Battle of Nieuwesel

Battle of Nieuwesel
Part of War of Restoration
Date 16-22nd March 1980 Location Nieuwesel, Imperial Wolfswood Result Decisive Royalist Victory
Belligerents
Royalists Imperial Wolfswood	Vionna-Frankenlisch Marienberg
Commanders and leaders
Edward, Earl of Westonland Earl of Darlington Duke of Gestoria Charles Woodhouse	James Trevelyan  (POW) Sergey Howell Richard Howleth † Peter Galbraith † Martin Evans  (POW) Emilio Badaro  (POW)
Units involved
Royalist Army of the North Army of East Wolfswood	First Army Group First Infantry Brigade
Strength
120,000 150,000	400,000 7,500

The Battle of Nieuwesel was a large engagement, often described as the decisive battle of the Vionna-Frankenlischian War of Restoration. It was fought between the 16th and 22nd of March 1980 by Royalist and Wolfswood forces under the overall command of Edward, Earl of Westonland and forces of the Socialist Vionna-Frankenlischian government commanded by General James Trevelyan. In a six-day running battle, Wolfswooder troops repelled constant attacks by Trevelyan's First Army Group and allowed the Earl of Westonland's royalists to accomplish an impressive encircling action which led to the destruction of a huge portion of the Vionna-Frankenlischian Red Army.

Uprisings in the south of Vionna-Frankenlisch had met little success in the face of determined government opposition, most notably at the disastrous Battle of Ershein. The Earl of Westonland, who led the uprisings, narrowly escaped capture and fled north to where the Royalist cause was seeing more success. In Berchtesland, Lopenfort, and Middlebrooke, strong cadres of rebel Royalists had risen and seized government garrisons and the Earl of Westonland arrived to take command. The First Army Group of the Red Army, representing the largest field formation of that army, was stacked up against the eastern border with Wolfswood and recieved the instruction on 14th March to invade before the Prince of Wolfswood could come to the Royalists' aid.

The main field army of Imperial Wolfswood was the Army of East Wolfswood and, headquartered at the village of Nieuwesel, it was well-entrenched and prepared for a Vionna-Frankenlischian offensive. When General James Trevelyan's First Army Group began its offensive on the 16th of March, it found itself resisted stiffly and suddenly taken in flank by the Royalist Army of the North, an irregular formation of 120,000 rebels under the Earl of Westonland. Over the course of six days, the First Army Group was steadily encircled and cut to pieces. In a decisive defeat-in-detail, the Red Army lost 320,000 men killed and captured along with substansial amounts of war equipment. The defeat was softened only slightly by the sucessful break-out of the 40,000 men of 4th Red Army Corps by General Sergey Howell, son of the Vionna-Frankenlischian chairman.