Akawhk Crisis
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The Akawhk Crisis (Hesurian: Akokh-Krise), also referred to as the 1994 Alvinian Crisis (Hesurian: Alwinische Krise) and Godrican Scare (Hesurian: Godrika-Schreck), was an approximately one week-long military confrontation that took place from 24 April to 5 May 1994 between Cuthland and Mascylla along with Mascyllary Akawhk during the Ochoccola War. The intense standoff was precipitated by Cuthish military action in the Alvinian Sea and surrounding Akawhk territorial waters after the Battle of Cahulga on 17 April and Battle of Lyndon Ridge on 21 April, a brief and sudden climactic engagement between Cuthish and Mascyllary forces deployed to the region on the night of 24 April, and a continued state of heightened alert by both sides in the subsequent week.
In response to the Cuthish naval invasion of the Ochoccola Republic on 8 April at Oktamulke Beach, Mascyllary Prime Minister Michael Meilke ordered the deployment of the 2nd Carrier Group, then led by the Lütjens-class aircraft carrier MSS Hermann von Martinsen under the command of senior Admiral Karl Friedrich Maiberd, to Akawhk and Alvinia at large on 10 April, with the official intention of "policing international waters" and "deterring any transgression against the law of war." Tensions came to a head when the fleet arrived at Akawhk on 22 April, and routinely patrolled the Alvinia Sea some 30 km (18.6 mi) off Socapatoy and the Ochoccolan coast, directly hindering Cuthish naval and aerial activity. While Mascylla was officially not a party of the conflict, it secretly provided Ochoccolan forces with military-grade equipment and financial aid as well as covert DSA operatives serving as foreign internal defense advisors, and supplied them with signals and geospatial intelligence.
On the night of 24 April, at 01:49 a.m. local time, the Royal Cuthish Air Force destroyed a supposed convoy of Mascyllary vehicles without insignia operating near Cahulga through an airstrike by F-72 multirole combat aircraft, killing 17 Army and Marines service members; the circumstances surrounding the initial attack remain a matter of dispute between the Cuthish and Mascyllary governments. The Hernach-class guided-missile destroyer MSS Friedrich Hainnecke, which accompanied and supported the convoy as part of the 2nd Carrier Group, swiftly returned anti-aircraft fire and launched multiple Sekara cruise missiles to destroy the runways of Cuthish-controlled Widdelton International Airport. A 30-minute intense exchange of fire ensued, severly damaging the capsized Friedrich Hainnecke through fire by the cruiser HMS Stenmouth, and striking a direct hit on HMS Meerlan. A total of 9 Mascyllary and 14 Cuthish sailors were killed in this sequence. Because the naval engagement took place in a small and severly confined area just 4.2 km (2.6 mi) off the shoreline, the CIWS of MSS Alden mistook chaffs fired by Friedrich Hainnecke for protection as legitimate targets and several friendly fire stray rounds from the firing further damaged the tilting vessel, amplifying the initial confusion among Mascyllary and Cuthish commanders. With the politically volatile situation becoming increasingly apparent, the 2nd Carrier Group immediately retreated by early morning, and in response, Michael Meilke convened an emergency meeting of the Security Committee on 25 April.
Several days of tension followed as the public in nearby Mascyllary Akawhk feared a potential military response by Cuthish forces in Ochoccola. Governor Kurt von der Blücher attempted to keep panic buying and peace demonstrations-turned riots at bay in what was referred to as the "Marthasbucht Missile Scare", while large-scale demonstrations advocating for de-escalation quickly took to the streets in both countries. On 30 May, Cuthland deployed a X nuclear submarine equipped with nuclear SLBMs to the Alvinian Sea, and on the following day, its presence was due to be matched by a Mascyllary Pritnitz-class submarine with an equal stock of weapons traversing the Agric Ocean. Simultaneously, Meilke publically threatened to invoke the BDTA's casus foederis commitment to mutual assistence, citing the casualties suffered as evidence for an hostile act of war against Mascylla. After careful consideration and lengthy negotiations, and with the onset of the Battle of Socapatoy by May 4, Meilke and Rapton reached an agreement to withdraw nuclear weapons from Alvinia and pursue further diplomatic dialogue. On 5 May, the crisis was formally ended.
However, the political and cultural fallout of the Akawhk Crisis, as well as the outcome of the Ochoccola War itself, re-ignited Great Game tensions between Cuthland and Mascylla and transformed the political and strategic landscape of Alvinia. The events surrounding the crisis remain controversial to this day, having spawned a variety of critical literary works, academic analyses, and conspiracy theories.
Background
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Progression
An operation to support local Ochoccolan forces active near Cahulga during the decisive urban battle in the city was commenced when a convoy of Mascyllary military vehicles without visible registration or insignia, primarly composed of Wiesel armored personnel carriers and Mehza trucks, crossed over the Akawhk Strait at approximately 01:02 a.m. local time on 24 April. The mechanized infantry section included 10 Army soldiers, 4 Marines, and 3 Marine service members who were also staff of the DSA; the commanding officer was Army Unterfeldwebel Alois Brandel. By 01:40 a.m., a scouting squad of the 5th Infantry Brigade first sighted the approaching convoy and subsequently notified the Royal Cuthish Army command staff at Middelton International Airport serving the Cahulga urban region, a mere 9.2 km (5.7 mi) away from their current location in the Sequachie Mountains hinterland; four F-72 multirole combat aircraft equipped with laser-guided bombs and air-to-surface missiles were immediately scrambled at 01:43 a.m. to conduct a preventive strike on the possible threat posed by the convoy. It is unclear whether the Cuthish forces misidentified the vehicles as Ochoccolan, or if signals intelligence on part of the Cuthish revealed they were covert Mascyllary in reality and thus intentionally disregarded its official neutrality in the ongoing conflict.
At 01:49 a.m., the F-72 aircraft successfully destroyed the convoy through a swift airstrike, almost instantaneously killing all 17 Mascyllary soldiers. Off the coast, the Hernach-class guided-missile destroyer MSS Friedrich Hainnecke maneuvered itself further away from the core of the 2nd Carrier Group further east to shadow the progression of the convoy and undertake a screening role, and following the airstrike, to investigate the sudden loss of communication. After its TGH-E21 air search radar identified the four Cuthish military aircraft flying overhead, confirmed by visual reports of the deck crew and information relayed by the nearby König-class frigate MSS Großherzog, Friedrich Hainnecke repeatedly attempted to contact the aircraft in violation of the fleet's defensive parameter without success. Kapitän zur See Joachim Schmunzler controversially ordered the firing of its 20 mm CIWS and surface-to-air missiles to intercept the F-72, correctly surmising a direct and open Cuthish attack on the convoy had taken place. The Lütjens-class aircraft carrier MSS Hermann von Martinsen under the command of Admiral Karl Friedrich Maiberd notified the wider fleet of the engagement despite the lack of any concrete information and requested Friedrich Hainnecke to launch Sekara cruise missiles; over the course of the fire exchange, some 17 cruise missiles were deployed. By 02:20 a.m., the missiles cratered the runways and extensive infrastructure of the military-controlled airport, while a Cuthish F-72 was shot down. Hermann von Martinsen scrambled five JSB-20 Geier fighter aircraft to engage and chase off the remaining F-72 in the airspace.
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However, despite the coordinated counter-attack by the Mascyllary forces, the dark night and low visibility paired with the contested small space of water just 4.2 km (2.6 mi) off the shoreline, which both the Mascyllary 2nd Carrier Group and vessels of the Royal Cuthish Navy had found themselves in, caused inscrutable confusion among Mascyllary and Cuthish commanders. Multiple targets were identified where none were in reality, mistaking flares or other temporary sources of light for ship lighting, while friendly vessels obstructed direct lines of view to enemy ones. After Sekaras had been launched, HMS Stenmouth struck MSS Friedrich Hainnecke with two ship-to-ship missiles at 02:28 a.m., rapidly causing her list to increase to port and capsize; the ensuing chaos on board caused the death of some 9 sailors, while most of its crew could be rescued by Großherzog. In response to this, MSS Alden undertook naval gunfire action for the first time in actual combat since the Melasian Crisis in 1943 to shell Middelton International Airport and Stenmouth herself, firing 35 16-inch (406 mm) rounds in total. Both Stenmouth and the destroyer HMS Meerlan were damaged, the latter by a direct hit, killing 14 Cuthish sailors. Amid this, an incident of friendly fire occured at around 02:33 a.m. when chaffs fired by Friedrich Hainnecke for protection were misidentified by Alden's CIWS fire-control radar as legitimate targets, and stray rounds from the initial Gatling gun fire penetrated her aft bulkhead and struck her conning tower. The presumed-enemy fire was then answered without any damage dealt to Alden or any other vessel, further aggravating tension and confusion.
By 03:00 a.m., Hermann von Martinsen scrambled four additional JSB-20 Geier fighters tasked to harrass the Cuthish fleet but by then the rescue operations of the three damaged vessels on both sides dispersed the engagement area and thus the engaging ships. Once HMS Meerlan had been severly damaged and the crew of MSS Friedrich Hainnecke had evacuated, both fleets swiftly withdrew inconclusively at sunrise by 05:30 a.m. as a complete victory over the enemy was regarded as too hazardous and costly by either side. Meerlan was taken in tow by fleet tug HMS Griemby while Friedrich Hainnecke was voluntarily given up and eventually sunk without any additional casualties.
Responses and standoff
Word of the night encounter and engagement reached the Kronenrat in Königsreh 30 minutes later, at 1:20 pm EBT. The DSA first briefed Minister of Defence Norbert Rüdt and then Counselor of Defence Egon Siedermayer on the preliminal analysis of the engagement and the subsequent Cuthish responses. By 2:00 pm, Prime Minister Michael Meilke, then on a routine flight aboard KOLT Eins from Lilienburg City to Königsreh, was informed of the developments by a live video conference of six members of the Security Committee.
A formal meeting of the Committee was convened immediately after Meilke's arrival at 3:10 pm, and the Prime Minister's foremost advisors began to discuss possible courses of action in advance. By that time, Meilke was convinced the Cuthish would either respond with an attack equally matched in damage dealt or military strength on the 2nd Carrier Group and other Mascyllary military facilities in the operational area, or escalate the arms build-up and pose a legitimate threat to Mascylla's operational ability in Alvinia as a whole. The General Defence Staff unanimously iterated that, at the very least, an equal Cuthish full-scale counter-attack was imminent and that Mascylla should deter such action by introducing its nuclear triad capability in ensuing negotiations; Meilke was hesitant at first, and then overly skeptical. He believed escalating a potentially "resolvable" situation disproportionally through the deployment of nuclear weapons would "bring either side not dangerously, but ludicrously close to the brink (of open warfare)." Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Schuman, also a member of the Security Committee, subsequently summoned the Cuthish ambassador, X.
Later that day, at 6:00 pm, Meilke addressed the Mascyllary public through nationwide television and then chaired a press conference on the initial engagement and developing situation since. Simultaneously, Mascyllary ambassador Hans-Ulrich Wünzel briefed Foresitter Harold Rapton on Meilke's speech and the presented Mascyllary actions taken. Multiple other Mascyllary diplomatic delegations informed the heads of government of multiple BDTA member states, Sarracese Premier Philibert Lemaigre i Rosellon, Lavish Prime Minister X, Fallish Prime Minister X, as well as General Secretary of the Telmerian Union Aliser Mowiecki and Secretary-General of the Assembly of Nations X.
