The Karshkan Campaign 1934

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Grinvel had for decades wanted revenge on Roskana, constant assaults on their homelands from the Tsar to the recent spat with the Republican government had boiled the blood of every patriot Grinvelian. The breach in the Roskanan defenses allowed hundreds of thousands of armed Grinvelians to pour into the Karshkan valley right in the middle of the nation and being a bloody war to end their feud once and for all. 

Spearheading their advance were the new machines of war, tanks and aircraft flying over head striking at Roskana defenders before the ground forces came down on them. 

Roskanan towns captured were ransacked and citizens ordered to be processed, women and children were left to be alone while able bodied men were forced into digging trenches for the ever growing Grinvel vanguard. If there was one lesson Mueller learned from the border war, it was to expect the counter and be ready. If his offensive was to be stopped his forces would have pre set defenses ready for such an occasion. 

The ruthless invasion drove directly for the town of Karpo, its seizure would give the Grinvel army a huge footprint in the Roskana nation and continue their invasion of the valley. 


The Grinvel navy in the meanwhile was wrecking havoc on the Northern coast and blockading the port of Aventhium and the bulk of the fleet now moved toward the ports of Auran and Thermala. 

Grinvel infantry entering Central Roskana

[Kira]

As reports of the invasion rolled through the nation, the armed forces would quickly mobilize to meet their old foe. Trucks filled with men and equipment began rolling towards the front, as pilots took to the skies to halt the bombings and air raids. Work began on backup fortifications at Karpo and other cities within the Karshkan Valley, with arriving forces soon filtered into defense and counter-offense groups. Trenches were dug, buildings fortified and mines placed, with ‘field drafts’ being put into place where able bodied men were found. Those few that escaped from the bloody onslaught left little to the imagination of what Grinval occupation would hold. Those border guards that engaged the Hun met the enemy with a fury their own, despite the overwhelming firepower they faced.

To the cold waters of the north, the majority of the Roskanan naval forces sent to engage the Grinval blockade and enact their own on the nearly landlocked country. 

Roskanans in Karpo digging a trench after a air-raid

Sent:
200k Light Infantry
120k Standard Infantry
90k Heavy Infantry
100k Dragoons
70k Carabiner
80k Bicycle
3k Field Arti
2k Howitzer Arti
2k Mortar Art
160k Light Motorized
100k Standard Motorized
15k Supply Trucks
600 Armored Cars
145 Tankettes
40 Landships
40 Light Fighter BiP
10 Bomber BiP
15 Interceptors
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16 Fast Battleships
18 Battleships
26 Battle Cruisers
30 Heavy Cruisers
50 Escort Destoyers
20 Torpedo Destoyers
40 Small Submarines
30 Submarines
80 Frigates
30 Corvettes
60 Torpedo Boats
60 Patrol Boats

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The Battle of Karpo

The Grinvel invasion bared down on Karpo near the end of Fall, it was here the Roskanan menace chose to fight, Air raids were launched onto the town to soften the opposition but Grinvel squadrons began reporting enemy fighters beginning intense dogfights across the skies of Karpo. 

Mueller wanting a clear battlefield victory to signal Auran their end had come set up a Symphony of Destruction played by 2000 howitzers, 1500 field guns and 500 siege artillery to strike indiscriminately at Karpo. Leading the ground assault following the barrage would be companies of Grinvish infantry motorized units, light tanks, landships and medium tanks. The heavy tanks were kept at the rear slowly moving up with 50,000 light infantry, 100,000 standard infantry and 50,000 heavy infantry. 


Enemy trenches were ordered to be attacked with coordinated mortar strikes and grenades, Mueller had grown annoyed by the Marrish pulling these tactics and had less patience for the roskanans. 

Making their debut in the war were large companies using the G11 semi automatic rifle in heavy infantry units. Barenkiller tanks would target enemy armor going out of their way to pin or destroy them to allow infantry units to swarm the front. Helftach trucks swiftly brought in fireteams to the front at speeds never seen by most armies in Ouhiri, dropping off Grinvish soldiers to replenish the assault. 

Mueller ordered a continuous assault to not cease despite losses inflicted. 

Grinvel forces would push hard on forward trenches following mortar strikes and then use the dug in depressions for their own advance on the roskanans. Grinvel forces were told no quarter, kill all armed Roskanans even if they surrender. A message needed to be sent to Auran, bend the knee and accept SU occupation of Koi now or suffer. 



----Northern Navy war----

The Grinvish fleet had never really fought a proper war, but they had properly planned for this naval operation to break the roskana navy and shell the coast. When the Roskana navy arrived to counter them, the Grinvish navy conducted the largest naval battle so far in the war. 


25 battleships
65 battlecruisers
35 super cruisers
35 heavy cruisers
90 torpedo cruisers
20 ironclad battleships
100 escort destroyers
100 frigates
50 corvettes


all went into a massive naval battle with the roskanan fleet, the battle of Smithsver Gulf would determine who ruled the Northeastern seas. Grinvish heavy fleet would target the enemy heavy fleet while the smaller ships moved to flank the enemy vessels. Grinvish submarines would be sent due North to swing around the heated battle and target Roskanan civilian shipping. 

[Kira]

The Roskanan’s would fight tooth and claw for every inch of land the Hun took. Counter-batteries would answer to the Grinval’s own, with some of the cannons being moved into brush and what buildings could be used for ambushing hostile armor. The more advanced tanks within the Grinval arsenal caused the greatest problem for the Roskanan’s, with infantry often being either mowed down or forced to retreat when the steel behemoths rolled towards them. Recuirts fresh off the station were rushed to the front, with those bodies lost replaced like clockwork thanks to both truck and rail running apace with the demands of the front.


In the skies above, the pilots of the Roskanan airforce took to chasing the Hun whenever able, with the few squadrons the nation had offering what battle could be had in the heavens. Bombers were sent to attack the Grinval rail lines, with infantry often sabotaging what they could on the ground as Roskanan forces converged for a winter at Karpo. Reinforcements and supplies for the defensive stored since the beginning of the war, with Command hoping to break the sharpest point of the Hun’s forces with the aid of a cold snow.

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Casualties

Grinvel: 2,000 light infantry, 800 standard infantry, 300 heavy infantry. 30 light tanks, 20 heavy tanks, 3 landships, 10 monoplane fighters
Roskana: 4,500 light infantry, 1,200 standard infantry, 900 heavy infantry. 60 tankettes, 20 landships, 10 interceptor fighters.

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The brutal cold made the already intense fight more miserable than it needed to be, Grinvelian forces pushed Rosarks hard and further North thanks to their clear armored supremacy. Grinvish fighters were also making quick work of Roskanan fighters allowing bombers to hit rear lines while fighters chased Rosark bombers after they hit the rail lines causing some logistical problems for the moment.

Grinvelian engineers had not prepared to do major repairs to Rosark rail lines, the Roskanans used a different gauge of track than Grinvel and the Reich largely used captured Roskanan locomotives since seizing the borderlands. For the moment, Grinvel supply chains would be disrupted forcing food rationing at the front, but the invading force kept up its assault.

Heavy howitzer shelling would strike Roskanan positions regardless of hitting civilians or not, to Grinvel all Rosarks were deserving of death and thus were all fair targets. Mueller noted that the Rosarks were simply pumping troops to stall them for time, meaning in the coming days as Roskana lost more and more of her armored support it would be bleak situation against Grinvelian companies using armored units to utterly mow them down.

Bombers were ordered to fly ahead of the battlefield and strike major rail stations to slow the flow of reinforcements. Mueller was convinced even if he took the station the Roskanans would merely sabotage it anyway, and made it a fair target.

[Kira]

Despite sustained losses, the pilots of the Roskanan airforce would keep up what harassments they could offer, with their bombers kept to striking outlaying Grinval forces as they pushed deeper into the nation. With the arrival of winter, the Roskanan defenders would continue their efforts to deny the Hun the spoils of conquest. The towns and villages of the front had largely been evacuated with the coming of winter, with what food and supplies could be found allocated to either refugee or military use. The shelling was met by Rosark counter-batteries whenever possible, with troops taking what measures they could counter the Huns armor. What armor options the Roskans had would be kept in defensive positions, with infantry using Marrish grenades and dynamite, with efforts focused on detracking and disabling the invaders vehicle for capture.

Command was more than concerned about the tech difference their forces had found firsthand in the trenches, with both Grinval armor and aircraft seeking recovery whenever possible. Any equipment that was found would be sent both to Roskana's own engineering teams and those of Marlan as well.

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Casualties



Grinvel: 3,000 light infantry, 800 standard infantry, 10 monoplanes, 5 light bombers, 5 light tanks, 10 armored cars, 20 howtizers
Roskana: 5,000 light infantry, 2,000 standard infantry, 12 monoplanes, 10 landships, 20 tankettes.


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The bitter cold, the bitter cold, the bitter cold.

That's all some Grinvish could think of in the Central steppe of Roskana. Their forces pushing an ever moving pillar of black smoke made towers North, the rapid exchange of gunfire and explosions giving an eerie echo as the snow and ice made it resonate louder. 

At the rear line, the Grinvelians were mildly comfortable, forcing the unfortunate Roskanan civilians into grueling labor to build defenses, serve food, clean latrines. Whatever work the soldiers didn't want to do, some even paid the Roskanans if you could believe it. Not all of the Kaiser's men were here with malice, many of them truly believed if they didn't launch this war with Galra then this war would be on their homeland instead. Whatever the case, life in the rear line kept the soliders warm and bellies full for the most part. 

At the front. 

The growing frontline pushing North was slowly entering the open country of Karshkan, Grinvel soldiers pushed up with armored support and fierce determination to seize territory swiftly. Aerial support was growing as Roskanan defiance in the skies struggled against the Grinvelian advanced fighters and bombers. The Rosarks were fighting hard, that wasn't up for debate, however whenever a Grinvish fire team was suppressed or couldn't advance they simply called up armored support and it removed the problem. Roskana struggled against Grinvel's more advanced tanks, their mediums especially. 

Fiegler tightened his officers coat to cut off more cold trying to invade what warmth he had left, he observed the advancing columns of troops and fact Roskana simply could not hold the city for much longer. Further attempts would be suicidal as Grinvel closed the grip around the vital parts of the city. 

"Herr Commander, it's Muller, on the radio" a soldier reported to the Imperial Heir who simply responded with a silent nod. 

"Yes, Muller. What is it?"
"Prince. Are you having fun playing war?"
"Is there purpose to this call? Or can I get back to my work that you so effortlessly found for me to do for you?"
"Watch your mouth boy, the Kaiser took you back because he couldn't get his new sow pregnant. Needs you earn the throne. I need tanks, for the South."
Fiegler chuckled, "Fishermen giving you problems?" 
"I should skin your cock you insubordinate. Send me 100 tanks, light and mediums. I am making progress to our true goals. Keep bleeding the bears...I'll be there to finish them off for you when you get close to Auran."

Before Fiegler could say anything else the connection was cut. "Fucking asshole." he muttered. 

"Send the 34th and 19th South to Marrlan. But he gets his own damn fuel. The Rosarks trashed the rail lines here and its damn hard to drive trucks in battered roads after our tanks and artillery rounds blasted them." The nearby soldiers nodded, saluted and went to relay this order. He shook his head the entire situation, "This stupid war." he said. 

Grinvel could have easily upstaged the Eastern Republics by economic power if the military under Muller didn't practically threaten coup against his father for military cuts. Muller was the second king of Grinvel, the heads of the military loved him, he fed them afterall. Millions of Marks afterall poured into the military industrial complex because Muller could bully the Kaiser and Imperial Council. For now, Fiegler had to do his part, win the war and hope that the skinny bastard overlording him died in the conflict. 


Grinvelian forces broke through Roskanan defense lines in the last outer sections of Karshkan, forcing a hard decision on the Rosarks, risk a brutal counter assault to buy more time and potentially have large casualties or retreat and allow Grinvel more access to the Central steppe. 

[Artsy Astra]

The Marrish Navy would be sent to assist in the coming battle. Vessels bearing the Yellow Red and Black would set course for the North to assist their allies.
A task force comprised of:
10 Submarines
22 Monitors
3 Torpedo Cruisers
21 Light Cruisers
12 Heavy Cruisers
2 Super Cruisers
55 Frigates
20 patrol Boats
32 Escort Destroyers
3 Torpedo Destroyers
Lead by Admiral Stella Marie

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Minor time skip to catch up.


Roskanan forces have been pummeled into Northern Karshkan allowing Grinvel to seize control of the Central region of Roskana. With Grinvelians digging several trenches facing the South, Fiegler ordered his mass of armor and infantry to drive North to the last of the Roskanan military's holdouts in the Karshkan Valley, break these units and Northern Roskana would be under threat. 


Like Mueller in Marrlan, Fiegler's troops also received new weapons and armored units. Fiegler had extensively used CAS fighters to soften enemy positions before advancing, breaking the Roskanan military was possible here, something that many Grinvelians had wanted for decades following the humiliating border war. As they drove ahead, several Grinvelian soldiers under Mueller's command would force Roskanan citizens behind occupied lines to work on defenses and checkpoints, some were made to work in factories that were propped up to help shore up the hungry war effort of invading Roskana and most were forced to repair roads and clear debris to allow more Grinvel forces to race to the front and engage the desperate defenders of the Roskanan Republic. 

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The Roskanan military watched in morbid terror as their men were cut down with relative ease by the Grinvel soldiers. Casualty counts reported the near complete decimation of the air and armor corps due to the Grinvel Army's staggeringly large technological gap caused by a long period of complacency within the Roskanan government. With infantry casualty numbers estimating nearly a nearly 1:3 casualty trade in heavy favor of Grinvel, it was realized that holding trenches in the traditional manner was a strategy that was rapidly starting to loose them the war. Any infrastructure they did have was quickly being lost and, although a few scouts had reported temporary setbacks unto their enemies logistically, it was only a matter of time before what rail and road networks they had would be quickly repurposed to fuel their enemy's war machine.

So a desperate strategy was formulated.

Civilians were to be rapidly evacuated from any nearby cities, homesteads, farms, and other places of potential bombardment while any and all available Roskanan engineer companies would set about rigging all local infrastructure to dynamite and other explosives, torching any nearby farms and filling the soil with rocks and weeds to prevent further growth, and even posting watch stations around inland water sources in order to taint them with any fuel, gunpowder, oil, or otherwise hazardous debris in order to (hopefully) destroy the enemy's ability to feed and hydrate their troops without fully repairing the infrastructure they had captured.

Alongside these frantic precautions, after extreme debate and the loosening of several military policies, an unrestricted bombardment order was given to any and all artillery companies and forward observer sections supporting the front. Said order declared that should a trench line become overrun a bright yellow flare would be fired by the Forward Observer team stationed there, which would demand an immediate response from the artillery sections to fire enough shells to hopefully destroy the trench line before immediately falling back to preset firing positions.

If the Grinvel army could not be stopped through simple man-to-man engagements, the high command figured, the Roskanan military would have to turn every and any advantage it had up to 11.

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Fiegler's Grinvel command had seen much success in destroying the Roskanan military, reaching the North was something the Reich had never accomplished in the near century of violence and hate between the two empires. But a shift began to be noticed with the Roskanan defenders that sent alarmbells to the Grinvelians. Rosarks were fighting harder, harsher and far more willing to destroy everything around them in order to stop the Grinvel army. 

Grinvel army groups found decimated farms, towns and even bridges utterly gone. This left the fast moving mechanized monster that was moving North to come to a crawl, it also meant the logistical spread of supply lines being stretched would be felt as Grinvel struggled to now feed their massive horde in Roskana. Feeding nearly 500,000 troops was a hard enough task, supplies being stretched this far meant if it wasn't being transported by truck it was being pulled by a mule driven cart. Fiegler desperately needed more trucks to ship fuel and food North. 

His request was denied as Mueller arranged for almost every new truck in the Reich to support his own supply lines to hit Harbaville and Termingrad. 

This brought the Grinvel assault to slow down in Northern Roskana. Frontline engagements remained vicious as Grinvel infantry pressed against Rosark lines to fully capture the Northwest and allow the Grinvel army to press Eastward for Auran. Fiegler could end Roskana here and forever, a hundred years of bitter resentment had culminated in this brutal war. To finally crush them. It meant Grinvel would have peace at last. Or so he hoped. 

Grinvel troops assault a Rosark position in the Northwest

[gelb]

As Grinvel forces pushed further into Roskana, the defenders only became more and more fanatic.

Less men surrendered each attack, more likely to attempt to fight off scores of well armed enemies with little more than their trench shovels and a dream. Roskanan artillery began shelling their own lines as Grinvel forces would overrun them, decimating both what few Roskanans remained and whatever force was hurriedly rushing into the trenches to take them. Old cities became battlegrounds for battalions desperate to hold even a single inch more than they did the day prior. But despite their best efforts, the mechanized beast seemed insatiable in its appetite for war.

Then, one day, everything seemed to slow.

Soldiers reported Grinvel troops taking longer than normal to set up defensive positions, tanks not coming to bear with the same speed and effectiveness that they once did, logistics trucks being replaced by mules, soldiers being forced to maneuver around or even through large bodies of water due to the lack of bridges.

Hope began to spread through the ranks. The men saw fights being less bloody, their lines being less ravaged than before, and one battalion of exhausted Roskanan defenders even lead a courageous counterattack against a terribly overextended Grinvel engineer company attempting to repair a captured bridge.

Small victories, yes, but perhaps they would one day amount to something more. One day the act of a single man could echo out and bring this war to a triumphant victory for the Roskanan military.

That thought kept the men fighting. That hope would keep them alive.

It had to, for it was all they had left.

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It wasn't hard for Fiegler to notice, the Roskanans were already fighting much harder and better than they did the year prior, with his supply lines slowing down due to the span of territory his forces seized and the growing proximity to the capital. It also became apparent that Mueller was sending every single truck and new tank South, but it made sense, Fiegler had crushed the Roskanan Republic whereas Mueller faced a brutal resistance in Marrlan. 

Also Mueller was closing in on the Marrish capital and sending troops into Koi, word was he could end the war, once and for all. 

But Fiegler was a pragmatic man, he wasn't about to settle on the conflict being won elsewhere, he needed to win here. His forces were dug into the battle line, heavy artillery and armor supported the infantry as best as they could but where the real power would be contested would be in the skies. Fiegler was struggling to get fuel shipments to his makeshift airfields across Northern Roskana. Until he could rely on enough stores of fuel he ordered a mass of artillery strikes East, along with sending over 10,000 standard infantry, 30 light tanks and 20 medium Zhest tanks supported by 20,000 light mechanized infantry and 100 MK2 Clanker tanks (light tanks). 

The attack was simple, a three pronged assault along the Northern coast Eastward from the main battlefront. Infantry would surge forward with armored support and heavy artillery strikes on Roskanan positions with the goal being to break the Roskanans before needing to resort to large scale bombing strikes against them. The central and Southern battlements would be ordered to hold their position against enemy reprisals. 

Grinvel forces at the front under fire from Roskanans

[gelb]

As Roskanan forces took small victories here and there, gaining some ground in places and holding their lines firm in others, word began to spread of an amassed Grinvel force spotted by forward observers and recon units scattered ahead of the frontlines. Shortly after these reports would flood in, now General Wilhelm would find him and his command staff flooded with a tidal wave of reports from scattered Roskanan blocking forces of massed artillery strikes and mechanized pushes advancing unto their lines.

Although most other high ranking officers in his position would have genuinely considered surrender, seeing an enemy seemingly push through a supply line deficit, Wilhelm simply stood up for a moment to think.

The General had always been good at chess, not because he could beat his opponent in speed or power, like other generals could, but because he understood that there was great value into making an enemy believe they had already won. Victories were great for the press, but he knew that his forces were still terribly outmatched by Grinvel armor and air power and these things were not something you could supplement by simply turning the countryside into an uninhabitable wasteland.

So, it was time to try out his own ideas for warefare.

Rather than engage Grinvel head on, the vast majority of his army was simply ordered to sabotage and abandon their trenchlines in favor of more flexible positions (cities, temporary fortifications using sandbags and foxholes, and other such positions), while some units were posed up to stall enemy troop advances and, hopefully, convince Grinvel that Roskana had run out of men and firepower to throw at them.

As hostile forces smashed into trenchlines, rapidly taking them from the scattered Roskanans, they would immediately be met by a fast and heavy artillery barrage followed up by several battalions of soldiers swarming the shell shocked and exhausted troops. To assist with mobility of their units, a vast majority of heavy trucks were redesignated to rapid infantry transportation roles in order to let Roskanan forces move about quickly and with much less fatigue than a non-motorized force.