Ovidalian Bomber Crisis
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The Ovidalian Bomber Crisis, also referred to as the 1962 Crisis or the 1962 Bomber Crisis, was a major international incident in 1962. A defining moment in the Cold War, it pit the nuclear powers Arthurista and the DSRA against each other in a dangerous contest of brinksmanship. Many historians consider it as the closest the world ever came to an unrestricted nuclear exchange. The crisis is considered the "height" of the Cold War, and its aftermath included the accelerated formation of the CDI, formalizing a de facto central institution for Free World in opposition to the Otterup Pact.
Background
In 1951, the DSRA was formed following a communist-led revolution against the previous regime. The new communist government adopted an aggressively anti-colonialist stance, promising to liberate the peoples of the east from the oppression of imperialism. They swiftly overran the Belfrasian Protectorate of Kwontyani in the aftermath of the revolution. To the governments of the Arthuristan dominions of Seulbyeni Islands and Lion's Rock, inhabited to a large extent by ethnic Anikatians and their descendants respectively, it appeared very much like they would be next on the list.
In taking over Kwontyani, the DSRA inherited a substantial portion of the Royal Navy’s fleet units in the east. To both the dominions and His Highness’s Government back in metropolitan Arthurista, this new ‘instant fleet’ was seen as a threat of the first order. In reality, this threat was largely illusory. Many of the vessels had recently taken part in the Great Eastern War and in desperate need of repair. Furthermore, trained officers, experienced maintenance personnel and ships' crew, fuel, ammunition and spare parts were all in short supply and it would be some years before Anikatia gained the capability to fully sustain its own blue water fleet.
The chief military and intelligence figures in Loweport, however, were in no hurry to disabuse their political masters of their delusion. As historian Mathilda Beechams put it:
”…either the SIB was uncharacteristically poor and failed to gain an accurate picture of the true dilapidated state of the Anikatian fleet or, more likely, the admiralty and the intelligence apparatus deliberately played down the lack of Anikatian combat readiness and exaggerated the threat in order to justify lobbying the politicians for increased defence spending.
While the admiralty hoped for a large scale expansion of the Far East Fleet in order to wage a potential naval campaign in the defence of the dominions, it was the Commonwealth Air Force which gained the politicians’ attention. With Arthurista and the dominions still rebuilding in the wake of the Great Fascist War and the Great Eastern War, resources were short. The ‘bomber barons’, stung by the way their theory that strategic bombing would be the decisive weapon was discredited in the wars, came up with a solution that could protect the overseas territories with minimal extra financial outlay from the government – to harness the power of the new atomic bomb as the supreme weapon of deterrence. Squadrons of Victory Bombers were soon dispatched to Lion’s Rock, Seulbyeni and Belhavia’s mid-ocean islands, later replaced by the Lion B.5 when they became available in the mid-late 50s. By 1960, over 600 atomic bombs, roughly one third of Arthurista’s total stockpile, were concentrated in the far east. This is coupled with a public declaration of the doctrine of ’massive retaliation’, which pledged that any attempt by Anikatian forces to attack the territories of Arthurista, its dominions or its allies would be met with overwhelming force. As long as Arthurista held the ‘nuclear monopoly’, i.e. as long as Arthurista could attack the Anikatian mainland with virtual impunity while the DSRA had no means of striking back at metropolitan Arthurista, this threat remained credible to the international community at large.
"We will bury them"
The Anikatian leadership reacted with characteristic fury at the Arthuristan move. The press and propagandists characterised it as the latest of western imperialism’s attempts to strangle the home of world revolution in its cradle and to deny the Anikatian people of their sovereign birthright that were the unredeemed territories. Nevertheless, throughout the 1950s, Anikatia had little capability to do anything in response to the bombers. Its military and economic capabilities required massive overhaul with the assistance of Korovia. By the 1960, however, Anikatian military-industrial capability had advanced to such a state that a quid-pro-quo countermeasure had become a real possibility.
At a World Council meeting in 1962, General Secretary Kai Seul-ki gave the ‘Free World’ a dire warning of things to come.
The West thinks it can continue their cosy dominance of the world forever, that they can oppress the freedom-loving, peace-loving peoples of the world through engines of massed destruction and through cruel and merciless exploitation. It rules the world through superior technology and superior wealth, built up using the riches plundered from a hundred indigenous cultures over the centuries.
He bangs his water carafe on the podium
Well, let me tell you that we of the rest of the world have had enough. Socialism has made enormous strides in recent years, and will continue to do so. We will progress relentlessly, with boundless determination, through the sweat and toil of our workers’ and scientists’ honest labour. One day, the tables will be turned. One day soon, socialism shall liberate the world. We shall grab the imperialist oppressors and capitalist parasites of the world by the scruff of the neck, and we will bury them! Mark my words and mark them well!”
His speech was dismissed as the rantings of a demagogue in the western press. That very week, however, he authorised his military chiefs to initiate Operation Crimson Sky. The tables, as he said, were about to be turned.
The airfields of Ovidalia
Fog of war and the light of intelligence
"The world stands on the brink of atomic catastrophe"
Air blockade
Bears at bay
Negotiations
Madras Agreement
Legacy
Creation of the CDI
The 1962 Crisis convinced leading Anticommunist World powers including Arthurista, Belhavia, and Belfras to speed up negotiations underway since the conclusion of the 1959-60 Winter War for an anticommunist military alliance as a formal counterweight to the centralized leadership of the Communist World in the Otterup Pact, rather than just a patchwork of individual military treaties dating from the Great War era or earlier.
The potency of the near-nuclear war that could have ended the world within minutes galvanized domestic political support at home and in the military-industrial establishments of these powers, leading to the signing of the Laeisco Accords in October 1962 creating the Collective Defense Initiative.
Belhavian nuclear program
Belhavia, threatened by Otterup Pact nuclear forces in Tule, Estovnia, and the DSRA and only defended lightly by Arthuristan nuclear bombers at the time, in response to the crisis authorized the creation of its own program.
In July 1962, President Edward Kalian via presidential decree started a weapons program, which was funded through military appropriations by the Imperial Senate.
With significant help from Arthurista and other allied powers, Belhavia managed to have a viable nuclear force in just six years, with successful weapons tests in 1968. This led to the formation of the Belhavian 'nuclear triad' force, which had the capability to hit any opposing OttPact nuclear members in the world.