[Florian Campaign] Operation Open Fire
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[Florian Campaign] Operation Open Fire
A group of young conscripts were playing cards, while on the background sounded the newest Jingdaoese hit. The past few days had been rather exciting for those young men and women: most of them had, for the first time, left their birth village or province. Now they sat here, in one of the old fortresses that in a far, dark and barbaric past had been used as first defence against the Green. They didn't seem concerned with the thunder clouds above their head. Instead they showed a kind of eagerness to kill the barbarians at the gates which would probably have made Sisera blush.
Then the door of the break room opened. A small officer looked at the group, silently gave the sign and left. The conscripts didn't need any commands. They knew what had to be done. This was what they had been trained for. This was - as some said poetically - their destiny.
The sound of hundreds of bomb shells exploding. For some it sounded like the beautiful sung of an imminent victory. For the Florians and Shirerithians, which had dug in, it must have felt as a moment of confusion and chaos. Everywhere along the frontline the artillery was active, but - to the surprise of some men - it didn't look like there was much movement.
"The operation to liberate Xhusovo has begun!" princes Yuling smiled when she said these words to the general staff. "Our men will move into Xhusovo, while applying pressure on the enemy frontline. If we sense weakness, we will use that weakness. We have the manpower and equipment to wipe them from Micras!"
OOC: Just wanted to get things started. Didn't have much time. Sorry.
Honoured Servant of the Jingdaoese Heavenly Light and the Kaiseress of Shireroth
Re: [Florian Campaign] Operation Open Fire
Finally!
(I've been busy myself this week, so fair enough)
For those of chronically short attention span:
(I've been busy myself this week, so fair enough)
For those of chronically short attention span:
Summary: massed Jingdaoese artillery barrage on entrenched Sxiro-Florian forces along the entirety of the Florian Front. Jingdaoese General Staff ordered to commence general harrassment of front line in support of an advance against Xhusovo.
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Re: [Florian Campaign] Operation Open Fire
Overview: After a long phoney war period, the forward deployed infantry of the 5th and 6th armies were subjected to a punishing bombardment by the Jingdaoese Imperial Armed Forces. Although sufficient time had elapsed for the entrenched infantry to have constructed hardened shelters, including dugouts and subterranean bunkers, the day - for those caught out in the open - began inauspiciously. Casualties, the dead, wounded and missing combined, were likely to top the 4,000 mark. The counter-battery fire was no less punishing, with Shirerithian and Florian artillery batteries trying to identify and eliminate their Jingdaoese counter-parts, who in turn would try to do likewise. One advantage enjoyed by the Shirerithians in this duel was the battlefield surveillance capability provided by airborne ground scanning radar and the overwatch of orbiting Natopian assets, which can freely share intel via the SANE alliance even if the direct military involvement is still a little way off.
Narrative: The day had been a long one and Sergeant Ulrich Halfast, a Duplicarius on double-pay for the duration of his operational deployment with No. 25 Group, had returned to his billet, a rented apartment in Dragonmoor, in a near fugue state of exhaustion. Eighteen hours earlier all hell had broken loose along the entire length of front-line. A concerted rolling artillery barrage had pummelled allied forward positions, including the first three lines of entrenchments. Sergeant Halfast, an air force information analyst by trade, had been assigned to interpreting the data generated from the Panopticon Node, a piece of salvaged Babkhan tech that was meant to synthesise all sensory inputs and data streams into a coherent information mosaic. The operative part of that sentence had been the word meant. In the event it regularly, far from providing "full spectrum awareness and dominance in the information battlespace" as had been promised, had churned out reams of gibberish; verbiage with nonsensical syntax interposed with random sequences of numbers that could have been coordinates and equally could have been consumption figures for foot talcum powder. Ulrich's full time job therefore laid in translating an omniscient information system's oracular pronouncements into something that the average, blue-blooded and cognitively impaired, cohort tribune might readily comprehend.
His mind turned back to one output that he'd tentatively pieced together. By the end he'd felt reasonably certain that he'd written up some kind of force estimate extrapolated from the day's chaotic artillery duels.
If he could believe the data that he had so laboriously reassembled from the Panopticon outputs, which in turn required a certain measure of trust regarding the veracity of the original inputs, then the Shirerithian and Florian armies had a slight advantage in the weight of shells exchanged at extended range. That advantage would disappear as the Jings battalion guns would be brought into range. Therefore sectors where the ratio of shots exchanged was in favour of the allies, the Jing would not have moved within two km of the forward allied positions, yet where the incoming fire exceeded the outgoing then the chances were that formations were working their way forward.+USSO
-Second Field Army
294,795 personnel
1,440 80mm field guns (18km) 14 rounds per minute (40,320 shells in 2 minutes (20,160x2) )
3,240 70 mm Type 92 battalion gun (2km) 10 rounds per minute (32,400x2)
20 Type 41 75 mm mountain gun (7km) 15 rounds per minute (300x2)
+Allied
-1st Army Group (5th & 6th Armies only)
1,820 80mm field guns (18km) 14 rounds per minute (50,960 shells in 2 minutes (25,480x2))
48 105mm howitzers (17-20km) 6–8 rounds per minute (384x2)
Of course there were problems with this. Both sides were targeting grid references where targets of interest had been identified. The lines of trenches, bunkers, anti-tank obstacles, wire entanglements, gun-emplacements, had, as was witnessed in the opening salvo, made the entire frontier a target of interest. In contrast, the allies were performing counter-battery fire, trying to triangulate the positions of the enemy batteries, so that the grid references identified on the map can be partitioned into hypothetical boxes and their corresponding locations systematically pulverised into churned earth, scrap metal and rubble. A game of cat and mouse was ensuing along the entire front as batteries fired, gave away their position, were obliged to move to avoid retaliatory fire and then began the process anew. Shirerithian batteries moved each hour and, as far as Ulrich could deduce, the Jing were bound to do likewise. As such the concentration of fire given and received was uneven going from sector to sector, yet, at the Corps level the picture evened out. Perhaps.
Yet there was Xhusovo. There the ratio was overwhelmingly in the favour of the Jing. That was no surprise. Aside from locally raised troops of doubtful efficiency and vigour, as evidenced by the rapid ouster of the formerly ruling XLA, the country was held by elements detached from "Freedom Division" of the XIV Corps, and what did they have to their name? Twenty-four 105mm howitzers? Plus whatever antiques they could dig out of the Xhusors own arsenals and return to service. The force that had been pushed into Xhusovo was a buffer, a flimsy one at that if left unsupported.
Such a weak front, it was hard to understand why the intervention there had been ordered at all for all the opprobrium that had been heaped on allied powers in the Florian press alone. It was above his pay grade of course and certainly not his place to wonder at the whys and wherefores of the bigger picture.
The other problem with the Panopticon was that it scooped up information and disgorged it faster than the teams of human analysts, working in relays,
could piece it back together to make sense of it. There had been a steady surge in the volume of data received during the day. Ulrich could hazard a guess at what it could be. Statistical minutiae; munition expenditure rates, fuel consumption figures, casualty reports.
As he sat on the edge of the camp bed set up in the living room of the apartment he shared with six other NCOs, a mug of hot chocolate in hand,
Ulrich was forced to wonder:
If he was so damned tired, how is it that he could not sleep.
Summary: For those amongst the Imperial Forces, including the desk warriors associated with the "long tail" of the deployed force,
the reality of what they had become embroiled in was slowly beginning to dawn.
All this has happened before, and all this will happen again.
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Re: [Florian Campaign] Operation Open Fire
(OOC: Seeing as this has drifted and come to a standstill and the Florian is a somewhat unreliable partner to the narrative, I'm going to PM Jonas and Krasniy a proposal for winding down the narrative of the Florian Campaign at some point)
All this has happened before, and all this will happen again.
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Re: [Florian Campaign] Operation Open Fire
OOC: Yes, please. Next week I can resume actvity, but this week has been busy (extra work hours, Japanese language exam,...).Thorgils Tarjeisson wrote: ↑Wed Nov 15, 2017 12:30 pm(OOC: Seeing as this has drifted and come to a standstill and the Florian is a somewhat unreliable partner to the narrative, I'm going to PM Jonas and Krasniy a proposal for winding down the narrative of the Florian Campaign at some point)
Honoured Servant of the Jingdaoese Heavenly Light and the Kaiseress of Shireroth
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Re: [Florian Campaign] Operation Open Fire
After a discussion with the Referee and my opposing number, here is a summation of the events during the invasion and, for the most part, destruction of, Xhusovo, which now falls under Jing occupation. I have a narrative segment in draft but I'll just dump that straight into the wiki later on.
Battle of Xhusovo
Summary:
Over the course of 64 days the Jingdaoese Imperial Armed Forces expelled a Shirerithian garrison from Xhusovo, resulting in the complete destruction of that small landlocked country. By making a stand at Hull, formerly a Florian administrative centre, the defenders, although swiftly surrounded, were able to draw the Jingdaoese conscript force into a battle of attrition in an urban environment.
A limited allied counter-offensive to relieve the Hull pocket was launched on the 55th day of the siege and was successful in establishing a narrow corridor through which the mercenaries were able to evacuate their wounded and receive resupplies of ammunition during the night. By the 59th day however the Jingdaoese had cleared the last ruined urban blocks and raised their flag over the city.
By the 64th day the last vestiges of the Shirerithian presence in Xhusovo had been expunged. The cost of expelling such a slight and trivial force had been greater than the Jingdaoese high command had anticipated and gave its more thoughtful officers pause for thought as the second phase of the offensive, into the Florian Republic itself, began.
Casualties:
Artillery Duel:
Jing: 4,500 dead and missing
Allied: 4,904 dead, missing and wounded
Invasion of Xhusovo
Jing: 2,145 dead and missing and 4,932 wounded
Allied: 1,636 dead and missing and 4,090 wounded
Siege of Hull:
Jing: 2,606 dead, 2,500 wounded 110 tanks and armoured vehicles and 3 aircraft destroyed
Allied: 1,371 dead, 718 captured, 250 technicals and one aircraft destroyed
Relief of Hull:
Jing: 1,300 dead
Allied: 5,000 dead or wounded 2,000 captured
Total losses
Jing: 10,551
Allied: 15,629
Civilian: 2,982 dead, 600,000 fled abroad
Timeline:
Note: The timeframe in which this is set is the period from the 9th to the 14th of November expressed as a period of time equivalent to two and a half months in the Norton Calendar.
Date (Day) Event
9.V.1654 (1) Artillery Duels begin
10.V.1654 (2) Movement of Jing conscripts towards Xhusovo
14.V.1654 (6) Artillery Duels subside
15.V.1654 (7) Invasion of Xhusovo begins
16.V.1654 (8) Chuan Ke falls to 19th Corps
17.V.1654 (9) Freedom Division retires in good order towards Hull
18.V.1654 (10) Siege of Hull begins
23.VI.1654 (39) Natopian air assets begin to appear over battlefield
15.VII.1654 (55) XIV Corps begins counter-offensive to relieve Hull
19.VII.1654 (59) Siege of Hull ends
24.VII.1654 (64) Allied forces evacuate Xhusovo
Forces:
Jingdaoese Forces
Second Field Army
Forces engaged (Corps): 15th (infantry), 16th (infantry)
34,300 infantry, 690 heavy machine guns, 160 field guns, 360 infantry support guns, 24 anti-tank guns, 114 Dolstier I main battle tanks,
Third Field Army
Forces engaged (Corps): 18th (infantry), 19th (armoured), 20th (armoured)
47,450 infantry, 1,035 heavy machine guns, 240 field guns, 540 infantry support guns, 36 anti-tank guns, 613 Dolstier I main battle tanks, 30 tanks Lucinspire Class Heavy Tank
Theatre air support: 65 fighters, 62 transport aircraft, 3 light attack aircraft, 11 strategic bombers
There is not a published figure for the speed of the Lucinspire, so I'm going to suggest using the stats of a 1940s British heavy tank (the Tortoise):
Road: 12 mph (19 km/h)
Off-road: 4 mph (6 km/h)
As such it's primary role, aside from being obsolete alongside the better armed and more adaptable Dolstier, is to assault and clear fortified positions, arguably making it more useful in urban warfare and for assaulting static front lines with it's 155mm calibre main armament.
“Allied” Forces
"Freedom Division" of XIV Corps
12,498 infantry, 24 105mm howitzers, 375 “technicals” (all-terrain utility vehicles), 10,000 Florian porters, 7,000 mules and 4,000 yaks
Xhusovan Self-Defence Force
5,082 volunteer infantry, 1,000 public order troops, 2,500 police,
Theatre air support:
Florian: 3 Alpha ground attack aircraft (night time only)
Natopian/“MSU” (after day 39, identification markings obscured): 4 N-1 fighters; 4 HB-3 bombers
All this has happened before, and all this will happen again.
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Re: [Florian Campaign] Operation Open Fire
Summary: The Jingdaoese troops 'liberate' Xhusovo. At the same time the Jingdaoese push through the frontlines at Ironwell while Florian troops seem disorganised and demoralised.
Xhusovar
The Yao Plan had a remarkable effect. While several officers had been sceptical to invade in the one place the Florian-Shirerithian alliance would have expected an attack, jiangjun Tzao Yao, had pushed through and continued his invasion plans.
In the end, it had taken 64 days to establish full control over the Xhusovo region. The fights had brought only despair and destruction to the locals, as for the third time in a short period, there had been war in (literally) their own backyard. Cities hadn't been safe from the destruction, neither was the countryside.
But more disturbing, at least for the Jingdaoese officers, had been the slow pace of the fighting. If taking over such a small landlocked country took this much time, what would happen in the Florian mainland? And then... suddenly, they received news from the frontline: a breakthrough had been reached at the Xhusovar border.
The 17th November the military and imperial court decided that a new government had to be organised. Fed up with the incompetence of both the former Xhusovar leader and the Florians, a new leader is chosen. The choice fell upon Prince Hon, son of Second Princess Yuling, who ascended the new throne of the Empire of Hondon. The Hoshasei Emperor, literally meaning 'radiant' immediately starts the reconstruction of the country... and his own cult.
Florian Front
Unbeknown to the Jingdaoese, Shirerithian troops had started retreating. What was left was nothing more than a handful of capable infantry soldiers and anti-tank teams. The thousands of Florian soldiers of the XVIIIth and XVIth were disorganised and seemed to lack ammunition and even basic supplies. Most had been forcibly taken away with the retreating Shirerithians.
During the first day the 18th, 20th and 21th Corps of the Third Field Army had met little real resistance. A trench line, part of the XVIIIth defences, had been captured with incredible ease. In it they found mainly the dead bodies of Florians who had been shot in the head. Written on a wooden plank "SERVES YOU RIGHT". Whoever had done it - and the Jingdaoese suspected their enemies - the soldiers of the 20th Corps could only have wished to be earlier to have done it themselves.
That day only 512 Jingdaoese had died in small skirmishes, while approximately 2,870 Florians had been killed. Several among them were shot when being taken into custody after their surrender. Nobody wanted to feed the traitorous Florian scum.
Fighting continued and the road to Ironwell was now open. Fighting in the small town presented more of a challenge: the Florians in that town still seemed to receive help of the Shirerithians. Well-trained infantry and anti-tank units proved a serious challenge. The Florians themselves could also put up a more decent resistance thanks to the better and more improved leadership of their officers.
Nonetheless, after fierce fighting, the Florian troops were pushed back. The civilians who had survived were forced by the Jingdaoese troops to flee in the direction of the frontline. Orders had been strict: the civilians of the Florian rogue nation were responsible for this mess and should at least - once in their life - serve a useful purpose. In this case as a meat shield against the enemy's artillery barrages.
Honoured Servant of the Jingdaoese Heavenly Light and the Kaiseress of Shireroth
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Re: [Florian Campaign] Operation Open Fire
The war had been full of surprises. At the start the Jingdaoese had expected a swift victory, but the 64 day-campaign in Xhusovo had proven that it wouldn't go that way. Not long after, however, resistance from the Florians had come to a halt. Internal turmoil and disatisfaction over the war had let to distrust between the Florians and Shirerithians. The temporary end of their autonomy had proven the final straw.
First the Jingdaoese diplomats hadn't taken the secret attempts of the Florian consul in Daocheng very seriously. Why would they fold so quickly while they still had sufficient means to combat the Jingdaoese? But after a while the chaos in Floria became evident. With some doubt, but eager to focus resources on other potential frontlines, the Yuan discussed a potential peace treaty. The demands would strengthen their cause and would allow to destroy any influence of the Shirerithians in the region.
In the end, the Florians seemed agreeable with all proposed terms, and even eagerly showed their support to join the Jingdaoese in pushing the Shirerithian troops out of the country.
ooc: so, I assume that the Shirerithians will retreat after having pillaged the south and get away mostly unharmed?
Honoured Servant of the Jingdaoese Heavenly Light and the Kaiseress of Shireroth
Re: [Florian Campaign] Operation Open Fire
Pro-Jingdaoese Florians marched on the streets burning flags of Shireroth and demanding the sacking of Juana Beazcoetxea. They also demanded Jeremy Spencer to be executed in Public and Jessica Smith delivered a speech which was met with roars of happiness with Florian's proclaiming her as a national hero. Jessica Smith stated that the micronation would reapply to the USSO as an associate member and an immediate recognition of Hondon (formerly Xhusovo) would occur.
Re: [Florian Campaign] Operation Open Fire
For the wishes and desire of the people. Imprisoned pro-Shirerothian Jeremy Spencer has been executed with immediate effect.
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Re: [Florian Campaign] Operation Open Fire
Placeholder notice: With the rejection of a Shirerithian offer for a local armistice in the Florian Republic by the Jingdaoese High Command, the Natopian 1st Exploratory Group has sortied from Port Saint Andre to join Task Force 90 in patrolling Carama Bay.
All this has happened before, and all this will happen again.
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Re: [Florian Campaign] Operation Open Fire
SUMMARY: In light of hoping to end the war in the Florian region, the High Command decided to send the Navy to establish a naval blockade. The following days air assaults shall be held on the Florian and Natopian harbours at Carama Bay with the goal to weaken their naval presence.
Gray Wolf Pack 1 to 5 and Hyena Pack 1 and 2 join Patrol Force A and Second Xindao Fleet.
Gray Gray Wolf Pack 1 to 5
Killer Whale Class Diesel-powered Attack Submarine : 50
Hyena Pack 1 and 2
Hammer Shark Nuclear-powered Attack Submarine : 20
White Shark Nuclear-powered Missile Submarine 20
Patrol Force A
Ozymandias Dreadnought Class: 1
Gong Customs Corvette Class: 4
Second Xindao Fleet
Esper Class Aircraft Carrier : 2
Sheng-class cruiser: 5
Rey Class Submersible Destroyer : 3
Raven IV Model Fighters: 105
Honoured Servant of the Jingdaoese Heavenly Light and the Kaiseress of Shireroth
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Re: [Florian Campaign] Operation Open Fire
(OOC: Clarification is sought. Are the submarines sortieing from their underwater submarine base Daodao? That's 290 pixels to Carama Bay as the crow flies, but rather longer I'd imagine if each bend in the River Antya was factored in?
It won't change the allied response but it might affect the order in which assets arrive. Two Carriers and a Dreadnought moving into open waters is still enough to induce the spiting of out coffee in operations centres from Shirekeep to Lindstrom and induce the scrambling of everything in range)
I'll try and do a bit of narrative later, but just in case I don't...
It won't change the allied response but it might affect the order in which assets arrive. Two Carriers and a Dreadnought moving into open waters is still enough to induce the spiting of out coffee in operations centres from Shirekeep to Lindstrom and induce the scrambling of everything in range)
I'll try and do a bit of narrative later, but just in case I don't...
Considerations for the Battle of Carama BaySpoiler!
All this has happened before, and all this will happen again.
Re: [Florian Campaign] Operation Open Fire
*groan*
Just so you know, I'll be out of commission for the next 36 hours so I probably won't be able to comb through the minutiae of this. But here are some further assumptions I'll be working on:
1. With no standing patrol area given, the Jingdaoese submarines are considered to be sortieing from their home base and will indeed have to ram themselves down the Antya River to reach their patrol area.
2. Patrol Force A, which is listed with a standing patrol area, is to be assumed already at sea and making some attempt to cover the other emerging naval units.
3. (perhaps most critically) Much of Carama Bay is within range of no less than three Jingdaoese ballistic missile sites, which have had since the days of the Sheng Emperor to gather their weapon stockpiles and launch capability. Moreover they were built with defence against naval vessels in mind and must be assumed to be at or near DF-21 ASBM standard - albeit without satellite guidance and depending on their own radar, or targeting assistance by Jingdaoese surface vessels (and later submarines). With the focus on a purely naval dimension, the contribution of land-based ASBMs appears to have been overlooked.
Just so you know, I'll be out of commission for the next 36 hours so I probably won't be able to comb through the minutiae of this. But here are some further assumptions I'll be working on:
1. With no standing patrol area given, the Jingdaoese submarines are considered to be sortieing from their home base and will indeed have to ram themselves down the Antya River to reach their patrol area.
2. Patrol Force A, which is listed with a standing patrol area, is to be assumed already at sea and making some attempt to cover the other emerging naval units.
3. (perhaps most critically) Much of Carama Bay is within range of no less than three Jingdaoese ballistic missile sites, which have had since the days of the Sheng Emperor to gather their weapon stockpiles and launch capability. Moreover they were built with defence against naval vessels in mind and must be assumed to be at or near DF-21 ASBM standard - albeit without satellite guidance and depending on their own radar, or targeting assistance by Jingdaoese surface vessels (and later submarines). With the focus on a purely naval dimension, the contribution of land-based ASBMs appears to have been overlooked.