Brumley Rebellion

Brumley Rebellion
Men of the Teutonberg Militia pose by a captured barricade
Date 14-28th November, 1897 Location Earldom of Brumley, Vionna-Frankenlisch Result Government Victory
Belligerents
Vionna-Frankenlisch Brumley Police Force	Brumley Commune
Commanders and leaders
Alexander II Duke of Teutonberg Earl of Brumley Matthew Reichwald Baron Barrow	Winton Ó Rodagh   Frank Leavitt   Ian Mason   Gareth Griffith † Nola O'Duffy  (POW)
Units involved
Imperial Army of Reaction Third Army Corps Teutonberg Retainers Brumley Squadron	Worker's Brigades Socialist Army of Frankenlisch Commune Militias
Strength
64,600 Men 10,000-40,000 Civilian volunteers	39,000-70,000 Men
20,000 Men
Casualties and losses
1,028 Military Dead 3,101 Military Wounded and Captured 109 Police casualties 471 Militia and Citizenry casualties	Mediocre, at least 6,000 captured

The Brumley Rebellion was an attempted left-wing revolution on 14th November 1897 in Vionna-Frankenlisch and centered around the major industrial city of Brumley. Though initially successful, the so-called Brumley Commune was unable to raise support outside Brumley and a dogged defense by municipal police forces, the city's military garrison and local militia prevented the Commune's forces from taking control of the entire city. Relief forces from Frankenlisch and Grythshead were able to rescue government forces and put down the uprising, though low-level fighting carried on throughout most of November.

Belligerents

The government forces were led almost exclusively by the King himself with the Duke of Teutonberg and Baron Barrow serving directly under him but the forces within the city were commanded by Calis Rotail, the Earl of Brumley and police and citizenry were directed by Matthew Reichwald who was the Chief Commissioner of the Brumley area. Military forces under the command of the King numbered 46,000 men with much artillery as well, the Earl of Brumley's marines and landed sailors tallied at 2,600 men. Police documents dated the First of November detail police numbers in the city as being on the rise since January and the Brumley area boasted 5,000 constables and NCOs, and around 1,000 other ranks by November. The number of civilian supporters can never truly be known but the closest estimates are between 10 and 40 thousand throughout the whole Earldom.

Forces of the Brumley Commune were divided into several groups throughout the Earldom of Brumley but the majority of their support came from the industrial districts but did find supporters from the middle class, particularly women who desired a militant alternative to the Suffragette Movement. The Chairman of the Brumley Labour Union, Winton Ó Rodagh, was elected as the temporary leader of the Brumley Commune and commanded the Worker's Brigades, the militant forces of the Commune. A sympathetic army officer, Captain Frank Leavitt, commanded the Socialist Army of Frankenlisch which was established as a proposed standing army in the last days of the uprising, it never reached further than two thousand men and was practically identical to the Worker's Brigades. Countess Nola O'Duffy was the prime figurehead of the female and upper/middle-class supporters of the Commune and was spared execution following the uprising for her social status and gender.

Early Stages

According to contemporary sources, the uprising began in Brumley's Central Industrial District at around 7:30 in the morning on November 14th, it was coordinated with similar labour uprisings in Ravenstern, Hansmith and Luxington which all saw somewhat more limited success. The working day had just begun and most workers had only just clocked in, violence began first in the Purcell Arms Works and many workers seized rifles. Oliver Purcell, the factory's owner, was forced from the building at gunpoint and his chief supervisor, Samuel Connell, was killed by the revolting workers. Similar actions took place throughout factories and workshops throughout the district until five in the evening that day by which point almost the entire district was under leftist control. A prominent exception being the Altman Works where Billy Altman's workers remained loyal to him and, along with police and local militia, held the works throughout the entire uprising and proved instrumental as an army headquarters for the government counterattack.

Combat on the Outskirts

Brumley Fort

At 9:30am, the Erinite Countess Nola O'Duffy banded 800 rebels together in a warehouse in the Upper Harbour District, most of them sailors or dockyard workers. The Countess was well respected by the socialist community and was quickly elected as a leader of the uprising. She stressed the need for arms and ammunition and declared that the rebels should capture Brumley Fort, which overlooked Brumley and Harbour Bay. The rebels surged towards the fort and overpowered the disorganised gate guards. They rampaged through the fort, killing many members of the Brumley Territorial Reserve Brigade and broke into the fort's two armouries and arsenal. The rebels captured the fort entirely intact and the armouries contained twelve-thousand infantry rifles, just over a hundred thousand rounds of ammunition, bayonets. More importantly, the fort's arsenal contained twelve mortars, four field guns and, most important of all, six Clement Guns.

Royal Counterattack

King Alexander II, the new King of Vionna-Frankenlisch, was told about the uprising on the third day of a summit, held in honour of his coronation and the death of his brother, Richard. He quickly formed a force of six thousand men in the Frankenlisch Military District, named the Royal Force, which he commanded personally. Consisting of four battalions of the Royal Frankenlisch Rifles, a battalion of the Royal Hastings Fusiliers, the Imperial Palace Yeomanry and thirty-two guns of the Imperial Zianian Artillery. 160 militiamen from villages on the road to Brumley joined the force, led by the Baron Barrow. The Quenminese ambassador and several Quenminese military advisors came along with the King. At 18:00 on the fourteenth, the King established his headquarters at the village of St Illebins, a settlement that overlooked Brumley from the heights surrounding the city. By seven, the Imperial Zianian Artillery had deployed and the infantry were busily engaged in entrenching the field guns. The IZA began bombarding Brumley Fort at 19:15 but the bombardment was slow due to a lack of ammunition.

For every moment the fort remained in rebel hands, more rifles filtered out into the city, arming more rebels. The fort had yet to turn its guns on the loyalist positions but it was only a matter of time. Alexander grouped the four battalions of the Frankenlisch Rifles together and placed them under the command of Brigadier Matthew Fosworth. The Frankenlisch Rifles were ordered to enter the city and carve a path to the Central Industrial District where loyalists were defending William Altman's factory, under heavy attack by socialist rebels. The Hastings Fusiliers and the militiamen were ordered to make an attack against the fort. Both of these actions were planned for the morning of the fifteenth.

At 08:00 on the fifteenth, the Royal Frankenlisch Rifles entered Brumley from the North-East, meeting little resistance. The Hastings Fusiliers marched against the fort, their right flank guarded by the militia. Led by Colonel John Quilter, the attack was met with accurate rifle fire and repulsed with twenty casualties, suffering from lack of equipment. By 11:00, the RFR had reached Industry Plaza, the direct middle of the industrial area of Brumley. North of that point was the Central Industrial District and, almost immediately, Fosworth's troops were met with snipers and roadblocks and barricades.