Operation Archduke - The Landing

 

The Plan.

For years before the opening of hostilities between Azuria and Ruberia, the latter's High Command had been planning - and rehearing far from prying eyes - a quick surprise landing somewhere upon Azurian shores. Of course, such a design could scarcely be kept secret, but flooding Dame Rumour with a plethora of misinformation, disinformation and obfuscation at least force Azuria to form its countermeasures contingent upon a wide range of possibilities.

So it was that, when the landing Armada approached the Portesable Bay they were to find that they would have to fight their way onto the beaches. The shore to be crossed included and stretched either side of the considerable town of Oualmentville-sur-Mer. The landing area was divided into three beaches, styled, east to west:

• Gemstone - east of the town, but including a shore artillery emplacement: 1st Brigade, I Army Corps, in landing barges
• Jupiter - the town itself, plus the short stretch of beach east of Petitruisseau river mouth: 19th Brigade, in transport ships
• Scimitar - west of the Petitriseau: 15th Brigade, in landing barges

Behind the first wave of three brigades awaited a fourth: 24 Infantry Brigade, plus Army Corps artillery, machine guns and cavalry. 

First Brigade was to storm Gemstone Beach, carry the defence works, and exploit on to the heights inland, thence, by nightfall, the village of Venus-la-Tour. They could count on RMS Warrior to silence the shore battery.

The transport ships carrying 19th Brigade were boldly to range up to the wharfs along the waterfront and decant their passengers directly into the town. The bay forming a pronounced bight, it seemed likely that this landing could not be effected until the flanking Brigades were fairly ashore. By which time, it was supposed, gunfire from the Warrior, Earnslaw and Eurydice having suppressed the shore batteries might do the same to anything that might inhibit the landings in the town. That proved rather an optimistic view, and 19th Brigade were to have a hard time of it. 

Fifteenth Brigade's objectives were the Heights crowned by the village of Nonstreham and the shore guns on the point, thence to cross the Petitruisseau stream and take, carry or seize the Petiteville.



Opposing the landing was 114th Coastal Brigade - a formation of semi-civilian draftees of whom the question of their military value was to be answered emphatically in the event. Supporting this Brigade were the shore batteries sited at the town end of Gemstone Beach and upon Nonstreham Point. The Brigade also possessed a battery of ancient rifled pieces emplaced at Venus-la-Tour, and, in Petiteville, the machinegun company attached to 342nd Battalion around Nonstreham. Another MG company was established near Petiteville. This belonged to 31st Rifle Brigade, the main body of which had been billeted in several villages well inland.

Gemstone Beach.

Surprise achieved to the extent that 1st Brigade was close to the shore by the time the defenders were alerted to the attack, 3rd Battalion was ashore quickly and moving across the sand to storm the infantry lines flanking the east shore battery. Second Battalion soon joined the first, followed by the 3rd. Landing in front of the shore battery, 1st Battalion attacked straight out of the boats. The brought a halt to RMS Warrior's bombardment of the strongpoint - woefully ineffective as it was. Not that the shore gunnery was any more damaging!

General view of the approach of the 
Invasion fleet.

I'll pause the narrative here, for the next eight pictures, and then resume.



















Third Brigade were fortunate to land pretty much unscathed. They raced across a wide section of beach to storm the earthworks beyond, whilst 2nd Battalion attacked the shore battery position. First battalion soon joined that assault, straight off the barges.

Although the defending 339th Regiment were soon driven with loss out of their entrenchments, 3rd Battalion had taken such heavy losses that barely 25% remained in action. Second Battalion found themselves pinned down in front of the shore battery. Hoping to surround the battery and to force the survivors of 339th Regiment well away from the beaches, 1st Battalion fetched a sweep through the warehouse district of the town to emerge on the flank of the 339th.

The enemy infantry proved stubborn defenders, driving 3rd Battalion back to the beach and inflicting loss upon the 1st.

All the same, heavily outnumbered as the were, 1st and 3rd Battalions between them, at considerable further cost, were eventually able to scatter the remnants. Meanwhile, at the end of the day, 2nd Battalion were still held up by the gun battery. 

Scimitar  Beach

The wide beach in this sector narrowed at its eastern end rapidly to point upon which stood the second shore battery behind fortifications. 

Forty-third Battalion was the first to land, at the western end, where the beach was widest. They had, therefore, the farthest to run upon disembarking under not only the rifles of 342nd Coastal Battalion, but the Coastal Brigade's mitrailleuse company as well. Under that lash, barely half of the unit reached the ridge upon which the defenders were dug in. Ahead of the 44th, 45th Battalion swung off to the left to attack the gun emplacement on the point. That installation was at that time engaging in a deadly gunnery duel with the two light cruisers, Earnslaw and Elizabeth.



Rapidly closing upon the shore battery, 45th Battalion's flank attack dispatched what remained of the crews, then switched front to attack in flank the dug in infantry about Nonstreham. By that time, 43rd and 44th had taken considerable stick from their frontal attacks, between them taking 50% casualties. 



The irruption of the 45th upon the defenders' flank unhinged the whole defence of the Nonstreham heights. Overrunning the mitrailleuses, the whole 15th Brigade forced the 342nd Battalion back past the village, and bade fair to push the enemy right off the feature.

The Coastal Battalion were not, however to be hustled. Conducting a slow, fighting retreat, they made 15th Brigade pay heavily for their 'victory' - if victory they could claim. At the end of the day, barely a third of the Brigade remained in action (4SP out of 12). Although the shore battery and mitrailleuses had been lost, the Coastal Battalion still retained half its original strength.

Commanding in Chief the Ruberian Expeditionary Force (REF) General B.L. Montgeremy concluded at the end of the day that 24th Brigade should be landed, and, if time allowed, committed to the battle.  To reinforce the depleted 15th Brigade, 70th and 71st Battalions were directed to land on Scimitar Beach. Seventy-second remained to reinforce 19th Brigade in the town.

Jupiter Beach (Oualmentville-sur-Mer).

The ships carrying 19th Brigade were expected, under the cover of gunfire from the light cruisers to pull up along the Oualmentville-sur-Mer waterfront, and to disgorge their battalions straight into the fight for the town. The gun armed ships were ordered to ignore the incoming from the shore batteries (which, fortunately for the invasion force, proved remarkably inaccurate, for the most part), and to pound the shorefront buildings in the hope of forcing the defenders - 340th Coastal Battalion - away from the waterfront itself. 



In this they enjoyed no success, and the three attacking battalions found it difficult to maintain even the meagre toehold they established at the outset. A toehold at least the defenders could not hope to have prevented, but, even at three to one odds in their favour, the attackers found it a struggle to penetrate beyond the esplanade.



They could count themselves fortunate, perhaps, that 341st Coastal Battalion for a long time remained, unengaged, within their earthworks between the town and the stream. There was some reason for this, as the REF still had the 24th Brigade waiting in reserve well offshore. But 340th were doing well enough on their own.



In fact, for a goodish while it seemed that 340th might well drive 19th Brigade back onto their ships or  into the sea. Outnumbered three to one, they were inflicting losses at a rate of four to one. Had 341st intervened now, it might have been all up with the 19th Brigade, and possibly even the whole invasion. 



Gradually, the attackers began to get the upper hand, at last driving the defenders back, away from the waterfront. Rather late in the day calling in the assistance of 341st Battalion the Coastal Division Commander Ermine Rommeau managed to halt 19th Brigade at the southern edge of the town.




The invasion stalled within stone's throw of the beaches, Montgoremy brought in 24th Brigade. Seventy-second Battalion came in to land at the section of Jupiter Beach left undefended by the departure of 341st Coastal. 



By now the day was well advanced and the late afternoon sun dipping well towards the horizon. The losses taken by the invaders were such as to obviate any further attempt to push inland. Exhausted by the day's fighting, the troops needed a night's respite to reorganise. For their part, the shattered wrecks of 114th Coastal Brigade pulled back to the Petitville-Venus-la-Tour line. 



Overnight, 114th Coastal Brigade was relieved by the regulars of 36th Brigade, which formation took up positions around the two villages. If they could hold for a day or two, perhaps larger formations would be on hand to drive the invaders into the sea. 

Perhaps.

Acknowledging that the beach landings had fallen short of their stated objectives, General Montgoremy ordered that, on the morrow, the bridgehead be expanded to include the two villages to the south. He needed the room to land the other two Corps of his Army. The issue was still problematical, but he was beginning to feel confident that he could maintain his army in the field upon enemy soil.

To be continued ... sometime.

My apologies to readers for the length of time it has taken to produce this narrative, and there is a sequel, but after that, I may have to place this particular project on the back burner for a while. To be added is the D-Day+1 battle, and a small naval mini-campaign, part of the Little Great War, that I will call 'The Far East Command'. The first of these battles has been fought...