Ruvelkan Winter Counter-Offensive

Ruvelkan Winter Counter-Offensive
Part of the Zemplen War
Ruvelkan artillery fires on Syaran position.
Date 23 November - 20 December 2008 Location Ruvelka Result See aftermath
Belligerents
Ruvelka	Syara
Commanders and leaders
Edviná Molnár Áron Surány Tibor Fehér Eliska Hanáková Péter Novák	Dragomir Zhelev Vakhtang Avakian Nikodemos Cvetkov Aleksandar Čorić Daniel Mladenov Todorov
Units involved
Imperial Armed Forces of Ruvelka	Syaran Commonality Armed Forces
Strength
3,250,000 personnel	2,500,000 personnel
Casualties and losses
36,488 killed 66,821 wounded	20,871 killed 43,945 wounded 12,500 captured

The Ruvelkan Winter Counter-Offensive (known as Operation: Szablya to the Imperial Armed Forces of Ruvelka) was a strategic offensive launched by Ruvelka during the Zemplen War from 13 November to 20 December 2008.

In September 2008 the Syaran Commonality Armed Forces had launched Operation Aspis with the intent to destroy the Ruvelkan military as a cohesive fighting force. By the end of October, the Syarans had captured Sarud, Balatonalmádi, Dunakesi, Pannonhalma, and Albertirsa, but the Ruvelkan armed forces remained functional. While both sides began rebuilding their forces after three months of fighting, Chancellor Edviná Molnár began pushing for a counter-offensive to drive the Syarans out of Ruvelka. General Áron Surány, Chief of the Imperial General Staff, was initially reluctant but eventually agreed to launch a strategic offensive towards the end of November. After some debate over where the offensive should be focused on the Syaran 9th Army and 1st Army, with diversionary attacks undertaken against other sections of the front. Ruvelka amassed nearly two and a half million troops for the offensive, against roughly 1,800,000 Syarans.

The offensive began on 23 November with a coordinated air offensive and infiltration efforts by Ruvelkan Imperial Fusiliers. The Syarans were caught partially off-guard, having expected a major offensive but uncertain of the scale and timing. Army Group Beta, the primary target of the Ruvelkans, was forced back in almost all sectors, but diversionary assaults against Alpha and Gamma were less successful. By 30 November the Ruvelkans were just 20 kilometers from Dunakesi, but in early December the Syarans began shifting armored and mechanized reserves towards critical sectors of the front. By 6 December Army Group Center had been halted in its entirety; General Surány wanted to call off the offensive but Chancellor Molnár insisted on keeping the initiative, leading to smaller offensives against Syaran forces near Sarud and Albertirsa. By 15 December Ruvelkan offensive efforts had halted, but sporadic fighting continued until the 19th. A Syaran request for a ceasefire for the Winter solstice was accepted on the 20th, which is generally used to mark the end of the offensive.

Although Ruvelka regained several hundred square kilometers of territory, the main objective of destroying the Syaran 1st and 9th Armies was not achieved. Although Ruvelkan troops demonstrated the ability to outflank and infiltrate Syaran formations, Ruvelkan commanders struggled to coordinate their operational maneuvers with one another, largely due to their pre-war emphasis on unit autonomy. Although they ultimately repelled the Ruvelkans, the Syarans were taken back by the scale of the offensive, which contradicted their assumptions that they had badly mauled the Ruvelkans beyond the capacity of such a large operation. The rest of the winter would largely be devoid of major fighting until the Syarans launched their first significant offensive of 2009 during Operation Synaspismos.

Background

During Operation Aspis in the opening months of the Zemplen War, the Imperial Armed Forces of Ruvelka had been pushed back from the border in a series of tactical and operational defeats. This included the loss of major cities near the border such as Balatonalmádi, Dunakesi, Pannonhalma, and Battle of AlbertirsaAlbertirsa]], and the destruction of several Ruvelkan Imperial Army divisions. Despite this, the Syaran Commonality Armed Forces had failed at their objective of destroying the Ruvelkan military's ability to resist the SCAF, and significant formations remained in play for Ruvelka. By Fall 2008 this included Army Group North, Center, and South in their respective geographic areas.

Aspis had ended in September, but in October the Syarans had launched several smaller-scale offensives including operations Hippikon in October and Operation Kontos in November, both in central Ruvelka. Both operations expanded Syaran control further east into Ruvelka, but were strategic dead ends. Back in Zovahr, uncertainty reigned. Despite being in control of all the disputed border regions, and advancing over 100 kilometers into Ruvelkan territory, Ruvelkan refusal to come to the negotiating table confounded Syaran strategic interests. There was generally little desire for a protracted conflict within the government of Executive Dragomir Zhelev, but the adamant stance of Chancellor Edviná Molnár in refusing to sue for peace complicated matters. Central Command Chief of Staff Vakhtang Avakian favored launching another offensive, focusing on the destruction of Ruvelkan military forces in Central Ruvelka, paving the way for a drive on the Ruvelkan capital of Debrecen.

In 7 November the Field Marshals of each Syaran Army Group, Nikodemos Cvetkov of Alpha, Aleksandar Čorić of Beta, and Daniel Mladenov Todorov of Gamma were summoned to Zovahr to discuss the future strategy of Syara. The trio met with the Senior Staff of Central Command to discuss their views on the situation and the possibility of another major offensive. Avakian informed the Field Marshals the plan was to attack the Ruvelkan forces in central Ruvelka by December, preferably doing so in time for the war to be over by the Winter Solstice. He also requested updates on the status of Syaran forces in the three army groups, and their assessments of Ruvelkan strength in their area of operations.

The reaction of the Syaran commanders were mixed. Cvetkov dismissed the idea outright, stating he felt the total destruction of the Ruvelkan armed forces were beyond the immediate operational capacity of the SCAF. Čorić was more receptive; while he was unsure if the time frame was possible, he insisted that the Ruvelkan forces of Army Group Center had been decimated and would not be in position to resist another Syaran offensive. Todorov was more ambivalent, stating that while an offensive was possible, Army Group Gamma would be hard pressed to advance straight into the Matra Mountains. Defense Minister Vitanov and Avakian were not satisfied with the mixed response they had gotten and suggested that the Syaran Army Groups conduct their own localized offensive in the meantime while more reserves were mobilized and prepared.

Again, the reaction was mixed. Čorić expressed a desire to do so, but admitted that further offensives risked overstretching his forces. Todorov again expressed his concern regarding pushing into Ruvelkan forces along the Matra Mountains. Cvetov wholly disagreed with the idea, pointing out that his forces were poorly positioned to do so; Army Group Alpha was constrained by its capture of Sarud and the two major cities of Kaposvár and Kunhegyes, which were protected by the sizeable forces of Army Group North. This time it was Avakian who ceded ground, admitting that Army Group Alpha would not be well suited towards major offensives of its own any time soon. Still, the Chief of Staff pressed for continued offensives by Syara, insisting that destruction of the Ruvelkan armed forces was still possible.

For the Ruvelkans, the decision was less whether to attack but when. As early as 24 September Chancellor Molnár had called for a major counter-offensive, but Chief of the Imperial General Staff Áron Surány disagreed, citing the need for Ruvelkan forces to regroup before any major offensive action was undertaken. Defense Minister Henrietta Kapolcs agreed with Surány, and suggested in a meeting on 29 September that Ruvelka aim for a major counter-offensive in the winter. The timeframe did not sit well with the Chancellor, who feared that the Syarans would advance too far east before then. The cessation of Syaran offensives after Aspis gave weight to the arguments of the Defense Minister and Chief of Staff, but the launch of Hippikon and Kontos reaffirmed the Chancellor's concerns.

In spite of this Surány insisted that time was needed to rebuilt Ruvelka's military. Fighting between August and October 2008 had produced over 300,000 casualties; equivalent to half of Ruvelka's entire pre-war armed forces. Reserve mobilization and mass conscription had boosted Ruvelkan troop levels to just over 2 million men and women in uniform by the start of November, with another 600,000 estimated to be ready by the end of the year. Despite this windfall of manpower, Surány warned this was not enough; although many of these new troops were members of the Territorial Defense Forces or former conscripts with military training, organizing and equipping them was a different matter. While basic things like rifles and uniforms were either in abundance or could be supplied easily, heavy equipment like main battle tanks and artillery, or expensive items like precision guided munitions and surface-to-air missiles were in short supply and were expensive to procure. Although Ruvelka had stockpiled thousands of armored vehicles tucked away in storage, this was still not enough to outfit all of Ruvelka's ground forces.

Despite these concerns, Molnár was insistent that Ruvelka act quickly to dispell Syaran forces from Ruvelkan soil, at the very least liberating the major border cities. Of particular concern to Molnár was the threat that recently raised Ruvelkan divisions would be destroyed piecemeal by Syaran forces as they were formed, preventing Ruvelka from every achieving conventional parity. At her insistence, it was eventually agreed that Ruvelka would launch an attack in later November or early December.

Planning and Prelude

Surány and Molnár identified Army Group Beta as posing the most significant threat, as Army Group Alpha was held up by Sarud and Army Group Gamma was limited by the Matra Mountains. Between October and early November Army Group Beta had pushed further east, and there was growing concern the Syarans would soon threaten Sagerejo in an effort to use the city as a springboard for operations into the Kurillas.

By November Ruvelka could field about 75 divisions against 41 Syaran divisions across the front. Ruvelkan divisions were however smaller, typically numbering between 9,000 to 12,000 troops, whereas their Syaran counterparts averaged between 16,000 to 20,000 men. Hasty deployments allowed Ruvelka to fild an additional 20 divisions by the middle of November, but these were mostly light infantry with little in the way or organic fires and limited armored forces.