Constante's Decision

[Euphaia]

Not Public

 

On Yugoslavia's southern border, Hungary-Slovakian soldiers would begin setting up heavy, medium, and general purpose machine gun emplacements; breastwork fortifications, and sandbag emplacements and bunkers, as well as Czech hedgehogs.

Edited October 10, 2014 by Euphaia

[Imperator Azenquor]

The following private message would be transmitted to the Romanian government via the Zapadnayan Embassy in Bucharest:

 

To: The Government of the Kingdom of Romania

Fr: The Government of Zapadnaya

 

In light of the outbreak of hostilities in Europe and the Balkans in particular, the government of Zapadnaya has determined that it is necessary to restrict some traffic across the Zapadnayan-Romanian border for the duration of the conflict. We also wish to inform the government of the Kingdom of Romania that it is our intention to deploy additional non-military border security personnel to secure the northern border (particularly those areas near to the Kingdom of Yugoslavia).

 

In order to not completely close the border, we intend to only close the border crossings closest to Yugoslavia. Accordingly, we will shortly be closing the Rus-Giurgiu, Vidin-Calafut and Yorkovo-Negru Voda border crossings. All other border crossings will remain open. On behalf of our government, I would like to state that the closure of the aforementioned border crossings is not being undertaken as a method of economic or political sanction but solely for the purpose of bolstering security in those areas immediately adjacent to the now closed Yugoslav-Zapadnayan border.

 

In terms of deploying additional security personnel, it is the intention of the government of Zapadnaya to deploy an additional 3,000 non-military Frontier Guard Corps personnel to aid in securing the border. Should the government of Romania have any concerns about these actions, our Embassy staff are ready and willing to discuss the situation and to clarify any issues arising from these actions.

 

Signed,

Paskal Dragomirov President of Zapadnaya

 

==

 

Almost simultaneously the following private message would be sent to Sparta:

 

To: The Government of Sparta

Fr: The Government of Zapadnaya

 

In light of the outbreak of war in our Balkan neighborhood and the contribution of the Yugoslav Kingdom to the hostilities which now mar our once peaceful neighborhood, the Zapadnayan government has elected to close the Zapadnayan-Yugoslav border.

 

Due to the proximity of a handful of border crossings on the Spartan-Zapadnayan border, and the unpredictable nature of warfare, our government has decided to close these border crossings out of an abundance of caution. Accordingly it is our intention to close all border crossings to our southwest. In order to ensure some normalcy, we pledge to leave all other border crossings on our mutual border open as long as the security situation permits.

 

Additionally, it is our intention to deploy 5,000 additional non-military Frontier Guard Corps personnel to the border in order to increase security. We would like to reassure the government of Sparta that our decision to close the previously mentioned border posts is motivated solely by the situation in Yugoslavia.

 

Signed,

Paskal Dragomirov President of Zapadnaya

Edited October 10, 2014 by Imperator Azenquor

[Zoot Zoot]

Statement from Sparta

 

 

Hungary Slovakia is to remove itself from the border between Yugoslavia and Sparta with immediate effect or they will be removed by force of arms. If Hungary Slovakia does not remove itself from our borders, then not only will a state of war exist, but the King of Yugoslavia will be executed summarily without a trial.

 

Your first response will be your last, there is no negotiation. Go home or die.

[Euphaia]

*Upon receiving word that Sparta did not want to-- and will not-- get involved in the upcoming war, Hungary-Slovakia moved it's forces to 10 miles outside of Beograd, and begun setting up more breastworks, sandbag emplacements, and moved it's machine gun emplacements to be set up at their new location.*

Edited October 12, 2014 by Euphaia

[Evangeline Anovilis]

OOC: Considering the ruling by Voodoo that neither Belarus, nor Hungary were yet in a position to act, given a unified timeline of the conflict, both their forces should still be in transit, even after this post.

 

<Evangeline> Voodoo, can Hungary and Belarus act in the theatre beginning from this auto?
<Evangeline> Or are they still lagging behind?
<Voodoo> Eva, they're still lagging
<Evangeline> Ok

 

Also, here are the logs from yesterday, regarding the my latest inquiry on an autoadvance in this matter, which has now been granted, given it has been over two weeks.

<Evangeline> Before I really go to sleep now
<Evangeline> When can I expect that my requests for an auto succeed?
<Kochavi> Eva, consider it granted

Conversation was longer, but got cut to the essential part, given there were paralel conversations and the parts cut do not contribute really to the exchange.

 

Additionally, the fact I actually include the GLR in my response does not mean I do not consider it inactive.

 

IC:

 

While the SM-6 missiles managed to pretty much obliterate the GLR carrier aircraft, about a dozen of them managed to launch their Harpoon missiles towards the Romanian fleet, before being shot down. These four dozen Harpoons heading for the fleet would however be targetted already at the very start by several lftover SM-6, which took out five of them, leaving 43 missiles to be dealt with. AE&W assets of the carrier Dacia would be constantly on the lookout for the remaining missiles, as the enemy air threat was gone. It was at about 50 km, that the incoming Harpoons were found again and Contraamiral Matteanu immediatly gave order to launch a further barrage to intercept the enemy missiles. About 50 ESSMs were launched for this purpose, in protection of the fleet, relying on their superior agility to take out one Harpoon after the other. Of the original 48, only 5 would remain to be dealt with, which would however mostly fall before the CIWS of the fleet, except for one, which locked onto one of the three larger ships in the fleet and hit battleship Bassarabia into her starboard side, causing a dent, though failing to penetrate the side armour.

 

TheYugoslav fleet was far less lucky, as they had no such means of early warning, having put their radar on stand-by for whatever reason. With several hundred missiles homing in on the fleet, it would be one of the most brutal missile massacres the world had seen up to this point, as any counter-measure was too late in the face of a swarm of supersonic missiles. Explosions flared up left and right, causing tremendous damage to life and ships, as hardly any ship was left unharmed. Furtună ASMs, thanks to their semi-armour piercing supersonic design managed to knock out the carriers and battleships. Tightly following 3M-54 Klub ASMs took care of pretty much everything else. It was a brutal day for the Yugoslav Navy, which was crushed as quickly as it came into being. About five corvettes and one frigate managed to survive, mostly due to larger ships acting as a bit of a missile sponge. But with too many of their fellow sailors about to drown and no chance of catching the Romanians, they would opt for searching the Adriatic for survivors to rescua, rather than pursuing the enemy. The Yugoslav fleet essentially stopped to exist as a noteworthy adversary of Romania.

 

Without further molestation, Amiral Marescu proceeded towards Carthaginean waters.

 

[hr]

 

On land, Yugoslavia would be no less maimed. Although the soldiers at first thought themselves secure in their ditches (except for the few brighter ones), the first precision-guided rounds zeroing in on their position wrecked Yugoslav units and morale severely. Trenches were not very safe against artillery. Already in World War I, artillery was the weapon that had dug out enemy units from their positions, back then with saturation attacks. But with laser guidance, it was not even necessary anymore to saturate the Yugoslav positions, it needed just a few rounds with their CEP of less than a few metres. As shortly thereafter contact was lost to artillery and missile emplacements, given the quite unfortunate static placement of such assets very close to the frontlines, the first Yugoslav units in the plains attempted a retreat. With catastrophic results. A hail of rockets and bomblet submunition caused appalling casualties across the board, preventing an actual ordered retreat. Slowly, it became apparant to the Yugoslav soldiers, that they were sitting ducks, doomed to be blasted in their own trenches by an enemy who was comfortably outside their own reach and relatively safe from retribution, thanks to the use of superior mobility. After about 30% of the Yugoslav units were either KIA or WIA, and the first Romanian tanks appeared, together with mine-clearance assets, the Yugoslavs knew their days as fighting forces were numbered and a rout ensued. However, after machine cannon, tank gun and rocket fire took out even more Yugoslavs, the white flag was flown, Yugoslav soldiers in the Plains surrendered to the Romanian troops.

 

The Yugoslav soldiers on the hills meanwhile tried to hold out, although any attempt to fire at the Romanians was quickly responded to via counter-battery fire, slowly whittling away Yugoslav long-range assets. Far worse for them however, was that the collapse in the plains meant that at least the units in the East were now caught inbetween Romanians of Romania and Romanians in the Banat. Without any way out, they were pretty much hold-outs now, surrounded by the Romanians, with little to no means of defense. But the Romanian Armed Forces did not give them much of a fighting chance. Three dozen Su-35 multirole fighters, loaded with air-to-air and anti-radiation air-to-ground missiles would approach the hills, utilising the hills of the Romanian Banat to mask their approach by flying low, before popping up, firing their Kh-31PD missiles at the Yugoslavs. After this would take care of radar based anti-air emplacements, if any such were left, Romania's Air Force would give the Yugoslavs a rather nasty surprise against their dug-in troops, as 12 B-1B strategic bombers, each carrying 24 2000 lb precision guided JDAM general purpose bombs, to be dropped on the Yugoslav positions from stand-off range. Utilising targetting data from previos UAV recon, enemy hardpoints would most likely now be crumbling to dust, as about 260 tons of bombs rained down on them.

 

At the end of the day, the Yugoslav troops were in a pretty much unorganised rout. The Banat plain had been secured for Romania, which was now preparing for further operations against Belgrade. The last pockets of resistence on the mountains would be still engaged in a suppressive fashion via artillery, with the Romanians expecting the enclosed troops around Vrsac and Zagajica to surrender shortly, due to the severe lack of anti-air assets, which had been lost to attrition by now, after having been expended on low-cost drones and being knocked out by SEAD operations. Of the 300,000 Yugoslav defenders, around 31,000 soldiers were KIA or MIA, further 42,000 were WIA and most likely no longer in any condition to fight for the next few months. About 87,000 Yugoslavs had surrendered to the armoured elements of the Romanian advance, which they had little chance to escape, or had surrendered in the trenches, out of demoralisation. 50,000 Yugoslavs had retreated to the West, trying to gather around Vukovar, around 30,000 Yugoslavs regrouped around Belgrade, the remainder had fled along trench lines into the pockets, or was there to begin with, numbering now 60,000. Yugoslav POWs would be transferred to the Romanian interior, while 5 Motorised Infantry Divisions, 5 Mechanised Infantry Divisions and 4 Mountain Infantry Divisions were taken from the III. Romanianian Army to reinforce the theatre, for an offensive against Vukovar. Of the original 440,000 Romanian soldiers, about 3,000 had been lost to enemy fire, being KIA or MIA, with another 6,000 wounded. About 55 low-cost UAVs had been lost and around two dozen tanks. Additionally, the Army had lost 8 APCs and 12 field howitzers, though it replaced these losses with captured enemy equipment for now.

 

The Romanian Army under Golescu now prepared for its two-pronged advance. The I. and II. Romanian Armies now stood in front of Belgrade, which was just across the Danube, preparing for the assault, while a seperate task force under General Popa was advancing carefully from Novi Sad towards Vukovar, employing the same techniques as during the initial offensive.

 

OOC:

 

<Voodoo> I think Rudy was waiting on Yeru to post
<Voodoo> so I'd put in an edit that unless Rudy replies asap, that post will stand
<Voodoo> since she cannot post

From Voodoo. Because even after 16 days, I don't get a full auto.

Edited October 26, 2014 by Evangeline Anovilis

[Evangeline Anovilis]

OOC: Given it's homefront events, it shouldn't pose an issue that I post it now. Especially, given Rudolph did not post any replacement, meaning my post stands.

 

IC:

 

Not public

 

As the war raged on and the crisis following the death of Maria I continued, Mihaela Constante cemented her power base in the capital. Expanding her personal networks to military and security, as well as among the landed gentry, the Regent and Conducătora was steadily becoming more and more of an uncrowned monarch, leading her nations fate. Naturally, while it was in no way the best of all means to achieve it, the war also allowed for the rallying of the Romanian people around Tricolorul, the Romanian flag. A state of emergency existed already and whoever dared challenge the new old elites in their conduct of the war (or their conduct at home) was quickly dealt with. From intimidation, by obviously posting police officers next to their homes, to overnight disappearances, subversives had to fear the full scale of state-organised terror that the Romanian security apparatus could dish out. Especially minorities were watched vigilantly, as the Romanian state did not look kindly upon the Magyars and Serbs within its borders. The latter were already to be romanised, given they numbered a few thousand at best, failing all criteria for language or cultural protection. Priviledges for Serbs had been tied to good relations between Yugoslavia and Romania. Now, they were just a fifth column. The possibility of retribution against Romanians in Yugoslavia had been taken into consideration, but not only did Constante trust the Yugoslav government to not undermine their own policies by instilling ethnic nationalist violence, but also, in a secret meeting of the General Staff, Constante commented that any such incident could be best used post-war. Contempt for Yugoslavia was widespread among the Romanian elite. That the Kralj was in the hands of an uncooperative regime that most likely would not hand him over was seen by many as disappointing, given it prevented the man getting liquidated by the Siguranța in some back-alley of Belgrade, officially having been killed in the tumult. But it could not be helped. Just as the war could not be helpe. It could be won, sure, but there was not much else that could be done there.

 

But the majority of the Romanian people had come to terms with the regime by now. Conditions weren't that much worse than under Maria... except for the war, and the enemy encroachment from the west was a good way to deflect guilt on these enemies of Romania. Not that all too much propaganda was needed. Siguranța reports showed that the people didn't believe much of the propaganda anyway, that they were able to mostly correctly distinguish whom to blame for the war (foreigners) and whom to blame for the repression (the government), even though the repression was portrayed as a necessary evil to capitalise on all of Romania's ressources to overcome the enemy. And what helped Romanians endure their hardships due to war economy and government terror more than anything, was the belief in their government's policies and a favourable outcome to the war, a belief only strengthened, when the press started to hail the Banat campaign as an overwhelming triumph of Romania's martial spirit over Yugoslav decrepitness. Over 87,000 prisoners of war had been made, now held in Romanian camps in Moldavia. And of course, such a glorious triumph would be accompanied by an adress of the Conducătora Constante to the Romanian people over the Romanian radio.

 

Edit: Now with music!

 

"Romanians! It is with great joy and utmost pride, that I today can announce that our efforts are bearing fruits - the most recent offensive conducted by our valiant soldiers against our Yugoslav foe has not only resulted in a decisive gain of territory, but also, in the utter collapse of an enemy field army, which was routed by our forces and driven from the field. Our brave army now stands nearly unopposed before the enemy capital readying itself to decapitate the snake and to achieve a glorious victory for our country. These are hard times for our people and for the world. But it is events such as this offensive triumph, that should remind us, that through our combined and unyielding efforts and spirit, as well as with God's blessings for our righteous objectives, results can be achieved and Romania shall stand triumphant.

 

The enemy coalition is fighting hard to overcome the combined forces of us and our honourable allies, in this new world war. But I have all confidence in the Romanian nation to fight even harder and to win this lethal struggle between Revisionism and Righteousness. Each day, thousands of men die in the fields of battle, to prevent the demise of free nations in Europe under Franco-Alvonian oppression. We do not fight for any gains, but we fight, for our survival as a free nation and for the rest of Europe, to stay free. Such we pledged before the world and before god and such we shall uphold. And with God's help, these our upright objectives will be realised. Romania has not wanted, nor sought war, however, we have not shied away from it, when it has become necessary to prevent Yugoslav encroachment on our country. But Yugoslavia has miscalculated. They have been shown now what it means to threaten Romania and their soldiers have been beaten hard. Our army shall press on and defeat their decrepit state, for we will fight, we must fight, in order to secure a free and safe future for future generations of Romanians. And if there is no other way of preventing such, our army shall become an unstoppable train from Belgrade over Vienna to Paris! May God be with us!"

Edited October 27, 2014 by Evangeline Anovilis

[Euphaia]

*Hungary-Slovakia would begun mobilizing 200,000 of its 640,000 soldiers, along with 40 assorted transport and assault helicopters, transport stratolifter planes, 200 medium and main battle tanks, medium, heavy and general purpose machine guns, and 10 mobile SAMs, to move towards 10 or 15 miles outside of Yugoslavia's capital, on its defense and peace-keeping mission.

They would transport a long with them various materials to set up machine gun nests and emplacements, tank traps, Czech hedgehogs, sandbag emplacements and fortifications, and breastwork fortifications.

They would start moving out from their bases in Hungary on their 8 hour trek towards Yugoslovia and it's capital city.

The remaining soldiers, tanks, SAMs, artillery, and machine gun emplacements have already been set up defensively at Hungary's borders with Romania and Prussia.*

Edited October 27, 2014 by Euphaia