Who Could Have Seen This One Coming?

[alxeu]

Somewhere in Northwest Galra, 0430 Hours


General Lucian Carson, commander of Army Group A, glanced over the map of the borderlands. His task was an immense one: break the Lusatian defensive fortifications and deliver unto Galra final victory against the Lusatian “devil-lovers.” He was given full authority over the operation, allowed to request and deploy whichever units he saw fit to ensure the operation succeeded. Nevertheless…

“If only the invasion could’ve started earlier in the summer,” he sighed. The invasion would get a month, maybe two, of full operational activity before the rains started, and while he was cautiously optimistic of his ability to break the Lusatian lines while they were scrambling in dry weather, once they had regrouped and the rains began, that was likely to be the front until the next summer. And after that…

He shook his head – his thoughts were going to subversive places. Galra had plenty of manpower, Galra had the technological advantage, Galra had the advantage of surprise, and Galra would have the resource advantage once the eastern forces neutralized Koi. Lusatia would be the one slowly ground down to oblivion, each offensive taking fort after fort until the entire damned nation fell.

So, his plans; he glanced at the coastal plains. Though the entire border region was generally favorable terrain, sloped gently with few hills until one reached the mountains to the east, the plains had the most favorable infrastructure and what high command had identified as a potential Lusatian weak spot: Veneetsia, the Koian city on the coast. Though it could isolate itself from direct frontal assaults, once siege artillery was pulled into place and the navy applied a blockade, the city would be forced to capitulate.

Scanning now to the east and north of the city, Galra’s tank corps would prove vital to breaking the Lusatian lines. Intelligence suggested only Lusatian field artillery and landmines would pose any hazard to Galra armored formations. The former would risk itself greatly positioning itself to deal with tanks; the latter would be more likely to incapacitate a vehicle, not decommission it, and, besides, the entire countryside could not possibly be mined.

The armor would be the main thrust, therefore, preceded by infiltrators who would throw the border guards into disarray and a long artillery barrage to officially open hostilities.

The highlands would see similar tactics employed, though more for the sake of ensuring Lusatia could not properly contain the coastal thrust rather than seeking that direction as the location of future breakthroughs. Once the weather turned for the worst – even his predictions on the length of the conflict could not end it within two months – then the time would come for pushing further inland where the weather would not be as atrocious.

He glanced at the clock. 0500 hours. The infiltrators would be over the border in thirty minutes – special forces armed with submachine guns, plentiful grenades, and satchel charges. They were to attempt to infiltrate the border fortresses, and, failing that, disable their cannons to prevent a solid defense. If the forts were out of commission, the tanks, crossing the border at 1000 hours (following a three hour artillery barrage), could bypass and encircle the trench lines to buy time for the infantry to clean them out.

He considered the position of Army Group B. They had strict instructions to hold the Seleucidenian border against any incursions. The Shah’s armies, though overwhelming in number, were thoroughly outdated save for the Imperial 1st and 2nd Armies. If they tried crossing the border into Galra, it was not entirely inconceivable that they would inflict some damage.

If a Seleucidenian offense came and went, then a counter-offensive would be planned, but, for the moment, Seleucidenia was a secondary concern – they had little resources worth taking and their value to the Entente was far inferior to Lusatia or the Koian Staol Mines.



Galran force concentrations on the onset of war – mountains are defended but are not zones of offensive activity.

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0615

Private Jan Wieckowski of the Lusatian 2nd Army glanced around the bloody interior of the forward battery of Fort Perseverance. Feeling the adrenaline in his veins fade, he lowered his rifle warily and sighed. The attack by a few squadrons of Galran infiltrators had been barely beaten off – about 60 attackers driven off by the 100 or so defenders, at greater cost to the garrison than to the attackers, many of whom melted back towards the border. At least it seemed like it, thought Wieckowski. Truthfully, he feared they had just gone into the No-Man’s-Land to await a reinforcement wave bound to come now that the cat was out of the bag. He could only hope the runner to divisional command would arrive with news before then – the infiltrators had, at least, neutralized the fort’s radio station.

He peeked out the “window,” really just the space for the fixed cannon to rotate to target different directions, to see if there was any sign of a rally and second wave, ready to give notice to fellow Private Miersky. The land, now illuminated by the dawning sun, was empty and silent. Wieckowski grew nervous and perplexed – surely if Galra had attacked, this wasn’t going to be all they were sending? As if to answer his concerns, plunging artillery fire began landing all around, the beginning of three hours of hell.


0700

To the City of Veneetsia:

As per the decree of Autarch Jeremiah Cornelius Applegate, the independent status of the city government is to be immediately revoked, and the territory of the city to be ceded permanently to the Imperial State of Galra.

City officials have one hour to disarm the garrison and cooperate with the command of the Galran 3rd Army. Should they do so, they shall be permitted to maintain their positions during the transition of power, and, perhaps, beyond. Failure to cooperate will be treated as an act of war. Attempts to impede the movement of Galran Army units prior to the deadline will be treated as an act of war.

The 3rd Army awaits your response.

Lieutenant General Miles Corey


0755

To the Galran 3rd Army:

Go to hell.

Alderman Rudolf Levandi


1020

Lusatian High Command was flooded with reports. Field Marshal Michel Walesa was doing all in his power to break away from reading constant reports to keep organizing responses. He had already received confirmation that units deployed in the interior of the country were being mobilized for redeployment to the border, but that, for now, he’d have to hold with what he had. This wasn’t an insubstantial amount, but his most forward units were completely disorganized by the early morning raids and subsequent artillery fire. It had been only 9:30 when he finally had gotten full reports from all but a handful of fortresses. Given the news of the attacks on several points along the border, he suspected he knew what might’ve happened to the rest, particularly in light of the artillery that began raining down. Early estimates put casualties at 1,500, likely higher, but since most of those were MIA as opposed to WIA or KIA, it might not be that bad. His greater concern was the latest reports that artillery fire had ceased and Galran Army units were now directly engaged. Already, radio transmissions were sent to secondary batteries to begin laying out counter-barrages to impede the offensive while every possible unit was transferred forward to resist the attack.

The greatest concern was the Galran armored units, too thickly protected for Lusatian small arms fire. No doubt a handful would be neutralized by day’s end, perhaps even more by the end of the week, but how much infantry would it cost to slow and then stop those things?

---

By the end of the day, Galran forces had penetrated past the first line of Lusatian defenses and had forced Veneetsia to pull everything to its island and detonate the connecting bridges.

By day two, a noose had formed around Lusatia’s forward-most fortresses, a Galran victory seizing them near-certain.

By day three, however, surprise had worn thin, Lusatia had redeployed most of its ready units nearby to the front, and phase two of both sides’ plans would soon begin.

[Greywall]

WesternFrontDraft 1.docx (15.13 KB)


Post by Alex, attached. 

The war had been going on for a year, and hope on both sides of a quick victory had long been dashed. On Galra’s end, first thousands, then tens and hundreds of thousands – perhaps even a million – of men had been thrown incessantly into the “Great Wall of the West.” Generals had already been sacked: long gone was General Lucian Carson, the original commander of the Army Group, and so too gone was his successor. Whereas Carson had been fired after two weeks for “Defeatism” after suggesting an end to general operations and a focus on point attacks and a slow destruction of the line, his successor was sacked for wasting the best units of Galra’s army in fruitless assaults. The latest general appointed by high command now utilized an approved form of Carson’s strategy whilst waiting for new weapons to augment Galran offensive capabilities. On Lusatia’s end, expectations of Galran soldiers mutinying and refusing to assault Lusatian positions any further had died out after a month. After Galran casualty estimates reached the range of 500,000, Lusatian planners had to unfortunately admit the very real potential of a war to the end, and plans were revised. Upgrades were called for to positions immediately behind the line: increased impact resistance to fortifications, so that they may survive heavy shelling longer, more complex and deeper underground trench designs, so that the Galrans could never be too sure that a line was ever clear of Lusatian forces.

Already the idea of assaulting a trench proved nauseating: Galran footmen who would reach the front-line trenches would find the Lusatians ready behind cover within the trench, taking shots around corners, behind crates of ammunition, or from within doorways leading to radio sites or bunkhouses. Previous Galran attempts to soften up trenches often made them more treacherous, not less. Massive holes in the previously water and mud-tight trench lines meant Galran soldiers who crossed into the trenches found their progress in places impeded by knee-high mud, slowed massively even as Lusatians lurked behind corners or fired counter-batteries from afar. The tanks had done their work where possible, though Lusatian attempts to counter them proved increasingly frustrating and eventually rendered their progress near-futile. If tanks crossed on a wide front, they would frequently run into enough mines to disable the vehicles, if they crossed on a narrow front, Lusatian artillery fire would have the same effect. Though Lusatia had very few dedicated anti-tank guns only recently entering the field from late experimentation, the strong artillery batteries, augmented by siege pieces that obliterated the earth, did the job okay enough. It was in this environment that Galra deployed a wonder-weapon: walkers. Essentially elevated super-tanks, these weapons could more easily cross uneven terrain, be equipped with heavier guns to destroy emplacements, and were resistant to glancing blows given the strength of their leg armor. These weapons, small in number at first, but more appearing on the front by the day, meant that Lusatian fortifications were now falling as fast as they had been last fall once more – not quickly, but dangerously enough to threaten a long-term defensive stratagem. On their part, the Lusatians would not remain idle long, and it was decided that these superweapons could be best countered by still focusing on the Galran infantry while redoubling efforts to improve fortifications to reduce the impact of these new weapons. Walkers could only press forward so far without infantry support, and if Lusatian positions surrounded the walker, it could be neutralized by sheer weight of force.

Thusly, plans to vastly increase the size of Lusatia’s chemical weapon stockpiles began. Chlorine gas had been used sparingly at this point, but if Galra was serious about continuing the war another year, far worse weapons would need to be deployed. Development of deadlier chemicals and perhaps even means of setting fires hot enough to warp the legs of the walkers was underway. The men in the walkers may think themselves safe above the battlefield, but even they could not survive alone in a man-made hell.