt by land, sea and air. Fugitives, fleeing boats and refugee columns tracked and intercepted, either destroyed or forced to return to the city.
• 16: Royal Fleet, Gaeos Fleet, Raynor Fleet, Tapfer Fleet & Task Force 92 concentrated at West Bay. XXX Legion and Vexillatio Mortenson attached to the TAV.

XV.1647

• 21: Invasion Fleet departs West Bay.

1648

I.1648

• 09: Aerial and orbital bombardment of Walstadt, including outlying settlements, power stations and water treatment facilities.
• 12: Invasion Fleet arrives off coast of Walstadt. Preliminary of the shoreline bombardment begins. Air-strikes on mixed bandit-dissident columns fleeing Walstadt for Westerby.
• 13: Aurochssturm Division assaults and captures New Walstadt Harbour. Heavy losses on both sides. TAV landings begin at Neukooq, Walhafen, Zauberforde, Schneedunen and Sudstrand.
• 14: Aurochssturm Division captures the Whaling Harbour. XXX Legion ashore on Bloodwater Beach. Orbital strike on ruins of House Walstadt.
• 15: Aurochssturm Division and XXX Legion push towards Mandible Hill.

Battle of Mandible Hill

Four armoured columns, one from the Whaling Harbour and three from Bloodwater Beach, attempted to converge on Mandible Hill. IMW-3 Snark of the 070 Command Regiment is rammed and toppled by an explosives-laden suicide truck. The GV(CV)-4 Red Queen gravimetric command vehicles levitate and begin laying down indiscriminate suppressing fire. Armoured battlewagons shred residential housing with their rotary autocannons. Infantry move house to house using mustard gas and incendiary grenades to flush out anyone seeking shelter inside the painted corrugated structures. Suspected militants were executed on the spot. A full scale battle developed to secure the site of the toppled Snark. 80mm field gun batteries of the 074 Artillery Regiment, set up on the shore of Bloodwater Beach, are joined by the main guns of the cruiser ZNS Kaiser Raynor X in laying down a rolling barrage radiating outwards from the crash site. Shells fall amongst the Aurochssturm Division, disrupting the advance of the Gugalanna Brigade towards Mandible Hill, knocking out 15 armoured fighting vehicles and causing 102 casualties, 82 of which were outright fatalities.

During the confusion of the indiscriminate artillery fire communications between the allied units broke down and the Aurochsstorm Division assumed that it was coming under bombardment from previously unsuspected Walstadter howitzers. With 112 BM-27 Uragan multiple rocket launchers deployed between the New Harbour and Whaling Harbour, the Major-General of the division made the fateful decision to order counter-battery fire and sent a Lysander spotter plane and a Mi-24 attack helicopter aloft to detect the “enemy” gun emplacements. The Shirerithians meanwhile, bemused to see an antiquated piston-engined aircraft circling their position presumed it to be something dragged out of storage by the desperate Walstaders and opened up with everything they had, the small slow spotter plane attracting the fire of every bored or anxious legionary and auxiliary in the city. Finally a 'Trump' Radar Tracking Autocannon threaded the Lysander with a volley of 20mm high explosive shells which sent it tumbling out of the skies. The escorting attack helicopter meanwhile reported it was coming under sustained ground-fire and engaged the Trump with a salvo of unguided rockets and auto-cannon fire. Finally the Helicopter was sent cartwheeling out of the sky after being struck by a surface to air missile launched from a loitering GV(LU)-3 Boojum. The Mi-24 was however able to broadcast a last desperate string of coordinates for the hostile air defences before slamming into the side of the long neglected site of the old Vanic temple, sending up a plume of billowing smoke and flame.

With this targeting information the Aurochssturm Division was able to unleash a devastating barrage of 1,792 high-explosive tipped rockets which ripped through the landing zone and rear-area of the XXX Legion, wrecking artillery pieces and anti-aircraft guns, churning the beach into a mess of sand, bloody gore, burning fuel and “cooking off” munitions. Within momentss 3,641 dead and 5,740 wounded Shirerithians were strewn amongst a ruined landscape of burning debris and upended vehicles.

Frantically the devastated legion called in air and naval support from the 2nd Banner Group. A strike package of four Buccaneer strike aircraft escorted by two MiG-29K carrier aircraft and four F8 Shrikes were urgently scrambled while the entire force of twenty GAV(AS)-1 Snaggletooths and 18 Merlin helicopters were put into the air to provide close air support and begin casualty evacuations.

Gratified that the “Walstader” bombardment of the Gugalanna Brigade had abruptly ceased, the Major-General of the Aurochssturm Division ordered the Air Support Brigade and Rapid Assault Group, based at Fort Elijah near Zauberforde, to conduct an overflight in strength. At the same time, the panicked requests for counter-battery fire by Legate Vasilescu of the XXX Legion had filtered through to the invasion fleet and from out in the harbour a salvo of twenty-four cruise missiles fired off towards the Whaling Harbour, arriving six minutes later and detonating immediately overhead the positions of the Nandi Brigade, killing 136 and wounding 575 whilst destroying 15 of the multiple rocket launchers outright. In the chaos and confusion of the strike the surviving members of the brigade abandoned the reloading of the rocket launchers and fled in terror towards the New Harbour.

Command and control amongst the two landing forces in Walstadt now collapsed and amidst scenes of disorder the Natopians and Shirerithians retired towards their respective disembarkation zones, firing upon hostile militiamen, cringing civilians and, not infrequently, each other as they sought to disengage.

Meanwhile the two uncoordinated strike packages arrived over Walstadt, which was now partially obscured by rising columns of smoke from the fires which were now beginning to rage out of control in the streets below. Without forward observers providing precise targeting information, the converging jet aircraft tipped their bombs over arbitrarily designated coordinates around Mandible Hill and turned for their respective home bases, at which points their flight-paths intersected.

At a height of 12,000 ft above sea level a Shirerithian Buccaneer, travelling at 550 kilometres per hour, slammed into a sharply banking Natopian Su-25. Neither the pilot and observer in the Buccaneer nor the pilot of the hapless Su-25 had time to eject and all three perished miserably as the tangled, disintegrating wreckage of their furiously burning aircraft plunged into the Forest of the Ancestors. The surviving aircraft of both formations scattered. A Shirerithian Shrike fighter positioned itself behind a retreating Su-25 to drop it from the skies with a sidewinder missile. Rather than make the kill, the pilot instead accelerated gently to pull itself up alongside the aircraft and made a visual identification of the Natopian aircraft before waggling its wings in apology and disengaging.

By now the monumental scale of the cock-up that had unfurled was dawning on the commanders off-shore and frantic orders were issued for an immediate ceasefire. As Atos began to set in the west there were some very awkward discussions begin undertaken. Eventually, it was decided, shamefacedly, after a brief discussion between the Admiral of the Fleet and the commanders of the XXX Legion and the Aurochssturm Division, that the disasters that befell both their formations would be attributed to unexpectedly robust enemy resistance. No further disciplinary action would be taken but both were relieved of their commands and would be expected to tender their resignations at the earliest opportunity. If any word of this disaster got out, both would be expected to fall upon their swords, literally as well as figuratively.

TBC