Battle of Ihanokov

Battle of Ihanokov
Part of War in Jalkolta
Date 29th August 1947 Location Ihanokov Fields, south of Jahovnik, Jalkolta Result Jalkoltan Victory
Belligerents
United Molvanian Soviet Republics	Republic of Jalkolta
Commanders and leaders
Konstantin Raikov	Daniel Berekev
Units involved
193rd Rifle Regiment 204th Assault Regiment
Strength
2,500	10,000
Casualties and losses
492 men 21 vehicles	Light

The Battle of Ihanokov was the first engagement of the War in Jalkolta, taking place during the Jahovnik Landings. Finding their road to Jahovnik contested by forces of the Jalkoltan Guard, Molvanian forces under Major General Konstantin Raikov launched an attack on the 29th of August, 1947, in an attempt to open up the road. Overconfident and without proper reconaissance, the attack was repulsed with heavy casualties. Though future assaults were successful, this action set the course of much of the early parts of the invasion.

Background

Outbreak of War

The Republic of Jalkolta, heavily divided internally, found itself opposed internationally by the UMSR after the latter declared its support for the popular Labour and Justice Party of Jalkolta. The twenty-year regime of Joseph Aodoin, for the first time since the Jalkoltan Civil War, found itself threatened seriously. Though government forces had put down the 1946 Jahovnik Uprising with little difficulty, popular sentiment was starting to turn against Aodoin's dictatorship and the Grand Presidium of the Union took its opportunity and voted to go to war on the 12th August 1947.

Molvani mobilised 100,000 men for the initial invasion, organised into seven divisions. They were placed under the collective command of General Vladimir Puchkov and were conveyed to Jalkolta aboard a fleet of brand-new destroyers and cruisers, led by the loaned Vionna-Frankenlischian battleship HMNS Duke of Erin. The fleet arrived off the coast of Jahovnik without incident and began landing troops unopposed on the 28th.

Landings

Spearheaded by the 193rd Rifle Regiment, Molvanian forces swiftly gained ground and only halted their advance at midnight, having gained three miles of ground. By the morning of 29th August, twenty-thousand men had come ashore. The thirty-thousand Jalkoltan defenders in the area, under the overall command of General Daniel Berekev, chose not to oppose the landings directly and instead blocked the roads to Jahovnik and began entrenching a line of defence south of the city. The Molvanians found their route to Jahovnik blocked by troops of the Jalkoltan Guard backed up by Sheridan tanks of the 2nd Tank Regiment of the National Army.

Battle

The invasion's commander, General Puchkov, was still aboard the flagship of the invasion fleet and left command of the landed forces to Major General Konstantin Raikov, a former artillery officer. Raikov, eager to reach Jahovnik before Puchkov could come ashore, ordered his two forward regiments to break through the Jalkoltan road blocks along two highways. These regiments were the 193rd Rifle Regiment, a completely fresh unit made up of new conscripts, and the 204th Assault Regiment, a mixture of new conscripts and transferees from tank regiments. The 204th had forty SU-76 assault guns available to it but the difficulty of the vehicle's steering and a lack of anti-tank shells limited its usefulness during the engagement.

Colonel Fedorov, commanding the 204th Assault, began the attack with a barrage of mortar bombs and explosive shells from his assault guns. Hampered by incomplete reconaissance, most of the bombardment missed its targets and the Jalkoltan trenches were intact, the only damage being to the roadblock itself. Miscommunication between Fedorov's companies meant that the main assault did not begin for another half hour. Fedorov's regiment began its attack at 1400. Backed up by 193rd Rifle Regiment (under Colonel Markhov), 204th Assault Regiment attacked with a company of assault guns on each flank and the infantry strung out in lines between them. The attack was opposed by the Jalkoltan 5th Army Brigade which was entrenched around the highway. Anti-tank guns of Vionna-Frankenlischian manufacture were sited with clear lines of fire and, from long range, were able to knock out the Molvanian assault guns with impunity. Rifle and machinegun fire caused heavy casualties amongst the attacking troops and Molvanian officers were forced to use smoke grenades to cover their movements.