Pan-Septentrion War

Pan-Septentrion War In Menghe: (Great Conquest War) In FSR: (Great Liberation War) In Tol Galen: (War of all Wars)
Clockwise from top:
Date 23 May 1937 – [mid 1946] Location Septentrion Result • Total Axis defeat • Ostland occupied • Saintonge annexed by Sebrenskiya and Sieuxerr
Belligerents
Entente New Tyran Sieuxerr Tír Glas Hemithea Hallia & Commonwealth Kashubia Themiclesia Maverica Nukkumaa Northern Casaterra Vihoslavia Sebrenskiya (1942-44)	Hemithean Axis Dayashina Menghe Dzhungestan Casaterran Axis Ostland Saintonge (to 1943) Kerenevoi
Commanders and leaders
Napoléon IV Vinicus II Borislav Parakuvic Ken-tsung	Charles III
Strength
Casaterran Entente 6,500,000 (Mar. 1942) 1,360,000 Northern Casaterra 2,210,000 (1944) Hemithea 1,021,020 (1945) 343,000 (1945)	Hemithean Axis 8,255,000 Casaterran Axis 4,998,000 (Mar. 1942) 1,100,000 (Mar. 1942)
Casualties and losses
435,629 384,234 87,848

The Pan-Septentrion War, or the The Great Conquest War as known in Menghe, was a world war fought in Septentrion between 1935 and 1946, though related conflicts began much earlier and ended later. It was the bloodiest war in Septentrion history, involving nearly every nation, with well-over one million casualties, some of whom were civilians. It also saw the first military usage of nuclear weapons, sustained usage of chemical weapons, and numerous war crimes committed by many sides.

Names

In Themiclesia, the part of the war occurred on its territories is considered a continuation of the Prairie War, but the subsequent deployment to Maverica and other involvements were thought of as the Great World War (sei-ka-da-tian).

Chronology

Historical accounts differ on which date and event is chosen as the beginning of the Pan-Septentrion War. In Casaterra, the beginning of the war is conventionally dated to [DD MM YYYY], when Ostland launched its invasion of Erquin. Other accounts trace it to 2 May 1935, when Menghe declared war on Sylva, while in the Organized States of Columbia it is dated to October 29th, 1940. The origins of the war in Hemithea are even fuzzier, as some historians consider the Prairie War between Themiclesia and Dzhungestan (1926 – 1933) to be a separate conflict, while others attach it to the Pan-Septentrion War or mark a distinction with the arrival of Menghean forces in Dzhungestan in 1933.

Dates for the war's end also differ. Ostland's government agreed to an armistice in early 1943, ending the war in Casaterra, but the war in Hemithea would continue for almost another three years. Most historians date the war's end to Dayashina's surrender in late 1945, though Menghean historians date it to Menghe's surrender on November 14th of the preceding year. Even after the Dayashinese government capitulated, many Dayashinese Army units continued to fight for several years, most notably in Meridia, while in Menghe the conflict bled into the Menghean War of Liberation. A few Menghean historians consider the entire period from 1933 to 1964 to be a continuous military conflict, though most break it up into its component wars.

Background

Casaterra

Ideological conflict began in Casaterra as early as January 1901, when the Letnevian Empire collapsed. Many ethnic groups once subjugated by the empire broke away, and Letnev itself was engulfed in civil war for three years. Following the victory of the socialist revolutionary government, the new state christened itself in the blood of it’s neighbors. Large scale and intense wars of “reconquest”, in which the Soviets fervently reclaimed much of Letnev’s pre-war territory from neighbors and former vassals, drove tensions to an all time high with southern Casaterran countries. Eisenmaat and Sylva, in particular, were extremely vocal in their opposition of the FSR. In 1934, tensions reached an all time high, and both Eisenmaat and the FSR stationed large armies on the border amid warlike rhetoric on both sides.

Meanwhile, in northeastern Casaterra, fascism was on the rise. In September 1929, Hanz Adler led a violent coup in Ostland, replacing the crumbling republic with a fascist government. Four years later, a similar coup launched in Vuortakane, causing the royal family and many of the country’s elite to flee to nearby Asimus for safety. Both dictatorships viewed their neighbors as inferior and ripe for conquest.

In central Casaterra, the King of Saintonge Charles III since the end of the Sylvan War of Succession had begun a serious military expansion and modernization program. Due to Saintonge's neutrality in the war and their already relative economically decent standing, this led to a sudden surge in economic activity and a period of relative prosperity began. This enabled the king to authorize massive programs in the military for acquisition and development of new equipment. Appealing to refound revanchism in the general populace following unsuccessful initial combat on the Sieuxerrian side in the Sylvan War of Succession, popular support for both the armed forces and the expansion of them was high. Conscription would be expanded in 1924, 1930 and later in 1934 before war would officially begin. In the early 1920s the expansion of the armed forces was followed by acquisition of surplus military equipment from the Sylvan War of Succession. This included Sieuxerrian light tanks purchased from second-hand nations which would be used in experimental tank and motorized infantry formations on the plausibility of such tactics. New aircraft, artillery and machine guns would also be acquired.

By the mid-1930s, the Royal Armed Forces of Saintonge fielded hundreds of modern combat aircraft, three fully equipped armored divisions with other divisions outfitting and three motorized infantry divisions along with other smaller motorized units, mostly artillery and logistical elements. In the early 1930s as well, Saintonge would enter in military alliance with Ostland and would follow it into war.

Hemithea

Dating to the second administration of the Chief Baron of Sngraq (1871 – 1876), Themiclesia began a longstanding policy of colonizing the traditional territories it claimed or otherwise solidifying the said claims by encouraging local allegiances to be converted into formal treaties of submission. Many parts of the Themiclesia-Dzhungestan border reflect such negotiations in the last part of the 19th century. The desire to secure territorial as well as mineral rights was particularly intense when the country's mineral rights were otherwise partly ceded to Hallian Confederacy under the Treaty of Kien-k'ang of 1796. Such acquired mineral rights would influence the Khanate's rallying cry against Themiclesia in 1925.

International tensions in Hemithea heightened on February 18th, 1927, when General Kwon Chong-hoon staged a military coup and brought a military government to power. An ardent nationalist, General Kwon sought to restore the status quo prior to the arrival of Casaterran colonial powers, when Menghe’s Ŭi Dynasty dominated the South Menghe Sea region and asserted its influence as far west as Themiclesia. To this end, the newly-established Greater Menghean Empire embarked on a major buildup of its conventional land forces, though its navy was still limited by the Nine-Power Naval Treaty. Some sources attribute these developments to the Sinyi Empire's extensive paedagogical attachment to Dayashina, which also showed interest in military expansion in this period.

Meanwhile, the early onset of tensions in Hemithea saw Dayashina rapidly expand its military industrial complex, and ferociously explode from sustained Casaterran contingency and containment in 1936. [note: this should only be pre-war background and context]

Course of the War

Prairie War in Hemithea (1925 – 1926)

Main article: Themiclesian invasion of Dzhungestan

While the beginning of the Pan-Septentrion War proper is conventionally dated to 1937, one of its roots extends from 1925, when a band of mounted troops from the Great Dzungar Khanate crossed the border into Themiclesia near what is now the city of Yaamdarga. Batzorig Khan, the country's young ruler, condoned the attack, hoping to exploit the area's rich copper deposits. The Themiclesians counterattacked in Jan. 1926, with cavalry and motorized units, to recover the copper mines on the border. The speed of the deployment took the Dzhungestani by surprise, and, after two battles, Themiclesians expelled the Dzhungestani invaders and withdrew in victory. The following spring, the Khan's forces regrouped and re-invaded.

The Themiclesian government advocated for a formal treaty to settle the question of the border, but Dzhungestan ignored diplomatic overtures from the west and instead placed the Themiclesian mission under house arrest; in response the Themiclesian government instructed the telegraph service to reject Dzhungestani telegrams.

On 2 May 1926, with no forewarning, the Themiclesian Parliament declared war and on the same day sent troops into Dzhugnestan. To support the invasion, which was discussed since that April, the government ordered petroleum and other resources be stored around the border, and to the credit of shortened supply lines, the invasion progressed extremely rapidly and reached the Dzhungestani capital, Dörözamyn, in 29 days. All Themiclesian forces were ordered to stay a certain distance from the Menghean border to avoid provocation. Nevertheless, the speed of the invasion as well as the proximity of Themiclesian forces to Menghe's borders deeply unsettled Kwon Chong-hoon, who until then had sympathized with Themiclesia's war aims. Additionally, it also provoked Polvokia to seek closer ties with Menghe.

Dörözamyn fell after four days of siege, but Batzorig Khan and his inner circle had already fled the city, leaving only the retaining members of the Royal household, including his nephew Nergüi. Though ambitious in the throne, Nergüi did not enjoy sufficient support from domestic leaders to conclude the treaty that Themiclesia desired and instead governed in his own right. On the other hand, if the Themiclesians left empty-handed, Nergüi feared the nation's magnates would only invite Batzorig home, which would end Nergüi's power. He therefore chose to invite the Themiclesians to participate in his government, which Themiclesia declined.

After almost three years, the Liberal government in Themiclesia, initially supporting the invasion, had lost twelve seats in the House of Commons and thus became a minority government, never enjoying incontrovertible support in the House of Lords.

In February through June of 1932, the Themiclesian Nationalist Party, hoping to retrace the steps of the fascists in Sylva in 1925, plotted a popular takeover starting with releasing inflamatory rhetoric on the stagnating Dzhungestan occupation. It asserted that Dzhungestan's motives in invading Themiclesia had disqualified it from fair treatment and that Themiclesia was entitled to exploit it as chattel now that it was, in all respects, in control of the country. Once this argument roused a degree of public resonance, the Nationalist leader revealed the actual argument he intended to make–to abandon the occupation (as Conservatives argued) or press for merely a treaty (as Liberals did) was to short-change ordinary Themiclesians by throwing away a country now rightfully at their disposal. This was, in his words, "the real corruption in the nation's breast, and a grotesque betrayal of her people's interests."

With no public support for such a drastic turn in political position, the Nationalist leader embraced the counsel of a mysterious advisor, No Chi-won, and organized a march to the palace in Kien-k'ang. It remains shrouded in mystery what happened following the marchers' departure from Rak, though most historians accept that some radicals removed the Nationalist leader and converted what was supposed to be a peaceful rally for support into a charge into the palace, with the objective of meeting the Emperor and demand his permission to dissolve the current government. At the palace gates, troops opened fire on the demonstrators indiscriminately, not realizing that only some demonstrators intended to breach the palace. The gunfire killed over 400 people, including No Chi-won, who turned out to be Menghean royalty secretly in Themiclesia to overthrow its government.

These events infuriated Kwon Chong-hoon. In an abrupt reversal of foreign policy, Kwon declared his open support for Batzorig Khan's regime and demanded that Themiclesia withdraw its troops from Dörözamyn. On December 7th, 1932, Menghean "volunteers" crossed the border into Dzhungestan, prompting the Themiclesian government to sue for peace. These suits largely fell on deaf ears, and before long Menghean and Themiclesian forces engaged in Dzhungestan. Early next year, Menghean and Dzhungestani troops had retaken Dörözamyn. Alarmed by the enemy's numbers and aggressiveness, the Themiclesian government recalled the militias in anticipation of imminent warfare.

Themiclesian forces fell back throughout 1933 and rarely offered resolved resistance. The government proposed a peace treaty favourable to Dzhungestan but completely ignoring Menghe's involvement, providing for a reversal to pre-war borders and a peppercorn for reparations; for ideological and material reasons, Batzorig Khan insisted on pressing further westward, and Kwon continued to support him.

Interpreting the enemy's scant resistance as a sign of weakness, Kwon Chong-hoon set his sights on a full invasion of Themiclesia, hoping that once the upper leadership was toppled, the general population would fall behind his vision of a Hemithea united against the Casaterran colonial powers; yet his supply lines were stretched thin over hostile terrain, and he was forced to temporarily halt the volunteer force's advance just beyond the pre-war border. Kwon's assertion that Themiclesia's leadership was in league with Casaterran powers would become a persistent theme in his government's propaganda efforts.

Themiclesian response (1933 – 1936)

Their inability to repulse the combined Dzhungestani and Menghean advance alarmed Themiclesians by the middle of 1933. Conservatives pinned the Menghean advance on the "Liberal war" that began 1926, and their mobilization indignified the Liberal radicals known as Young Warriors, who printed articles arguing for a "fight to the end" and immediate legislation to that effect. Yet with public anger swelling against the Liberals throughout 1933, threatening key seats, the Prime Minister Lord Kyum-qe enforced party unity behind a policy of openness to talks with Menghe and ordered the Young Warriors to retract their speeches, called the "November Gag", for (the vindicated) fear it would be used to smear the entire Liberal Party. Still, Conservative peers and MPs introduced motions of no confidence in both houses of Parliament in Nov. 1933, with both looking certain to pass.

Lord Kyum-qe pivoted and asked to dissolved Parliament, reportedly sending six barons-in-waiting to procure the Emperor and expedite the prorogation. Liberals campaigned on competence—their track record in managing the 1926 offensive should ingratiate them for the current defence, and Liberals were stereotypically more adept at diplomacy. But Conservatives, also standing on a platform of negotiations, were returned with a rounded majority in the snap election, led by the Baron of Bik. Humiliated by Lord Kyum-qe, the Young Warriors all lost their seats; however, without their seats, they felt unbound by party discipline and continued to print in favour of a "general mobilization to crush the ugly head of the enemy". They made regular visits to the Liberal clubs of many counties, subverting Kyum-qe's position of preparing but not asking to fight.

Conservatives continued attempts to contact the Mengheans, privately and by neutral nations. With a ceasefire seeming remote, the Government targeted Batzorig with a view to break his alliance with Menghe and offered a reparation payment to him. Yet without Parliamentary approval and therefore public knowledge, it would be impossible to pay a foreign monarch. A recognized nomadic chieftain in the area was therefore sought as an envoy to convey 100 cattle and 100 bolts of felt to the Khan, as "compensations for the personal inconveniences unfortunately caused during 1926 – 1932 and to provide for his household". The deal came affixed with the condition that Batzorig repudiate his consorting with the Mengheans and denounce them as responsible for the current incursion into Themiclesia.

Batzorig Khan was indignant at this paltry offer which admittedly implied of a grander settlement should it be accepted as a pilot. He had the fabrics burned publicly and the cattle slaughtered for a banquet with his armed supporters. The envoy was expelled from Dzhungestan, and the diplomatic rebuff became public in Themiclesia. This revelation re-animated the Liberal Party and convinced the some voters the Conservatives had formed an incompetent government that was only biding for time. To soothe public anger, the Baron of Bik traded places with his Foreign Secretary the Baron of Kah-ni in a small cabinet reshuffle.

After the peacemaker debacle, the Conservatives decided to ignore public opinion and attack the Liberals through the Maritime Railway Scandal, in which a series of Liberal MPs were exposed to have taken considerable bribes to vote for the Railway's exclusive license in the Per Pass. As a result, little was done about the presence of the Mengheans as public attention seemed to have died down and their advance also stopped. The Menghean Emperor's peace deal—of a character similar to the one given to Batzorig Khan—was introduced as An Act to enable His Majesty to issue an apology for certain moneys and goods and given a first reading in both houses, but it saw no further discussion.

{Conservatives majority defeated in election, February 1935 -> Liberal minority, Liberal government, introduces conscription act, no confidence June 1935, Conservatives attempts but fails to form government, election July 1935 -> Conservative minority, attempts to form government but fails, Liberals forms minority government, conscription act again, blocked by the Lords -> December 1935 election, Conservative Party splits to form coalition with some Liberals -> National Government formed February 1936, Conscription Act passed March 1936.}

Menghe declares war on Sylva (1935-1937)

In response to Menghe's aggressive actions in Central Hemithea, the Sylvan government threatened to suspend plans for the return of Altagracia to Menghean control, which was scheduled for 1952. Unwilling to withdraw his troops from Dzhungestan and Themiclesia and buoyed by recent experiences of victory, Kwon Chong-hoon secretly massed forces around Menghe's borders with Altagracia and Innominada. The Menghean embassy in Chandler City posted a declaration of war on May 7th, mere hours before the attack, and the Sylvan garrisons at the border were unaware that the war had begun until they came under fire. Altagracia fell in three days, with the surrender of its 35,000-strong garrison and the scuttling of a destroyer and two minesweepers stationed in the harbor.

With the fall of Altagracia, Menghe turned the bulk of its attention to Innominada, then a Sylvan protectorate. The Comanda Navale Meridiana, consisting of three battleships, a carrier, and their escorts, avoided Menghean attempts at decisive battle by remaining at anchor in Maracaibo, leaving Menghe with naval supremacy on both sides of Innominada. Well-armed but seriously outnumbered, the corps-size Sylvan garrison held the line until 1936, when Menghean Naval Infantry carried out landings along the Innominadan east coast. Faced with a new threat in the south, a breakthrough operation in the north, and a blockade on supplies from Valencia, the Sylvan garrison in Innominada lost ground rapidly in 1937, eventually falling back to a second line of defense along the west coast.

War breaks out in Casaterra (1937-1940?)

Sylva and the Tripartite had secured a non-aggression pact with Ostland three years prior; nevertheless, the fascist government under the rule of Hans Adler saw the Sylvan war in Meridia as an opportunity to launch nearly a hundred divisions against Western Casaterra.

Saintonge-Sieuxerr War

Main article: Sieuxerrian-Saintonge War

Following commencement of Ostlandic invasions on May 23rd, Saintonge officially declared war on Sieuxerr on June 11th. It was cray af

Axis advances in the East (1937-1940)

Seeing an opportunity to strike at divided Tyrannian forces, Dayashina declared war on New Tyran in May of 1937, launching a series of landings against Tyrannian island bases southeast of the archipelago.

Dayashinese naval vessels engaged Sylvan and Tyranian ships in a series of engagements which led to sweeping victories for the Dayashinese. Capitalising on their momentum, the Dayashinese Army embarked on amphibious landings on the Ryujima and Sora island chains, effectively wiping out the Sylvan infantry stationed there. A similar series of events took place with the Aijuku and Shogazu island chains, which saw Dayashinese infantry take the islands within two weeks.

In August 1937, General Kwon Chong-hoon died suddenly of a stroke, setting off a crisis of succession in Menghe. During this time, the Maverican Confederation attempted to exploit Menghe’s temporary weakness by invading Nersia, a Daryz border kingdom which had signed a defensive pact with Menghe. Maverican forces made rapid gains against the Nersian defenders, many of whom carried obsolete weapons, as Menghe initially hesitated to support them.

On September 23rd, Kim Myŏng-hwan seized power in Menghe, declaring himself the Donghŭi Emperor. As one of his first acts, he approved a counterattack into Nersia to repel the Maverican invasion. The arrival of Menghean troops caught the ill-equipped Confederate army by surprise, and the Mavericans were forced into retreat. Eager to exploit his new momentum, and hoping to make substantial gains before the next year’s summer rains could set in, Kim Myŏng-hwan ordered his troops to pursue Maverican forces across the Nersian border into Maverica itself, and approved offensives into Maverica elsewhere along the frontier.

With the Menghean Army rapidly gaining ground in Hemithea and the Royal Navy divided between Ostland and Dayashina, Menghe entered the conflict against New Tyran, issuing a declaration of war on June 10th, 1938. Less than a week afterward, the Imperial Menghean Navy inflicted a decisive defeat on the Royal Navy's forces in West Meridia at the Battle of the Portcullia Strait, opening the way for a Menghean-Dayashinese invasion of Khalistan and Portcullia in 1938 and 1939. Though the Khalistani revolution they predicted did not come, Menghean forces were able to progress rapidly along Khalistan's coast, reaching Naseristan by 1940 and subjecting the Acheron Islands to a sustained bombing campaign. Further inland, large pockets of Tyrannian and Khalistani soldiers continued to challenge Axis control of the central highlands, prompting a harsh Dayashinese counter-insurgency campaign. While Khalistanis provided relatively few defectors to the Axis, Azbekistanis in Khalistan and Taleyans in Naseristan staged large uprisings in support the Axis war effort, as Menghean diplomats had promised them independent states after the war.

The Royal Navy's defeat at Portcullia increased the pressure on the Sylvan forces in Innominada. With the fall of León in late June, these forces were cut off from the land route to Maverica, and the Sylvan government decided to evacuate them. Seeing a chance to knock Sylva out of the war, the Imperial Menghean Army intensified its attacks on the pocket, but the Navy refused to commit its battleships until their repairs had finished. The Maverican Confederate Navy sortied to threaten León, suffering another costly defeat but forcing the Menghean blockade to withdraw. This bought the Comanda Navale Casaterrana time to secure the west coast of Sylva and cover the evacuation, in which all Sylvan forces save for the 13th Infantry division escaped the Menghean offensive.

Further north, Menghean forces continued advancing into Maverica, strengthening the offensive with troops freed up by victory in Innominada. Litzheim fell in 1939, and Bluchweig in 1940, after a costly evacuation by barge. The Menghean advance in Themiclesia slowed to a crawl in 1937 through 1938, hampered by thinly stretched supply lines and a growing Themiclesian conscript army; Menghean war planners addressed this problem by using hundreds of thousands of Tyrannian, Sylvan, and Maverican POWs to build a railway across the steppe, at the cost of tens of thousands of lives. By 1939, Menghean and Dayashinese forces were making a renewed offensive in Themiclesia, placing the country's coastal industrial heartland in serious danger.

Dayashinese advance continues (1940-1943)

[Helian Ocean, East Meridian invasions]

The Allies turn the tide in Casaterra (1939-1942?)

Back in Sylva, the arrival of nearly 550,000 battle-hardened veterans and the full might of the Sylvan Navy slowed the Ostlandian advance. However, the war was still very much undecided, even as the Sylvan Navy won an important victory against the Ostland Navy, relegating its surface fleet to port for the remainder of the conflict (see: Battle of the Strachan Sea, 1938)

In 1939, the arrival of OS lend-lease strengthened the exhausted Sylvan war machine. Meanwhile, Eisenmaat and Sylva negotiated a tentative alliance with the FSR in order to combine forces against the fascist menace. This freed up a large portion of the Eisen Army, which was able to launch a major offensive into Ostland in March of 1939.

Meanwhile, Sylva and Maltecna engaged in fierce urban combat in the ancient city of Lucca. During the course of the battle, the city’s ancient Calunyan monuments, including the Temple of Jupiter (considered a World Wonder) were completely destroyed. The Sylvans encircled the city in August of that year, as the Ostlandian Twelfth Army had strict orders not to retreat, directly from Hans Adler. The result is largely considered the turning point of the southern theater, as nearly 250,000 veteran Ostlandian soldiers were taken prisoner when the city surrendered on Christmas Day of 1939.

After the Battle of Lucca, Ostlandians were forced on a slow retreat back to their prewar borders. Sylvan forces, alongside Siuexxerian infantry and armor, pushed back into Sardenya. The region’s resistance movement proved invaluable in this effort, as the insurgents cut supply and communication lines. Sardenya celebrated Liberation Day on November 29th of 1940.

Thessaloniki, not wanting to see war within its borders, broke its treaty with Ostland in early 1941 and declared itself neutral. However, in a highly controversial move, the Sylvans invaded anyway, decisively crushing the state and its military in four months. However, this gave the Ostlandians time to reorganize their southern front, and thusly crossing the river into the Ostlandian heartland proved a very serious feat.

In Eisenmaat, with the help of Siuxerrian forces, Ostlandians were pushed out of Eisen and then out of Carinthia by December.

Unable to cross the border river between Thessaloniki and Ostland, Sylvan naval marines and Legion forces made a daring amphibious invasion and captured the almost undefended port of Hockshorlt, before pushing up the peninsula and circumventing the defense line. Though the attack was stalled in the hilly mountains in the mainland, it distracted the Ostlandians from the main thrust, being made by Suixerrian forces in the west.

The tide turns in Hemithea (1940-1942)

In the hope of opening a new front against Maverican forces, the Imperial Menghean Navy prepared an operation to take Williamstown, from which they would support an advance into the Halu'an Sea. The first Menghean troops landed in the pre-dawn hours on October 14th, 1940, assaulting coastal defenses on Salvi island, but suffered heavy casualties from hostile coastal guns. Menghean carrier and land-based aircraft began a sustained bombing campaign against the docks and coastal batteries at Williamstown, mistakenly sinking two Columbian light cruisers on the 28th. The outrage over the unprovoked attack, combined with growing fear over Menghean advances in Themiclesia and Maverica, pushed the OS Congress to formally declare war on Menghe. Unable to confront the Columbian Navy, the Menghean force at Williamstown promptly withdrew, Menghe's first major retreat of the war.

[Menghean siege of Baumburg and offensive toward Zeigwick and Hickorysville] The siege of Baumburg had dragged on for nearly a year when Maverican forces attacked from the north, cutting apart the Imperial Menghean Army’s coastal supply lines with one thrust and breaking a gap in the siege with another. Trapped in coastal enclaves on either side of the city, portions of the Menghean 8th Army fought on for a few months, but were forced to surrender as the OSN interfered in the IMN’s attempts to supply them by sea.

Despite mustering almost two million men under arms, the Themiclesian and Hallian armies were initially unable to prevent the combined advance of Dzhungestan, Menghe, and Dayashina from advancing. Into 1940, the front was moving westwards at a steady pace, and in May that year, the alliance reached the fringes of the Themiclesian capital, Kien-k'ang (the government evacuated to Blim-tsi). Since Kien-k'ang was situated on the junction of two main railway lines, Themiclesian resources accumulated there to the credit of shortened supply lines. Several inconclusive battles were contested within sight of the city's walls during the autumn of 1940. Themiclesians initially took a defensive posture, bricking the city's gates and mounting guns on its walls, while Mengheans and Dayashinese troops laid siege to the city. Despite months of bombardment, Kien-k'ang walls (20-25 m thick, composed of stone slabs and rammed earth) proved unassailable. Dayashinese forces parachuted into the city, though they were largely shot or captured. Some of the prisoners were forced to patch damaged sections of the city's walls, in one of the few instances where Themiclesians have contravened the Eisenmaat Convention. One group of parachuters strayed into the Citadel, which contained the city's many palaces; despite several attempts to break, they were forced into the Hian-lang Palace and there immured. They held out there for more than a year but later succumbed to starvation.

In early-1941, formations in the Menghean and Dayashinese forces were pulled away due to mounting pressure applied by the Maverican advance. The Themiclesian Army restarted its offensive over the river Kaung, west of Kien-k'ang's, in Jun. 1941. The city's troops scaled its walls and marshalled outside to join those who advanced past the river. They contested several large pitched battles in the city's vicinity, costing both sides several thousand lives. Ultimately, the siege on Kien-k'ang was lifted. The liberation of the capital city came as an enormous relief to the Themiclesian public.

Ostland's defeat and surrender (1942-1943)

With the Axis faltering and Ostlands industry at home shattered by strategic bombing, the Tripartite began the invasion of Ostland. Though with over 200 divisions left on the field, most were severely undermanned and under-equipped. Ostlandian forces made a last ditch counterattack near Hita, and made steady headway until there tanks ran out of fuel. What resulted was the death of over a hundred thousand Ostlandian conscripts and nearly all its remaining elite Angriffstrupp soldiers.

Due to being undermanned and undersupplied the Gustav defence line was broken in under a week, the gates of Krossa were in sight.

Hans Alder refused to surrender, and by some descriptions was lsong his mind. In a coup de etat, his General Staff captured Alder and offered him up to the Sylvans in return for sparing the capital city. The Sylvans agreed and Ostland’s surrender was finalized on 12 January, 1943.

Axis retreat in Hemithea (1942-1944)

[Menghean naval battle with OS]

[Having pushed the Dzhungestani/Menghese/Dayashinese out of Themiclesia in April 1943, the Themiclesian government was prepared to negotiate an armistice to stem the tide of casualty and destruction. Diplomatic representations from the Organized States lobbied vehemently against such a "premature peace", for fear that such a reprieve may give Axis forces the opportunity to regroup and break for the south to open a new front with Maverica; instead, the OS urged Themiclesia to continue fighting. The Themiclesian government reluctantly shelved plans for an armistice on condition that OS troops join the Northern Front in that endeavour, which happened in July. Remarkable advances were made with OS reinforcements in manpower, which is one resource that the Themiclesian Army had lacked since the start of the war. At the end of that year, the Themiclesia/OS alliance pushed through the Menghese border, after the Dzhungestani resistance dissipated away.]

[By February 1944, the Themi/OS alliance were marching through Menghean territory, fighting mostly militia forces, with the bulk of the Menghean Army tied up in the south with Maverica.]

The tide turns in the Helian (1943-1945)

[Inishmore to Dickenson]

The war ends in Hemithea (1944-1946)

[First and Second Battle of Sundan]

[Liberation of Maracaibo, Aenvenlinck, Verpletterant]

[Allied landings on of Sora and Ryujima]

[Menghean retreat on land]

[By the beginning of 1944, the Imperial Menghean Navy was in shambles, and Maverican forces were already beginning to cross the border into Menghe proper. Fearful that Menghe would be invaded and dismembered, the Donghyi Emperor ordered a “national fight to the death,” mobilizing large militia forces to hold back the Maverican and Columbian assault.

As Allied forces advanced in the West, strategic bombers launched from [bases] leveled many of Menghe’s major coastal cities, including most of Donggyŏng itself. Columbian carrier aviation also inflicted decisive blows against what remained of the Imperial Menghean Navy, sinking or critically damaging the last of its capital ships and aircraft carriers.

On November 9th, 1945, an atomic bomb was dropped on the city of Dongrŭng by an OS Army Air Force Bomber, killing some 60,000 people. A second fell on Anchŏn three days later, inflicting an even higher death toll. Fearing that additional atomic bombings would come, and realizing that Menghe’s chances of victory were slim, the Donghyi Emperor ordered his diplomats to negotiate a surrender, on the sole condition that Menghe be restored as a sovereign state within its 1935 borders. The supreme commanders of the Allied forces agreed to a ceasefire on the night of November 14th. Having received news that the ceasefire was approved, the Donghyi Emperor committed suicide the following morning.]

[nuclear bombings of Takena and Nakazara]

[Dayashina surrenders]

Aftermath

Civil war in Menghe

Main article: Menghean War of Liberation

Husseinartian War of Independence

Main article: Husseinartian War of Independence

War crimes

Allies

• During the Siege of Kien-k'ang, the Themiclesian capital city, the city's authorities compelled Dayashinese parachuters that landed in the city and were captured to mend the city's walls, which were holding their and Menghean forces at bay. The parachuters were compensated at the same rate as Themiclesian workers, half in cash and half in food. The paratroopers were worked anywhere from one to four hours per day. After the war, the Inner Administrator (the mayor of the city) confessed that he ordered the use of involuntary labour but asserted that because the city's gates were bricked, the paratroopers could not be freed in an orderly manner, like prisoners held by Themiclesian forces elsewhere. At length, due to limits in food and other resources, the paratroopers were forced to labour for the city's defence, like its other residents. Paratroopers later stated that building the city's walls was "more mental than physical torment", as it involved working against their comrades goals.
• A few historians have alleged that Themiclesians fighting in Maverica and Menghe conducted extrajudicial executions, apparently ignoring the abolition of capital punishment in Themiclesia in 1853. It is argued that wrought iron stakes found in the garrison ground were execution posts, to which prisoners were allegedly chained and then strangled. These historians point out that such posts are clearly seen in photogarphs of actual executions dating to the 1840s and 1850s, prior to abolition. There is, however, no credible eye-witness accounts of the posts being used this way in Maverica and Menghe, and most historians dismiss the same because similar posts are commercially available, sometimes propping up leaning walls and at others left in place when no longer useful.
  • Corporal San says, "These were used to unload goods from trucks. The packages while in the truck were secured and locked to the post, and the truck being driven away, the post pulled the packages out. That way, unloading could be done by a single person, and the goods remained locked on the post. Materials which are bulky and do not break are often unloaded at back doors this way when I was a child."
  • A strong argument against the execution post theory is that the 1840s and 1850s photos showing Themiclesian executions, under close examination, actually attest to a wide variety of designs for the execution post, but the alleged ones found in Maverica and Menghe were only of a single design. Furthermore, the first time the execution post theory was published was in 1970, and the pictures of Tlang-qrum Prison, where executions were conducted, were published at a suspiciously close time in 1968, and it is exactly the posts at Tlang-qrum Prison the ones found in Maverica and Menghe are argued to resemble. The records of Tlang-qrum Prison suggest that the same manufacturer of the posts was still in business at the time of the PSW and supplied to not only the government but a vast number of purchasers.

Units involved

Themiclesia

During the war, Themiclesia raised three armies.

1. East Expedition Force (征東軍, 1926 – 1950)—originally divisional size, expanded to field army size by 1938.
2. South Expedition Force (征南軍, 1943 – 1950)—two field armies.
3. Demesne Army (縣軍, 1939 – 1954)—consisting of mostly the Reserve Army and militia units not sent to the front.

Culture

Animations

Main article: Anime in Septentrion

See also

• Battle of the Portcullia Strait
• Themiclesian invasion of Dzhungestan
• Battle of Kien-k'ang