Twelve Hour War

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The Twelve Hour War was a conflict between Gholgothian forces under the overall leadership of Harakian Admiral Steven Tyrell and forces of the nation of Dephire. Nearly all the fighting on the part of Gholgoth was undertaken by Harakian forces, which perpetrated most of the attacks, organization and leadership of the overall conflict. Other Gholgothian nations involved included Automagfreek, Pantera, The Transylvania, and Sigma Octavus. Forces from the nations of Undershi and Zukariaa were also involved, fighting against.

The war was a resounding victory for Gholgothian forces. Over a period of twelve hours, Gholgothian forces eliminated Dephire's capability to mount a serious defence or offence, and the war ultimately ended with a coup and regime change in Dephire. The new leader of Dephire, Jonathan Vega, surrendered to Dephirian forces and later completely withdrew from the area. The entire war was fought in the nation of Danteri.

Prelude to War

Danterian Civil War and Aftermath

The nation of Danteri, which had been suffering trouble and strife for quite some time, finally erupted into a second civil war after a large group of anti-government rebels formed in the south and began fighting their way north into the industrial heartland of central Danteri. The semi-fascist government responded with military force, and both sides appealed to the international community for aid. Both sides received aid from varied nations.

The government, known as the Loyalists, received aid from such nations as Zukariaa and New-Lexington, while the rebels received aid from such nations as Haraki and Montegrande. While many nations openly sent aid to a side, and declared war on the other side to help their favoured side, the one group that did not was Haraki. Instead, the Harakian 72nd Infantry Division under the command of Major-General Gregory Neil and a naval force under the command of then-Commodore Felias Locke landed in the east and secured an area of five cities, declaring them an open safe zone where no fighting would happen, to limit civilian casualties. They also secretly sent aid to the rebels, in the form of military advisors and material aid. Over time, other nations joined Haraki's cause to prevent civilian death and suffering, including Bertling, Gwazzaria, Me Li, Antigr, and most prominently Neue Neue Deutschland. New-Lexington established their own land in the west, eventually annexing it into part of their nation.

Over time, the rebels began to gain the upper hand. The Loyalists chose to focus much of their focus on attacking the secure Harakian positions, which were swamped by refugees - by the end of the civil war, over thirty million people had taken refuge in the Harakian safe zone. At the same time, the Loyalists lost much of their aid and became pariahs in the eyes of the world for using gas and chemical weapon attacks on civilian targets, including those of positions only recently captured by the rebels. After some time, the city of Freiburg, in the north of Danteri, declared its independence. In response, the Danterian Loyalists bombed it into dust, which provoked an invasion by forces of the nations 23Eris and Soloriel. The Loyalists were defeated by this new coalition, but as the Loyalists fell back on all fronts the leader of the government initiated a nuclear armageddon program, detonating twelve nuclear weapons throughout the country.

It was at this point that Zukariaa, which had been supporting the Loyalists, became a Kraven slave state and invaded Danteri. The rebels and Loyalists united to fight them, but could not fight them back, and Zukariaa conquered all Danterian land not under foreign control. They then went to work destroying the environment, taking all available natural resources and establishing massive industrial complexes.

Zukariaan Withdrawal and Solorien Civil War

Once the Zukariaans had depleted the land of all available resources and enslaved the entire country not under foreign protection, they left. With the impending downfall of the Kraven Corporation, Danteri had fulfilled its purpose for Zukariaa. As there was suddenly a large amount of no man's land in the centre of the nation, the surrounding countries snatched it up. Haraki, Soloriel and 23Eris took most of the land, while Me Li took the opportunity to establish their own safe zone. Soloriel took most of the land, and 23Eris and Soloriel established a firm alliance.

When Soloriel was stricken by civil war, much of Danteri joined the deserters. However, the 23Erisian/Solorien Loyalist coalition managed to beat them back, and eventually the Solorien Loyalists had won the civil war.

Dephire and Undershi

However, 23Erisian/Solorien focus on the region grew less and less, and eventually their inactivity led to a new duo of nations seizing most of Danteri. Landing in a zone originally claimed by McPsychoville in the north-west, Dephire and Undershi landed and established their own area of land. A brief Dephirian power struggle between Alexander Ra'Baal and Jonathan Vega led to a civil war, and ultimately Alexander triumphed. What followed was a Dephirian-Undershi alliance of convenience. Beginning when Undershi threatened an invasion of Dephirian land in Danteri, Dephire instead managed to talk them into an alliance.

This new coalition then proceeded to occupy the rest of Danteri, taking the abandoned 23Erisian/Solorien territory and marching all the way to the frontier with the Harakian safe zone, their territory stretching across an estimated 80% of the nation's land mass. Undershi and Dephire massed large forces of troops on the Harakian border and made preparations and threats to invade, thinking to bully Haraki into surrendering their land in Danteri. In a panic Harakian troop strength tripled, and an impressive naval force was assembled to defend the land there. However, a total of only ten divisions (100,000 fighting troops) was assembled, far from enough to combat the two other nations combined.

It was at this point that Haraki's Gholgothian allies stepped in, making several very graphic threats against everyone in the nations of Dephire and Undershi unless they backed down. Undershi, terrified of angering such nations as Automagfreek and Pantera, which apparently were on their list of 'Nations not to anger in the next 1,000 years', completely demobilized their forces and withdrew from Danteri, leaving their land to Dephire, who quickly backed down from an attempted invasion.

Attempts at Reunification

Haraki used this opportunity to attempt to bring about the unification of Danteri diplomatically, listing many points as to why Danteri should be reunified under Harakian administration initially, before control was handed over to Danterians. All their requests were denied by Alexander, who announced that Dephirian Danteri would be absorbed into Dephire. Harakian diplomatic efforts to prevent this were denied, and Haraki announced that the use of force would be authorized to reunite the nation. Many nations then announced their support for this endeavour, including Zukariaa and Dephire's former ally Undershi.

Haraki's Gholgothian ally Pantera authorized limited mobilization, as did Haraki itself, and a large Panteran Expeditionary Force was landed in Harakian Danteri. Haraki brought in five more divisions of troops, as well as a significant new fleet, with the new forces under the command of Admiral Steven Tyrell and General Adam Shartz, and gave Dephire one last chance to prevent a war, which was ignored. Gholgoth moved to a state of wartime readiness, and several nations offered forces to the invasion efforts.

The Initial Strike

Theory Behind the Overwhelming Attack

Haraki's plan towards the fighting of the war was as follows: Gholgothian forces would enact a massive strike using air forces and missile strikes prior to the beginning of any ground hostilities. Co-ordinated ahead of time, the initial strike would be made up of a combined force of all participating Gholgothian nations, and would crippled any of Dephire's attempts to mount a successful offence or counterattack. Gholgothian ground forces could then advance and occupy vast tracts of land, only fighting when Dephirian reinforcements arrived. At that point, the Gholgothians would enjoy overwhelming superiority in firepower, with unrivalled air power - All of Dephire's defensive and offensive air power was to be destroyed in the initial strike - and overwhelming bombardment support fromc lose air support, artillery, and naval forces. One of the main things in favour of this plan was the fact that Dephire had an estimated 15 million men in Danteri, whereas Gholgothians were fielding such small forces as 2,000 Sigma Octavans, 150,000 Harakians, or 50,000 Freekians.

The other theory behind the initial strike was to open as many front as possible against Dephire as soon as possible, to spread Dephirian forces as thin as possible and allow air strikes to destroy as much of their operative strength as possible. As part of this, three Harakian divisions were sent to a landing in the north, including the 8th Airborne Division making a paradrop to secure a landing zone after fifteen minutes of air strikes.

The strike itself

Starting from 7:00 AM, Gholgothian air forces began a comprehensive bombing campaign of all Dephirian assets in Danteri. The strike started with a missile strike composed of hundreds of Harakian Trebuchet cruise missiles which hit command posts, communications stations, larger anti-aircraft sites, supply depots, air bases and other logistical targets. Coming right on their heels was a first wave of fighters and attack planes that struck everything that could fight back, keep Dephirian operations running, or attack planes - anti-aircraft sites, air bases, large troop emplacements, supply and ammunition dumps, naval bases, and other such targets. Following this was a second wave of heavy bombers and escort fighters. Dropping a massive amount of carpet bombs on all frontline Dephirian troops, this second strike was the most devastating. Accompanying the heavy bombers which obliterated Dephirian defensive emplacements were fighters which attacked any anti-aircraft sites missed by the first wave that decided to try their hand at shooting down the heavy bombers.

In the north, a series of three air strikes off the Harakian aircraft carriers HNS Perseus, HNS Shrike and HNS Hydra as well as bombardment by the heavy battleship HNS Chimera was a prelude to the airborne assault by the 8th Airborne Division and landing by two other Harakian ones. While not as large a strike as the one in the south, it did its job well against the limited Dephirian forces around Buil Bay, and the landing went without a hitch.

The strike was abundantly successful. No frontline Dephirian forces remained in coherent fighting shape after it was completed, and Gholgothian forces in the south enjoyed nine hours of advancement before encountering Dephirian reinforcements. Dephire's logistics, organization and leadership were all crippled by the strike, and it retained no air or naval forces in Danteri to challenge the Gholgothian forces.

Dominion heavy bombers flattened a five square mile area in the north-east where they could land a large force of troops. Although this bombing carried on for some time after the initial strike was over, it is still considered part of the initial bombing strike.

The Course of the War

Gholgothian Offensive Operations

The twelve Harakian divisions in the south as well as the Panteran Expeditionary Force advanced outwards in al directions from the Harakian-Dephirian frontier, past the wreckage strewn everywhere from the bombing raid. They took some prisoners, but not many had escaped the bombs and missiles. As Dephirian reinforcements took some time in advancing to where the Gholgothians were advancing, the Gholgothian ground forces enjoyed nine hours of unchallenged advancement before encountering Dephirian ground forces. At this point all the planes from the initial strike had been rearmed and refuelled, and Gholgothian forces enjoyed unparalleled air superiority. As well, large naval forces on the coasts gave Gholgoth a significant advantage in artillery duels, and air strikes against Dephirian artillery made the Gholgothians able to pound their enemies into the dust with artillery strikes and cruise missiles, only challenged by extreme long-range Dephirian rail cannons operating from Dephire, and even those were countered (though not very effectively) with Trebuchet cruise missile strikes from Harakian submarines.

Due to Gholgoth's overwhelming firepower, they suffered very few casualties as opposed to massive amounts of Dephirian dead and wounded. Sustained ground combat only occured for three hours, during which Gholgothian air power and artillery proved incredibly useful. Very little happened in terms of actual gun-to-gun combat, with most of the fighting being Gholgothian firepower bombarding Dephirian forces as they advanced to try and challenge the advancing Gholgothians. Dephire also suffered from crippling defections to Vega's cause from the side of Alexander, which often culminated in Dephirian frontline units laying down their arms and surrendering to the nearest Gholgothian unit, as per an announcement by Steve Tyrell that were they to do this they would be unharmed and released once the war was over.

In the north, at the Buil Bay landing, Haraki's three divisions quickly spread out and occupied some land, although nowhere near as much as the Harakian-Panteran force in the south. In the north-east, Dominion forces landed once the heavy bombers had finished their work, establishing a landing zone and landing several hundred thousand troops, by far the largest of any Gholgothian nation involved. In the north-west, 50,000 Freekian Sentinels under the command of Vidimir Breathstealer landed in two seperate landing zones in the far north-east and on the eastern coast, rapidly securing some land around them and encountering very little Dephirian opposition.

The only place where Dephirian reinforcements threatened any combat at all was in the south, where Harakian-Panteran advances were countered with massive Dephirian troop formations, which in turn were countered by large-scale Harakian carpet bombing and artillery strikes. Some fighting occured, but the Dephirian forces that reached the Gholgothian ones had been depleted enough by repeated strikes that they did not pose a serious threat.

After twelve hours of fighting, at 7:20 PM, Dephire surrendered to Gholgothian forces following a coup and regime change by Jonathan Vega (See below).

Casualties

Dephire suffered massive amounts of casualties throughout the course of the short war, primarily due to the massive amounts of Gholgothian bombing. In stark contrast, Gholgothian forces suffered miniscule losses, proving superiority of quality over quantity and tactics over blind rushing. Dephire suffered an approximated 400,000 dead with an unknown number of wounded, but assumed to be in similar, if not larger figures. Gholgothian forces suffered nearly no casualties, with Harakian frontline units suffering several hundred dead and several times that in wounded.

Most Dephirian casualties were caused in the initial strikes, which killed approximately 300,000 troops. An interesting historical note is that this trike was almost entirely Harakian in origina, and killed twice as many troops as Haraki had deployed to all of Danteri.

Allied Involvement

Several other nations took part in the invasion of Dephirian Danteri. Undershi, operating from their narrow strip of baseland on the west coast, invaded Dephirian land with three divisions, facing little opposition as most Dephirian forces were in the east facing fof against Gholgoth.

In the north-east, Zukariaa landed 400,000 troops at the Buil Bay beachhead, taking part in the seizure of land there. Some Dephirian seperatists loyal to Jonathan Vega also landed there, although they took part in no actual fighting.

All these nations signed a three-point plan written by Steven Tyrell, that they would not keep any land taken from Dephire, that they would not fight against any Gholgothian forces, and that they would not harm any native Danterians. All three forces quickly agreed to all points.

Events in Dephire

Prior to the war's beginning, Alexander had been unchallenged as the ruler of Dephire. Vega, however, issued a public message to the Gholgothians advocating Alexander's removal and was imprisoned and denounced as a traitor, due to be executed as Alexander led the country on a mad rush towards war.

With help from foreign forces, Vega was freed, escaped Dephire, and returned during the war with a alrge force of loyal troops. They stormed Alexander's fortress and killed him, instating Vega as the new leader of Dephire. In this new role, Vega stood down all Dephirian troops and surrendered to the advancing Gholgothians.

Aftermath of the War

The Okielahoman Incident

Okielahoma, New-Lexington's successor, seemed poised to fight on against Gholgoth even after Dephire's surrender, but after diplomatic efforts were used they agreed to surrender all land to Gholgothian forces if given some time to withdraw from their land in the west, which was granted. While withdrawing, Okielahoman forces razed the city of Westgate and killed thousands of civilians. When news of this reached Gholgothan leadership, the nations of Haraki and Automagfreek declared war on Okielahoma along with several other nations. Immediately after the declaration of war, the Harakian Far Southern Fleet under Admiral Tyrell hunted down and destroyed all Okielahoman naval forces present in Danteri or ferrying troops back to Okielahoma.

The Okielahomans retained twenty thousand soldiers on the western archipelago, which had been given a more lengthy timetable of withdrawal, and a brief but intense bombing campaign followed by multiple landings by the Harakian 72nd Infantry Division completely destroyed this force with next to no Harakian casualties.

The attacks on Okielahoman forces in Danteri and the waters between Danteri and Okielahoma were followed by a two week bombing campaign of Okielahoman home territory by Gholgothan and allied planes, and the assembly of a Harakian invasion fleet off the north-east coast of Okielahoma. As the fleet assembled, the United States of Allanea mobilized in support of Okielahoma, and sent an air flotilla consisting of 1,500 outdated fighter planes to safeguard the air over Okielahoma. Even as Harakian planes operating from numerous fleet carriers off the Okielahoman coast began to engage the Allanean air armada, diplomacy ended the war as Allanea agreed to pay the war reparations demanded from Okielahoma, to be used in the rebuilding of Danteri and especially Westgate, for the Okielahoman government, and be repaid over time.

An Antigran airborne force landed in Okielahoma partway through this process and was destroyed by Okielahoman forces.

Miscellaneous Aftermath

All forces allied to Gholgoth handed over all land captured without incident. Despite some confusion over ownership of Dephire's land after Vega's seizure of power, after a Harakian threat that Gholgoth would carry on invading if the Dephirians did not withdraw, Vega agreed and ordered all Dephirians out of Haraki. A proposed plan in which Dephire would retain control of their land but go along with the original Harakian diplomatic offer before the war but would retain bases and industrial complexes in Danteri for the economic benefit of the Danterians was rejected on all points by Harakian and Dominion leadership.

Despite Danterian protests, Gholgothian leadership had decided before the war that no foreign forces would be allowed to remain in Danteri; the difference being that Gholgothian forces would leave only after the country could stand on its own, planned within fifteen months, and all others were forced out at the end of hostilities. As quoted by Steven Tyrell, "There will be no peace in Danteri until all foreign forces withdraw. Those who do not withdraw will be forced out by the tip of a Gholgothian sword." Gholgothian leaders took the view that no other nations could be trusted to unite and subsequently rebuild Danteri as they had all done so well in destroying it earlier, and stuck to this doctrine following the cessation of hostilities. Eventually, all Dephirian forces conceded to the wishes of Count JWolf of the Dominion and Steven Tyrell and left Danteri by land to the north, allowing Gholgothian forces to carry on with the planned rebuilding of Danteri.

Dephire under Vega ultimately ended up joining the Dominion Commonwealth shortly following the conclusion of the war.

Legacy

The Twelve Hour War was Haraki's most successful war ever, and the fastest victory ever by Gholgothian forces. It cemented the idea of Gholgothian superiority in warfare, with the complete destruction of Dephire's capability to resist the Gholgothian advances in a thirty minute aerial bombardment. Even with such limited forces deployed as could have been by Gholgothian nations, they still managed an overwhelming victory.

The success in this war led to a strong boost in popularity in Haraki for jingoistic thought, and the much-debated massive defence budget was finally justified. In fact, a large expansion program for Haraki's military was undertaken following the conclusion of the war, both to bring the Harakian Armed Forces up to standard Gholgothian levels and to make it so that Haraki would maintain multiple large-scale conflicts at the same time in different areas, thus strongly boosting Haraki's military reputation and deployable strength.

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