Operation Hippikon
Operation Hippikon, also known as the Syaran October Offensive, or the Kiskőrös Meat-Grinder, was a strategic offensive launched by Syara during the Zemplen War.
The operation was intended to link the two Syaran salients that had formed in September around Sarud in the Kunhegyes District and Borlynska in the Kiskőrös District, entrapping and subsequently annihilating the 5th Zalaegerzeg and 1st Debrecen Fronts in accordance with Syaran doctrine of Force Decimation. Ruvelkan resistance around Malavinsk and Vatuseve prevented the Syarans from linking up, and Ruvelkan counter attacks from the 11th Kiskőrös and 7th Mátészalka Fronts forced the Syarans to abandon their drive. The fighting during Hippikon reached an intensity not yet seen during the war and resulted in heavy losses to both sides. Syaran defeat led to the launching of Operation Kontos in November.
Background
Following the August Offensive, the Imperial Armed Forces of Ruvelka began mobilizing on the border in preparation to retake the disputed border regions and prevent further encroachments by the Syaran Commonality Armed Forces. Syara preempted Ruvelkan intentions by launching Operation Aspis to encircle and annihilate Ruvelkan forces amassed on the border, but with fighting now on Ruvelkan soil and against more prepared Ruvelkan forces the Syarans were unable to complete the encirclement of any major Ruvelkan forces. Despite capturing several major cities along the border, stiff resistance at the fortress cities of Albertirsa, Keszlis, Drahizyorsk, Vatuseve, and Pardukov stymied Syaran forces.
By October Syaran forces were arrayed in a disordered front line stretching from Pardukov in the north to Keszlis in the south. Army Group Alpha under the command of Field Marshal Nikodemos Cvetkov had captured the city of Sarud, but 2nd Army had been halted by Pardukov and 3rd Army faced stiff Ruvelkan resistance west of Malavinsk. The failure to capture the city of Vatuseve meant that there was a division between the forces of Army Group Alpha and Army Group Beta under Field Marshal Aleksandar Čorić. Army Group Beta was strung out along an extensive front line stretching from south of Vatuseve down south to Balatonalmádi. The expanse of the front line, much of it running across hundreds of miles of thick forests and built up urban areas, allowed for frequent Ruvelkan infiltration efforts and raids launched behind Syaran lines.
To Syaran Central Command in Zovahr, the positioning of the Syaran armies was less than desirable. In the north, Army Group Alpha had been constrained to a short, cramped frontage virtue of stiff Ruvelkan defenses around Pardukov and Malavisnk. Army Group Alpha's divisions were now crammed into a small area of operations, clogging roadways with extensive groupings of supply columns that made for tantalizing targets for the Ruvelkan Air Force. The Army Group's logistical issues were only hampered further by the Granika River, who's bridges were repeatedly struck by Ruvelkan air power, inhibiting transfers of troops and supplies from Syara into Ruvelka. With Army Group Gamma largely held up by Ruvelkan forces amid the Matra Mountains it left Army Group Beta in the center to contend with the full strength of Army Group Center largely unsupported.
In Debrecen the mood was mixed. The Ruvelkans had prevented a Syaran breakout into the Koryal Plain, which had been identified by Chief of Staff Áron Surány as a major threat which could upend the entirety of the Ruvelkan defensive stratagem. While the containment of Army Group Alpha by Army Group North was welcome, the situation in the center was more concerning. The Borlynska Salient formed by the Syaran 1st Army put the Syarans in position to strike Sagerejo, which if lost would split off the 1st Debrecen Front form the rest of Army Group Center and threaten to rupture the entire Ruvlekan defense in the Kiskőrös District. Surány was largely convinced that the Syarans of 1st Army would strike south in conjunction with the 4th and 6th Armies, battering and encircling the Székesfehérvár and Kiskőrös Fronts before linking up in Navapoyebsk.
AG Center's commander, Eliska Hanáková, disagreed and expressed the belief the main Syaran effort would fall against the 1st Debrecen Front, coupled with Syaran attacks against the Zalaegerszeg Front to alleviate pressure on Syara's AG Alpha. Surány wanted Hanáková to shift the Kiskőrös Front further south to reinforce the Kromta-Sagerejo-Navapoyebsk triangle, but Hanáková demurred, fearing that it would leave the 1st Debrecen Front unsupported in case of a Syaran attack in the direct of Urzivata. Hanáková's predictions proved accurate.
Planning
In the Syaran camp there also disagreements on how to proceed. Cvetkov wanted Army Group Alpha to push direct eastward, spearheaded by 7th Army and in the direction of Sepina, which would cut off the 9th Kunhegyes Front and leave the city of Kaposvár. But Syaran Central Command remained committed to the strategic goal of annihilating Ruvelkan forces in extensive encirclement, and Chief of Staff Vakhtang Avakian insisted on an offensive geared as destroying two or more Ruvelkan Fronts in one fell swoop. Wary of the increased pressure on his forces owing to their relatively constrained frontage, Cvetkov agreed and pushed for a drive south, led by 3rd Army to capture Malavinsk while 7th Army screened the 7th Mátészalka Front. Cvetkov intended for 7th Army to maintain its pressure on the 7th Front rather than attempt to push for Kunhegues, which Cvetkov deemed beyond the logistical capacity of 7th Army to achieve. Colonel General Simeon Karandzhulov however argued in favor of 7th Army joining 3rd Army, arguing that the two combined armies forming the northern pincer would increase the chances of fully encircling the 5th Zalaegerszeg Front by seizing Kunhegyes.
Similar disagreements arose in Army Group Beta. Field Marshal Čorić wished to pursue a general offensive against Army Group Center, which involved a sweeping offensive by 4th and 1st Army who would link up in Sarkeszi, while 6th Army pinned the Ruvelkans in place along the Kromta-Navapoyebsk-Vyerhnyast-Baramyel operational area. The plan was rejected by his army commanders as infeasible given the logistical demands it would place on the Army Group, but Čorić was reluctant to embrace the suggested plan of action by Avakian due to his concerns that 1st Army's commander, Colonel General Marko Kukolja, was ill-suited towards carrying out the operation as a defensively-inclined officer. Čorić instead opted to have 6th and 4th Army carry a diversionary attack against the 2nd Székesfehérvár Front to divert Ruvelkan reserves from the 1st Debrecen and 11th Kiskőrös Fronts. The fake operational objective for this diversion would be the city of Vyerhnyasty.
In order to deceive the Ruvelkans, the Syarans intentionally leaked indications that the intended target of Army Group Beta was Vyerhnyasty, but Hanáková was not convinced, especially when the leaks suggested that 1st Army would not be playing a major role. Although the Ruvelkans remained ignorant of Syaran concerns about 1st Army's offensive capabilities, Hanáková successfully convinced Péter Novák, commander of Army Group North, of the likelihood of a Syaran offensive against the 5th Zalaegerszeg and 1st Debrecen Fronts. In response, both Army Group North and Center shifted their reserves to reinforce the Malavinsk-Kunhegyes-Urzivata-Vatuseve operational area.