Auroran Imperial War: Difference between revisions

With the successful breakthrough of Norogradian forces in the Molovian Corridor and into Corstanil the previous year, Norogradian high command felt that they possessed the supplies materiel needed to begin pushing into Staynish territory and cripple their industrial capacity. Specifically, they hoped to get deep enough to launch aerial strikes on the interior oil fields which had been key to supporting their war effort so far. With their fuel supply crippled, it was then predicted that the empire would then be forced to surrender. The plan was split up into three parts. First, Morstaybishlian naval presence in the West sea had to be eliminated, and this would be achieved through the saturation bombing and mining of Morstaybishlian naval ports, as well as a comprehensive submarine operation in deeper waters where Morst carrierscarrier groups had been observed to operate. Secondly, a northward thrust into Corstanil would be used to draw forces south, and then a naval invasion of Fort Staynes would be undertaken and the city then used as the staging post for a second thrust southwards which would then meet with the Northwards one and encircle the west coast. Finally, a third, smaller thrust Eastwards would then be used to capture key airfields which could be used to stage long-range bomber missions into the interior oilfields. In late 1971 when it was first conceived, this was originally planned to occur at the same time as the Ethalrian campaign to take Sani-Bursil which would spread the Morstaybishlian forces across two fronts and was predicted to cripple the empire by the end of 1972.

After a delay of several weeks due to an attempted breach of the Finch line in the Southern front, the first part of the plan began in February 1972 under the name operation Mountain with Norogradian fighter-bombers destroying a large fraction of coastal air defences and radar arrays using anti-radiation missiles. This was then followed by an intense aerial campaign of supersonic bomber runs which terrorised coastline settlements and destroyed dozens of docked naval vessels. Xenliada was the hardest hit, the mines layed in the water surrounding the base making it nearly impossible to bring supplies in to repair the damaged ships, stretching countermeasures teams beyond their limits. The sinking of the supercarrieraircraft carrier MBS Lavel by a submarine pack led by NNV Thunder on March the 2nd 1972 and the subsequent softening of the West sea signalled the completion of goals set out by operation Mountain, and the next part of the plan was enacted under the name operation Tornado.