Operation Copperhead

Operation Copperhead
Part of Vinyan War
Kolodorian forces invading Tír an Crainn
Date 9 July - 8 August 1976 Location Kolodoria Tír Tairngire Result Kolodorian Victory
Belligerents
Kolodoria	Tír an Crainn Tír Glas
Commanders and leaders
Saulius Cebelis	Thomas Kilbride
Units involved
Third Army Group	Crainnic Armed Forces
Strength
280,000 troops 2,200 tanks 1,900 artillery pieces 135 aircraft	75,000 troops 125 tanks 205 artillery pieces 66 aircraft
Casualties and losses
5,700 killed 14,000 wounded	8,800 killed 26,000 wounded 30,000 captured

Operation Copperhead was the name for the invasion of Tír an Crainn by the Kolodorian People's Defense Forces during the Vinyan War. The invasion was launched on 9 July 1976 by the Kolodorian Ground Forces Third Army Group, composed of nearly 300,000 troops. The Third Army Group rapidly overran Crainnic border defenses and by August were threatining the city of Dunaree. Copperhead is generally considered to have ended on 8 August when Kolorian forces were defeated at the Battle of Barlow Gap, bringing a halt to their offensive by a combined Glasic-Crainnic task force.

Copperhead had been devised by the KPDF Central Command in spring of 1976 once it became clear that the combined Anglian-Ivernic forces were threatening to capture Kolodoria's industrial and agricultural centers in Radstadt and Tukayyid, prompting General Secretary Aleksis Kraulis to order the KPDF to find a way to secure Kolodoria's vital strategic resources. In April it was proposed to invade Tír an Crainn, which was already in a state of war with Kolodoria and had forces deployed at the front line in Kolodoria. Glasic intelligence detected the buildup in May, but were decieved by intetionally leaked Kolodorian documents indicating that the build up was a diversion to a counter-offensive against coalition forces in southern Kolodoria. It was until a week prior to the offensive that Anglian Intelligence deduced the build up was legitimate, at which point reinforcements were hastily flooded back towards Tír an Crainn. The strength of Third Army Group was ultimately underestimated; as a result the Crainnic forces guarding the border were outnumbered nearly 3-to-1 at the onset of the invasion. Kolodorian forces rapidly drove south, seizing much of northern Tír an Crainn. Glasic and Crainnic reinforcements were eventually able to halt the Kolodorian offensive, but at that point coalition forces in the east had been depleted and the cocurrent Kolodorian offensive, Operation Python, proved to be a major success.