Attack on Moddra

Attack on Moddra
Part of the Western Theater of the Siduri War
Aerial photograph of the submarine pen and adjacent fuel tank farms at Moddra.
Date 11 April 1935 Location Moddra, Scitaria, Republic of Syara Result Cacertian victory Recall of the Syaran Navy Significant damage to naval facilities at Moddra
Belligerents
Cacertian Empire	Republic of Syara
Commanders and leaders
Andrea Doria	Dicho Wasilew
Units involved
Center Fleet	Syaran National Fleet
Strength
3 aircraft carriers 3 battleships 1 battlecruiser 1 heavy cruiser 2 cruisers 2 light cruisers 12 destroyers 9 fleet tankers 6 fleet submarines 264 aircraft	2 battleships 1 battlecruiser 4 cruisers 22 destroyers 6 submarines 450 aircraft
Casualties and losses
38 aircraft destroyed 41 aircraft damaged 53 killed 27 wounded	1 battleship sunk 1 cruiser sunk 2 destroyers sunk 47 aircraft destroyed

The attack on Moddra, sometimes referred to as the Moddra Raid, was a military strike conducted by the Cacertian Royal Navy Air Service against the Navy of the Syara Republic’s naval base at the coastal city of Moddra, Scitaria on the morning of 11 April 1935. The attack was one of two major components of the larger Operation Maelstrom which also included the bombardment of Slocova by ships of the Andria Fleet later that same day. The strike was conducted as a response to the Syaran Andria raid as well as an attempt to draw Syaran naval forces away from the Mansuri coast where their naval gunfire support was hampering the defense being conducted by the forces of the Common Sphere in Mansuriyyah. Alternatively, along with the whole of Operation Maelstrom, the attack was meant to serve as a psychological blow to Syarans whom, up to this point, had not been directly attacked in their home country.

Syaran naval codes had been successfully deciphered in December 1934 by a team of international Common Sphere cryptologists. By monitoring them throughout January and February, it had been determined that much of the Syaran fleets would be conducting operations on the Mansuri Coast as well as sailing into the Sundering Sea in an attempt to raid commerce in the Bara. Equipped with this information, Grand Admiral Andrea Doria set sail with the Center Fleet for Andria with two of her three aircraft carriers. Although the Syaran naval codes had been changed by mid-March, it was still decided to conduct an attack on Syara by April utilizing intelligence provided by the Földalatti and SRS commandos.

After refueling at Andria’s naval base and picking up an additional aircraft carrier, Andrea’s forces rendezvoused with Admiral Ulisse Barbato’s Andria Fleet and the two groups sailed northwest. In an attempt to avoid the potential of running into fleet elements of the Syaran Navy, both formations swung wide of the Ossorian Hemar Confederacy and passing west of the Trebêranese islands. Operating under strict radio silence, the two fleets separated just north of the Kingdom of Trebêran to conduct their operations with the Center Fleet arriving within striking range of Moddra on the night of 10 April.

The attack began at 6:43 AM local time by 264 Cacertian aircraft—which consisted of fighters, dive bombers, and torpedo bombers—in two waves launched from three aircraft carriers. With most of the ships based in Moddra away on other operations, the focus of the attack was to inflict as much damage to base facilities as possible. The primary targets included the harbor, the navy yard, dry dock facilities, oil tank farms, as well as the base headquarters building and air facilities. Despite the focus on directly attacking the base, the Cacertians managed to also sink the battleship Finite and Precious, the cruiser Crafted Vigil, and destroyers Safety and Savior. The Finite and Precious was later refloated and returned to service.

Although 450 aircraft were assigned to the base, at the time of the attack nearly half had been distributed to secondary airfields for training exercises that had ultimately been cancelled. In the aftermath of the first wave, 16 Syaran Alectryon fighters managed to get airborne just as the second wave of Cacertian aircraft began their runs. 13 of the 16 fighters were ultimately downed by Cacertian fighters in the fighting in exchange for 25 confirmed shootdowns of Cacertian bombers. An additional 13 Cacertian aircraft were also shot down by ship or ground-based anti-aircraft fire. Nika Vuković, an auxiliary corporal of the Syaran Army, continued to man her 20mm AA gun after a bomb killed her crew before eventually dying of blood loss. She was later posthumously awarded Hero of the Republic, the first Syaran woman to earn the award during the Siduri War.

The damage to Moddra’s port facilities was considered significant, mirroring the similar attack conducted by the Syarans previously, leaving large portions of the base inoperable for several months. While overall damaged to the Navy of the Syaran Republic in terms of tonnage was minimal, the strike had the intended effect of recalling the Syaran Navy to waters closer to home and away from Mansuriyyah. Surface raiders, battlecruisers, and submarines were subsequently dispatched to attack Common Sphere commerce which resulted in several fierce clashes in the Nuandan between destroyers, cruisers, and battlecruisers.

The outcome of Operation Maelstrom has generally been considered a success with the attack on Moddra greatly overshadowing the bombardment of Slocova despite the fact that both strikes ended with minimal Cacertian losses. It succeeded in completing the overall strategic objective of recalling Syaran Navy away from operations in the Mansuri Sea and the Bara Sea which eventually culminated in the decisive Battle of the Sabri Sea. The operation had also fulfilled its secondary objective by catching the Syaran populace by surprise with the Cacertian invasion of Makedon during the Divide War still well-remembered, however the logistical effort required to coordinate another similar strike made it difficult to conduct a second time.