Operation Pallbearer
Commencing 12.XI.1674, Operation Pallbearer was a pacification and bandit hunting operation, overseen by the Eastern Banner Group of Benacia Command, that was conducted by the Military of Ransenar with support from the Black Legions and the Sovereign Confederation. The action targeted insurgent groups from Monty Crisco who had staged several high profile provocations during the course of 1673–74 in an effort to establish their presence on the eastern bank of the Elwynn River.
Operation Pallbearer - with the attention of regional powers focused on the Matter of Amokolia, the vexing question of the insurgency in Crisco, along with its spillover into Ransenar, had assumed a lower priority than in preceding months. True to form, the Imperial Regency had begun proceedings to negotiate away another portion of its sovereignty to the insurgents. The Ransenari authorities had however been adamant that no effort be spared to ensure the restoration of order along the eastern bank of the river Elwynn, along the mid-course of the river between Shirekeep and the Guttuli Protectorate. Crucial to this was control of the river ports of Teldrin and Tyrelwynn. Teldrin, in particular, as one of the Captaincy ports and the corporate headquarters for ESB operations in Benacia, was judged to be of vital strategic importance to the new Kingdom. There would be no toleration of any ambiguity as to the city's status.
The operation would see a security cordon established around Teldrin and Tyrelwynn at 4 am on the morning of 12.XI.1674 by the 10th Legion of the Grand Army and the Riverine Forces, establishing checkpoints along the main egress routes from the cities, sealing side roads so as to canalise traffic towards the checkpoints, and closing the river to private and commercial traffic in and out of port. With the city in lock-down snatch squads drawn from the three Field Gendarmery Regiments attached to GHQ fanned out across both cities to begin making arrests of known and suspected troublemakers at their residences. Those thus detained were taken to Fort Erutirn for screening by interrogators drawn from the 3rd Justiciary Regiment. The process of identification and questioning would see detainees either released within forty-eight hours of interview or formally arrested and transferred to Goldshire Barracks, Goldshire Hamlet, pending a determination by the Adjutant General's Office as to whether those detained would be subjected to military or civil law in line with the martial law decree.
