Cetsencalia front

Cetsencalia front
Part of the Final War of the Deluge
VPDC forces defending against a Varshani raid, 2022
Date September 29, 2021 - January 27, 2023 Location Cetsencalia Result Urcean victory
Belligerents
Varshan	Urcea VPDC Veltorine government-in-exile (from 2022) Anglei (from 2022) The Cape (from 2022)
Units involved
Xiquipilli of Continental Liberation	WES-COM
Strength
840,000+ (Dec 2021) 1,250,000+ (Sep 2022)	795,000+ (Dec 2021) 1,650,000+ (Jun 2022)
Casualties and losses
High	High

The Cetsencalia front was a theater of operations of the Final War of the Deluge fought in former Cetsencalia and in neighboring regions of Varshan. It included all operations fought within Cetsencalia following the end of the Invasion of Cetsencalia and the collapse of the Cetsencalian state. The front was fought concurrently with the Veltorine insurgency.

Background

Main article: Invasion of Cetsencalia

After years of issuing increasingly hostile warnings to Occidental powers participating in The Deluge, Varshan invaded Cetsencalia in 2021 as part of an overall response to the war between Urcea and Algoquona. Following a six month campaign which mostly saw victories by advancing Varshani forces, New Taxades was evacuated and fell to Varshani forces. The Varshani government established a collaborator government out of remaining elements of the Veltorine Social Council (VSC). In addition to the large number of prisoners of war captured during the campaign, Varshan now occupied territory comprising the majority Veltorine population of Cetsencalia and began a campaign of relocation and concentration in addition to settlement. They were opposed in this effort by the Veltorine Popular Defense Committee, which waged the Veltorine insurgency against the occupation. The VPDC and Royal and Imperial Army also responded by conventional military means, establishing the "Cetsencalian front" of the conflict following the end of the invasion.

Summary of operations

Aftermath of invasion

In the immediate aftermath of the Invasion of Cetsencalia and fall of New Taxades, Nysdra Sea Treaty Association forces were divided in two, with most forces in the parts of Cetsencalia west of New Taxades but a smaller contingent east of the city in the mountainous region adjoining Quetzenkel. NSTA forces underwent a major reorganization in the two or three weeks following the fall of New Taxades, shifting forces evenly in an attempt to hold the Varshani forces to where they had progressed while ensuring that the Quetzenkel front would not be compromised. This period also saw a considerable transfer of assets and units to the Veltorine Popular Defense Committee. During this time, the administration of the area was also reorganized as the Veltorine Territories due to the capitulation and collaborator status of the former government of Cetsencalia.

"Raider's War"

Beginning in late October of 2021, Royal and Imperial Army and Veltorine Popular Defense Committee began a series of joint operations intended to free Urcean and Veltorine prisoners of war behind Varshani lines. The operation was devised for three main objectives. Its primary objective was to lift allied morale with a series of minor victories following the disastrous campaign in defense of New Taxades and to gain further information on the overall disposition of Varshani forces remaining in the theater. Its secondary objective was to continue to tie down Varshani forces to distract from campaigns further south waged by Alstin and Urcea, especially the Ehemoan front and Operation Jonah. The third and tertiary objective of the planned raids was to prevent as many Urceans and Veltorines as possible from being victims of human sacrifice, and to otherwise prevent these personnel from joining the ranks of Varshani slaves. To that end, the Royal and Imperial Army and VPDC launched probing raids all across the western frontier from October 25 to November 18 2021 in what became known to the soldiers as the "Raider's War". During these operations, various supply depots and slave transfer stations were attacked, freeing prisoners of war and significantly disrupting the expropriation of property in Cetsencalia. The "Raider's War" was highly effective and required an additional deployment of Varshani forces to the lines in Cetsencalia. Although no further coordinated raid campaign occurred, Urcean and VPDC forces spent the remainder of thw winter of 2021-22 launching ad hoc raids to disrupt slave transfers as well as to confuse Varshani supply and intelligence.

Liberation of Barrafranca

On the evening of 7 March 2022, elements of the Army of Anglei and Royal and Imperial Army began an offensive against the city of Barrafranca just east of New Taxades. While initially intended as an armored reconnaissance-in-force operation, Varshani forces within the city were unexpectedly almost overwhelmed by midnight. Consequently, the Royal and Imperial Army sent additional reinforcements to the city around 2 AM local time on 8 March, having delayed somewhat for fear of a trap. Armored reinforcements managed to cut the lines of the city from the west, encircling the brigade-strength garrison of the city and causing them to surrender by 7 AM. Contemporary military intelligence suggested that the city would be much more heavily defended, and a study conducted in June of 2022 concluded that the Atomic bombing of Shimrra had so greatly disrupted the supply chain in northern Varshan that their occupation force in Cetsencalia was prepared to concede the northern coast in order to shorten its salient in the country.

Pentapolis campaign

Beginning on April 20th, 2022, the Royal Air Force began an extensive bombing campaign on the corridor between Barrafranca and the Urcean lines west of New Taxades. On 31 May 2022, forces of the Royal and Imperial Army began the largest Urcean ground offensive of the war to that point as a major armored spearhead broke through Varshani defensive lines a few hundred kilometers west of New Taxades, beginning a push to liberate the "Pentapolis" - a grouping of Veltorine settlements sitting in the plain west of New Taxades. Elements of II Armored Legion New Harren exploited a reorganization of Varshani defenses prompted by a change in the aerial campaign and penetrated fifteen miles into the Varshani line by 4 June, capturing vital supply depots and the major airfield in the territory, causing significant logistical issues for Varshani forces largely reliant on the north-south highway and railway corridor extending to New Taxades. With the possibility of their headquarters being captured by 6 June and being cut off from their primary base of supply, most Varshani forces abandoned their defense of the coastal region and attempted to rally in the three eastern cities of the Pentapolis in order to prevent New Taxades from becoming a salient. Most Varshani forces, harassed by the RAF and attack helicopters of the Royal and Imperial Army, did not reach the regroup zone and were destroyed or otherwise had to abandon their equipment. The command of the Xiquipilli of Continental Liberation decided to entirely abandon the region and create a new defensive line surrounding the New Taxades-Interior transport corridor.

New Taxades campaign

With the fall of the Pentapolis in June 2022, Varshani forces contemplated abandoning New Taxades altogether. However, the ongoing siege of Cobalt Fortress in the Quetzenkel front meant that Varshani commanders were under significant political pressure to not abandon too much territory. Although the right of way including the region's only highway and railway connection to New Taxades was heavily bombed, most military vehicles were still able to reach the city. Constructed during the settlement of the country some five years earlier, the remaining territory between New Taxades and the Cetsencalian interior was heavily forested with rough highlands. Consequently, Varshani command decided to defend the corridor "to the last man". Veltorine Popular Defense Committee forces were empowered to launch large scale raids on New Taxades and the corridor all across both the western and eastern lines and on July 5 2022 the entire allied forces of the League of Nations Command began a joint offensive from both east and west. Western forces, almost entirely Royal and Imperial Army and VPDC units, focused on the two cities immediately south of New Taxades - New Platessa and New Aenon - which anchored the transportation corridor into the city. The western offensive began at 3 AM local time and came out of the Pentapolis on a southeastern swing. Eastern forces, comprised of units from the Royal and Imperial Army and the Army of the Cape, attacked New Taxades directly out of Barrafranca at approximately the same time. Prior to the assault, VPDC partisans were alerted and began to sabotage military targets and begin a general uprising in the city the night before the attack. Fighting continued throughout the 5th and 6th with allied forces making significant progress in street-to-street fighting in New Taxades. On the morning of the 6th, an unexpected storm blew in from the Nysdra and prevented significant Royal Air Force intervention in the western attack, giving Varshani forces time to regroup and regain lost ground. On the 7th, Varshani commanders determined that New Taxades was likely to be lost after another week of fighting and that withdrawal from the city was imperative since encirclement from the south was still an impossibility. Poor weather allowed most of the Varshani ground forces to withdraw from the city in good order, though harassed by Veltorine partisans, leading to the defenders of the southern cities to wage a fighting retreat to slow the advance of allied forces until the entire Varshani force could withdraw to the interior. By July 10, the entire theater war free of Varshani forces. In its defense of the area, Varshan had lost approximately 20,000 men with scores more injured, but successfully maintained fighting strength in Cetsencalia.

On the morning of 11 July 2022, a victory parade was held in the city. In a previously unthinkable show of unity and patriotic spirit, forces from both the Veltorine Popular Defense Committee and those loyal to the Veltorine government-in-exile (attached to Capetian forces) marched side-by-side in the parade.

End of fighting

Following the encirclement and destruction of the Xiquipilli of Continental Liberation at the end of Operation Gideon, nearly all of pre-war Cetsencalia was liberated. Small pockets of forward defenders and recon units of the Varshani army were destroyed in February 2023 in small scale operations, fully liberating the country.

Insurgent campaign

Concurrently with the actions of regular allied forces, a considerably large insurgency campaign was fought by the Veltorine Popular Defense Committee Homeland Front, later joined by sleeper cells loyal to the Veltorine government-in-exile and others. These groups, in addition to waging a traditional guerilla war in holdout locations and in mountainous areas, engaged in a large variety of activities, including raids on slave camps, espionage, sabotage, weapons smuggling, among other activities. Many analysts believe the campaign created significant disruptions among Varshani forces and also tied down considerable amount of combat personnel; the same analysts also believe the insurgency was vital in slowing the pace of the Varshani retreat, allowing them to be encircled during the critical Operation Gideon.

Elements

Government-in-exile cells

The Veltorine government-in-exile began to construct sleeper cells in Cetsencalia in 2017 as part of an effort to undermine the efforts of the Veltorine Social Council to settle the country. These groups were largely devoted to creating political discontent from 2017 to 2020 and intended to destabilize the Cetsencalia project to dissuade Veltorine people from emigrating from Caphiria. The most prominent of these, which would later become the central organizing resistance organ, was known internally as the "True Homeland Front". They primarily were active in and around New Taxades prior to the invasion.

During the Invasion of Cetsencalia, these groups practiced non-resistance to the advancing Varshani forces. Following the invasion, some VPDC sources alleged that the True Homeland Front was responsible for sabotaging defenses and actively aiding the Varshani forces, but these claims have been met with skepticism both by scholars and by the League of Nations. With the beginning of the occupation of the country and atrocities committed against Veltorine settlers, some - but not all - cells loyal to the government-in-exile began active resistance efforts to the occupation. With the entry of the Cape into the war following the Atomic bombing of Zakan Rot, the government-in-exile ordered "total, unending" resistance to Varshani occupation, according to a memo sent to leaders of the True Homeland Front, which became the central command for all GIE-aligned insurgents.

The True Homeland Front and its components had a tepid relationship with other insurgents, including the VPDC. Skirmishes between the two groups, though rare, were documented on numerous occasions in the winter of 2021-22. With the liberation of New Taxades in early summer 2022, the True Homeland Front and most other components of government-in-exile forces were integrated into advancing Capetian forces, largely ending the participation of the Veltorine government-in-exile in the insurgency.