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VPRB · 02-11-2019, 09:40 AM

The Serevan War: the Battle of Syemaqa, Part IV

December 16^th to December 18^th

For three days, the Bruuman Army advanced methodically in the densely built residential areas of Syemaqa, house by house and block by block, cautious not to suffer the same fate of the first assault on the city. In addition to the use of dismounted support infantry and pick-up mounted anti-tank and anti-air guns, the attackers employed new tactics, such as firing directly into houses and then driving tanks through them, as well as using tear gas and smoke bombs to drive out those inside. In proactive moves, the Bruumans also started to set up ambush points of their own and then move armour towards them to lure Erinoran combat groups into ambushes.

Despite the high toll inflicted on civilian casualties, the brutal tactics proved efficient as the Erinoran defenders slowly fell to the superior firepower, in addition to suffer the first shortage of ammunitions and by the afternoon of December 18^th the centre of the city was effectively sieged.

December 19^th

For the final push, the Bruuman Army finally received aerial support and ground reinforcements. As the centre of the town was a mixture of narrow streets and squares with imposing buildings, they hold back tanks and armoured personnel carriers and subject the entrenched Erinorans to an intensive heavy artillery barrage and aerial bombardment. They mostly employed rocket artillery to indiscriminately to wipe out barrages in the streets and smaller buildings, while airstrikes delivered cluster bombs and fuel air explosives against the biggest and tallest structures, aiming at destroying top floors on buildings to prevent Erinoran fire teams from using them.

December 20^th

The Bruuman Army began its final assault in the morning. The first wave was made of freshly arrived units of the Puerto Polloan “Barbarubia” battalion, urban warfare veterans. They slipped in the apocalyptic scenario of the largely destroyed centre, engaging the last Erinoran defenders to drove them out and call further bombardments. At midday, the bulk of the Bruuman Army followed with all its fire and men power. The last pocket of resistance carried on through the night, but by dawn of December 21^st the fighting ended.

Aftermath

At Syemaqa, the Bruuman Army achieved a tactical victory, but strategically it favoured the Erinorans.

The invading force did reach its goal to conquer the crucial town, eliminating a possible threat behind its lines and opening the road further east. The price was high: it costed about 170 dead, including high-ranking officers, and 270 wounded plus 14 tanks and 42 vehicles permanently destroyed. The commanding officers proved their worth in adapting their strategies, but deficiencies of military intelligence and dependence on air support plagued the rest of the war of the ground forces.

The strenuous resistance of the Erinoran Army contributed in slowing down the Bruuman advance in that sector and gave precious time to the rest of their forces to regroup and fortify their position, but at a dire cost: 380 dead and 200 captured, plus an unknown number of wounded. Marcoro te'si Orusyo sanqeo died on December 20^th after being hit by shrapnel during a bombardment, while Captain Yamera Syatya-Tyaniro led the remaining forces in a daring nightly escape through the sewers and then along the banks of the river out of the town. 350 inhabitants, including 50 children, amounted for civilian casualties of the battle.

The Christmas massacre
Bafuto Serevai militiamen, brought in Syemaqa after the battle, initially guarded the Erinoran prisoners in an abandoned pig farm just outside town. However, after they executed forty of them in cold blood in the so-called Christmas massacre, the Bruuman Army took the remaining detainees under its custody and moved them to a POW camp. After the war, the Bruuman Army refused to evacuate the commander of the separatist unit responsible for the crime, as the killings were considered militarily unmotivated and thus not covered by the peace treaty amnesty. He was then tried and sentenced by an Erinoran court.

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