Mission Stone
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Mission Stone (12 January - 21 January 1943) was an Allied special operations raid on an Imperial facility that housed several Quenminese, Archadian, and Imperial scientists. The operation took place in a facility just a few miles away from Capo Andorino.
The mission's objectives involved capturing and assassinating key Imperial scientists in order to further slow the development of the atomic bomb for the Imperials. Following the success of Operation Hydercide, Archadian partisans reported the sightings of key Imperial Scientists being smuggled in. According to a few partisan listening posts, the smuggled scientists were highly praised in their respective regions. The reason for their arrival was to further accelerate the development of the Atomic Bomb, which had already been given a deadline as late as Winter 1943. It was later decided that the scientists were to either be captured or assassinated. The opportunity came on 10 January, when the scientists were placed into a holding camp just a few miles from a facility to be converted into a heavy water production plant. The mission was to be conducted by the Special Parachute Service I, who were inserted in the region by Archadian Mafioso on the night of 15 January. A decoy attack was carried out by Archadian Partisans and Mafioso on the northern sector of the region in order to divert reinforcements in the area. This allowed the commandos to finally commence the operation on the night of 19 January. With the raid carried out in the middle of the night, the Imperials were unable to prevent the scienists from being captured or assassinated. In less than an hour, the raid was finished with the scientists either captured or killed. The commandos later exfiltrated by the evening of the next day.
The loss of the scientists proved to be a big setback for the Imperials and Plan AB. This resulted to Imperial High Command looking for more scientists to work on the development of the atomic bomb. The captured scientists were eventually sent to Allied High Command, whose information eventually proved useful and allowed the Allies discover more Imperial plans on the Andas Mountains.
Background
Mission
The mission was led by Major Rickard Keith. Just 2 days before the operation, Keith devised a plan. Realising that the holding camp was heavily defended on all sides, he thought of a plan to divert the guards to the northern sector of the region, where a new plant was to be converted to produce heavy water. The plant was lightly defended given that it was not going to be in full operational capacity until 5 days later, when the conversion was finished. Maj. Keith's plan called for the Archadian Partisans and Mafioso to "assault" the plant and attempt to sabotage it. This would have the Imperials divert all forces in the area. The plant during the attack was not heavily defended, given that it still wasn't known to the populace who lived there that it was being converted into a heavy water production plant.
On the night of 15 January, the partisans raided the area around the plant. The raid was a success with the defenders suffering casualties. As agreed, the partisans did not destroy the plant, given that priority was given to targeting the scientists. The plan worked as Imperial commanders sent reinforcements to survey the damage and increase defenders in the area. This later made the holding camp lightly defended. 4 days later, Maj. Keith and the rest of the commandos began the raid. Before the area was attacked, the commandos called in a mortar barrage to soften the defenders before moving in. The Imperials were too late in attempting to counter the raid, hence the commandos managed to move into the camp. One by one, the commandos searched for the names on the list. Those who were to be assassinated were shot on sight, and those who were to be captured were blindfolded and taken aboard the lorry. By 1am, the commandos left the camp. It was not only until 2am that Imperial reinforcements had arrived. The Imperials went on a search for 2 days. But by the time the search had finished, the commandos and the captured scientists were already out of Archadia.
The list of the scientists who were captured or assassinated on that operation were:
- Lục Nhật Khương (captured) - Tô Quang Tú (A) - Thái Quang Dũng (captured) - Lý Thuận Phương (A) - Vưu Hưng Ðạo (captured) - Hồ Trọng Dũng (A) - Thái Thiện Tâm (A) Imperials: - Louis Holthusen (A) - Franz Gerster (captured) - Nicolas Reder (A) - Janik Grünbaum (captured) - Adrian Gmehling (A) - Dominik Enzenauer (captured) - Felix Weidenmann (A) - Marcus Bödeker (A) - Jörg Weingand (A) - Matthias Schildkraut (A) Archadians: - Germano Bonagura (captured) - Porziano Buffo (A) - Carponio Battiato (A) - Icilio Cocco (captured) - Severino Filice (A) - Adriano Albani (captured)