Pan-Septentrion War
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| Pan-Septentrion War In Menghe: (Great Conquest War) In FSR: (Great Liberation War) In Tol Galen: (War of all Wars) | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Clockwise from top: | |||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||
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Entente Northern Casaterra
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Hemithean Axis Casaterran Axis | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
 Napoléon IV  Vinicus II Borislav Parakuvic |
 Charles III | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
|
Casaterran Entente
1,360,000 Northern Casaterra
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Hemithean Axis
Casaterran Axis
| ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| 435,629 | |||||||
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 north-Hemithean part of the war is considered a continuation of the Prairie War.
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 (1925–1935) to be a separate conflict, while others condense it into the Pan-Septentrion War or mark the 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
Tensions in Hemithea began 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 (1925-1935)
While the beginning of the Pan-Septentrion War proper is conventionally dated to 1937, its precursors can be traced to December 18th, 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 gain control over the area's rich copper deposits. The Themiclesians counterattacked in January 1926, sending 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, they expelled the Dzhungestani invaders and promptly withdrew. The following spring, the Dzhungestani regrouped and invaded again.
The Themiclesian government hoped to negotiation a formal treaty to settle the question of the border, but the Dzhungestani government was unresponsive. In the summer of 1926, Themiclesia invaded Dzhugnestan after its mission there was placed under house arrest and forbidden from sending and receiving telegraphs. To support the invasion, which was discussed since 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 (for the age) and reached the Dzhungestani capital, Dörözamyn, in 29 days. All Themiclesian forces were ordered to stay a certain distance from the border with Menghe to avoid provocation. Nevertheless, the speed of the invasion as well as its proximity 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. Nergüi, though ambitious in the throne, did not enjoy sufficient support from domestic leaders to conclude the treaty that Themiclesia desired and govern with a firm hand. 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 bid for power. He therefore chose to invite the Themiclesians to participate in his government, which the Foreign Office declined, fearful of hiking the invasion's costs. After almost three years, the Liberal government in Themiclesia, initially supporting the invasion, had lost 12 seats in parliament and thus become a minority government. While the Conservatives were in coalition with the Liberals, several Conservative MPs argued that occupying a country with inadequate justification would be a liability to flexibility in foreign affairs.
In June 1932, the Nationalist Party of Themiclesia, hoping to trace the steps of the fascists in Sylva in 1925, organized an unarmed march to the palace in Kien-k'ang. Some demonstrators organized a coup against the leadership of the movement and proceeded to charge into the palace, demanding an audience with the Emperor, wherefor the palace garrisons repulsed them with gunfire. Over 500 were killed, including a nephew of the Menghean emperor, Kwon Chong-hoon, who has provided support for the movement in Themiclesia. The Civic Liberties Act, 1932 soon received royal assent and outlawed fascism and nationalism, though only prescribing minor penalties.
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 called the militias of several prefectures in anticipation of extended 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.
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
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 800,000 men under arms, the Themiclesian Army was unable to prevent the combined advance of Dzhungestan, Menghe, and Dayashina from incurring into its territories. Into 1942, the front was quickly moving westwards, and in May that year, the alliance reached the fringes of the Themiclesian capital, Kien-k'ang (the government had been evacuated to Lwok-yang). However, resources showed up to the credit of shortened supply lines, now that the front was located in Themiclesia proper. Three inconclusive battles were contested within sight of the city's walls during June and July. At the start of autumn, formations in the Menghese and Dayashinese forces were pulled away due to mounting pressure applied by the Maverican and OS advance. The Themiclesian Army restarted its offensive in November 1942 and successfully pushed the remaining invaders into the Tuehn-ghuahng desert, and in the following month defensive positions were assumed 300 kilometers from the border with Dzhungestan.]
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 Donghŭi 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 Haeju 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 Donghŭi 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 Donghŭi Emperor committed suicide the following morning.]
[nuclear bombings of Takena and Nakazara]
[Dayashina surrenders]