Cacertian August Offensive

Cacertian August Offensive
Part of the Desopya Campaign of the Divide War
HMA Sanreno over the battlefield
Date 6-24 August 1918 Location Makedon, Syara Result Syaran Victory
Belligerents
Cacertian Empire	Republic of Syara
Commanders and leaders
Demetria Marik Isabella Matelizi Bertino Bassadoar Orsa Calderara	Atanas Endekov Grigori Yaponski Dimitar Pankovski Andrev Brehvez Aleksov Sebastian Matić
Strength
500,000 troops 500 tanks 12 airships 212 fighters 44 bombers 1,120 guns 12 rail-batteries	790,000 troops 200 tanks 6 airships 322 fighters 3,265 guns 4 armored trains
Casualties and losses
22,689 killed 64,980 wounded	47,304 killed 144,612 wounded

The Cacertian August Offensive, also know as Marik's Battle (Cacertian: La battaglia di Marik) or Defense of Zovahr (Syaran: Одбрана на Зовахр, Odbrana na Zovahr) was the final decisive operation of the Desopya Campaign during the Divide War. It was launched by the Cacertian Empire under the command of General Demetria Marik against the Army of Syaran Republic along the Alekso Line in Makedon. The objective of the offensive was to break through the Alekso Line and reach Zovahr, the capital of the Republic of Syara, under the belief that its capture would compel the Syarans to surrender. The Cacertians began their offensive on 6 August 1918 along a 175 kilometer front, spearheaded by 500 tanks and armored cars which breached the Alekso Line in several sectors. Supported by tanks, railway artillery batteries, airplanes and airships, the Cacertians succeeded in overrunning the Syaran tactical reserves but ran into increased Syaran resistance as their advance continued. Syaran forces, backed by over 3,000 artillery pieces, four armored trains, hundreds of aircraft, airships of their own, and 200 tanks counter-attacked across the front and succeeded in stalling the Cacertian offensive. Marik regrouped her forces on 18 August and made a final push for Zovahr, but Cacertian forces were halted by Syaran defenses near Viserajk and Rijtek. Although they were just 6 kilometers from Zovahr, the exhausted and depleted Cacertian forces were unable to press any further, and Marik called off the operation as Syaran counter-attacks began unfolding.

The offensive was the last major military action of the war. In the weeks that followed the Cacertians gradually withdrew their forces back towards the Desopya Coastal Plain and began pursuing a cessation of hostilities. The Desopya Campaign would end a month later on 22 September, and the war's end would follow in October. The victory over the Cacertian Empire provoked massive celebrations across Syara and would prove instrumental in the formation of Syaran nationalism in the years that followed the Divide War. For Cacerta, Rijtek would become informally known as the "High-Water Mark of the Empire"; the end of the war would become known as the beginning of the end of the Cacertian Empire. Historically the offensive is often seen to foreshadow the technological warfare that would come to dominate conflicts of the 20th Century. The August Offensive featured large scale usage of tanks, aircraft, and artillery, and involved the first instance of armored combat between tanks on the battlefield. The offensive was correspondingly the bloodiest of the entire war; Syaran and Cacertian casualties amounted to nearly 280,000 troops killed or wounded over the course of the fighting.