Operation Lightfoot

Operation Lightfoot
Part of 2nd Great War
(Clockwise, from top right): MGen Johnathan Eddis, Commander of Arcerion's 1st Airborne Division works with staff on the DZ to coordinate H-Hour +1 movements; Members of the 1st Arco Parachute Battalion move inland during combat operations during H-Hour +5; Heavy fighting and destroyed aircraft at a Cape military airfield outside of Novasar where Arco Paras rush to cover during shelling; An NCO with the 3rd Arco Parachute Battalion looks skyward as the remainder of his company completes their insertion as part of the 2nd wave.
Date XY - YZ Month Year Location Southern Crona Result Arcerion tactical and operational victory, Strategic Stalemate
Belligerents
Arcerion	The Cape
Commanders and leaders
Johnathan Eddis Niels de Fluyer
Units involved
1st Airborne Division 2nd Infantry Division 5th Infantry Division	Cape Armed Forces

Operation Lightfoot is considered to be one of the largest and most aggressive airborne operations of the Great War, with over 20,000 Arcerion soldiers airdropped followed by thousands more via sea. It was fought in the Cape and surrounding territorial waters and islands from XY - YZ Month Year, between the Arcerion Army and Air Force and the Armed Forces of the Cape. In response to a rapid increase in socialist and communist sympathizers taking over prominent positions in the Cape, and slowly moving it towards a socialist state, the Arcerion Army was tasked with seizing much of the country's vital infrastructure to prevent communist control of the important Songun Straits. The result was a pitched series of battles over several months, culminating in the collapse of Cape Armed Forces' resistance and subsequent withdrawal to the East. Operation Lightfoot coincided with the Paulastra offensive OP XYZXYZ, which centered on a land-based invasion of the Cape from their shared territorial border.

Background

Planning and Coordination

Planning phases began almost a full year prior to H-Hour itself, with Arcerion Army Headquarters receiving a directive that it was responsible for a twofold approach to the issue of the Cape's rise in communism. The first was to prepare a multi-division level invasion of the Cape's Central and Eastern sovereign territory, and the latter was to send Arcer military representatives to Paulastra to coordinate for a simultaneous ground invasion by their Army as agreed upon at the ABC Conference. Initial coordination called the heads of many of Arcerion's fighting divisions, as this would require the vast majority of the small military's resources. One of the most prominent figures was Major General Johnathan Eddis, the then-commander of the Royal Arcerion Military college. A career infantryman, MGen Eddis' emphasis on modern signals equipment, decentralized leadership, and aggression made him the ideal choice for the newly formed 1st Airborne Division, the only time in Arcerion's history that a division-level airborne unit would be formed. The initial staff conference held in Kinnaird on XYZ date in the Kinnaird Garrison's headquarters planning room came with the conclusion that a surprise airborne invasion, with limited preparatory bombardment or aerial strikes would help the ground forces achieve quick successes over the Cape in the early hours of their attack.

The initial issues identified were the amount of aircraft required to transport thousands of Arcerion's servicemen to land in the Cape, as well as the issues surrounding supporting fires in the form of fixed-wing close air support and long-range artillery support from 105mm and 155mm army batteries. The former issues, later discussed as 'the Airlift Problem' would result in an extremely rare government nationalization of Arco Air, whereas the latter was solved with meticulous staff planning. To make up for the needed fire support in the initial 24-72 hours of the invasion, Arcerion parachute infantry would seize the Cape's Songun Islands, and the airfields therein, allowing a forward staging of Arcerion Air Force planes and equipment at what would become known as 'FAF 1' (Forward Airfield 1). From there, once inland airfields and airstrips had been secured, the Air Force would be able to more easily support front-line operations. Concurrent, the Navy and Merchant Marine would land troops in the town of Novasar, which would be secured no later than H-Hour +72 to allow for a port sufficient in its size to ease landing operations.

From the beginning, Eddis emphasized that this campaign would be a "matter of hours, not days, and for the fighting man a battle of minutes and seconds." As such, all timings for the first 3 days of the fighting were to be referenced in planning as 'H-Hour +' to denote that they only had 72 hours in which to get soldiers onto the ground, supplied, led, and directed at the enemy. Eddis was confident that once Arco paratroopers were pointed at the Cape by their officers, "the NCOs would finish the job." It was with this in mind that the planning conference set follow-on dates and checks to ensure that regular staff coordination was maintained. The Air Force was assigned several Army liaisons and they provided their own to ensure maximum coordination between the two armed services.

Preparations

While command of the operation was nominally under the commander of the Army, in all reality the deputy commander of the operation, Eddis, would oversee all planning and preparation of the actual conduct for the undertaking. Arcer forces began their preparation just weeks after the initial planning conference, forming up at the Dalfearn and Kinnaird garrisons and beginning company-, battalion-, and then brighade-level airborne exercises, as well as an increased emphasis placed on platoon- and company-level operations as these were the basic building blocks of the operation.