Difference between revisions of "Battle for Kentangi Point Harbor"

Latest revision as of 01:06, 1 October 2007

Battle for Kentangi Point Harbor
Location: Athiesism Northwestern Coastline, Kentangi Point Naval Base
Outcome: Stevidian Decisive Victory
Combatants
Athiesism	Stevid
Strength
Merkari Republican Navy	Stevidian Royal Navy
0 Super Dreadnoughts 3 Battleships 35 Aircraft Carriers 112 Destroyers 200+ Assorted Ships 1,345 Su-35K Fighters	40-60 Aircraft
Approximate Casualties
Merkari Republican Navy	Stevidian Royal Navy
Apporximately 350 ships destroyed Numerous Damaged Ships 34,957 Lives Lost or Unaccounted for	0 Ships Destroyed 10-20 Aircraft 21 Lives Lost

Introduction

The sprawling naval base at Kentangi Point was the scene of Stevid's attempted sucker-punch blow against the Merkari Republican Navy. On January 4th, 2017, half of the crack Stevidian Third Fleet launched a significant air assault on the harbor, destroying almost all of the shipping present and dealing a significant blow to Athiesist combat ability. Although there had been little time to make proper preparations for the raid, the excellent training and hard-won combat experience of the Third Fleet ensured a stunning victory for Stevid. This was to be the opening round of the Battles of the Athiesism Islands - a Havenic ploy that could potentially turn the tide of the war.

The Merkar Republic's Arrival Into the War of Golden Succession

By New Year's Day 2017, the upper reaches of the Stevidian government had finally come to the consensus that Athiesism was becoming too great a threat to ignore. The island nation, which in the past had been virtually irrelevant in regards to regional power politics, had grown even weaker with the Eternal extraterrestrial arrival of 2012, an event that convinced 90% of the population to leave Earth and head for Alpha Centauri. The new space state had been christened the Merkar Republic, with earthbound Athiesism being left worse off. Although the great amount of technology left behind by the Eternals had made Athiesism trillions of dollars in technology sales, its population of 10 million was still left surrounded by massive neighboring states. With the beginning of the War of Golden Succession, Athiesism felt the urgency of the situation and began buying over two trillion dollars in military equipment. Industrial automation and imported workers were used to make up a labor deficit as 15% of the population was conscripted into the armed forces. The Second Empire of the Golden Throne, eager for a counter against the Stevidian navy, saw Athiesism - an island state with a focus on naval forces - as a potential ally. It offered a generous sum of land combat equipment (and foreign direct investment by the Kriegzimmer Conglomerate) in exchange for one painful quid-pro-quo- military bases would be established on Athiesism's territory in preparation for a secret invasion of Stevid.

Stevidian Prime Minister David Conroy made it clear to his cabinet and military leadership that action had to be taken. Securing Athiesism would not only eliminate a cluster of Macabbean bases uncomfortably close to the oil-rich Otium Aqua Sea, but it would also secure the great technological resources of Athiesism for the Havenite Pact - potentially turning the tide of the war. The Royal Navy's Third Fleet was nearby, having being dispatched to intercept a Geneticon force a few months ago, a threat that never appeared. The Fleet had been drilling and staying out to sea for the time being. The men were honed to a fine edge, but the lack of action was slowly dulling them. Finally, the order arrived on January 4th to launch a spontaneous attack on Kentangi Point Harbor.

Assembly of the Third Fleet

The Third Fleet detachement sent to engage Athiesism was composed of 803 warships - larger than Athiesism's entire fleet. Morale throughout the entire detachement was excellent, but despite the apparent weakness of their new enemy the sailors bore a strong sense of duty and had no illusions that this would be a long war. The recent annihalation of the city of San Menendez by missile attack had not shaken their morale in the same way that it had shocked the rest of Stevid's fighting force, as the Third Fleet was a crack fighting force. Its gunnery was some of the best, if not the best, in a navy known regionwide for its marksmanship, and although it had not yet been equipped with the latest Hannover-class SDNs and many of its aircraft were rather old, the strike force more than compensated with its top-notch crews and sheer numbers. At approximately 0500 hours on January 4th, 2017, the Third Fleet pulled out of Hannover harbor and headed for Athiesism at flank speed.

Kentangi Point

Kentangi Point Harbor was by far the largest naval base in the nation. Surrounded by tall arcologies of the nearby city and sheer cliffs, it possessed excellent natural defenses. To reach it, an invading navy had to either sail down from the north through the Mosk Strait, a gauntlet of shallow waters, or take a roundabout route and attack from the west. Military and civillian ships squeezed their way in and out of the large and busy harbor. Most of the carrier fleet and almost all of the auxiliary fleet was based there, along with a significant destroyer and submarine complement. Three strategic airfields lay to the south, their air cover being intended to provide the main defense. Despite this fearsome appereance, though, Kentangi had major security gaps. Early warning of an attack depeneded upon the handful of Sira AWACs helicopters that were airborne at any one time. Not only that, but on January 4th most of the sailors and airmen that were supposed to be on alert were asleep, suffering from hangovers inflicted by the Merkari New Year celebration.

The Naval Staff had made the mistake of concentrating too many of its assets in one place. Overestimating the military and terrain defenses of the position, it had stationed almost all of its logistics fleet in the harbor. Onboard these ships were most of the fuel, munitions, and spare parts that the Navy needed to fight. The assumption was that the auxiliary fleet would make it out to sea quickly and supply the fleet, but in reality Athiesism had loaded almost all of its war supplies onto a hopelessly vulnerable row of thin-skinned cargo ships.

First and Second Waves

Stevidian intelligence had been eyeing Kentangi for some time, and an analysis of the position had already been made long ago. Half of the Third Fleet set course for Athiesism and arrived 200 miles off the coast after a mere five hours at flank speed. At precisely 10:12:51 hours, the first salvo of Spike anti-satellite missiles was launched at Athiesism's military and civillian satellite network. A total of forty-eight missiles were let loose, resulting in 29 kills and 11 damaged targets. The Merkari satellite network was effectively knocked out of the war- something that would cripple command-and-control in a military overly dependent on technology, especially SATCOM links with its submarine fleet. Less than 20 minutes later, Scorpion bombers had entered Kentangi Point harbor.

The chaos caused by SATCOM failure made it impossible for Athiesism to mount a coordinated defense. Although spotted on radar, the incoming Stevidian attack waves were assumed to be flocks of Weytras, large, very fast birds that had caused many false alarms over the past few weeks. Skillful low-speed, low-altitude flying by the Stevidians complicated the task of Merkari AWACs. Land-based spotters eventually did give a positive identification, but by that time it was too late.

Scorpion bombers flew in from the north, south, and east. It took less than half a minute for the first carrier to be sunk. However, the well-positioned escort ships were able to take a noteable toll on their attackers, racking up twenty kills in the first ten minutes and making life difficult for the raiders. A hit on a Shark-class submarine damaged the vessel's reactor as it was warming up, spraying EMP into the air, possibly lessening Merkari antiaircraft fire after that point (according to Stevidian sources, it was their jamming pods that eventually crippled the antiaircraft weapons). Once most of the warships were sunk, the Scorpions then unleashed thermobaric bombs to suck the oxygen out of any souls still floating in the water - a tactic that was to become a trademark of Stevidian ruthlessness throughout the war. The Stevidians were people tired of war, and at this point they felt no remorse.

One noteable action during the battle was the run of the MRS Admiral Bogranin. This 40-year-old Remnant-class battleship, purchased from SkyCapt over two decades ago, had been reactivated a few months before the attack. The Stevidians made the three old Remnants, which were little more than prestige trophies, high proirities during the attack. The Bogranin's two sister ships were sunk early on, but the Bogranin herself survived many hits, destroyed at least six attacking aircraft, and was even able to put to sea. As she rounded the artificial island in the middle of the harbor, though, a well-placed Gothic II SSM detonated its ammunition compartment and finally sent the ship to the bottom. The heroic performance of the supposedly obsolete Bogranin was to later pique the Naval Staff's interest in battleships and superdreadnaughts, warship concepts that it had previously despised.

Naval Aviation, which was supposed to have scrambled to defend the harbor, made a weak showing. The few aircraft able to take off from carriers were quickly downed by excellent XF-23 Nightwalker fighters. Many land-based interceptors did manage to take off as no airbases were attacked until half an hour into the operation. It made little difference. In the confusion, many of the Merkari fighters shot at each other or simply fled, not willing to charge into the Stevidian horde buzzing about the harbor. The bulk of Athiesism's interceptors were taking off just as Stevidian aircraft reached the airbases at 1100. Rather unaimed cluster bomb fire destroyed many aircraft on the ground, but the attack was sloppily executed. A few squadrons worth of aircraft made it into the air and fled hastily from the XF-23 fighter cover- although Athiesism's electronics were normally very good, Naval Aviation had great difficulty outfitting its Su-35Ks with modern avionics, which gave it a major disadvantage in the air. Over 1,000 Su-35 fighters, based at three massive strategic airfields to the south, were destroyed on the ground before they had even a chance to fight back.

Soon after the airfield attacks, the second wave - consisting of Harriers and RAF F-16s, Sea Tornadoes and Armburst heavy bombers - mopped up what was left of stragglers and base facilities. A handful Merkari warships took advantage of the shallow waters and delay provided by the harbor's submarine patrol to escape. The submarine fleet, most of which was already at sea, suffered the least. The thick steel hulls and experimental missile-defense lasers equipping the Shark-class SSGNs had allowed the subsurface fleet to escape relatively untouched, taking only six losses, and the damaged submarine reactor was repaired several hours later by a group of brave civillians who crudely sealed the reactor leak with concrete.

A third wave was planned, and a small command battleship fleet was headed to finish off whatever infrastructure or shipping remained. However, the destruction caused by the previous waves was so thorough that both groups were called off.

By noon, Kentangi Point Harbor was a wasteland. What had hours ago been the second-largest harbor in the nation was now a collection of scrap metal. For fifteen miles along the coast, blood, oil, and floating metal made the sea unrecognizable. Smoke and low-grade radiation drifted south, concealing the sun for days over the city of Kentangi and its locality. The number of sailors unaccounted for made it impossible to assemble a body count for weeks, but the military quickly put forth a tentative figure of 100,000 casualties - not counting civillians. With that level of human losses, every community in the nation would surely feel what war was like.

Aftermath

The most obvious damage of the raid was the loss of 112 destroyers and 35 aircraft carriers. However, this was far from the only effect. Not only were there other ships badly damaged or resting on the bottom, but over 200 logistics and mine warfare vessels were sunk as well. Athiesism's defense strategy depended on its land-based aircraft transferring to carriers and recieving their ammunition from at-sea logistics vessels, which were kept fully stocked; with the auxiliary fleet almost gone, the Navy had lost most of its ammunition in the first hour of the war. A lack of air-to-air munitions was to cripple Naval Aviation's (Athiesism had no independent Air Force) efforts to reclaim control of its own airspace. After loosing 4,000 aircraft during the first week, Naval Aviation ran out of fuel and ammunition and remained grounded for the rest of the war. The surface fleet suffered similar ammunition shortages, and the Naval Staff finally realized the folly of concentrating all of its supplies onboard flimsy auxiliary ships and clustering them inside one harbor.

The battle was not a total loss, though. The Stevidians gave little attention to the many Shark-class SSGNs in the harbor, which, due to their thick diving hulls, were able to survive the many blast waves. Also, some of them had activated their missile-defense lasers, offering some defense against enemy cruise missiles. Only 6 were lost, including one that suffered a reactor breach during the attack which was only plugged hours later- in the meantime, a great deal of low-grade radiation swept south over the city of Kentangi Point, forcing the inhabitants to stay indoors.

Also, most of the Athiesist combat fleet was dispersed elswhere and survived the attack. By the end of December 21st, Merkar still possesed just under 500 destroyers, 200 missile boats, 49 operable carriers and 194 submarines. The fleet attempted to rendezvous south of the largest island, Liliputia, but due to the many naval bases they sailed from throughout the country it was difficult for them to complete the rendezvous. Many commanders trusted their own ability more than mutual protection and formed small destroyer and submarine groups, which were quickly wiped out. Nevertheless, the large surviving submarine fleet was to prove key later in the war, and Merkar was fortunate that this new implement of war was not neutralized at Kentangi.

The people of Athiesism had never been nationalistic. Not only that, but the firmly democratic government refused to exploit the propoganda value of the event. Although not knocked out the war in a single day, Merkar entered the war with a feeling of futility as it confronted the Stevidian juggernaut. A day that could have been a national rallying point became a source of fear, a day forever remembered in the context of loss, not thirst for revenge.