Battle of Hanoi
Battle of Hanoi | |||||||
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Part of the Asianna and the Pacific Campaign of the Second Europan War | |||||||
File:Australiantroopsattack.jpg Zanarkian troops in Hanoi | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
Zanarkand and the Besaid Islands | Quen Minh | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Klankain Auchinleck |
Kiều Hữu Dương | ||||||
Strength | |||||||
30,000 19,000 25,000 | 78,000 |
The Battle of Hanoi (25 January - 10 February 1945) took place in the Quenminese town of Hanoi. It was the most heavily defended as Hanoi was the last city before the Imperial capital of Cao Khoát. It was fought primarily between Klankain Auchinleck's New Akibander-Zanarkian Forces and Makihiro Sagisaka's Lucian Forces against Kiều Hữu Dương's Quenminese Forces. It was called as the "Quenminese Waterloo" by historians because the Battle of Hanoi was the last great barrier that separates Cao Khoát from the incoming Commonwealth and Allied Forces.
Initially, The Quenminese were initally successful in holding the commonwealth forces back, inflicting casualties and with enough time for the Emperor to send reinforcements to Hanoi. After a battle in the outskirts of southern Hanoi, Sagisaka withdrew his forces parallel to Auchinleck, drawing 1/3rds of the Quenminese defenders to pursue Sagisaka's retreating column to seperate and the simultaneous Battle of Mekong River. Upon knowing that the Lucian Army would be able to reinforce him, Auchinleck sent 1/3 of his force to the southern flank of Hanoi and from there, keep the Quenminese pursuing force from attacking Sagisaka's force. This move allowed Sagisaka to progress towards Auchinleck. With the Quenminese pursuing force being kept from reinforcing the city, Auchinleck finally attacked the city by the 5th of February as well as Sagisaka attacking Hanoi from the south, thereby capturing Hanoi by the 10th.
The battle left a lot of questions to be answered by many historians. What happened to the reinforcements that was promised to Kieu? If it went, things might had a different outcome. But it was discovered that the Quenminese reinforcements never arrived as it was sent to the south where the Rubrumian-Dalmascan-Bethausian Force was pushing towards the industrial city of Bich Nguyen, thereby failing to relieve the town.