Operation Penitent

Operation Penitent was a large-scale operation of the Benacian Continental Theatre Command, for which preparations began on 11.VIII.1716 AN. The purpose of the Operation was to oversee the implementation of the terms of the Treaty of Oktavyan and the Treaty of Fort Ermingander, both signed by the Benacian Union in that year. To that end the objectives were as follows:

1. The establishment of the Protectorate Regime within Kalgachia;
2. The introduction of an allied garrison into the strategic fortifications of the central Kalgachi highlands;
3. The reorganisation of the Military of Kalgachia into the Kalgachi Grouping of Forces;
4. The disarmament of the Church of Ketherism and its partisan forces;
5. The independence of Northbloom from its previous protectorate regime with Kalgachia, and its assumption of formal sovereignty, both within the Mondosphere and in alignment with the Raspur Pact;
6. The transfer of certain arcana into the possession of Mondo;
7. The establishment of secure north-south lines of communication, facilitating the completion of the preceding objectives.

The fulfilment of these objects was assigned to the Central Banner Group of Benacia Command, which comprised predominantly of formations raised by the Benacian Union Defence Force.

Chronology

1716

• 20.V: Benacian Union and Kalgachia sign Treaty of Oktavyan. Makes explicit the protectorate status that would henceforth define Kalgachia's relationship with its Archonic-Humanist neighbour.
• V–VI: Factional strife grips the Kalgachi state. Whilst the Kalgachi Defence Force, Directorate of Public Works and the Directorate of the Tumultuous Wastes regard the treaty as the last hope for the survival of the Garden, the Troglodyti, the Prefects, and the Church of Kalgachia instead advocate for the emulation of the example of the Deep Singers, namely a retreat further into the depths and a sundering of all residual contacts with what they now regards as a wholly fallen world. The organs of state begin to turn upon oneanother.
• 20.VII: Benacian Union and Northbloom sign Treaty of Fort Ermingander. Northbloom repudiates protectorate status, majority of Mondosphere realms align with the Raspur Pact
• 11.VIII: Benacia Command commenced planning for Operation Penitent
• 31.XV: A spate of executions inflicted upon corrupt and negligent officers appears to indicate that the preparations of the BUDF are approaching their culmination point.

1717

• 12.I: Forty-eight entrained BK-III Verteidiger main battle tanks, accompanied by rail wagons loaded with fuel, munitions, spare components, and engine crews arrived in Highbloom from Pozdam for collection by the agents of Mondo.
• 12.II: Chryse Conference of the Benacian Security Council.
• 17.II: Mobilisation of the State Guard of the Unified Governorates.
• 24.VI: State Guard ersatz divisions complete pre-deployment training. Kossar regiments complete their concentration at Litkov in Siyachia.
• 24.VII: Ersatz divisions and their attached Penitent Labour Brigades finish deploying to their concentration areas.
• 1.IX – 23.IX: 94,800 BUDF troops, 172,800 state guard, 86,400 penitents, assembled in forward deployment areas in Siyachia and the Governorate of Upper Lywall ahead of commencement at dawn on High Roqpin.
• 24.IX: The Penitential Day (High Roqpin) – BUDF forces cross the frontier into Kalgachia-proper. The Military of Kalgachia and the lieutenancies of the Garden face the moment of decision on whether to cooperate with or oppose the protectorate regime.

Preparations

Destroying the Garden of Kalgachia had been the cherished goal of successive Humanist hegemons, as far back as Waldemar Zinkgraven in the mid seventeenth century after Norton. Whilst the apocalyptic fantasies of Endsieg had been tempered by pragmatic economic considerations, as embodied by the Octavian Import-Export Corporation and Pachadsberg Special Recreational Zone, the desire to bring the Kalgachi strategic autonomy to a close remained paramount. Whilst the treaties signed in 1716 brought this prospect closer, the consensus of Benacia Command's general staff was that the objective would not be realised until a BUDF garrison had been formally introduced into the mountain fortresses of the Oktavyan mountains, and the strategic arsenal of the Garden firmly placed under a lock and key held by Benacia Command itself.

The ability of Benacia Command to get a read on the internal situation of the Garden, particularly of the subterranean portions necessarily concealed from the Raspur Pact's network of orbital Natopian imaging and ground mapping satellites, was reliant upon the Benacian Union's legation at Fastenborg Keep, the commercial agents ensconced in the Pachadsberg Special Recreational Zone, and the Military Coordination Council in Stonetree. These sources, combined with the debriefing of such personnel as who had successfully transited the permitted transit corridor during its periods of operation, succeeded in bringing a picture of conditions in Kalgachia that was partial, subjective, and in the most literal sense surface-level in its detail.

A period between VIII & XV 1716 was assigned to bringing the forces within the Central Banner Group (CBG) area of operations to a full state of readiness, with an 80% availability of manpower and equipment mandated by CBG area command. A number of high ranking officers in the BUDF commissariat, along with their subordinates, who had failed in their obligation to meet these minimum targets, were transferred into the custody of the Magisters-Carnifex for exemplary punishment and execution. Notices of the executions were carried in the Chryse Chronicle as well as the Register of Woe as a warning to all BUDF personnel of the consequences of falling short of expectations during the forthcoming deployment.

By 21.I.1717 AN the Central Banner Group was able to report the availability of a majority of all weapons systems assigned to its area of operations.

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Equipment	On-Hand	Assigned	Depot total	Percentage availability
Small Arms	-	-	632,279	99
M1686 assault rifle (7.62×67mmB)	572,844	567,115	-	-
M1690 machine pistol (9x19mm)	59,435	58,840	-	-
Squad Weapons	-	-	13,590	80
M1703 Wren MK II general purpose machine gun (7.62x67mmB)	13,590	10,872	-	-
Troop Weapons	-	-	3,323	76
Polybolos 12.7 mm HMG	952	723	-	-
M1700 82 mm Recoilless Rifle	2,371	1,801	-	-
Squadron Weapons	-	-	1,119	89
M1701 14 mm sniper rifle	1,119	995	-	-
Helmets and body armour	-	-	313,595	84
M1639 Stahlhelm	313,595	263,419	-	-
M1671 composite armour and plate	27,072	22,740	-	-
Artillery (Towed)	-	-	2,193	98
M1681 105 mm howitzer (towed)	444	435	-	-
M1701 158mm MLRS (towed)	1,749	1,714	-	-
Artillery Self-Propelled	-	-	560	75
HK-III M1675 155 mm mobile gun (wheeled)	493	369	-	-
HK-IV 155 mm self-propelled howitzer (tracked)	67	50	-	-
Air Defence System	-	-	27	97
System-2 Missile Complex	27	26	-	-
Armoured Fighting Vehicles	-	-	4,100	99
BK-III Verteidiger	330	326	-	-
BK-IV Bastiat	369	365	-	-
CV-56 Horjin	3,329	3,295	-	-
HK-IV M1707 Stalker	11	10	-	-
Rz.Kfz 1714 Razkampfwagen	61	60	-	-
Support Vehicles	-	-	55,503	97
Pod Personnel Carrier	1,668	1,617	-	-
Snatch Land Rover	36,427	35,334	-	-
Truck, Light	16,839	16,333	-	-
Truck, Medium	31	30	-	-
GV(MCB)-7 Leviathan	1	0	-	-
Große Dampfzugmaschine	537	520	-	-
Combat Aviation	-	-	346	80
B-67 Shahrukh	12	9	-	-
F-9 Ashavan II	256	204	-	-
F-9 Ashavan III	67	53	-	-
F-17 Axarana	11	8	-	-
AEW / Patrol Aviation	-	-	9	80
AEW-1 Floret	1	0	-	-
AEW-1 Buscadora	1	0	-	-
P-2 Navegador	4	3	-	-
P-3 Bailiff	3	2	-	-
UAVs	-	-	136	92
Javelin M-2 Dragoon UAV	11	10	-	-
VT-UAV 1 Tadpole	125	115	-	-
Transport Aviation	-	-	159	84
GAV-4(U) Jackalope	141	118	-	-
TR-279 Dront	18	15	-	-
Attack Rotorcraft	-	-	34	91
AH-75 Cobra	7	6	-	-
R-2 Krähenwürger	27	24	-	-
Cargo Rotorcraft	-	-	42	97
CH-276 Camel	16	15	-	-
UH-76 Dromosker	26	25	-	-
IRBM	-	-	721	97
S-3 Schlächter	721	699	-	-

On 12.II.1717 AN the Benacian Security Council met at Chryse in order to hold its first high level conference regarding the pending operation, for which a provisional commencement date of Roqpin 1717 AN had now been set by Benacia Command. Complicating matters had been the steady arrival of delegations from around the Union-State to begin making preliminary negotiations and hostage exchanges ahead of the fifth Congress of Chryse. The 1717 Chryse Conference, convened at the New Residency ziggurat, was attended by the Szodan of Benacia, Daniyal ibn Daniyal, the Commander-in-Chief of the Benacian Continental Theatre Command, Zurvanudin Miran al-Osman, the Commissioner for War, Zacharias Avon-El, and the Commissioner for Foreign Affairs, Ayesha al-Osman, the Director of Benacian Operations for the Honourable Company, Brugen Aldef, and the Commissioner for the Sacred Treasury, Soroush Karimi. The main decision of the summit was to call up 1% of the population of the Unified Governorates of Benacia in a partial mobilisation, so as to ensure that the BUDF would be ensured of sufficient manpower to meet its requirements for the forthcoming operation.

In 1717 AN, 339,648 subjects in the meritorious categories of the Table of Grades and Ranks of the Benacian Union within the governorates of the UGB were called up by the draft lottery and sworn to public service in the State Guard of the Unified Governorates for two years. This mobilisation yielded 283 regimental trained bands, which, between II.1717 and VI.1717, were mustered, drilled, and guarded by officers of the Public Order Forces of the UGB at assembly areas in Litkov, Sansabury, and Stonetree. In VII.1717 the regimental trained bands were assigned to 23 Ersatz Divisions divided between the 11th, 16th, and Siyachier armies of the Central Banner Group of Benacia Command. Six ersatz divisions apiece were assigned to the 11th Army and the Siyachier Army for combat operations, whilst the balance were placed under the 16th Army in Lower Lywall to constitute a pool of replacement manpower, to be called forward as required.

Situation inside Kalgachia

As the day for the BUDF intervention loomed, with the approach of High Roqpin, the support of the Kalgachi Defence Force for the intervention began to waver, with the Church mounting a campaign of preaching and subversion aimed at swaying junior and mid-rank officers to the cause of patriotic defiance. As such formations now had to be assessed separately for their reliability at the divisional level.

Stances of the Kalgachi before the Penitential Day

The KDF, civil administration, and church formations were assessed individually and graded according to whether they would offer resistance or acquiesce to the passing of BUDF forces:

• Active resistance (1-2)
• Passive resistance (3-5)
• Neutrality (6-8)
• Passive assistance (9-10)
• Active assitance (11-12)

KDF posture

I (Inner) Corps

Formation	Stance
1st (Oktavyan) Division
8th (Oktavyan) Division
4th (Jollity) Division

II Outer Corps

Formation	Stance
2nd (Abrek) Division	Example
3rd (Katarsis) Division	Example
6th (Bergburg) Division
7th (Lithead) Division

Independent Units

Formation	Stance
Fortress Division	Example
Fire Division	Example
Special Purpose Regiment
Black Brotherhood

Lieutenancy stances

The stance of the lieutenancy would affect the stance of the KDFR forces within their area.

Lieutenancy	Stance
Example	Example
Example	Example

Church stances

The degree of militancy in the church would determine the stance of the partisans within their area. Actively assisting partisans, were they to be encountered, would voluntarily disarm.

Lieutenancy	Stance
Example	Example
Example	Example