Battle of Nowa Grudak (1924)

Battle of Nowa Grudak (1924)
Part of Kyotakavian-Svogardan Conflict
Union Guard on the Mbersk Road. (19 August 1924)
Date 29 July 1924 - 1 January 1925 Location Nowa Grudak, Nodstok State, Kyotakavian Protectorate Result PISF forced to withdraw from the Mbersk Road Kyotakavian paramilitaries take control over most of the city SVDF command is left gutted after multiple assassinations
Belligerents
KLA Union Guard	PISF SVDF USC
Commanders and leaders
Regan Klaidev Tomasz Kelskiv Boris Wazkon  † Elaria Vodin Katlania Tzekic Mattias Holgav	Col. Emirus Talian Lt. Col. Terion Gallus  † Lt. Col. Eric Malion Uzluz Rex  † Breton Kalionox  † Ferus Malliox Eurius Nelton  † Kaston Kevrani  † Alexandra Longian  † Darion Zelanius
Strength
3,500 7,800 Total: 11,300	4,000 8,200 2,500 Total: 14,700
Casualties and losses
158 killed, 313 wounded, 14 missing	412 killed, 1,006 wounded, 29 missing 7 armoured cars destroyed
2,137 civilians killed and wounded

The Battle of Nowa Grudak was a street battle that took place throughout late 1924 in Nowa Grudak. Kyotakavian paramilitaries fought their Svozgardan counterparts who were aided (and chiefly directed) by the Protectorate Internal Security Force and was seen as the last battle of the larger, and long-running Svozgardan-Kyotakavian conflict, before the beginning of the Third War for Independence.

The Battle

July 1924

Elements of the 3rd Union Guard Regiment commenced an attack along the Northern section of the Mbersk Road on the 29 July at 09:00, successfully overrunning a PISF outpost on Jarn Street, killing 3 and wounding 7, before taking up positions along the stretch of the Mbersk Road running down to Katzan Lane. Sporadic firefights broke out into the Svozgardan section, with machine gun fire that overshot, hitting a building down Katzan Lane and injuring two civilians. By 15:15, the first SVDF units had mobilised to support the PISF in an effort to retake the street, however, after a four hour long battle and twenty casualties, the Svozgardan units withdrew to take up barricade positions in anticipation of a further Union Guard push.

Such a move was not to happen however, strict discipline was maintained as Union Guard leadership didn't want to become bogged down in a street-to-street bloodbath running up the roads and back-alleys into the Svozgardan section, resolved instead to test both the SVDF and PISF's ability to respond to such moves. Sniper overwatch was set up in a church on the corner of Katzan by the Union Guard, and at 19:05 Emirus Talian, Chief of the PISF was spotted arriving. After a brief discussion, an attempt was made by the sniper position in the church tower to hit Talian, however the shot missed and hit an aide stood less than a meter away.

In response three armoured cars were brought up to renew an attack before nightfall, however the vehicles, proceeding in a column, came to a halt almost immediately as the lead vehicle was struck by a petrol bomb, thrown from the third story window of a house on the street. The house was stormed, and the KLA member inside was killed after shooting and killing the officer who burst through the door. The attack floundered, the armoured car was impossible to move under sustained Union Guard fire and by 22:10, the PISF withdrew to their starting locations. Fifteen minutes later, two battalions of the 5th Union Guard Regiment stormed two forward barricades erected down Mbersk Road from the 3rd, taking fourteen casualties but successfully driving the PSIF out from the two mile stretch of the road.

Earlier in the day, a KLA bomb attack destroyed the Tamzkon Bridge in the Eastern portion of the city, cutting off the company of PISF soldiers stationed at an outpost down Redon Road. Immediately following the blast, a subsequent Union Guard attack by the 12th Union Guard Regiment began, approaching from up Mbersk Road and down Redon Road, encircling the troops in the outpost. The PSIF commander ordered an armoured car to provide cover from the other side of the bridge, delaying the Union Guard advance for over two hours before a KLA member, armed with a .55 inch anti-tank rifle killed the gunner and forced the driver to abandon the vehicle. Without the support of a machine gun, and running out of ammunition, the PISF soldiers were pushed out of the outpost and forced to ditch their equipment and jump into the Dansk River.

Overnight, the PSIF additionally withdrew from other exposed positions across the Mbersk Road and incrementally began bringing up reinforcements. This however was stopped by the early morning as four KLA bombs killed one and disabled three convoys of supplies and men. A fifth bomb was detonated outside the PSIF headquarters in Northern Nowa Grudak, forcing the evacuation of staff members and necessitating the return of Talian from the Mbersk Road.

Mbersk Road car-bombing

Remains of Alexandra Longian's car. (c. 27 August 1924)

Three days after the street battles had begun, on the 1 August, Alexandra Longian, an SLA Representative for a list seat and overall Commander of the United Svozgarda Corps paramilitary, visited a forward USC post along the Mbersk Road's western section, stopping for five minutes to converse with local commanders. During that time, KLA member Josiv Celkov ducked into her car and planted a 5-pound bomb inside the boot with a timer set for twenty-minutes before fleeing the scene with the help of KLA observers. Longian climbed back into the car with the local commander, intending to drive up Mbersk Road, before turning into the Svozgardan section of the city and driving to the USC headquarters.

The twenty-five minute drive brought Longian into view of the building, where she stood to wave to a nearby supporter who gave her a thumbs up. The bomb detonated only a few seconds later, propelling Longian out of the car, blowing out the back, killing all three nearly instantly and sending shrapnel flying, causing three injuries. The attack shocked the Svozgardan's, and the USC would become engaged in a leadership struggle for the next five months, not even recovering fully by the outbreak of the Third Independence War with local USC Commanders resorting to taking action without direct orders, often with little success.

Atzan Lane bombing

Aftermath of the Atzan Lane bombing. (c. 27 August 1924)

On the 27 August 1924, Deputy Chief of the PISF, Lieutenant Colonel Terion Gallus entered a meeting with the SVDF Eastern and Western Commanders; Uzluz Rex and Breton Kalionox, at the Atzan Loyalist Club in Northern Nowa Grudak. It was arranged as a planning meeting between the PSIF and SVDF, to arrange and plan a strategy to push the Union Guard out of Mbresk Road and a total of 13 SVDF and PISF senior officers were in attendance. After brief introductions, Terion, Uzlus and Breton entered the second floor office where 4 SVDF, and 2 PISF attendees were in discussion. Three minutes later, a 25-pound explosive device, planted by the KLA two nights prior, detonated, killing all 9 people in the room immediately. A guard stationed outside the bathroom opposite the room was also killed, as well as 2 civilians who were walking past the building when the bomb went off. A total of 38 people were injured, of which 21 were SVDF members, and windows of the neighbouring building were blown whilst the second floor collapsed onto the first.

The bombing would be the only time the KLA successful killed a member of PSIF leadership, but the attack additionally crippled the SVDF and threw the succession of the Western and Eastern commands into disarray for nearly a month. It was the second time that the KLA had managed to kill commanding figures in the Svozgardan paramilitary movement in just one month and reprisal mortar attacks were conducted on the 28 and 29 of August in retaliation for the assassination.

Casualties

A total of 1,442 people were killed over the course of the battle, making it one of the bloodiest of the wider conflict and especially noted for the high number of civilian casualties resulting from indiscriminate mortar attacks that had become a staple of the SVDF by August 1924. This means that the majority of casualties were focused in the southern portion of the city, specifically civilians who were killed by bombardment with very few KLA or Union Guard members killed during such attacks.

Actual casualties resulting from firefights during street battles remained relatively low, only around 35% of all paramilitary and security force casualties came from such engagements with the majority being caused by the KLA bombing campaign that targeted either specific leadership figures, or local Headquarters.

Responsibility

Approximately 75% of civilian casualties were killed by Svozgardan loyalists, 7% by security forces and 18% by Kyotakavian nationalists. The SVDF was responsible for around 43% of all casualties, with the KLA responsible for 27%.

Responsibility for killing

Responsible party	Paramilitary	Security forces	Civilians
Kyotakavian paramilitaries
KLA	233	51	103
Union Guard	65	41	53
Svozgardan security forces
PISF	89	N/A	60
Svozgardan paramilitaries
SVDF	57	2	554
USC	12	0	102
Total	471 paramilitary members, 93 security force members, 872 civilians

Assassinations

Throughout the battle, both sides made numerous attempts to assassinate the leadership of paramilitary and security forces of their opponents. Security force assassination attempts usually involved the storming of headquarters or ambushes of senior figures though because of the regular use of both tactics broadly, it can be hard to accurately assess how many were done explicitly as assassination attempts. The PISF had some overall success regardless, successfully ambushed the Southern KLA Commander Boris Wazkon in August 1924 and killing three senior KLA members during a storming of the Northern HQ on Mbersk Road. Both the SVDF and USC made multiple attempts on KLA Leadership throughout the battle, including 4 bombing attempts against Regan Klaidev, leader of the NLP, in a single day. Success was rare however, and Svozgardan Paramilitaries struggled to launch effective attempts into the Southern portion of the city often resorting to indiscriminate mortar attacks that killed numerous civilians.

Kyotakavian paramilitaries had far more success in assassination that their Svozgardan counterparts; the Union Guard rarely made attempts outside of sniping efforts, which successfully killed Eurius Nelton, the successor to SVDF East Commander Breton Kalionox who was killed by the KLA in early-October. The KLA on the otherhand made multiple bombing attempts on senior leadership of both security forces and paramilitaries with at least 7 were personally targeted at PISF Colonel Emirus Talian though with no success. This however, was an exception rather than the rule, of the other 19 bombing attacks made against leadership figures, 17 were successful, and the KLA bombing campaign ultimately resulted in the decapitation of the SVDF leadership following the Atzan Lane bombing in late-August, which killed both the Western and Eastern SVDF commanders as well as the Deputy Chief of the PISF.

So effective was the KLA assassination campaign that by the end of the conflict, they had killed 4 SVDF Commanders, the USC Commander-in-Chief and the Deputy Chief of the PISF, at least 39 other senior commanders in both the security forces and paramilitaries, and a numerous junior officers which had functionally decapitated the entirety of the SVDF Eastern Command, and substantially damaged the Western SVDF's leadership structure.

Assassination attempts

Responsible party	Attempts	Successful	Success Rate
Kyotakavian paramilitaries
KLA	29	19	65.5%
Union Guard	6	1	16.7%
Svozgardan security forces
PISF	9	2	22.2%
Svozgardan paramilitaries
SVDF	41	3	7.3%
USC	18	0	0.0%
Total	93