Barikalus–Hurmu war

Barikalus–Hurmu conflict
Part of the Arboric Civil War
Barikalus bombs Ghawlama
Date 10.VIII.1703 AN–present Location Ghawlama; River Glacei; Barikalus
Belligerents
Barikalus	Hurmu
Commanders and leaders
Mustafa Asada	J. K. Djupvik
Units involved
	1st Hurmudan Expeditionary Force
Strength
	117,935

The Barikalus–Hurmu conflict began on 10.VIII.1703 AN when forces under Barikalus attacked a Maerifa-flagged passenger ferry that has drifted into Hurmu waters and taken anchorage in Ghawlama. In the territory of Hurmu, on that first day of conflict, at least 350 people were killed.

Hurmudan preparations

The response to the attack on Ghawlama was an opportunity to test the doctrine of civic defence which laid at the heart of its policy of armed neutrality.

Civic defence relied upon the Hurmu Constabulary and Hurmu Peace Corps being able to hold key cities, ports, and airports, as islands of resistance that would allow civil society and contracted defence and security partners to begin to mobilise and carry on an asymmetrical resistance campaign that would ultimately erode the willingness of the aggressor to carry on their incursion by targeting their lines of communication and areas of vulnerability via civil disobedience, propaganda, sabotage, and acts of guerrilla warfare.

The particular circumstances of this conflict did not however exactly match the model as envisaged. Instead of waging a defensive war, the civil society of Hurmu had been called upon to assist in an expeditionary war launched into Arbor, with the purpose of expelling the aggressor from the watershed of the River Glacei, and more generally of bringing the purpetrators of the attack on Ghawlama to justice.

Mobilisation

The attack, unprovoked and nonsensical, had however stirred in Hurmu a widespread popular anger. The multi-ethnic communities of Lontinien found a common voice through their shared outrage. Meanwhile in the Lake District the sentiment of "Never Again", which had prevailed amongst the community of the Hurmudan since the Jingdaoese invasion and long occupation by Stormark afterwards, led to a widespread outpouring of support for the Senate of the Lakes in its decision to take a robust stand against the so-called Barikalus regime.

The upshot of this was that there was no shortage of willing volunteers, many coming forward without official prompting, as the Hurmu Peace Corps garrison in Ghawlama went onto full alert after the events of 10.VIII.1703 AN.

Civil Defence Volunteers, as civilians who wished to support the Constabulary and Peace Corps were termed, who were resident in the Apollonian territories, received directions to muster at government administrative offices in Ghawlama, Mitrovska, and Vadimbaatar. Volunteers from all other locations were directed to travel to Vesüha by their own means at the earliest opportunity.

Concurrently the eastern ulus of the Silver Yak Horde, at the instigation of Chaghagan Khoga, had held a khuruldai during the eighth month of 1703 AN, the same month as in which the attack on Ghawlama occurred. The banners of the Blue and White Bands assembled to Vadimbaatar, ahead of the outcome of the gathering. Support for the war was a forgone conclusion, with the main source of rancor being haggling being over the distribution of commmands and government stipends between the two banners.

The looming conflict would see the Hurmu Peace Corps activate its Defence Service Agreements, with the ESB-Jagdverbände and the Society of Yeshua called upon to send contingents. For the Jagdverbände, arrangements to airlift its Bitzurænhæd (Assault Unit) and "Combat Group A" from locations in Eura and Lyrica to Ghawlama International Airport was underway within forty-six hours. The Krasnocorians of the Society of Yeshua meanwhile were instructed to assemble a force of able-bodied men as a regiment at Mitrovska before travelling on to the Ghawlama region.

These various contingents began to in the region between Ghawlama and Vadimbataar during the course of the eighth and ninth months of 1703 AN. Joining up with the Ghawlama Garrison of the Hurmu Peace Corps, and coming under their discipline, they would form a part of a larger combined arms formation that would become known as the 1^st Hurmudan Expeditionary Force.

Composition of the Expeditionary Force

1^st Hurmudan Expeditionary Force

Formation	Volunteers
Allied Tribes of Lontinien	19,435
Blue Banners of the Eastern Ulus of the Silver Yak Horde	12,619
White Banners of the Eastern Ulus of the Silver Yak Horde	6,816
Civil Defence Volunteers	39,944
Civil Defence Volunteers - Ghawlama	22,775
Civil Defence Volunteers - Mitrovska	13,605
Civil Defence Volunteers - Vadimbaatar	3,564
Defence Service Contractors	7,878
ESB-Jagdverbände	2,777
Mitrovska Regiment	5,101
Lontinien Division of the Hurmu Constabulary	44,318
1st Demi-Regiment	459
3rd Division, Special Auxiliary Constabulary	6,004
Marine Support Unit	145
Rivermen (impressed)	37,710
Ghawlama Garrison of the Hurmu Peace Corps	6,360
8th Port and Maritime Regiment	572
33rd Inshore Patrol Regiment	547
43rd Regiment of Peacekeepers	655
47th Regiment of Peacekeepers	1,178
61st Signals Regiment	309
67th Depot & Logistics Regiment	554
87th Medical Regiment	455
99th Field Engineering Regiment	512
103rd Electrical & Mechanical Engineers Regiment	327
112th Basic Training Regiment	290
118th Aviation Base Regiment	290
131st Air Policing Regiment	152
139th Air Transport Regiment	167
148th/3rd Cohort of the Peace Academy	352
Total	117,935

Of the 117,935 men assembled in the Ghawlama-Vadimbaatar concentration area, only 15,597, including the Constabulary, were considered to be wholly profficient under arms. From these were established six regimental battlegroups. While the Peace Corps had only two regiments of peacekeepers rated for combat operations, every other regiment of the garrison had been asked to contribute a cadre of volunteers, allowing for the six ad-hoc battlegroups, of roughly 1,200 men per instance, to be formed. On the stretch of the River Glacei between Vadimbaatar in the north and Ghawlama in the south, three armed encampments were formed, while the Allied Tribes of Lontinien formed their own encampments north of Vadimbaatar, as far as the border with Lac Glacei - so as to afford a sufficient range for their grazing herds.

For the civil defence volunteers, a two month period of basic training in drill, physical fitness training, weapon familiarisation, and fieldcraft was mandated, under the supervision of the 112th Basic Training Regiment. At the end of this period a third of this body of men, enough for a furrther eleven regiments, were sent out of Ghalwama to tne encampments, whilst the remainder were placed under the authority of the 67th Depot & Logistics Regiment and used to form a "commissariat" which would provide labour detachments and foraging parties for the main force, as well as staff the growing number of field bakeries, fuel depots, and munition dumps, that began to appear at dispersed locations to the west and north of the main encampments.

The chosen men who were now encamped as part of the Expeditionary Force along the western shore of the River Glacei, marked their initiation into the force through a peculiar custom. They shaved the top of their heads down to the temples, passing along both sides of the head. They shaved also the temples and the back of the neck, and the forehead as far as the crown of the head, on which they left a single tuft of hair which would fall down between the eyebrows. They left the hair on the sides of the head untouched, save for braids around the ears.

This peculiar style was adopted, after the fashion of the Silver Yak Horde, so that all of the diverse forces who had pledged to cross the River Glacei would know one-another during the assault, and after, as brothers-in-arms.

Equipment and provisions

Over the space of three months (VIII – X.1703 AN) the 1^st Hurmudan Expeditionary Force amassed at its area of concentration between Vadimbaatar and Ghawlama, a stockpile of armaments without precedent in the history of the peoples of Hurmu. The number of aircraft alone assembled by the Peace Corps and its contracted partner, the ESB Aviation Group swamped the capacity of Ghawlama International Airport and necessitated the creation of a number of dispersal airfields, little more than landing strips between Ghawlama and the Forward Operating Base Longstreet outside Mitrovska.

Item	Quantity
Aircraft
Ground attack jets	93
Helicopters	44
Multi-role strike aircraft	19
Patrol & reconnaissance aircraft	26
Training & light attack aircraft	414
Transport aircraft	112
Artillery
Direct-fire guns	212
Mortars	450
Recoilless rifles	40
Land transport
Horses for the Commissariat	19,435
Horses for the Silver Yak Horde	97,175
Requisitioned carts for the commissariat	9,810
Requisitioned land cruisers	23,413
Requisitioned trucks	2,200
Riverine transport
Barges and assorted rivercraft	1,886
Weaponry
Florian cocktails (petrol bomb)	589,675
M1610 7.9 mm rifle (7.92×33mm)	40,513
M1686 assault rifle (7.62×67mmB)	12,823
M1693 medium machine gun (8x80mm RP)	510

The commissariat, hastily formed from the logistics and supply regiment, augmented by civil defence volunteers rejected for frontline duty, had been obliged to obtain 176,892 sheep across three months and two loaves of bread per day, per man, (16,982,640 loaves!) across the same period. Moreover the government had felt obliged to impound the entire stock of tea and coffee held by the Köping Tea Company in Hurmudan territory so as to sufficient provision to the force assembled at Ghawlama. Some lucky soul, or an unfortunate one depending on perspective, was also obliged to tour the Blackfriar's District of Tiegang in an effort to lock down deals with the breweries and distilleries of the International Mandate, and their contacts in wider Apollonia, so as to procure the industrial quantities of alcohol that a perennially thirsty and bored army in being required to sustain itself as it prepared and waited.

The equipment of the deployed force, distributed amongst the three forward encampments, and their supporting depots, consisted of much more than weaponry and requisitioned vehicles. The necessary materials and hardware for clearing the route of march, constructing emplacements, and keeping everything in good repair, made for catalogue of implements, all of which had to be stored, guarded, and maintained. The quartermasters, adjutants, and pursers, who had spawned out of ranks of the commissariat, were dully obliged to maintain lists of every necessary article, along with their cost, making the enterprise an exercise as much in accounting as in defence.

All of this, combined with the vast quantities of aviation fuel, diesel oil for the land cruisers and trucks, and stores of munitions that would soon be called upon to feed the hungry guns, served to turn Ghawlama, for a time, into one of the busiest ports on the continent, with shipping commissions being greedily snapped up by the so-called "big three" shipping companies (ESB Logistics, Kerularios & Company, and SATCo). All these commercial vessels, constituting a trade fleet in their aggregate, would have been accutely vulnerable to enemy interdiction, being protected by only the three lightly armed cutters of the 30th Offshore Patrol Regiment as they approached the harbour situated at the mouth of the River Glacei. However, were the enemy to consider striking at this vulnerable traffic, it would run the risk of antagonising the Raspur Pact, whose members would not take kindly to seeing the merchant vessels of their various conglomerates burning on the ocean, at a time when the foe had already strained the patience of the Great Apollonian Empire in recent months with the careless use of chemical weapons in its own civil war.

Forces of Barikalus

Operations commence

Visitors to the encampments of the Silver Yak Horde generally failed to remark that, whilst the number of horses in the grazing herds hobbled close-by, along with the headcount of those who dwelt under felt tents, remained broadly constant, seemingly even increasingly slightly, the ratio of men of fighting age (15 to 65) to women, children, and silver-haired old men, had shifted markedly in the favour of the latter categories since the tenth month of 1703. Those that were curious enough to comment were merely told that the warriors were out conducting patrols, and would be back in due course. Indeed this was plausible enough, there was enough of Lontinien to cover if further hostile incursions were to be repelled. Every once in a while a patrol of forty or so men, leading a greater number of horses, would come riding into the encampments, throwing up dust-clouds suggestive of far greater numbers. The country was by now awash with surplus Elwynnese rifles, care of the Osman-Spiik Pact, and the denizens of the camp, appearing to look alike dressed in traditional riding boots, full-length tunic, and peaked-caps, with a rifle slung over their shoulders as they went about their daily business, gave the impression of a considerable body of men under arms remaining at that location. To maintain the impression, some of the younger women had given themselves the warrior haircut adopted by the Expeditionary Force, and taken to binding their breasts so as to disguise the nature of their sex. At this conceit the elders scoffed but, at a distance, it added to the preservation of the overall illusion so they allowed it.

Because Ghawlama was, for fairly evident reasons based upon its location, proximity to enemy territory, and distance from Benacia, not suited for the direct shipment of articles donated to Hurmu under the Osman-Spiik Pact, one of the principle delays in the commencement of the retaliatory strike had been the delays inherent in getting goods ashore at Tyrador and transferred overland to the theatre of operations a third of the way across northern Apollonia to the east. The rail network that would eventually be set down to link Transprinitcia to Lontinien was still in its early stages of planning and construction, while the road network was a ruinous inheritance from the long-vanished Gralan Empire. The overland convoys, a mixture of oversized land cruisers, ruggedised lorries, four-wheel drive vehicles, and myriads of pack animals, especially musk oxen, all attended by ragged columns of locally conscripted native porters, worked their way eastwards between the ninth and twelfth months of 1703 AN. With this vast procession had at its head one Johannes Klaron Djupvik, lately Commissioner of the Transprinitican District and now, by special permission of the Senate, Chief Commissioner of the Peace. A dilettante in his youth, Johannes had matured into an accomplished frontiersmen after enduring the privations of garrison life on Samholdsøya with the Union Defence Force and expeditions into the interior of Apollonia and Keltia at the behest of the Hurmu Peace Corps. It was Johannes' experience with adversity, and with the necessity of improvisation for survival, which recommended him to the Senate Committee for appointment as commander of the expeditionary force being assembled along the western shores of the River Glacei.

The twelfth month of 1703 AN was intended to have been spent in its entirety finalising preparations for the intervention to come. Encounters with the Muharibu Alhuriya had thus far been deliberately avoided, beyond the interception of the three helicopters which had been engaged immediately after the attack on Ghawlama. The breadth of the River Glacei had kept the two forces apart, and aside from the occasional long-range snipe or mortar lob, actual hostilities had been practically non-existent. This would change, however, as news of the assassination of the deposed Emir and Emira of Arboria on 22.XI.1703 AN was received by the Hurmu Government and confirmed by numerous sources including enemy propaganda broadcasts. A televised press conference delivered by Mustafa Asada, although strikingly incoherent, appeared to be an attempt to offer a justification of the slaying. Aside from some ludicrous rumours concerning the marital affairs of the King of the Franks during his rule over Batavia, the most striking detail to come out of the President's remarks was the extent to which the strategic deception which had masked the evacuation of the Franks to Apollonia, via staging areas and spurious declarations of sovereignty in Keltia, had sown confusion and seeming discord in the highest ranks of Arbor's ruling class.

Responding to the earlier Ghawlama atrocity, and now the extra-judicial killing of two members of the Order of the Holy Lakes, the Government of Daniyal al-Osman issued "Letters of Reprisal", authorising commercial and privately owned vessels of the Hurmu merchant marine and the fishing fleet to organise and carry out attacks against the merchant-shipping of Barikalus. By establishing a commerce raiding force, Hurmu would seek to augment the fighting strength of its otherwise purely nominal naval arm, that presently consisted of six lightly-armed coastguard cutters.

Those scions of the Line of Woodrow then resident in the Lake District, along with their accredited representatives where they could be found, were summoned the parlerment building in Vesüha and promised rifles, a subsidy paid in gold coin, and letters of reprisal, if they would undertake to organise their retinues into armed bodies of men and conduct raids against the southern coast of Barikalus - making common cause with any resistance groups that they might encounter there.

A gesture of Hurmu's new resolve occurred on the morning of 23.XII.1703 AN when two P-2 Navegadors, operated by the ESB Aviation Group on behalf of the Air Department of the HPC, departed from Vesüha International Airport to conduct their first anti-shipping sweep of the Strait of Pearls and Pound Strait. Directed by a Dragoon surveillance drone, the two maritime patrol aircraft began a shallow dive upon a positively identified Barikalus-flaged container ship, approaching from the vessel's stern. After strafing the vessel from stern to bow with their twin downward-firing 15 mm autocannons, the two Navegadors climbed to an altitude of 1,000 metres before coming back around for another pass, dropping depth bombs immediately ahead of the ship whilst raking its topside superstructure bow to stern. Having conducted this attack, and radioing in the location of the vessel to 116th Command & Control Regiment for relay to the Sea Department for follow-up action, the two patrol aircraft continued southwards along Pond Strait towards the Isle of Talamthom.

The following day, at 0600 hrs, five hundred 80 mm field guns, dispersed in concealed positions between the three HPC encampments along the western shore of the River Glacei began to commence a steady bombardment of the locations on the opposite shore reported to be occupied by the Muharibu Alhuriya. Over the preceding four months, the 147th Operational Psychology Department had worked with refugees, defectors, and representatives of the Maerifa Defence Forces, to work out a priority list of enemy regime targets – regimental concentration areas, gun emplacements, headquarter locations, and the purported locations of fuel and munition dumps. Light aircraft flown by the temporarily retasked pilots of the 139th Air Transport Regiment were up over the River Glacei from dawn onwards flying reconnaissance missions. As the bombardment commenced these aircraft began to act as artillery spotters, reporting the fall of the shot fired onto the eastern shore back to the HPC Garrison Headquarters in Ghawlama, which could then contact the batteries to instruct them to adjust their fire. Each battery, comprising of five guns, had received an allocation of shells sufficient to sustain a four hour bombardment against their assigned list of targets. It was steady work, with pauses only to allow the barrels to cool.

At 0800 hrs the first of two hundred light attack aircraft, a mix of and , flown by volunteer pilots of the HPC air department, accompanied by fifty Honey Badger ground attack aircraft piloted by ESB contractors, swept low and fast across the river south of al-Khadra before sweeping north and east with orders to shoot-up any vehicles encountered on the roads or in the open. The order was given to treat any traffic on the roads as being automatically hostile – the Maerifa Defence Forces being warned to keep its surviving forces under cover as much as possible for the duration of the day. Recognising the limitations of the aircraft it had thrown into the fray, the HPC Air Department had impressed upon its pilots the importance of disengaging and retiring westwards the moment they encountered modern ground-based air defences.

In spite of their success in gathering in contributions of legacy aircraft and artillery pieces, modern equipment was still at something of a premium for the HPC. For instance, its reserve of modern multi-role strike aircraft was vanishingly small. For this reason, namely prudence and self-preservation, had seen the combat air patrols mounted by eight Ashavans over the positions of the Hurmu Expeditionary Force to strictly remain on the Lontinien side of the River Glacei.

Declaration of war

On 10.III.1704, the Imperial Apollonian embassy in Vesüha informed the Senate of the Lakes that the Arboric Republic of Barikalus had declared war on Hurmu. The embassy relayed the information from President Mustafa Asada. The Senate immediately met behind locked doors to discuss the matter.

Earlier, Hurmu had attacked a container ship under the Barikalus flag. Now with the formal state of war, not that Mustafa needed it, he ordered that submarines be used to search the waters for Hurmu-flagged ships. The submarines struck two fishing vessels in the Strait of Pearls and a passenger ship on its way to Ergo Sum. All three ships were sunk. A missile attack was launched from Al Khadra on Ghawlama. The 175th Artillery Fawj fired with their KFA-Izaria I's. It is unclear to the republican troops exactly what they would hit. Eagerly Mustafa waited for media reports.

International reactions

•  Akhidia: On 14.VIII.1703, Akhidian kings Prince Edward and Neil I think that the conflict should end because they said that their civilians were harmed during this time and that they would distribute coffee for motivation to both sides.
•  Benacian Union: Osman-Spiik Accord, negotiated at Botha on 9.IX.1703 AN – the Benacian Union undertook to provide Hurmu with surplus weaponry inherited from the Black Legions and the UDF, as well as to grant exit visas to any subject of the Union-State who would enlist to the Hurmu Peace Corps for a five year term of service. In return Hurmu would undertake to resettle recusant religious dissidents, particularly of the Umraid community in the district of Transprinitica.
•  Mondo: On 14.VIII.1703, Fort Ermingander released a statement expressing concern at the rising tensions and calling upon all belligerents to take measures to avoid exporting the conflict to neighbouring states. A personal message from Mondo offered free prosthetic limbs and emergency cake rations to civilian survivors of the ferry attack.
•  Sanama: On 12.VIII.1703 AN Piter Oreya and Muqana Soke issued a statement on behalf of the Federal Coordination Committee. In the statement they condemned the attack on civilians, called for moderation from both sides and offered to mediate in the conflict in any way possible. They also expressed their hopes for a ceasefire and talks between the parties. As a nation with positive relations with both Barikalus and Hurmu, the Sanaman officials hoped that their invitation could mitigate the volatile situation.
•  Senya: 10.VIII.1703 AN, the government issued a statement criticising the unprovoked attack on a Hurmudan civilian vessel, and called on all sides involved to broker a peace deal to establish stability and security in the former Arboric Emirate.