Benno de Caryale

Knight-Castellan Benno Maurice de Caryale CC IHC OE OC (April 20, 1889 – November 15, 1971) was a Yonderian Field Marshal and nobleman. During a very succesful career with the Yonderian Defence Force spanning 48 years, de Caryale became Chief of the General Staff in 1933 aged 43 and Chief of Defence in 1948. An early proponent of combined arms warfare, de Caryale was instrumental in the mid-to-late 1920s reformation of the Urcean Royal and Imperial Army, known as the Yonderian revolution, which placed an emphasis on new ideas of combined arms warfare, ideas which he later introduced to the Yonderian Defence Force during his tenure as Chief of the General Staff. de Caryale's Treatise on Modern Warfare (1919) was also very influential abroad, notably with the Army of the United Angle States.

Born to a lesser noble family in Collinebourg, de Caryale joined the Yonderian Defence Force aged 18 in 1907. de Caryale was promoted fast compared to his peers due to his talents for leadership, this despite the YDF undergoing downsizing in the 1910s, before accepting an invitation to join the Urcean Imperial War College in 1923. While in Urcea, de Caryale led the motorization drive and doctrine development that resulted in the first true combined arms formation of the Urcean Royal and Imperial Army, for which he held the title "Deputy Lord Marshal for the Renovation of His Most Christian Majesty's Forces" and the powers vested therein from 1926-1930. de Caryale was recalled to Yonderre in 1930 and placed on the Yonderian General Staff with a promotion to Major General. With Nestor d'Argonne's promotion to Chief of Defence, de Caryale became Chief of the General Staff in 1933. During his tenure as Chief of the General Staff, de Caryale became mentor to the up-and-coming officer and Volonderre Rachet d'Everard who de Caryale took under his wing.

de Caryale became Chief of Defence of the Yonderian Defence Force in 1948 at which time he set about modernizing the YDF, particularly the officer corps and its leadership culture. Modelled on his experiences in Urcea, many senior officers were retired under de Caryale's watch including six Colonel Generals to make way for younger enterprising officers with new ideas. de Caryale himself retired in 1956, leaving the role of Chief of Defence of the Yonderian Defence Force to his prodigy Rachet d'Everard who completely revitalized the YDF, building on the ideas and foundations laid by de Caryale. de Caryale lived out the remainder of his life in relative obscurity in Solndorf, a peaceful town nestled away in a valley of the Vollardic Mountains of Vandarcôte.

Early life
Benno Maurice de Caryale was born in Collinebourg on April 20th, 1889, as the second son of lawyer Guillaume de Caryale (1865-1939) and Helena de Caryale (née d'Alisse) (1869-1959). The de Caryale family were Castellans, a title of minor nobility in Yonderre. He attended a popular school in Collinebourg from 1895-1904 before attending a secondary education from 1904-1907. de Caryale was conscripted into the Yonderian Defence Force in 1907, training at the Gouvier Training Camp in Vollardie before being posted to the 9th Vollardic Mountain Division. de Caryale was made Sergeant in 1908. Having been singled out for his talents, de Caryale was selected for officer training and had risen to the rank of Lieutenant in 1910. Around the same time, de Caryale was posted to the divisional staff of the 9th Vollardic Mountain Division as personal assistant to regimental commander Colonel Reikhardt Mannhäuser. Mannhäuser, a cavalryman by training, instilled in de Caryale an understanding of the importance of maneuver warfare and an openness to new ideas as opposed to perceived old dogmas.

de Caryale attended the Yonderian Command and Staff College in Willing from 1913-14 and again in 1917-18 when he graduated as Major. de Caryale stayed with the 9th Vollardic Mountain Division divisional staff, becoming deputy commander of the 31st Mountain Regiment in 1918. de Caryale began publishing treatises on modern warfare after his second stay in the Yonderian Command and Staff College, notably the Treatise on Modern Warfare from 1919 in which he theorized about maneuver warfare in future wars including combined arms operations and defence-in-depth tactics. Thanks to his academy training and the interest in his writings, de Caryale was invited to join the Urcean Imperial War College in 1923, for which he was granted administrative furlough from the Yonderian Defence Force.

At the Urcean Imperial War College
Benno de Caryale arrived in Urceopolis with his family in the Summer of 1923 so that he could attend the Imperial War College. de Caryale joined the Dioni Committee, an expert panel of hand picked Burgoignesc, Urcean and Yonderian officers led by Urcean Leo Dioni. The Dioni Committee was tasked with evaluating, vetting and potentially weeding out officers of the Urcean Royal and Imperial Army that stood in the way of progress. While in Urceopolis, de Caryale also had the chance to observe and evaluate on the Royal and Imperial Army, about which he later remarked that it was "totally unsuited for modern warfare...completely unable to implement or execute combined arms tactics". Based on his observations, de Caryale spent his spare time drawing up plans for what would eventually become the first combined arms formation of the Royal and Imperial Army, the 1st Armored Brigade. Submitted in Spring 1924, de Caryale's plans were approved and he was transferred from the Dioni Committee to the new formation being stood up as adjudant and advisor to its commander Lucás Duinnius Carda. Reaching near-full compliment of equipment in the winter of 1924/25, the brigade was able to begin exercising, though it was quickly recognized that the armoured component of the brigade left much to be desired.

de Caryale's continued writings on military theory throughout the mid-1920s earned him considerable interest, and moreover influence, with both the Imperial War College and the Royal and Imperial Army. de Caryale at this point in time became involved in a series of doctrinal debates with other military thinkers in Urcea, notably with General Michael Galiená who favoured the type of Grand Battleplanning used in the First Great War. In the Summer of 1925, Galiená wrote an open letter to the leadership of the Imperial War College, an open letter picked up and reported on by the press; Galiená's letter warned that some of the ideas that were being explored by the likes of de Caryale were "too foreign to work in our forces" and even "fantastical", adding that it would be foolish to let "the nosey Yond Major" take control of the future of the Royal and Imperial Army. de Caryale responded by a letter published in the Levantine Times Union, calling Galiená a "cobblestone grognard" whose best times were behind him and who "should be put out to pasture if the army had any sense". This resulted in a lengthy exchange of such letters, all published in the Levantine Times Union over the Summer and Autumn of 1925, which garnered general public interest outside military circles for the sheer spectacle of it. de Caryale and Galiená finally met in December of 1925 in a physical debate which was transmitted by radio in which the two butted heads for over an hour.

Around the same time, the 1st Armored Brigade, while still lacking in its actual armoured component, was being whipped into shape by Carda and de Caryale. In following many of de Caryale's teachings, the brigade represented a quantum leap in Urcean military tactics; eschewing the tactics of the First Great War in favour of fast-paced maneuver warfare centred around concentrated combined arms strikes on premeditated enemy points, the brigade would seek to force a breakthrough which could then be exploited by its mobile forces to create encirclements and disrupt the rear areas of enemy forces. This set of tactics, known in Urcean parlance as "lightning war", proved highly effective in brigade-on-brigade exercises carried out in early 1926.

Deputy Lord Marshal
Due to his continued development of general military theory and progress made with the 1st Armored Brigade, de Caryale was granted the title "Deputy Lord Marshal for the Renovation of His Most Christian Majesty's Forces" on Feburary 7th, 1926. This completely changed de Caryale's authority in Urcea, effectively changing his status from influential theorist to practical reformer overnight. Yonderian Defence Force leadership was not made aware of this until February 10th, at which time de Caryale was hurriedly and unceremoniously promoted to Colonel, receiving his promotion, new epaulettes and collar tabs by air mail on the 12th. As Deputy Lord Marshal, de Caryale soon set about reforming many aspects of the Royal and Imperial Army he found wanting. de Caryale's first course of action was tackling the issue of stagnation in the leadership of the Royal and Imperial Army; more than 25% of Lieutenants in the army were over the age of 40 and the average age of Majors was 48, many of which were deeply entrenched in the doctrinal thinking of the First Great War. de Caryale's solution was the retirement or redeployment of many senior officers to make way for younger ones to take their places. Not one to forget old grudges, de Caryale made sure Michael Galiená was redeployed as garrison commander of New Harren, at the time considered a deadend backwater deployment.

Simultaneously, de Caryale saw to it that that a new emphasis was placed on automotive and armoured research, an emphasis which would eventually lead to the development and introduction of the SAV-5 tank in 1930. With its new doctrinal focus on combined arms and maneuver warfare, modern artillery pieces were also required for the Royal and Imperial Army to provide effective long range fire support for advancing forces. Finally, de Caryale held several large-scale exercises that numbered several corps and finally armies at a time; at Northgate in 1926 with 150,000 participants and Afoncord (200,000 participants) and Callan (225,000 participants) in 1927. Major amphibious exercises were also held at Halfway and Talionia in 1928. Amidst doubts as to whether or not Urcea would be able to effectively mobilize reservists in case of war, the Royal and Imperal Army saw considerable expansion during the de Caryale's tenure as Deputy Lord Marshal.

Based on the succesful application of the 1st Armored Brigade in the exercises of particularly 1927 and 1928, de Caryale submitted a request for the expansion of the 1st Armored Brigade into a full division, a request granted in the Summer of 1929. A further addendum to the request was that of a further three armoured divisions to be stood up "once appropriate armoured fighting vehicles have been procured", as they would be with the introduction of the SAV-5 in 1930. Having introduced and succesfully implemented the concept of combined arms and in particular the basic theories of maneuver warfare within the Royal and Imperial Army, de Caryale shifted his focus to the equipment of the ground forces. de Caryale unsuccesfully campaigned for the widespread adoption of a self-loading rifle for the infantry and the introduction of a fully automatic rifle suitable for. The former was rejected in favour of the continued use of the SR-9C bolt action carbine, the latter for the SMG-3 general-purpose machine gun. Finally, in August of 1930, de Caryale was recalled to Yonderre.

On the Yonderian General Staff
de Caryale returned to Yonderre in September of 1930 where he was met with a promotion to Major General and an assignment with the General Staff of the Yonderian Defence Force. de Caryale was entasked with coming up with ways to apply his experiences from Urcea and the reforms he introduced to the Royal and Imperial Army to the Yonderian Defence Force which in many respects found itself in a rather similar situation to that of the Royal and Imperial Army a decade prior. Having maintained strict neutrality in the First Great War and undergone considerable cutbacks in the 1910s and early 1920s due to the Great Depression, the Yonderian Defence Force, much like the Royal and Imperial Army, found itself with an aging officer corps and stagnant military thinking. As such, de Caryale set about attempting to implement many of the reforms he had carried out as Deputy Lord Marshal in Urcea, although a lack of willingness to carry out quite as subtantial reforms within the higher echelons of the Yonderian Defence Force severely limitted the actual effectiveness of the changes. Limited by his lack of direct power in the Yonderian Defence Force, de Caryale regardless continued pressing for changes to be made, and was made Chief of the Armoured Forces in 1932.

With the retirement of Chief of Defence Henry d'Erlinne and subsequent promotion of Nestor d'Argonne to Chief of Defence, de Caryale became Chief of the General Staff in 1933 aged 43, the youngest man ever to have held the title at the time. Now effectively the third-most powerful man in the Yonderian Defence Force behind the Chief of Defence and the Grand Duke of Yonderre, de Caryale was able to more effectively force his reforms into being; de Caryale started the long process of reforming Yonderre's cavalry forces, retraining them as motorized and armoured forces when allowed by avaiable materiel. de Caryale also radically changed the organization of the infantry divisions, reducing them from four to three regiments and making up for this by increasing the firepower of the individual regiments through an increase in numbers of organic artillery and automatic weapons. This would in theory allow the Yonderian Defence Force to field more divisions for the same amount of manpower in case of war.

In 1940, de Caryale was introduced to the newly-returned Volonderre Rachet d'Everard. d'Everard, who was a well-educated officer from the Vallonbourg Cavalry School, had been fighting with the Burgoignesc Foreign Legion since the very beginning of the Second Great War in 1934 and thus had first-hand experience of combat, something de Caryale on occasion lamented lacking. de Caryale took the young staff officer under his wing and became a mentor to d'Everard, the two becoming close friends and confidants.

Chief of Defence
Benno de Caryale became Marshal of Yonderre and Chief of Defence of the Yonderian Defence Force on January 1st, 1948, his replacement as Chief of the General Staff being Rachet d'Everard. Now wielding near-absolute power in the Yonderian Defence Force, de Caryale, together with d'Everard, was able to finally carry out the reforms he had had planned since the 1930s. The 1948 New Army agreement brought into being by de Caryale modernized the Yonderian Defence Force greatly from an army relying doctrinally on static defence to one of rapid maneuver warfare. To ensure that the new methods of the Yonderian Defence Force would be implemented correctly, several senior officers of the YDF including six General Colonels were retired by de Caryale's orders to allow younger officers to take their places.

Throughout his time as Chief of Defence, de Caryale maintained a close relationship with both his Chief of the General Staff Rachet d'Everard and the Grand Duke of Yonderre Joanus X de Martigueux, maintaining weekly meetings with d'Everard and bi-weekly briefings with the Grand Duke on the status of the Yonderian Defence Force in those early days of the Occidental Cold War. When his time came to retire in 1955, de Caryale picked Rachet d'Everard as his successor to the title of Chief of Defence of the Yonderian Defence Force. True to his reformist ways of making way for younger officers, de Caryale retired voluntarily in 1956 aged 66, having served the Yonderian Defence Force for a period spanning 48 years.

Later life
Having retired in 1956, de Caryale lived out the remainder of his life in relative obscurity in Solndorf, the peaceful home town of his wife nestled away in a valley of the Vollardic Mountains of Vandarcôte. de Caryale continued to dedicate his retirement to writing, composing several works of military history including autobiographical work. His book "The Royal and Imperial Army: From Brick to Marble" published in 1959 about his time in Urcea was met with academic acclaim in Urcea and Yonderre. de Caryale was given an honourary doctorate in history from the University of Collinebourg in 1960.

Personality
Benno de Caryale has been described variously as affable and hard-nosed, and was undoubtedly a divisive character to some. While his friends spoke highly of his good humoured character, his proud and confident nature, however, meant that he was largely hostile to bureaucracy and politics. He had a famous temper; one friend called de Caryale a "militant doctrinist", as was visible from his very public feud with Urcean General Galiená. Despite his faults, he was generally well liked by his contemporaries. Rachet d'Everard wrote that, "[de Caryale's] little slips from virtue were those we might make ourselves, were we bolder".

Personal life
Benno de Caryale married Simona Holmberg (1895-1981) in 1914. The couple had four children; Joanus (1916-2009), Amelie (married as d'Avignon) (1918-2012), Rachet (1921-2011) and Eleonora (married as von Horn) (1931-2026). The family lived in Collinebourg from the beginning of their marriage in 1914 until they moved to Urceopolis in 1923 so Benno could attend the Imperial War College. They returned to Collinebourg in 1930 and remained there until he retired in 1956, at which time they moved to Simona's hometown of Solndorf in Vandarcôte.

Awards
The following is a selected assortment of medals awarded to Benno de Caryale
 * Yonderre Cross of the Order of the Sentinel (1911), Grand Cross (1923), Grand Cross with Swords (1936)
 * Yonderre Cross of the Order of the Shield (1917), Grand Cross (1930), Grand Cross with Swords (1939)
 * Yonderre Dutiful Service Award 12 years (1919), 25 years (1932), 35 years (1942), 45 years (1952)
 * Levantine Union Member of the Imperial Order of the Holy Cross (1930), Imperial Knight (1944)
 * Yonderre Cross of the Order of the Kestrel (1930), Grand Cross (1941), Grand Cross with Sash (1944)
 * Yonderre Knight's Cross of the Order of Joanus (1942)

Dates of ranks

 * Private (1907)
 * Sergeant (1908)
 * Lieutenant (1910)
 * Captain (1914)
 * Major (1918)
 * Lieutenant Colonel (1923)
 * Colonel (1926)
 * Major General (1930)
 * Lieutenant General (1933)
 * Colonel General (1939)
 * Marshal of Yonderre (1948)