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VPRB · 01-20-2019, 05:59 PM

The Serevan War: the Battle of Syemaqa, Part I

On January 31st 2018, the Serevan War ended when a sudden ceasefire entered in place along the frontline, after Bruuma and Sereva secretly signed a peace agreement. The conflict lasted fifty-four days, costed thousands of lives and brought vast destruction on the island.

The Bruuman Army fought land battles against regular armies for the first time in decades, proving itself as a still valiant force but also showcasing the need to adapt to contemporary warfare. Despite the prevalence of open-field battles during the war, one of the major engagement against the Erinoran Army was a week-long urban siege where the defenders curiously played the role of guerrilla that Bruuman forces had played often in the previous conflict. It also proved a learning moment for adapting the antiquated fighting style of the attackers. This is the story of the Battle of Syemaqa.

Prelude
After landing on the West coast of Sereva, the Bruuman Army pushed toward the interior, relying on the speed and power of its armoured vehicles. After two days advancing in the south, the Bruumans reached Syemaqa, an industrial town of 30,000 inhabitants laying on a bank of a small river of the same name. The Erinoran lines were overrun on the next day, leaving the city surrounded, but the Bruuman Army decided to conquer the city before advancing, due to its strategic placement near important transportation routes.

The Opposing Forces
The Bruuman forces were composed of the 6th Guards Tank Regiment, the 131st Motor-Rifle Brigade, the 81st Guards Motor-Rifle Regiment and the 276th Motor-Rifle Regiment, with more than 4.000 men, 200 APCs, 80 tanks plus dozens of artillery guns and a company of anti-air vehicles.

Due to defective intelligence, the Bruumans estimated that the town was defended only by improvised militiamen, but instead up to 1,000 Erinoran soldiers of the 5th and 7th Battalions had converged on the city from a nearby base, instead or retreating behind the lines as their enemy believed, carrying with them heavy machine guns and anti-rocket tanks in good quantity in addition to their light weaponry.

There were also still 5,000 civilians trapped in town.

The Battle Plan
The Bruuman commander, Colonel Ivan Shaw, planned to converge on the town from opposite directions with four armoured columns, comprising both tanks and carriers, who should have overrun the defenders and reach the centre. The rest of his forces was to remain positioned around the town, preventing an eventual counterattack from the outside. Air support was scarcely available due to adverse weather conditions.

The Erinoran commander, Captain Marcoro te'si Orusyo sanqeo, divided the heavily-armed part of its forces into combat groups consisting of fifteen to twenty personnel, subdivided into three-man fire teams, each consisting of an anti-tank gunner, as well as a machine-gunner and a rifleman. They were positioned in the top floors and basement of buildings in chokepoints, to ambush the incoming columns.

(This post was last modified: 07-08-2019, 12:39 PM by VPRB.)