Battle of Nortymba (1904)

Battle of Nortymba
Part of The First Great War Fale Ocean Front
File:Battleofwhitebay.jpg Zhenyan infantry charging Brytisc positions
Date 3 March 1904 - 19 March Location Nortymba, Brytene Result Brytisc victory
Belligerents
Brytene	Template:Country data Zhenya
Commanders and leaders
General Aethelflaed Folcwynn	Template:Country data Zhenya General Yakov Potemski Template:Country data Zhenya Colonel Dagov Janekin †
Strength
3,600	Template:Country data Zhenya 5,100
Casualties and losses
928 killed, 902 injured TOTAL - 1,830	Template:Country data Zhenya 2,103 killed, 605 injured TOTAL - 2,706
Unknown civilian casualties

The Battle of Nortymba was fought in March 1904 between the armies of Brytene and Zhenya. At that point in history, it was the largest naval landing ever conducted by the Imperial Zhenyan Armed Forces. Four Zhenyan regiments, along with supporting troops, landed on the north-eastern coast of the Brytsic canton of Nortymba, intending to march south and capture the city of Eoferwic. In a bloody battle which lasted for more than two weeks, the Zhenyan forces suffered severe casualties and were forced to withdraw. Following an initial period of success, the Zhenyans were halted by earthworks thrown up along the Pennon Hills. Zhenyan infantry and cavalry threw themselves at Brytisc trenches with terrible losses; shortly after the battle, the strategies and tactics used by the Imperial Zhenyan Army were radically changed in a series of reforms.

Background

Main article: Fale Ocean Front

The previous year, Zhenyan troops had seized the Brytisc town of St Joseph, provoked by the sinking of one of their merchant ships. The city was recaptured a month later, and in the following months the two nations engaged in naval warfare, with Brytisc warships harassing Zhenyan shipping lanes. The fighting was sporadic but the Zhenyan leadership, forced to adopt costly convoy measures in order to prevent the Brytisc raids, decided to mount an invasion of Brytene in order to seize their north-eastern ports and weaken their influence over the Fale Ocean.

Order of Battle

Zhenya

The Zhenyan landing force totaled four regiments of 1,200 men each, plus 300 supporting and logistical personnel. Three of the regiments were infantry; one was a mixed cavalry force. Artillery consisting of light and heavy field guns was attached to each infantry battalion, as were five water-cooled crewed machine guns. The Model 1903 Infantry Rifle, hastily designed and mass-produced the previous year following the battles of St Joseph, had been distributed among the regiments; for the first time, every soldier had the same weapon. The cavalry, consisting of a battalion of the Tsar Alexander Lancers, three battalions of the 24th Hussar Regiment, and a detachment of the Imperial Cuirassier Regiment, were armed with lances, swords, and carbines.

Brytene

The core of the Brytisc defense was led by the Nortymba Regiment, numbering roughly 1,500 soldiers. Only a year before, the regiment had fought two battles against the Zhenyans at Pepper Atoll. In the first battle, the regiment lost an entire battalion, meaning that the Nortymba Regiment was now an amalgam, combined with the Blue Dragoons battalion to constitute a full unit. The regiment was well-equipped with light field guns, Kuribayashi Bolt-Action rifles, water-cooled crewed machine guns, mortars and dragoon cavalry. The remainder of the Brytisc force was composed of Royal Fyrd militia, part-time volunteers raised to defend the islands as war swept over the globe. These soldiers were mostly equipped with breech-loaded rifles from the 1880s, with some using personal firearms such as shotguns, pistols, and even melee weapons and pikes.

Course of the battle

Initial landings

The Zhenyans dispatched four regiments disguised as a merchant shipping convoy. The relatively small size of the force meant that it aroused little suspicion at the Brytisc naval command, and so the fleet was tailed by only a single destroyer, the CFS Fyrbryht, with orders to chart their course and harass any laggards.

On the morning of the 2nd of March, the convoy abruptly turned north. Unable to halt their progress, the CFS Fyrbryht turned east to alert the Brytisc authorities. Meanwhile, the Zhenyan force landed practically uncontested in Banff Bay to the north of Eoferwic. They marched south until they reached the Pennon Hills late in the evening of the 3rd of March, where Brytisc defenders under the command of General Aethelflaed Folcwynn had positioned themselves across the road south.

The Brytisc had entrenched themselves, throwing up earthworks and trenches along the crest of the hills and barricading the road. The Pennon Hills formed a natural rampart, allowing them to keep their logistical and support network largely safe from enemy fire.

Zhenyan attack

At dawn on the 4th of March, General Potemski ordered a general advance on the Pennon Hills. Officers formed their troops into attack columns, planning a rapid advance against the Brystic trenches to seize them. Unfortunately, the attack was a disaster. Charging up the hill with bayonets, the front ranks of Zhenyan infantry were gunned down and fell back onto the troops behind them, who soon lost all cohesion and staggered up the slopes in disarray. Sword-swinging officers, brightly-colored plumes attached to their caps, were picked off with ease. In three minutes, a major and three captains in the 17th Infantry Regiment were all killed, the major having been virtually shredded by machine gun fire. Eventually, after much effort on the part of the remaining officers, the Zhenyans reached the top of the hill and began pouring fire into the earthworks. In what is perhaps the most unfortunate timing ever seen in military history, it was at this moment that the Zhenyan field guns opened fire.

File:Zhenyan charge.jpg

Zhenyan troops advance up the Pennon Hills

The shells blanketed the hillsides and decimated the Zhenyan troops. Colonel Janekin was blown twenty feet into the air and was killed; other troops died in the hail of shrapnel. Officers lost all courage and retreated, and their men followed them. The men of Brytene rose out of their trenches and fired into the backs of the Zhenyans, inflicting terrible casualties. Commanders prevaricated over whether or not to order an official retreat, but eventually decided to do so. The recall was sounded after the Zhenyan commanders realised that their best option was to assault the roadworks directly, leaving scores of dead and injured on both sides. The Zhenyan casualties were taken to the Brytisc field hospital at the foot of the hills, but the demand overwhelmed the few volunteer nurses and army medics.

Lt. Col. Olivia Julius

It was here that Lt. Col. Olivia Julius of the Blue Dragoons was killed in hand-to-hand combat, earning the Golden Seal of Pelegiad. She is the highest-ranking member of the Brytisc Fleet ever to earn the honour, which she was posthumously awarded after killing no less than seven enemy personnel using her officer's sabre. The enemy infantry had been overrunning the trench and had already decimated a company of Royal Fyrd, but her actions halted their advance and eventually resulted in their expulsion from the defensive lines.

Second Zhenyan attack

The Zhenyan cavalry massed for a charge against the roadworks, intending to vault the low breastworks and shatter the infantry behind, allowing their own infantry to penetrate the Brytisc lines and turn their flanks.

Armed with lances and heavy sabres, the Zhenyans charged as if it was 1804, not 1904. In their green-and-pink uniforms, the Tsar Alexander Lancers suffered horrendous casualties. A few managed to reach the breastworks, but they were killed soon after and the first wave of the attack disintegrated. The cuirassiers had falsely believed that their armor would protect them; bullets simply passed through it, inflicting huge amounts of losses. Swinging their swords, the cuirassiers charged in a mass of horses and men but were shot down with ease. In desperation, two battalions of the 24th Hussar Regiment, totaling 400 men, were given the order to advance. Armed with carbines, they managed to pick off some of the Brytisc defenders before they, too, charged with swords. The speed of their horses actually got them to the breastworks, and they leaped over it, savaging the defenders. However, sustained fire devastated the tightly-packed hussars, and after several minutes the trumpeter sounded the order to retreat.

Remainder of the battle

File:Brytiscdefenders.jpg

Brytisc defenders in their trenches

The first day of battle had been catastrophic for the Zhenyans. Close to half their force had been killed or injured in the first two attacks, and they were unaware that the Brytisc force had also lost almost a third of its fighting strength. A truce was arranged on the evening of the 4th to allow both sides to recover their dead and wounded, and for the next day the Zhenyans bombarded the Brytisc positions with their light field guns and mortars. The mortars inflicted many casualties until the Brytisc withdrew their support lines into a wooded area further south, at which point the exchange of gunfire became desultory as both sides began to run low on ammunition for their larger guns.

On the 11th of March, and then again on the 12th, the Zhenyans made attempts to push columns up the front of the hills but these attacks were thrown back with minimal loss of life on both sides. The remaining Zhenyan cavalry attempted to find a pass through the hills to the east (the west becoming steeper as it led to the Nortymba Spine mountain range) but were tailed by Brytisc dragoons and returned to their encampment on the 18th. On the 19th, General Potemski decided to withdraw. The Brytisc commanders elected not to pursue them, as the defenders were at barely half strength.

Aftermath

The terrible casualties sustained by Zhenya during the battle led Isaac Volkov, Chief of the Imperial General Staff, to draft and introduce a series of sweeping reforms in military strategy and tactics and officer's education. The field uniforms of the cavalry were considerably changed; cavalry charges against fixed positions were forbidden; and "henceforth, any forward advance is to be conducted in lines, not columns." Artillery gunners were sharply rebuked for their accidental friendly fire and told to be far more careful with their target spotting and aiming in the future.