Battle of Hallencara

Battle of Hallencara
Part of Marienberg Offensive, Great Europan War
A Malducian listening post overlooking the village of Hallencara
Date 21st August - 3rd September 1916 Location Hallencara, Duchy of Marienberg - Malducia Result Vionna-Frankenlischian Strategic Victory
Belligerents
Vionna-Frankenlisch	Malducia
Commanders and leaders
Matthew Fosworth † William Sandoral	Jorge Faustio
Units involved
XVI Corps XII Corps	Malducian 4th Army
Strength
114,320 men in 8 divisions	Around 200,000 men
Casualties and losses
12,500 casualties	5,000 killed and wounded 6,000 captured

The Battle of Hallencara was an engagement of the Great Europan War. It was, alongside the Battle of Gaceria, the opening battle of the Marienberg Offensive which was itself a section of the Malducia Campaign. Vionna-Frankenlischian forces of the XII and XVI Corps engaged the frontline of the Malducian 4th Army and, in a twelve-day battle, sustained twelve-thousand casualties and gained four miles of ground. Malducian forces numbered around 200,000 troops and was commanded by General Jorge Faustio. Vionna-Frankenlischian forces numbered 114,000 men and came under the joint command of the Baron Sandoral and the Baron Fosworth, the latter being killed on the first day of battle.

Background

The gruelling trench warfare in Berchtestein and the Lopenland reached its peak in late 1915 and, as reports of the fighting trickled back to the rest of Vionna-Frankenlisch, the House of Commons demanded that the army should open up another front. The Imperial General Staff pushed back but by June 1916, the Nobles were in agreement and the IGS conceded. The plans for the Marienberg Offensive were put together quickly and the forces committed were new divisions raised as part of Edrington's Army. The Imperial 5th Army was formed from twelve of these divisions, divided into three corps, this was the army committed to the Marienberg Offensive.

The offensive was meant to quickly run over the Malducian Duchy of Marienberg, a Malducian exclave on the Magna Europan continent. The Ministry of War had optimistic hopes that such a conquest would knock Malducia out of the war. The Imperial General Staff knew better. Hopes were high that the quick attack would avoid the trench warfare experienced on other fronts, particularly on the Frankenlisch Front and the Eastern Front.

Prelude

Imperial Offensive Preparations

Trenches had already been dug, opposing the Malducian frontier defences, since their entrance to the war the year prior. Requests were made by Imperial commanders to attempt the mine the Malducian front line in anticipation for the offensive, these were denied. The Fifth Army took up its positions on the tenth of August, relieving forces of the Briceport, Larkinge and Harrington militias which had been in place since the withdrawal of Reserve Army units for other fronts. The positions were quickly found to be entirely unsuitable for a defensive action and the offensive was pushed forward to the 21st, leaving little time for a pre-emptive Malducian attack.

Artillery was a major issue. No actual brigades of artillery had been allocated for the offensive, leaving the only guns available were those attached to the 5th Army's twelve divisions of infantry and cavalry. In total, this numbered 144 field guns and 30 lighter pieces. This left a total of fourteen guns per division, a major under-investment. Ranged against 5th Army's 174 artillery pieces was at least 300 guns of the Malducian 4th Army. Luckily for the Imperials, they did have two important advantages, the Imperial field guns were of much better quality than the older Malducian pieces and they had a larger supply of ammunition, starting the offensive with a hundred shells per gun whilst the Malducians had to make do with less than half that. The Imperial guns were emplaced and sighted two days before the start of the offensive and gun crews were just as pampered as the infantry before the attack.

Plan of Attack

For the attack against the village of Hallencara, two corps were committed. The 12th Corps under Lieutenant General William Sandoral, the officer who had commanded the Imperial Expeditionary Corps in Ai Chi. And the 16th Corps under Lieutenant General Matthew Fosworth, who had seen combat in Brumley along with various colonial conflicts. The 12th Corps was to the left of the 16th Corps.

The battle was to be conducted in stages. The Offensive stage was divided into three attacks. 12th Corps committed the 25th Division to the first attack, the 24th Division to the second and the 20th Division to the third. 16th Corps committed the 30th Division for the first attack, 28th Division for the second and 29th Division to the third. The offensive stage was intended to roll over the Malducian front line and capture the trenches and emplacements. The attack was to be made on a front of 14 km with Hallencara, a village situated in the centre of a valley, designed to be the converging point.

The second stage was the consolidation stage. Imperial troops were to dig in and hold the captured positions against a perceived Malducian counter-attack. Experience from the fighting against Germana on the Frankenlisch front was that the enemy would immediately attempt to counterattack and retake captured positions in the line. No plans were made for the possibility that the Malducians would not commit to a counter-attack.

The final stage of the plan was the exploitation stage. Once the Malducian front line had been captured to a workable degree, and any counterattacks from the Malducian Second Army had been repulsed, the Imperial cavalry was to rush through the gap in the lines. Two divisions of Imperial cavalry, numbering twelve regiments or 11,840 men, were available for the Battle of Hallencara and they were mostly Yeomanry or new regiments. Regiments such as the 21st (Marquess of Windimere's Own) were modelled on the old and famous regiments of Imperial cavalry such as the 8th (Earl of Londinium's) but followed their footsteps only in name. These units lacked the experience of the old regiments and the training of the Yeomanry.

Malducian Defensive Preparations

The Malducians had been dug in on the fronteir since they joined the war but they did not expect Vionna-Frankenlisch to be capable of an offensive until at least November 1916 and were relatively unprepared for a major battle in the sector. Hallencara was, while not a weak point, an insignificant part of the Malducian lines. In fact, the village was outside of the main lines of defence, it was provided with a small garrison.

Battle

Fifth Army

In the week preceeding the 21st, there was exceptionally fine weather. Aircraft sorties, made by Fuller Fairey biplanes from the 9th Squadron, Imperial Flying Corps, reported no adnormalities on the Malducian side and Zero Hour was decided for 5am on the 21st. The attacking units reached their jumping-off points entirely unnoticed and the preliminary bombardment began on the 16th of August. The 96 field guns of the 12th and 16th Corps opened fire with shrapnel and explosive shells, firing a total of 9,000 shells over the next five days, a tiny bombardment by the standards of the war but, as the Malducian Front was considered far less risky or important, there was a serious shortage of ammunition in the sector.

At precisely 05:00 on the morning of the 21st, the first two divisions stepped off, begining their advance in good order. Against all better judgement and the pleas of his staff, Lieutenant General Fosworth went over with the second wave of the 30th Division, leading the attack with a battalion of the Royal Ballaetan Rifles. With no mines to alert the Malducians to the attack, and with the bombardment continuing until the first troops were already two thirds of the way to the Malducian trenches, the defending forces of General Faustio's 4th Army were unaware of the approaching Imperial troops until they were less than 200 metres away. To the Malducians' credit, the alarm was raised quickly when the first Imperial troops were spotted and the call went down the whole trench that there was an oncoming attack. General Borgioli, commanding the Malducian 46th Division, was able to direct artillery fire down on the Imperial 25th Division within minutes. The forward brigades of the 30th and 25th Divisions were devastated by heavy rifle and machine gun fire, General Fosworth was killed in action, his battalion being the only one in his entire brigade to actually reach the Malducian trenches.

By 08:00 hours, 6,000 men had been repulsed and 500 were dead, over 2,000 wounded. Three waves had gone over and four battalions had reached the Malducian lines, all of which had been repulsed with heavy casualties. At 08:15 hours, a forth wave left the Imperial trenches and, under the cover of a concentrated bombardment, reached the Malducian trenches with a good number of men. Between 500 and 1500 men entered the Malducian trenches and a fierce hand-to-hand battle ensued.