Khalistan campaign

Khalistan campaign
Part of the Meridian War, Pan-Septentrion War
Date August 1938 - September 1944 (6 years, and 1 month) Location Khalistan, Azbekistan and Vangala Result Allied victory
Belligerents
New Tyran Dominion of Khalistan	Greater Menghean Empire Dayashinese Empire Liberation Army
Commanders and leaders
Anthony William David O'Connor Robert Stirling Dhian Singh Harpal Bajwa Jasveer Narindra	"general" "general" Yutaka Ueda Shigeharu Takagi Tadamichi Obata Koichi Inada "general"
Strength
1938-1940 250,000 initial invasion. 140,000 initial invasion. 1940-1942 46,000 80,000 - 100,000 1943-1944 230,000 - 350,000 200,000 - 600,000	1938-1940 100,000 initial invasion. 200,000 initial invasion. 110,000 - 200,000 1940-1942 100,000 50,000 280,000
Casualties and losses
31,234 killed 43,371 wounded 51,250 captured 42,892 killed 72,569 wounded 45,239 captured	"killed" "wounded" "captured" 30,000+ killed 38,000 wounded 10,000 captured 81,438 killed "wounded" "captured"

Background

The Khalistan campaign was a military campaign involving the forces of the Allies; the Anglian Crown Empire and the Dominion of Khalistan which fought against the invading forces of the Greater Menghean Empire and Imperial Dayashina, who were supported by collaborationist independence movements, the largest being the Azbekistan Revolutionary Army that fought to establish an independent Azbekistan free from Anglian and Khalistani rule.

The Menghean Empire's primary strategic objective was to secure and control of Khalistan, to create a strong defensive position to prevent Allied naval forces breaking out into the South Menghe Sea. Menghean forces were able to progress rapidly along Khalistan's coast, reaching Naseristan by 1940.

This rapid advancement spurred large-scale uprisings of Azbekistanis in Khalistan in support of the Axis war effort; this would be the start of the Azbekistan Liberation War. More than 110,000 Azbekistanis in the Crown Army would defect, throwing the Anglian battle plan into disarray. Several bases would be overrun and supply lines attacked. Large uprisings occurred in Al-Basrah and Asmara quickly swelling the rebellion’s ranks. Long standing ethnic tensions and conflict between Khalistan and Azbekistan see atrocities committed by both sides during the war. It was one of the longest continuous campaign in PSW and both Menghean and Dayashinese holdouts would continue to fight several years after the war.

Landing on Portcullia

Main article: Battle of Portcullia (Pan-Septentrion War)

On the 15-16th of June, the Imperial Menghean Navy and Imperial Dayashinese Navy defeated the Royal Navy at the Battle of the Portcullia Strait, opening the way for a Menghean-Dayashinese invasion of Khalistan and Portcullia in mid 1938.

On July 17th 1938 the Menghean-Dayashinese invasion of Portcullia began. RAF light and medium bombers attacked IMN and IDN ships off the coast but due to lack of proper escort were forced to switch to night time raids to reduce losses, as Meridia was a lower priority theatre, the RAF had comparatively few modern aircraft to challenge the Axis. Air Marshal Henry Wavell held back the few Hurricanes and Spitfires available to defend the Khalistan mainland and relied on the Gloster Gladiator, which while performed well against the Menghean Type 34 fighter and performed adequately against IDN fighters of this period, the growing numbers of Menghean and Dayashinese fighters and increasingly better types of aircraft soon overwhelmed the Gladiator pilots, both in the air and on the ground, securing Axis air supremacy over the island.

On the beaches the joint Menghean-Dayashinese landing immediately ran into fierce Anglian resistance, who had established artillery and machine gun posts overlooking the beaches which made progress difficult, but the Axis forces were able to create several beachheads that would be gradually expanded but sustain heavy casualties. Crown Army and RN intelligence were led to believe that the next objective of the Axis would be to land on Khalistan itself near Moradabad to silence the gun batteries and capture the naval port, diversionary attacks near Port Arthur reaffirmed this belief. Because of this only two divisions worth of troops were stationed in Portcullia.

The Axis forces quickly made sweeping advances into central Portcullia and fended off several Allied counterattacks, but their advance was checked at the Battle of Anderson Point, which allowed the Crown Army to evacuate some of its remaining forces on the island and civilian personnel to Khalistan but over 10,000 Crown Army troops would end up as prisoners of war. Within four weeks, Portcullia was lost to the Axis powers, which would be used as a staging area for the invasion of Khalistan.