Operation Enduring Wolf

[TheShammySocialist]

[OOC: Granted an autoadvance by the Yawooligans.]

 

With the intent to take Queen Hadiya Ekwensi II into custody, the elements of 44 Brigade and 87 Battalion would close in on the Head of States' residence in the coastal governmental quarter of Dar es Salaam. Taking sporadic ground fire against their helicopters, with one helicopter being shot down by a shoulder-launched missile as it delivered its charges to the ground, the rangers and special operators would engage security forces and the monarchs' guards. Supported by helicopter gunships and air-to-ground support from overflying tactical aircraft, the operators would begin the process of surrounding the queens' compound. Armored and mechanized relief forces would also engage Tanzanian Army forces in a running battle along a main coastal boulevard in Dar es Salaam, with tanks and armored infantry continually pressing forward, utilizing superior firepower to whittle down any resistance they met.

 

Intelligence assets would focus on quickly subduing the Tanzanian Government and forcing a general disintegration of its armed forces, which would be relatively easy given the fact that South Africa had unique knowledge of much of Tanzania's military support structure. A doctrine of pinpoint strategic bombardment by bombers and cruise missiles would begin almost immediately after cruise missile strikes against airfield runways and support areas were deemed generally successful. The South African Air Force would immediately begin targeting radar systems with anti-radiation missiles, while strategic bombers and tactical strike aircraft would move against logistical targets. Striking out at fuel and supply depots with stand-off air-launched cruise missiles and high altitude-launched long-range glide bombs.

 

Artillery, command, and logistical points of interest, particularly around Dar es Salaam and the surrounding area, would come under withering but pinpoint naval gunfire from a surface action group led by railguns and missile batteries of the modern battleship Redoubt. South African Air Force and Navy aviation assets would fly continuous round-the-clock fighter patrols over Tanzania. This would enforce the no-fly zone already imposed by Athens, and cooperative engagement of targets would be requested by the South Africans to Tianxia and/or Athens if deemed appropriate. Surface-to-air missile threats and air defense artillery would be quickly targeted by air-to-surface, surface-to-surface missiles, or artillery if available, with impunity. The South African Army would also begin a combined-arms offensive that would move forward across the border from Mozambique, involving armored and motorized infantry supported by air and artillery support.

 

Forces within Tanzania itself would engage Tanzanian units if necessary, or make every attempt to disarm and corral them if the situation was appropriate and the option presented itself. Several units had come under fire and had incurred losses of their own already, but were also dishing out just as much as they got.

Edited August 22, 2013 by TheShammySocialist

[Triyun]

Tianxia forces were ordered to withdraw from Mainland Africa to their bases in the Indian Ocean having completed their combat mission.

[TheShammySocialist]

[b][OOC: Autoadvance granted...][/b]

 

The battle that would rage in the government quarter of Dar es Salaam well throughout the day, with special operators, finally reinforced by units from the 8th South African Armored Division, and backed up by heavy air and artillery support. Casualties were relatively light amongst special forces units, but the battle itself was a continual grind on their energy, but determination would prevail when the Queen's compound was breached. Quickly moving in on a collapsed perimeter, the special operators would begin a room-by-room clearing of the compound and the associated buildings, utilizing tear gas, flash bangs, and non-lethal weaponry to apprehend security force members and key staffers, although lethal force was employed when individuals would attempt to kill or harm the South Africans conducting the raid.

 

Whilst mechanized troopers and tanks would continue to ensure security around the compound and ward off any hopes of reinforcement, a team of four 87 Battalion troopers would breach a safe room and take Queen Hadiya Ekwensi II into custody. Along with taking several members of her family into custody, the troopers would immediately ensure that the Tanzanian ruler and her staff were free of anything that could cause harm to them or their compatriots. After securing the queen, an extraction team would land with a helicopter directly outside the compound in a clear LZ, the helicopter heavily escorted by multiple gunships and the area protected by several heavy armored vehicles. Under sporadic gunfire, the extraction team, made up of Naval Commandos, would take the Queen and other captives from the compound, from the 87 Battalion operators into their custody, and load them aboard a heavy assault helicopter for offshore transfer.

 

As the Queen was being flown to the battleship Redoubt, approximately thirty miles offshore, and the aerial convoy being protected by several flights of fighters, elements of the 8th South African Armored Division would continue its mission in the government quarter of Dar es Salaam. This meant apprehending government officials and workers and taking them into custody, as well as essentially destroying the structure of the national government. Other members of the Queen's family would be sought out for apprehension, whilst outside of Dar es Salaam, elements of the South African Armed Services were tightening the noose.

 

A mechanized offensive was barreling towards the capital from Mozambique, engaging several delaying actions and formations of the Tanzanian Army in pitched, mobile battles. With air power quite secure over the nation for the moment, South African Air Force units would strike with impunity, identifying and engaging air defense threats, ensuring continued suppression of early warning systems, whilst also punishing logistical routes. Supply depots and support positions such as artillery or dug in tanks would be ruthlessly attacked until their combat value was next to nil. Although casualties amongst South African Army units varied and in some cases, were considerable, the attacks from Mozambique would build in strength.

 

Further attacks would strike into Western and Southwest Tanzania from the South African Protectorate States that bordered the nation. Several divisions were involved on multiple fronts, with mechanized, light infantry, and heavy armor units moving into Tanzania from their camps close to the border. Supported by copious amounts of air and artillery support, they would press home their advantage against a disorganized resistance put up by the Tanzanian Army. Casualties were bound to happen, and there would be a steady flow of wounded needing to be evacuated and dead that would need to be buried, but the attacks that would seek to tear open the wound that was already gaping, were beginning to tell on the Tanzanian State.

 

Elements of the Tanzanian Army were beginning to surrender in some places, although there were still some hard-fought battles that would need to be won, the jaws of the wolf were beginning to close around the neck...

[TheShammySocialist]

[OOC: Annexed Tanzanian, but I want to finish the job...]

 

With operations under way against Dar es Salaam and clearing Tanzania’s South and the immediate coastline south of the capital, operations were also under way in the north as well. While the joint South African-Faraway Offensive was gathering for a push through Mbeya towards Iringa, several South African garrisons in the north were in a state of siege. A number of cities in the north hosted South African bivouacs, and although air power was plentiful, and resupply was available, these units could not fight their way out. Evacuating them from their camps would also be risky, and therefore the only way to ensure their safety would be a combined-arms ground and air offensive bent on breaking up the Tanzanian Army in the northwest of the country.

This task would fall to elements of the First South African Army, based in the northeast of the Congolese protectorate, as well as Rwanda and Burundi. With a relatively plentiful number of formations at its disposal, the First Army would redeploy three divisions from its strategic reserve into

Tanzania and put them on the offensive. Led by elements of the14th South African Armored Division, the 2nd South African Infantry and 1st South African (Air) Cavalry Divisions would attack out of the ridges and highlands of northwest Tanzania. Breaking through relatively weak border positions given the deployment of much of the Tanzanian Army to the East and Center of the nation itself, it would begin to run into more effective resistance as the units would advance into the plains beyond.

Several South African garrisons existed in the region, and a number of them were fighting active attempts to breach their perimeters. With elements of the 1st Cavalry ready to provide reinforcement to any garrisons that were under extreme duress, the ground units of the newly-christened XX Corps would provide the boots on the ground to break the sieges for good. Driving down Highway B3 and sweeping through a number of delaying actions and roadblocks set by Tanzanian forces, the 14th Armored would find themselves facing the gates of the city of Kahama after about two days of mobile warfare. Remnants of the Tanzanian Army had fortified the city and their numbers within the city itself numbered in the several thousand.

Several reconnaissance probes would be made against the city as the 2nd Infantry would reinforce their armored compatriots, with intelligence on the ground and in the air reporting several prepared fighting positions. Any assault also faced the prospect of dealing with several thousand civilians still within the city itself, and South African ground commanders were reluctant to actively bombard Tanzanian positions within the city in any
sustained fashion. Any offensive that sought to relieve the beleaguered garrisons, however, would have to go through the city itself, and that meant
that the Tanzanian units would have to be engaged.

 

---

 

[url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFNjdiCc8t0]Up you Capers![/url]

“Pour it on them, keep up the pressure!” yelled Lieutenant Colonel Jacob Ntuzu, exalting his troops as he walked along the lines as they slowly crawled forward towards the northwest end of Kahama. Ntuzu’s 1st Battalion, North Cape Highlanders were in the vanguard of the 2nd Infantry as they advanced on Kahama, forcing their way over relatively open, but broken terrain. Tanzanian forces had dug into a series of warehouses and industrial areas on the northwest end of the city, and these hurdles would have to be cleared to enter the city.

Ntuzu winced and ducked a little as a machinegun opposing one of his infantry units sent rounds zipping by him, catching a soldier moving up behind him and his staff in the chest and sending him flailing to the ground. Ntuzu saw the man go down and grumbled to himself as he stuck his unlit pipe into his teeth and ducked down as he ran over to one of the company command posts, his own staff moving along behind him. The company commander, a lieutenant, Moresby, saluted hastily to him and nodded, “Sir.”

“Keep your forces moving, lieutenant, we don’t have enough time to sit around here and wait for the fourteenth to get their thumbs out of their asses,” yelled Ntuzu, pointing his finger forward. They had been engaged in a slow move forward as they waited for armor support, which would give them covering fire moving into the warehouses. Unfortunately there had been heavier opposition to the north, and the armor had been shifted there for the time being.

“If I move on those warehouses, sir, I’m going to get my boys shredded, we need some support!” yelled Moresby, ducking down as a mortar round landed nearby.

“You got your own mortars, put fire on those warehouses and move your troops up. Get your men spread out and maneuver forward,” retorted Ntuzu, calmly as the din continued to crash around them.

Moresby looked like he was about to argue the point again, but decided against it, and nodded, “Yes sir!” He then turned back to his senior sergeant and began conferring with orders, Ntuzu grinning a little. It was the senior sergeant who would be really making the decisions in the advance and playing the biggest role, most non-commissioned officers were more experienced than their platoon commanders. This was the truth for many armed forces the world over.

Ntuzu turned to the rear where another company was waiting to move forward, as Moresby started to get his men moving forward, their mortars cracking as they sent shells screaming downrange. “Up you Capers! Bravo and Charlie up!” he yelled, waving them forward to follow Moresby’s forces up against the positions. The company and platoon commanders began barking orders to their men and began moving forward, as Ntuzu continued to exalt them, as they began to move past him. He would join them on the move forward has he helped direct the assault forward.

“Drive them out of those buildings!” he yelled, pointing towards the warehouses. Ntuzu would growl as he heard rounds whistle by him as he could see shadows of soldiers within the warehouses, shooting through holes in the sides of the buildings. Mortars barked and rifles cracked as the South African troopers would slowly move forward in a trained fashion, squads breaking down into fire sections, covering one another in a choreographed assault. Riflemen would open up, covering their attendant machinegunner, the machinegunner would then open up and suppress whilst the riflemen moved up, interspersed in this deadly dance, a rifleman or heavy weapons operator would open up with a under barrel grenade launcher or revolving grenade launcher.

 

As the troopers moved up, a couple MRAPs would move up close behind, their autonomous weapon stations consisting of heavy machine guns would also open up, as a few artillery rounds called in by one of the company commanders would land in quick succession. This combination of advancing infantry, along with continuous fire and heavy weapons support sought to overwhelm the Tanzanian defenders. Accurate one-oh-five fire would crash around the buildings sending high-velocity shards of shrapnel shredding through the building. Ntuzu would exalt his troops to continue their move forward, moving with them, even though he wore the same uniform that everyone else did, not revealing his rank, his men and women were well aware who he was.

 

This would be the scene around the entirety of the northwest Kahama as the South African troops of the 2nd Infantry moved forward in battalion groups towards the city, slowly breaking into the industrial district. As helicopters dashed overhead, lining up targets for their rocket pods, onboard missiles, and automatic cannons, they would also spot targets for artillery units. Utilizing high resolution infrared scopes and verifying their targets, they would be able to call in the artillery much more effective than ground units in terms of trying to avoid civilian casualties. South African helicopters mounting loudspeakers would overfly the city, exalting the cities' citizens to stay in their homes, or if possible, safely flee from the fighting.

[Evangeline Anovilis]

Despite having only a supporting role in the offensive on Mbeya, the operation still was of certain importance. For the first time, Faraway forces would fight overseas, using weapon systems that had not yet seen real combat in an environment that was not at all like Canada at home. Still, the Faraway African Expeditionary Command was confident. As not the whole Faraway African Expeditionary Corps was required, only two divisions would be deployed, under the command of Albershaw's right hand, Cornelia Trenton.

 

In order to allow deployment of the troops, Military High Command would send a dozen C-130J tactical airlifters and half a dozen C-17 strategic airlifters to bring the troops into position. Onboard they would carry 30 Sagittarius CGMS. As South Africa had requested assistance mainly by light forces, it was seen as best to deploy also these vehicles which were retained solely by the Faraway paratroopers.

 

Cornelia Trenton was more than busy, as the preparations were underway. Having to coordinate the aerial transportation of troops and vehicles to the frontlines, while writing the necessary reports and keeping up with the timetable was not an easy task and it was unsurprising that Albershaw had pushed it onto her. The commanders way of making up for it by increasing the amount of material did not help much, though at least Trenton expected that it could help crush any resistance as swiftly as possible, avoiding unnecessary casualties.

 

While troops constantly kept arriving in Vwawa, Trenton was meanwhile checking the surroundings with a map before her to get a feeling for the environment. The operation most likely was the first time, she had to fight with no full-caliber artillery and shelling the enemy to death from afar, a standard Faraway tactic, was also not what the South Africans asked for. Thus, the fight had to be conducted in a different manner, emphasizing speed and maneuverability, something that could not be achieved if she was unfamiliar with the terrain.

 

The constant noise of aircraft engines in the background seemed to already blend into the background, when suddenly one soldier approached her. "Brigadier-General Trenton, we now have about half the divisions ferried in. Awaiting your orders." Trenton nodded. That would be enough for now. Any additional delay would maybe cause trouble to the south africans and whatever their strength would be, there were only this many troops that could be dropped at one time anyway. For now, she would inform the South africans of her readiness, the rest of her troops could join during the fight, if it lasted long enough.