Labor Day Siege
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Labor Day Siege | |||||||
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Part of the Mainland Theater of the Third Joyonghean-Quenminese War | |||||||
A Zanarkian Sniper in Mogpo | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
Joyonghea |
Archadia-Archedes | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Strength | |||||||
175,000 75,000 Relief Force: |
350,000 | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
5,989 wounded or killed 59 tanks 27 guns 25 aircraft |
12,552 killed 1,500 captured 67 tanks 49 guns 59 aircraft |
The Labor Day Siege was a month-long siege that took place between 15 April to 20 May 1943 around the town of Mogpo. It was fought primarily by ZANAC forces under the command of General Edward Samegawa against the Quenminese forces led by Marshal Hồ Danh Sĩ Quốc. After a month of being besieged, they were finally relieved by Joyonghean forces under the command of General Chae Hwa-young.
The besieging of the ZANAC forces came purely from the idea of Marshal Hugo Cavallero, who wanted to ensure the destruction of the ZANAC forces, being the bearer of victory for the Allies throughout the conflict. When the Archadian Spring Offensive began, Samegawa immediately retired his army to the area surrounding Mogpo. Here, he established defenses to blunt the Imperial offensive on his flank. Not wanting a repeat of the Battle of the Gap, Marshal Ho insisted to Cavallero that the Quenminese forces will bring about the destruction of the ZANAC forces, while the Archadians can focus on preventing any hope of the Imperials to relieve the ZANACs at Mogpo, to which the latter agreed.
Samegawa's build up of defenses around Mogpo led to Marshal Ho commencing a total encirclement of the ZANACs. By 15 April, the encirclement was complete and Marshal Ho commenced repeated attacks on the garrison throughout the month despite two attempts to relieve the garrison by Joyonghean General Chae Hwa-young in 21 April and 5 May. The garrison was constantly bombarded by artillery, dive bombers, and bombers, while the Royal Air Force carried out defensive sorties and dropped supplies for the defenders.
Over the course of the next weeks, the ZANAC forces repelled repeated attempts by Ho's forces to capture the city. The Zanarkian and New Akibander defenders of Mogpo was anchored on three factors: the use of the pre-existing Quenminese and Joyonghean fortifications around the city, aggressive patrolling and raiding of Imperial positions, and the firepower of the garrison's artillery. Fighting from fixed positions, ZANAC infantry successfully contained and defeated repeated Imperial armoured and infantry attacks on the city. After the two atttempts by Joyonghean forces to relieve the city, the ZANACs were successful in gradually improving Mogpo's defences through aggressively raiding Imperial positions and appropriating captured Imperial tanks, particularly of Archadian equipment. When the Summer Counteroffensive of 1943 was finally launched, Mogpo was finally relieved by 20 May 1943 by Joyonghean and a small New Akibander formation.