Operation Hellfire

Major Combatants

Gholgoth Powers

• Automagfreek
• Pantera
• Aequatio

Allied Powers

• Praetonia
• Sarzonia
• Hogsweat

Minor Combatants

• Space Union, Willink and Halberdgardia VS Doomingsland
  
  

Origins and Opening

Operation Hellfire refers to a series of wars involving nations aligned with Automagfreek battling nations supporting Praetonia or Hogsweat. Due to the large number of nations fighting in support of either side, the war is also known as (in Praetonian text books) 'The Battle of the Cariya Islands'. The war started after a dispute between Hogsweat and Automagfreek regarding the latter's mobilisation near the Cariya Islands, a chain claimed as sovereign Hogsweatian territory. After what could be described as a game of diplomatic volleyball, verbal tensions between the two countries erupted into a shooting war when Hogsweatian forces exchanged fire with the Automagfreek fleet. Praetonian reinfocements arrived a period of time later and the war began to escalate when the retreating Automagfreek fleet saturated the Islands with naval gunnery. Praetonian and Hogsweatian forces returned fire resulting in the loss of several vessels on both sides. Hogsweatian fleets gave chase only to be beaten back by shore guns from the Automagfreek mainland. Shortly thereafter, Praetonia and Hogsweat dispatched reinforcements to the islands and Sarzonia sent its own fleets to support their Praetonian and Hogsweatian allies.

Sarz-Panteran War

Shortly after the onset of hostilities in Gholgoth, Pantera responded to the Sarzonian mobilisation by attacking its Manium colony of Branwyn in what Sarzonian historians called the Sarz-Panteran War. The Panterans warned the Sarzonians that negotiation was "not an option" and demanded the colony surrender, preparing to land the Reavers to overrun the colony and its cobbled together defence of colonial militia and a Sarzonian army that disgraced itself in the Inkana Civil War. However, the Panterans were surprised when the combined efforts of colonial militia and Sarzonian regulars put up a stiff defence, causing significant damage to Panteran fleet assets and significant losses among the Reavers who attempted to land.

Meanwhile, the Sarzonian government made an announcement it expected would galvanise the Branwynians behind their war against the Panterans by recognising the colony an independent nation. The government hoped the declaration would cause the Branwynian freedom fighters to view the Panterans as their enemies and undermine their efforts to sabotage the combined colonial-Sarzonian war effort. However, the declaration led to the Lord Reaver proposing a cease fire and a treaty to end the war, which resulted in the Seastone Accords. The agreement met the Panteran and Sarzonian objectives of getting the other party out of the war at the expense of their direct participation in hostilities.

The Cariya Nuclear Incident

Shortly after the indecisive first round, a submarine claimed to have gone rouge by the AMF Government launched an ICBM towards the Cariya Islands which impacted shortly afters, killing everyone on the islands and damaging or destroying around 50% of the small Praetonian deployment to the area. Some time before the impact, a flight of B-2 bombers launched an attack on the Praetonian fleet which arrived some time after the impact. This attack was picked up by radar onboard the Praetonian vessels and the bombers intercepted by fighters (the Praetonian fleet SAM systems being largely inoperable), shortly ater releasing their payload of torpedos which destroyed several Praetonian vessels and damaged several more.

Shortly after the initial blast, the AMF government quickly denounced the attack and pointed the finger at Captain Aeomer Sunstone, a rebellious and headstrong sub commander. In what he claimed was a gesture of good faith Damien Dreadfire ordered that a small search party be dispatched under a white flag of truce to assist in the capture of Sunstone. After several days had passed, the search team was fired upon by the Hogsweatian navy, who alleged that they had not agreed to the truce, sending the 6 ship search party to the bottom of the ocean. Sunstone managed to slip away, and continues to elude capture.

The Second Front Emerges

Shortly after initial hostilies began, a second helping of nations quickly rose up to openly challenge Automagfreek, including The Fallen Races, Findan, Aust, and Dracun imperium. Assuming that their coalition could easily trounce AMF defenses, naval elements of The Fallen Races foolhardily rushed into AMF waters without any allied support. Within minutes their fleets were pounded so heavily by long range Freek missiles and underwater mines that they were sunk before TFR commanders knew what hit them. The bodies of the dead TFR sailors were then retreived and put on display on the eastern shores of Automagfreek, and a grim warning was issued that unless they surrendered, more of the same would await them. Needless to say, within hours The Fallen Races surrendered to Automagfreek High Command, marking an early turning point in Operation Hellfire.

Ineptia continued to plague the Eastern Front, with the forces of Findan continuing to execute one blunder after another. Several poorly planned attempts were made to bombard the Automagfreek coast with cruise missiles, but all were shot down by naval and shore based anti-air batteries. Yet another attempt was made to attack AMF proper, but this time Findan high command sent a large wing of B-52 bombers to strike coastal targets....without any sort of fighter escort. Needless to say, the bombers were destroyed before they even came close to their target, marking yet another low point in the war for the coalition against Automagfreek.

Meanwhile, the navies of Dracun imperium began to swing around to the south of AMF proper and attack from yet another direction in hopes of penetrating AMF defenses. But nothing ever came of the large movement, adn Dracun forces never came close to engaging AMF targets.

The Main Theater

Following the fighting around Cariya described above the Praetonian Navy fell back to join up with reinforcements regroupe with Hogsweatian vessles several miles further out to sea. This in turn ignited a fierce mud slinging campaign by the AMF government, accusing Praetonian and Hogweatian of being cowards, incapable of acting on their alleged promises to defeat the AMF war machine. Meanwhile the Automagfreek fleet also stayed behind the protection of shore batteries and did not attempt to advance upon the Cariya Islands.

In the weeks that followed, the vicious slew of propaganda continued to pour out of Automagfreek, in fact so much that other nations (particularly those allied to the Allied nations, mainly Sarzonia and Dracun imperium) began to take notice. Several attempts were made to stirr the Praetonian and Hogsweatian ships into action, but the two nations claimed that they saw no need to advance upon shore batteries without landing craft or any prestated objective to attack the Automagfreek mainland. The Automagfreek Government continued to claim that this was merely cowardice.

Conclusion

The event that lead to the conclusion of this war was actually not combat related at all. As fate would have it, events unfolded inside the region of Haven that ultimately lead to Hogsweat destroying a great deal of its land and killing a great deal of its population with nuclear weapons. As a result, the entire nation was devoid of life, excluding colonies in the Haven region, and remaining Hogsweat naval elements left the fight to return to their destroyed homeland. Praetonian ships soon followed suit.

The will to continue the fight amongst the minor powers had been lost, and soon Dracun imperium and Findan lost the will to fight, and the war against Automagfreek was abandoned. Automagfreek did not attempt to lay claim to the Cariya Islands, nor did their ships leave port after the incident.

Interpretations of the Outcome

Official Automagfreek Government Interpretation

In the wake of Operation Hellfire, Damien Dreadfire declared himself the winner and wasted no time in returning to business as usual. AMF history books see this war as one of Automagfreek's defining moments, when it mananged to fend off an attack by so many nations. Though the war had ended in an unusual manner, the Automagfreek Government claims it will go down in history as one of the most tense moments the world has ever seen.

Official Praetonian Government Interpretation

The Praetonian Government did not make any major propagandist statements at the end of the war, claiming that there was little actual fighting and that the conflict was largely inconclusive. However, the official Government claim is that with the destruction of the Cariya Islands and no visible signs of the much-vaunted Automagfreek invasion fleet ever coming into being, the reasons for pursuing a war against the Automagfreek high seas fleet had disappeared. The Praetonian Government continues to assert that it never declared its intention to invade the Automagfreek homeland, and sees the war as one of defence of an ally. Praetonia has never officially signed a cease fire with Automagfreek, but a de-facto state of peace is widely assumed.

Official Sarzonian Government Interpretation

The Incorporated Sarzonian Government finds ludicrous the claims that any nation "won" or "lost" the war on the part of Automagfreek. In Sarzonian view, the war had no decisive outcome due in large part to mostly indecisive actions and diplomatic posturing by both sides. The war was viewed as mostly political, with the exception of the Sarzonian-Panteran war, which most Sarzonian scholars considered a stalemate even though it was believed the Lord Reaver told President Sarzo he could claim victory. Sarzonian analysts also pointed to Admiral of the Navy Marcus Patinkin's unveiling of Operation Hedge Clipper to Praetonia's Minister of War and Hogsweat's Premier or the still-sealed Operation Bear Trap as evidence the Sarzonians were covertly looking to ratchet the war effort up by favouring an Allied effort to take the war to the enemy.