Battle of the Mansuri Sea

Battle of the Mansuri Sea
Part of Western Theater of the Siduri War
The RS Giver of Life and Saints and Sinners
Date 12 November 1934 Location Mansuri Sea, near Mansuriyyah Result Inner Sphere Victory
Belligerents
Mansuriyyah	Republic of Syara
Commanders and leaders
Jalal Bahri  †	Hristijan Rajcevski
Units involved
Mansuri Navy	Syaran National Fleet
Strength
4 pre-dreadnought battleships 4 heavy cruisers 12 cruisers 6 light cruisers 42 torpedo boats 16 submarines	6 battleships 5 heavy cruisers 8 cruisers 4 light cruisers 38 destroyers 22 submarines
Casualties and losses
4 pre-dreadnought battleships sunk 1 heavy cruiser sunk 3 cruisers sunk 2 light cruisers sunk 14 torpedo boats sunk 5 submarines sunk	1 battleship crippled 1 heavy cruiser sunk 1 cruiser sunk 1 light cruiser sunk 4 destroyers sunk 3 submarines sunk

The Battle of the Mansuri Sea was a naval engagement fought between the Republic of Syara and Mansuriyyah on 12 November 1936 during the Siduri War.

Following the outbreak of the war the Navy of the Syaran Republic had identified the threat posed by Mansuriyyah towards Syaran interests in the Nuadan Ocean and western Siduri. Once the war had expanded to include Mansuriyyah, but also the Cacertian Empire, the Syaran Admiralty recognized the need to quickly gain naval superiority, both by destroying Common Axis naval forces while denying naval ports that could be used to stage naval operations against Syara and the Inner Sphere. To accomplish this the Syarans first launched Operation Charybdis, an attack on the Cacertian Royal Navy facility on the Andria Protectorate. Though the attack failed to do significant damage to the Cacertian fleet, the damage to the port facilities denied the Cacertians the ability to stage enough ships that would be necessary to challenge the [[Syaran National Fleet].

Lacking the infrastructure necessary to support a large fleet, the Cacertians were forced to withdraw most of their heavy warships back east towards Tennai. Initial hopes that they could be redeployed to Mansuriyyah were cancelled after the Syaran Army Air Corps struck numerous ports along the Mansuri coast, sinking or disabling 13 Mansuri warships. The Common Axis now faced a difficult strategic situation at sea. Unable to match the Syarans in western Siduri at the time, the Cacertian Admiralty sought to buy time for the facilities at Andria to be repaired and they could reintroduce sufficient naval forces into the region. In order to maximize the margins for victory, the Cacertains urged the Mansuri to sail their merchant marine and navy away from Mansuriyyah and head south towards waters where the Cacertians and Tennaiites were better able to contest Syaran forces. Mansuri leadershiip was reluctant to accept the plan, fearful that abandoning the Mansuri Sea would open up their coast to uncontested Syaran naval dominance. Eventually the Mansuri Government agreed to the plan and began dispatching what naval forces and merchant shipping they could south.

Between the attack on Andria and early November 1934 there were numerous ferocious clashes in the Mansuri Sea and the waters between Mansuriyyah and Syara as the Syaran Navy launched repeated attacks against the Mansuri Navy and its coastal holdings. After protracted fighting for weeks, on 12 November the Syaran National Fleet under Fleet Admiral Hristijan Rajcevski consisting of 6 battleships, 5 heavy cruisers, 8 cruisers, 4 light cruisers, 38 destroyers, and 22 submarines entered the Mansuri Sea to destroy what remained of the Mansuri Navy along the Siduri coast. Admiral Jalal Bahri, having dispatched his most modern warships and most of Mansuriyyah's auxiliary vessels, had just four pre-dreadnought battleships, 4 heavy cruisers, 12 cruisers, 6 light cruiers, 42 torpedo boats, and 16 submarines. Most of the Mansuri ships were older and their crews less experience than their Syaran counterparts, but Bahri decided to engage. The Mansuri plan focused on employing his ships in a manner as to prevent the Syarans from forming a cohesive battle line where they could hurl large volumes of shells against the Mansuri. It was in many ways a reflection of the same tactics the Syarans had employed against the Cacertians during the Divide War.

The battle began around 10:30 with the Syarans opening fire at extreme range, beyond which the Mansuri ships could respond. Admiral Bahri had anticipated this and had positioned his submarines ahead of his main force to threaten the Syaran battle line with torpedo strikes. Additional torpedo volleys came from the Mansuri torpedo boats, which were engaged by Syaran cruisers and destroyers. The ensuing engagement was chaotic amid both sides conducting frantic maneuvers to avoid each others torpedoes. Bahri, aboard his flagship the Sultan-e-Azzam, had hoped for this as a way to buy time for his slower pre-dreadnoughts to close the distance where they could fire at the Syaran battle line. Syaran gunners scored numerous hits, sinking three torpedo boats within the first 30 minutes of the engagement, while crippling the cruiser Farhad ibn Musafir; she capsized and sank with most of her crew.

The Syarans however did not escape unscathed. Amid the volley of torpedoes the heavy cruiser Needed Reprieve was struck twice and capsized. By now Bahri's pre-dreadnoughts were close enough to start firing on the outlying Syarna cruisers. The battleship Sayfuddin Ghazi struck the light cruiser Faint Hearts and she foundered after 20 minutes of flooding. The act however brought the Mansuri ships within focus of the Syaran battleship cluster, which now turned their heavy guns towards Bahri's squadron. Despite an earnest effort by the Mansuri to close the distance the gap in capability was too large; the Giver of Life blew apart the Sayfuddin Ghazi in two volleys, tearing the pre-dreadnought apart. She went down with all hands.

Aboard the Sultan-e-Azzam Bahri tried to coordinate with his flotillas of torpedo boats to take advantage of the shift in Syaran battleship focus, but the engagement was beginning to swing fully in the Syaran's favor. Within 15 minutes the Syaran battleline and supporting cruisers had sunk an additional two cruisers and six more torpedo boats, while depth charges caused the destruction of four submarines. The heavy cruiser Abdul Karim al-Hawasi, despite a bad list to port courtesy of shellfire from the Radiant Perception rammed the Syaran submarine Coil and sank the destroyer Magnificent. The Mansuri warship continued to fire until Syaran shells reduced her to a burning wreck and she slipped under the waves at 11:20.

Despite the heavy losses, Bahri judged that the Syarans had been disrupted enough that the remainder of the fleet could break off. It was the last order Bahri gave before he ordered the Sultan-e-Azzam to stream straight towards the Saints and Sinners, the lead Syaran battleship. Shells from the Syaran warship quickly tore into the Mansuri pre-dreadnought and she began to founder from her bow. Ensign Zaid el-Guler, a signal officer aboard the Sultan-e-Azzam, would later recall racing past the bridge and seeing Admiral Bahri remaining seated in his chair and making no attempt to escape or save himself. The Mansuri flagship was followed by the other two pre-dreadnoughts within five minutes, victims of the larger and more powerful Syaran battleships.

With the Mansuri fleet now in retreat the Syarans opted to pursue to finish them off. Instead however the Mansuri submarine Jumbiri, which had been damaged by depth charges, emerged to charge directly at the Saints and Sinners. The mortally wounded sub, captained by Baybars Ghawasah, continued onward despite a hail of Syaran gunfire, firing off torpedoes until the crew manually armed their remaining munitions just before impacting the Syaran battleship. The ensuing explosion tore a hole through the bow of the Saints and Sinners; she came to such an abrupt halt she shed one of her propellers and badly damaged her keel. She flooded from the bow and nearly capsized before frantic Syaran damage control teams managed to stop her from sinking. Unable to move on her own power, she had to be towed back to Aszód for repairs.

Mansuri losses were heavy, but a significant number of the Mansuri fleet and their merchant marine managed to make it to Common Axis controlled waters, where they would be employed for convoy duties and assist in later operations. In response to the Battle of the Mansuri Sea, the Cacertians would carry out the Attack on Moddra months later.