Chapter XLV: Battles along Västerdrachinland
Late May to August 1112
Background
Västerdrachinland, or West Drachinia is one of the few areas of the Kingdom of Selenium that can grow food crops in any meaningful way aide from the other half of Drachinia, Österdrachinland. As such, this region is vital to the Kingdom's survival as a whole and because of this limited area of meaningful food production, has inspired the Kingdom to long adopt a policy of expansionism towards Syrenia in particular.
Map of Northern Selenium, showing the regions
Before the Rise of Pomerlane, the Kingdom had effectively made Syrenia its vassal in that regard to keep the food flowing in. But since Pomerlane's conquest, Selenium has increasingly had to rely on greater production from Drachinia to feed its livestock and people. Further complicating the food situation is that many men who would have been used to feed the nations through hunting, and agriculture have been forced to join the army, leaving the farms to be attended by women, children and old men. Magnus has tried to remedy this by the use of POWs and the import of food from Pomerania, but with the Pomeranian Front looking increasingly troubled, Selenium is in great danger of mass starvation should Drachinia be occupied or constantly raided.
In 1111, Pomerlane's expedition into the vital province had a devastating long-term effect on the region, as many food crops were burnt or stolen by his army. It was fortunate for the Kingdom that the fertile farms of the Vesta Valley were able to make up the difference, but should a greater effort be made to capture Drachinia, the entire Dragoon cause could be in great danger. It was thus decided that this year, the Duke of Drachin would not move his army into Eliria but stay in his own lands to intercept any raids or armies that threatened his vital lands. The prevailing hope was that Pomerlane would be too focused on either Syrenia or the north to cause problems back in Selenium. But sure enough, Pomerlane's February campaign had opened the door for an opportunity for havoc in the region.
Opening moves
As mentioned in a previous chapter, the Army of Central Eliria under Otto von Lindenberg set out to disrupt this vital region, and hopefully draw attention away from other fronts with his 28,000-man strong army. His objective was the important city of Långshyttan, and he laid siege to it on May 12th.
Reacting quickly from his own base in Schöneworth, Johan IV, the Duke of Drachin, quickly set out to intercept him with his own army numbering some 20,000 men. Drachin was outnumbered by the Lucanian but had a qualitative advantage over him. Most of this troops were veterans from prior campaigns, while Lindenberg's army was made mostly of recently recruited men who had not seen combat before. Arriving at Långshyttan on May 27th, he forced Lindenberg to abandon the siege for the time being and the two would start "dancing" with each other.
Battle of Sala
On June 3rd, the two armies would finally meet each other in battle for the first time near the small hamlet of Sala. Lindenberg, seeing an opportunity to catch the Dragoons off-guard, committed an infantry division and a two cavalry regiments to attack the Dragoon vanguard in a Coup de Main, hoping to catch them off guard and overrun them.
At 1500hrs, this force met the Dragoon vanguard of 2 infantry divisions near the small hamlet. Lindenberg's plan, however, did not go as planned. The Dragoons reacted quickly to the surprise attack and were able to hold off the Imperials for 3 hours until reinforcements forced the Imperials to call back their men. Lindenburg was fortunate that his own army's arrival was able to prevent the Dragoons from turning this into a worse affair than it became. In total, 400 Imperials were lost to around 250 Dragoons in the first real battle of the campaign.
Battle(s) of Odensbacken and Marieburg
A week later on June 12th, both armies would meet each other in two separate clashes within 4km of each other. Odensbacken was an important crossroads settlement along the Långshyttan-Järnhuvud Highway. Control of it could cut off the Imperials from their main base in Herzogburg. 4km to the west was the village of Marieberg, which was atop the Marieberger, a large hill which dominated the surrounding area. Whoever control the hill would dominate the surrounding land, including Odensbacken. It was thus that Lindenberg set up 9,000 men atop the hill while leaving 5,000 at Odensbacken while the remaining 10,000 men of his army were supposed to go on a flank attack to surprise the Dragoons near the settlement of Stortorp, 8km down the road from Marieberg. Lindenberg himself would entrust the Briskadet, Floris van Appeldoorn, to lead the flank attack while he oversaw the operation from the Marieberg to see what moves should be made.
Johan IV also divided his army, now reinforced by 2,500 men, into two parts. He planned on concentrating his main attack on the Marieberger with 12,000 men while sending 6,500 men to Odensbacken as a diversionary attack. By taking the Marieberger, he believed that Odensbacken would fall as well. Placing himself in charge of the main attack and his brother Carl Philip Bielke in command of the diversion, he set out at dawn.
A heavy fog in the valley facing the Marieberger hill obscured the movements of the Dragoons during the early morning hours of June 12th. This allowed the 15,000 men, commanded by Johan himself, to advanced undetected within 1.5km of the hill. When the fog lifted at 900hrs, Lindenberg, who believed this was likely happening was ready to start opening up with his artillery when they were in range. The fog had also hide the column of van Appeldoorn, who stood in an excellent position to attack and destroy the Dragoons. Lindenberg sent a message to Appeldoorn requesting that he march to the sound of guns when he heard them.
At 1145hrs, after preparing for the assault, the Dragoons began marching up the hill and shortly came under artillery fire. Lindenberg hoped that this would cause the ever-aggressive Appeldoorn to immediately to spring into action. The Dragoons during their assault on the hill had timed the artillery shots so that whenever they were about to fire, they would go prone until the guns fired before arising. Hertigliga fältjagerbataljonen had also managed to creep up closer using the wooded terrain to get within rifle range at around 1230hrs. Once they were in, they opened up on the gun crews and caused panic. In response, Lindenberg used elements from Lindenburger-Garde-Schützen-Bataillon to counter them and the superior Lucanian marksmanship to drive back the Field Jägers after 20 minutes of fighting between the two. As this was taking place, the Dragoon infantry had marched itself into Musket range at 1255hrs and started to open fire on the Imperial Line Infantry. They would soon be supported by 3 pounders that were rolled up the hill for artillery support. A rain shower came upon the battlefield at 1300hrs that would last the rest of the day. For 3 hours, the lines poured volleys into each other before the Imperials were forced to withdraw, using their reserves and the Lucanian Marksmen as the rearguard at 1615hrs. Both sides lost around 3,000 men each, but the battle was a victory for the Dragoons.
In the meantime, The Dragoons arrived at Odensbacken became engaged with the two divisions placed at Odensbacken, under the command of Meinhard-Pomu von Everstein, around 1200hrs. The battle at Odensbacken was relatively straightforward, the two lines engaged each other outside the town, for 3 hours until the Dragoons withdrew as their objective was complete. The Imperial's lost 1,500 men and the Dragoons lost 1,000 men at Odensbacken.
But where was Appeldoorn and why didn't he join the fight at Marieberg? Well, Appeldoorn did not march to the sound of the guns because he could not hear them due to acoustic interference from the weather. Instead, he sat there believing that there was no fight happening. While he craved tracking down the enemy and engaging them, he felt like his orders would bring the best fight and most glory. It wasn't until 1800hrs that Lindenberg himself rode around the hill and found him. When asked why he did not join the fight, Appeldoorn explained he did not know there was a fight going on as he didn't hear anything nor did anyone else. Upon checking with the other men, Lindenberg sighed realizing that Pomu's favor was not on their side this day. He ordered them to doubletime back to the village of Katrineholm, some 5km north of Marieberg.
The fall of the Marieberg also forced Everstein to withdraw as well to Katrineholm. It was not a good day for Lindenberg, as he had lost some 4,000 men and two key positions. His army's morale was also starting to fall in the face of these defeats, and he decided that the best course of action for now would be to fall back Herzogsburg while skirmishing and avoiding set piece battles that he was destined to lose.
A Month of Skirmishes and Attrition.
Following their defeat, and according to Lindenberg's plan, the Army of Central Eliria made a methodical retreat back to Herzogsburg. June 14th brought a heavy rain that forced both armies to stop halt their movements for the time being, and 5 more days of rain kept them static, wet and cold. Disease struck both armies hard during this time and by the time marching resumed on June 20th, it showed.
The Army of Central Eliria, following the previous few weeks numbered some 18,000 men. When the march resumed on the 20th, approximately 6,000 of these men had become too sick to fight and many too sick to march. On the other side, the 16,000 men of the Army of Drachin, 4,000 were sick. Typhus, consumption, and dysentry ravaged both armies. Lindenberg was forced to leave around 4,500 men that were too sick to even march behind, reducing his force to a total now of 13,500. Johan would also leave men behind himself, some 3,000, reducing his army to 13,000.
As the march resumed, daily skirmishes between cavalry and light infantry occurred. Most of these fights involved fights of no more than 50 men on each side and were largely inconclusive. A Battle would nearly erupt near Korskrog on the 28th of June, but bad weather and the incapacity of Duke Johan thanks to him catching Typhus on June 27th allowed the Imperial Army to withdraw.
With Johan incapacitated, his brother Carl Philip took command of the Army and was much more cautious than his brother. He was more than content in just pushing the Imperials back instead of fighting them in a costly battle.
Conclusion in July
With the skirmishes, and raids still occurring the whole march, Lindenberg arrived at Herzogsburg on the 14th of July. His army was now only 10,000 men strong, but the Dragoons weren't in much better shape, with only 11,000 men left. The attrition from Skirmishes and disease had effectively halved the strength of both armies and neither were in any shape to fight each other,
Carl Philip decided to withdraw 20km from Herzogsburg to the town of Hornstäve to rest, refit and replenish his army. The overall objective of the campaign had been a success as the Imperials were forced back to their starting positions. As his brother's illness was growing worse and worse, Carl Philip began to prepare for his next campaign that would come in Autumn.
On the other side, Lindenberg, while having been partially successful in his objective of tying down men, couldn't see this campaign as anything but a failure. His army was decimated, and their morale was low, and he had not won a victory in the campaign either. His army need to rest and recover some of its strength but without reinforcements, there was little chance of him launching another offensive.
Reluctantly, he wrote to Pomerlane detailing his situation and asked for reinforcements or a new objective. He desperately needed quality cavalry at his disposal, as one of the reasons he could not bring about the battles he wanted was this. The Dragoons had the advantage throughout the campaign with their cavalry and because the Elirian Infantry was not up to the same quality as the Dragoonians, Lindenberg had little chance to deal the blow he wanted.
What Lindenberg did not realize was that his campaign had far more greater consequences than he could see now. Magnus had received word of the Imperial advance into his Kingdom's breadbasket and realized how much of a problem the continued presence of them in Drachinia was long term. He could ill-afford to have the great burning of 1111 happen again and thus was forced to send 15,000 veterans from his army to reinforce the local army to take Herzogsburg. This left the King of Selenium with only 25,000 men in his own army, and he had to take 15,000 to make up for this loss from his brother's army sieging Aquileia, and a further 8,000 from the Army of Venusia to be sent to Aquileia. This made the total of the Army of Venusia decrease to 14,000 men, while stretching the manpower even thinner. Furthermore, he would have to call upon his own son, Crown Prince Olav to take his army of some 17,000 men north as well, fearing Pomerlane might strike in force down upon Drachinia. These moves would all have far reached consequences on the course of the war that would be seen in due time. The reinforcements from Magnus and Olav both arrived in Early August and combined their forces with that of Carl Philip. After a few days' rest, Herzogsburg would be the target of this new army, the Army of the North, now commanded by the Crown Prince himself.