Second Shelvay War

Second Shelvay War
Part of Mid-Century Belhavian-Tippercommoner Tensions
Date 14 February 1930 - 9 November 1934 Location Ayton-Shelvay Result • Strategic Belhavian victory. •• Status quo (existing Ayton-Shelvay borders) preserved. •• Military failure of New Ayton movement's goal to unify Ayton-Shelvay as one state and implement democratic political model. • Belhavian-UTR tensions escalate. • War later contributes to 1940s-era Ayton-Shelvay Proxy War.
Belligerents
Template:Country data Ayton-Shelvay Shelvay Protectorate Empire of Belhavia	Template:Country data New Ayton New Ayton Supported by: Template:Country data Tippercommon
Commanders and leaders
BRG Joshua Reiss COL Zachary Galarian
Units involved
• 6th Imperial Rifles Division (Imperial Army) •• 2nd Regiment • Shelvayan Colonial Police • Shelvayan Colonial Militia
Strength
~20,000 Belhavian Imperial Army ~5,000 Shelvayan colonial policemen ~7,200 Shelvayan colonial militiamen
Casualties and losses
2,458 Imperial Army personnel 173 Shelvayan colonial policemen 896 Shelvayan colonial militiamen

The Second Shelvay War (14 February 1930 - 9 November 1934) was a mid-century military conflict between Belhavia and the UTR-backed New Ayton movement rebellion in Ayton-Shelvay that spanned the early 1930s. While Belhavia and the UTR never went to war, they had sporadic military clashes that both sides called "accidental encounters".

The conflict would escalate already-chilly relations between Belhavia and the UTR, and would became a contributory reason for the Ayton-Shelvay Proxy War of 1940-1945.

Background

The Treaty of Evermore, while settling the dispute between Gael and Yiddish locals and creating official districts did not solve all of the populations' grievances.

The Unified Tippercommon Republics had been increasing its military presence in its section of Ayton-Shelvay. The border between the two territories became heavily militarized, with as many as four infantry, two armored, and six artillery divisions being stationed on the border by early February 1930. In addition, the UTR began steadily supplying the New Ayton movement with weapons, vehicles, and clothing. Tippercommon intelligence operatives of the Army's Commando Corps began training New Ayton rebels as early as 1928, disguising the program as a UTR effort to modernize its regional guard units within the Ayton Republic.

The New Ayton movement was a left of center militia that favored the unification of Ayton-Shelvay into one single state and a transition to a legitimate democracy. Started in the early 1920s, it had been gaining political capital along the Ayton-Shelvay border towns since 1926. This provided it with significant support and access to local resources by early 1930.

Within Belhavia, despite the increasingly anti-colonialist Liberal Democratic administration of President Akiva Baron-Cohen governing the Imperial Government in Provisa, opposition Federalists and their political allies the Fascists in the Imperial Senate blocked Baron-Cohen's proposals to centralize authority over the Shelvay Protectorate to Provisa to implement potential decolonization policies and pushed through a greater 'home-rule' bill increasing the power of the territory's Federalist governor to have more local discretion, fueling policies that sparked the New Ayton movement.

Eruption of War

The New Ayton movement dealt its first blow against the Shelvay Protectorate on 14 February 1930. Using small arms and an armored car provided by the Tippercommon Rifle Corps, a group of 37 rebels stormed the police station of a town bordering the city of Tel Avson at around 0030 Hours, killing several law enforcement officers, freeing a number of political prisoners sympathetic to the New Ayton cause, and capturing the station's small supply of small arms. After clearing the station, the rebels made their escape, firing shotgun shells and throwing at least two grenades into the windows of neighboring storefronts as they made their way down the town's main road. The raid took about half an hour according to witnesses who lived across from the station, resulting the deaths of six police officers and two store owners. The body of one raider was discovered at the scene and would later be identified as Charlie McDougal who had been charged of espionage in Shelvay in 1929 but jumped bail.

The same night, between 0100 and 0200 Hours, numerous New Ayton cells carried out similar raids on police stations in the smaller towns dotting Eastern Shelvay. With the objective of freeing political prisoners and weakening the Shelvayan hold over the countryside, the raids were carried out in 13 villages and towns, resulting in the deaths of 34 police officers and 12 rebels, while an additional 5 rebels were arrested after being ambushed at a border crossing.

Aftermath

• Status quo in terms of territorial changes.
• New Ayton rebellion destroyed by Belhavia.
• Conflict leads to the rise to power of Zachary Galarian in Belhavia.
• Tensions between the UTR and Belhavia skyrocket once Galarian comes to power in 1940.
• Ayton-Shelvay would not come under full joint governance between Belhavia and Tippercommon until after the fall of the Galarian regime in the late 1940s.