Bourgougian Blitz

Bourgougian Blitz
Part of the Red Monsoon
(clockwise from top left) Bourgougian soldiers during the Battle of Ouvrard, Carlosian APCs in the streets of Arceneaux, jet fighters dogfighting over Bourgougia, a torpedo detonates beside the CN Marshal, Carlosian soldiers during an amphibious assault on the Bourgougian coast, Agostinian infantry clash with Bar and Acrarian troops
Date 17 March – 25 August 1987 (1987-03-17 – 1987-08-25) (161 days) Location Carloso, Bourgougia, Agostinia Result Carlosian-Agostinian victory Status quo ante bellum Collapse of Bourgougia Victory liberated
Belligerents
Carloso Agostinia	Bourgougia Barssois Acrary
Supported by: Vizkigeric Orticuria Côte D'Émeraude	Supported by: State Union
Commanders and leaders
Adrian Miotasis Gabriel Quesada Robert Barrett Isaías de Coronil Fernado de Bogado Alfred McCullough Nestore Scipio Stephen O'Dea Dylan Graciani Víctor Langston Salvador Águas Matheus Alcantara Roldão Dieudonné	Régis Lemaigre  Léonard Joubert Élie Boutroux Jean-Charles Celice William Rochefort Gérald Michaux Charles Rodier Ladislas Trouvé Paul Clérisseau Jules Didier Samuel Burke Thomas McIntyre
Units involved
1st District Army 3rd District Army 7th District Army 10th District Army 1st Infantry Army 2nd Infantry Army	1st Field Army 2nd Field Army 3rd Field Army 5th Tank Army Expeditionary Division
Strength
Total: 1,200,000 1,000,000 200,000	Total: 920,000 800,000 100,000 20,000
Casualties and losses
Moderate	Heavy
At least 10,000 Carlosian civilians killed, tens of thousands of Bourgougian civilians. Colossal damage done to Bourgougian infrastructure

The Bourgougian Blitz (17 March – 25 August 1987) was a short but intense military conflict that was fought primarily between Carloso and Agostinia against Bourgougia, who were aided by forces from Barssois and Acrary. It broke a period of relative peace and calm in Musgorocia following the conclusion of the Emergency War in 1951, with a newly resurgent Bourgougia, which had been under the control of a communist military dictatorship since 1964, seeking to press its claim on the densely populated Carlosian exclave of Victory, located on the border with Côte D'Émeraude. Victory had fallen under the control of Carloso after a war between the two countries in the 1790s. As dictator of Bourgougia, Régis Lemaigre prioritised the country's remilitarisation to realise this objective. The war began on 17 March when the Bourgougians simultaneously had Carlosian President Jair Moran assassinated by special forces and launched a massive, devastating assault on the almost defenceless Victory.

With only a token Army garrison and a small, mostly unarmed police service to defend the city, Victory was quickly overrun by the Bourgougian forces. Some units refused to surrender, performing guerrilla operations against occupying forces for the remainder of the war from the city's high-rise buildings and skyscrapers. The Bourgougians devastated the city with artillery and rocket fire before they invaded, causing catastrophic damage and killing thousands of civilians. When news of the attack reached Madrigal, Moran's successor, Adrian Miotasis, immediately declared a state of war between Carloso and Bourgougia, Agostinia following up with its own declaration several hours later. As Carloso began to mobilise and move a large portion of its military to the front line along the Bourgougian-Agostinian border, an intense air war raged in the skies above. At the same time, the belligerents' opposing navies clashed at sea, seeking to achieve naval superiority in the Musgorocian Ocean. Carloso gradually gained the upper hand, delivering a crushing blow against Bourgougia when they attempted to seize the Carlosian overseas territory of Mediator in a decisive battle.

In May 1987, Carloso and Agostinia began their counteroffensive, pouring into north-west Bourgougia with a force of over 800,000.Having exhausted many of their most capable aircraft during the initial few weeks of the air campaign, Bourgougia lost air superiority to the Carlosians, and was forced to retreat further and further into the country's interior. However, towards the end of the month, the combined offensive stalled when Barssois and Acrary entered the war on Bourgougia's side, resulting in a brutal war of attrition that would last for many weeks. Simultaneously, Carloso's naval superiority was shaken when several prominent warships were sank at the hands of Bourgougian submarines.

Seeking to break the stalemate, in July Carloso launched a daring amphibious assault on Victory, successfully liberating the city. This opened up another front in the war, Carlosian and Agostinian forces making huge gains into southern Bourgougia. Forced to divert more of their units to defend the more economically important parts of the country, efforts by Bourgougia and its allies to defend the north west began to collapse. By mid August, Carlosian forces were within 30 kilometres of the Bourgougian capital. With growing unrest at home, Acrary withdrew all its forces, followed by Barssois. The war ended on 25 August 1987 when elements of the Bourgougian Army staged a coup against Lemaigre's government, executing him and agreeing to a ceasefire with Carloso and Agostinia.

The Bourgougian Blitz has since been regarded as a watershed moment in Carlosian history, and would later have profound ramifications on the country's politics and foreign policy. A whole generation of future politicians; including current President Cárlos Tobón, would be deeply affected by their experiences during the Blitz and would come to grow in power and influence in the 2000s, culminating in the Corrective Revolution of 2010. After the conclusion of the Blitz, Bourgougia quickly spiralled into a brutal decade-long civil war that would leave over five million dead. The collapse of Bourgougia also contributed to the fall of the communist regime in Barssois in 1991, and helped ignite the Acrary Civil War. The Blitz precipitated a decade of almost constant civil war; known as the Millennium Crisis, in many parts of Musgorocia as the continent's communist regimes faced open revolution and ever increasing demands for democratisation. Carloso would become involved in many of these armed struggles, either directly or indirectly. Internationally, the Blitz was regarded as part of the wider Red Monsoon, a conflagration of loosely related conflicts between communist and democratic governments and their proxies throughout the 1980s, lingering into the 1990s.

Diplomatic relations between Carloso and Bourgougia continue to be very poor as a result of the Blitz. A formal peace treaty between the two countries was never signed. Victory would eventually be granted independence by the Carlosian government in 1995 following a local plebiscite. Successive Bourgougian governments have maintained their claim over the city-state, while Carloso continues to have a large military presence along the Bourgougian-Agostinian border. Largely due to its historical significance, the Blitz is a popular subject of literature, video games, television and film.

Background

Main article: Emergency War

Following the conclusion of the Emergency War and the defeat of Synarchist Bourgougia in 1951, Carloso became the unquestioned superpower of the Musgorocian continent. While the country quickly rebuilt and experienced a prolonged economic boom, the rest of the continent remained devastated by years of military conflict. Aided by various extra-continental forces, the feeble democratic regimes in Bourgougia and Barssois were overthrown in communist military coups in 1964 and 1966 respectively, enjoying extensive popular support. These also precipitated coups in Acrary and Frontiere. These new regimes succeeded in rebuilding the cities and countryside through vast public works schemes, beginning a phase of rapid industrialisation as they sought to match the economic output of Carloso once more.

Initial phase

War in the Musgorocian Ocean

Bourgougian frigate La Rocque explodes after being crippled by an anti-ship missile.

Carloso rallied its naval forces alongside a small unit of Agostinian frigates and submarines, assembling one of the largest armadas that the continent had ever seen. Three nuclear-powered aircraft carriers were dedicated to conducting operations against Bourgougia, alongside the plethora of cruisers, destroyers and submarines.

Knowing they were outnumbered and outgunned on the naval front, the Bourgougians resorted primarily to hit-and-run tactics, attacking Carlosian warships with anti-ship missile batteries if they strayed too close to the coast. Their extensive submarine force managed to pick off a number of Carlosian frigates, patrol boats and even a handful of destroyers.

Battle at Mediator

Seeking to take the pressure off of forces closer to home, Bourgougia launched a surprise attack on the Carlosian overseas territory of Mediator.

Collapse of Bourgougia

Luttenried Invasion

On September 1st, exactly one week after the ceasefire had been signed, the Holy Duchy of Luttenried, assisted in part by TECT, invaded Bourgougia's southern-most islands in an unprovoked surprise attack. Completely caught off-guard due to the war (which had just entered a ceasefire seven days prior) and the country's spiraling collapse, Bourgougia was not only ill prepared for another war but also too fractured to put up significant resistance to the invaders. Luttenried and Imperial forces not only out numbered the few Bourgougian units stationed on the islands, the technological and equipment stockpile differences resulted in the decimation of what remained of Bourgougia's air and naval forces in the region.

Throughout the six month conflict, Luttenried and the Empire watched as the conflict unfolded nearby without showing support for either side. Although neutral, both Luttenried and Imperial forces revealed decades later that they conducted several intelligence operations and continuously ran surveillance missions against both sides of the conflict; this was, as stated by the Empire at the time, to "gather information and data pertaining to the security of an Imperial subject," and also "safeguard the sea lane connecting Luttenried with the Mainland." Luttenried, seeing an opportunity arise from the heated conflict, began drafting two war plans by June in the event either side began to dramatically lose the conflict. In "War Plan C" Luttenried explored the scenario that Carloso lost the war to Bourgougia and its allies. In that scenario, Luttenried would move to seize the Sanander, Mediator, and Sur Lisceard Islands if they had not been taken by the Bourgougia faction as a result of the conflict; later edits to the War Plan included plans to take the islands regardless if the Bourgougian faction was assessed to be vulnerable militarily, which also included capturing Bourgougian islands as well. "War Plan B" focused on the scenario that Bourgougia failed to achieve victory in its offensive war, losing the war to the Carloso faction. Outlined in the original declassified War Plan, War Plan B was entirely centered on capturing Bourgougia's southern islands through a swift naval and airborne campaign set to occur during pre-planned "military exercises." Largely due to the belief Bourgougia would in fact lose the war in the long-run, Luttenried later altered Warplan B extensively to include minimal, secondary, and ideal goal posts. The purpose behind these goal posts is that Holy Duke Ulrich Hildebert Luttenried was given one condition by Emperor Charles II in return for approval to condone the war: Luttenried must promise it could succeed with limited Imperial support and in doing so would limit its losses and make significant gains to warrant the conflict - minimal losses, maximum gains. Luttenried's minimal goal for success was the capture of the Viveiró, Loujedo, Valdeazores, Mongat, Acebes, Penilla, Alburquerque, Bujalaro and Monfrontino Islands located in close proximity to Luttenried. Once temporarily part of the old Crusader State, Luttenried desired to retake these islands and reestablish the Holy Marquess of Klingewalde as a buffer-state between mainland Luttenried and the Musgorocian continent; aside from the historical claims to the islands, Luttenried also wanted the islands for political reasons (namely power leveraging) and economic interests (the islands are believed to have oil and gold deposits, as well as having a tropical climate perfect for tropical agriculture industries). Luttenried's secondary goalpost was the capture of all the islands while the ideal goalpost was either securing a beachhead territory on the mainland, or even annexing all of Bourgougia itself as a vassal. When the tides had began shifting in Carloso's favor, Warplan B was officially adopted in mid July. As a result, Luttenried, along with Imperial forces stationed in the Holy Duchy, began immediate preparations for the invasion of Bourgougia.

Using two military drills categorically scheduled in early April, Luttenried moved forces and equipment to bases and ports located as close to Bourgougia as possible. Although likely suspicious of Luttenried actions, Bourgougia and its allies gave no hint of preparing for potential conflict with Luttenried. In the early morning hours of September 1st, in the pitch black of night, elements of the Holy Duchy Navy and Air Force, alongside the Imperial Navy and Air Force, began an initial bombardment of all nine islands nearest to Luttenried. Between ground and ship-based aircraft, Luttenried/Imperial forces dropped over ten thousand tonnes of bombs while naval ships launched over one hundred cruise missiles; the opening air campaign against Bourgougia lasted approximately four hours and occurred in three waves of attack throughout all of Bourgougia's southern islands. The initial wave targeted air defenses, communication systems and significant military infrastructure, military sites and formations, military equipment, warships (docked or undergoing repair included), air fields and their stored combat aircraft, and an extensive hunt of any surviving warships and submarines. As the attacks happened, Bourgougia air and sea defenses quickly went online during the start of the initial attack wave. While air defense engaged targets it could detect, the few anti-ship missile launchers made themselves ready to engage vessels once the attacker was identified; over a dozen warships of varying class size managed to escape the opening wave of missile strikes and attempted to sail towards known strike vectors in search of their attackers. As planned, the second wave of missiles and aircraft focused on surviving elements of Bourgougia's air defenses, air force, and navy foolish enough to blare their radars and other electronic/radiation equipment. Described as a slaughter by testifying Luttenried pilots, the second wave was so devastating that Bourgougia's air defenses were either quickly silenced or went dark before they too were taken out; only about a dozen combat planes were able to properly sortie, several of which were brought down during the first two hours while the survivors flew northeast in full retreat; all warships able to escape the initial wave were targeted with extreme prejudice by aircraft and submarines hunt groups, leaving no surviving warship. A third and final bombardment in near day break prior to marine landings utilizing only aircraft targeted any remaining strategic targets not hit, including enemy ground forces that had begun to assemble throughout the early morning hours and defenses that were beginning to be dug. Spanning four hours, over five aircraft carriers with three dozen ships, and approximately five hundred planes from the mainland, "Operation Just Return" had only just begun.

Elements of the Luttenried Ground Forces (Luttenried Seekorps) began combat operations on the first three major islands (Viveiró, Loujedo, and Valdeazores) just before sunrise around five in the morning local time. A Corps. sized unit was activated during the War Planning phase since (even now) combat units are organized in regiments with the highest administrative unit being divisions; unlike the Empire, Luttenried still has little need for permanent Corps. sized units in modern warfare. Luttenried carefully selected which units would make up the reactivated "1st SeeKorps" Using both amphibious assault vessles and aircraft from the mainland, Luttenried marines quickly landed on all three islands with almost no resistance. Resistance was fierce around ports and and airfields as local forces used the sites to regain their strength.