Kolkata War 1916

[miketr]

February 20th Bharat sells its Chagos island holding to Firanji terms are unknown.

Location of Bharat Army as of February 26th 1916 when General Mobilization is complete.
All units are Advanced Quality

Outside of French Calcutta

First Army
1st Infantry (Elite)
2nd Infantry
7th Infantry Reserve
14th Cavalry
17th Mountain (Elite)
21st Jungle

Second Army
3rd Infantry
8th Infantry Reserve
9th Infantry Reserve
15th Cavalry Reserve
19th Mountain Reserve
22nd Jungle Reserve

Outside of Gujarat
4th Infantry

Outside of Goa
5th Infantry

Central Reserve
6th Infantry
1st Armored Car Brigade

Along Boarder with Mughal Empire
10th Infantry Reserve
11th Infantry Reserve
12th Infantry Reserve
13th Cavalry
16th Cavalry Reserve
18th Mountain
20th Mountain Reserve

Map of Calcutta
http://img223.imageshack.us/img223/8947/calcutta.png

Location of Troops
http://img299.imageshack.us/img299/8814/phase1.png

French and Hapsburg Forces in Calcutta
French
1st Kolkata Corps 4/2 broken down into ten brigades as border security
2nd Kolkata Corps 4/2 doing internal security for the province
5th French Corps 5/3 just arrived from France and is getting ready to move out from the city of Kolkata

Hapsburg
First division of the Hapsburg 1st Auslaender Freiwilliger (25,000 men)

February 27th the 17th corps cross the border into Calcutta to protect the lives of Hindu's being brutally persecuted by the French and Hapsburg Armies.

February 28th to March 1st With French troops pulled back from the border dealing with the insurrection the 17th Bharat corps is able to advance the 10 km by the start of the 1st of March and is outside the city of Burnpur where the first division of the Hapsburg 1st Auslaender Freiwilliger is located.  The Bharat Commander demands that the Hapsburg troops leave the city at once.

March 2nd When Hapsburg Commander refuses the Gurkha Rifles launch a pre-dawn attack.  The Hapsburgs hold the city but are heavily pressed as they are out numbered nearly two to one.  Both sides loose roughly 2,000 troops in the fighting. With discretion being the better part of valor that evening the Hapsburg Troops fall back down the Damodar river; in their wake they leave a burning city as much of the cities infrastructure is blasted by demolition charges and numerous fire quickly break out.

March 3rd The Bharat 1st and 7th Corps cross the border to join the Gurkha's at Burnpur to provide "security" for Hindu's in the city.  All other Bharat Corps send probes across the border into the French province. 

March 4th Poola issues a commendation of the Hapsburg Massacre of helpless Hindu's in the city of Burnpur.  The Maharaja demands that the French and Hapsburgs cease persecuting Hindu's in Calcutta.  Also since its clear that Glorious France has had half a year to restore order and clearly is incapable of the task Bharat is willing to buy the French Colony; $400 to be paid over four years.  Bharat would of course occupy the province at once.

With Bharat troops over the border the border troops and Hapsburg are ordered to fall back at once.  As they fall back bridges, railroads, telegraph lines and all other useful infrastructure are to be demolished to deny them to the enemy.   

[maddox]

To Whom it May Concern,
          Whereas, on multiple occasions, forces operating out of nation of Baharat have attacked the Citizens of Glorious France in and around the Province of Kolkata; and whereas the nation of Baharat has done nothing to prevent further attacks by these forces, but has rather offered them supply and succor in the face of French attempts to quell their actions; and whereas the nation of Baharat has shown a willingness to support in open combat;
   In view of the wanton acts of unprovoked aggression committed in flagrant violation of International Law relative to the respect of territorial claims of sovereign nations, to which both Baharat and the Glorious France are parties, I have been instructed by Premier Galpoux to inform the Government of Baharat in the name of Glorious France that a state of war exists between our two countries.

I have the honour to be, with high consideration,
   Your obedient servant,
      Charles Duré
      Governer of Kolkata

[The Rock Doctor]

I assume the latter dates in the above post should be March, rather than February.

Good stuff, Mike. 

[maddox]

It is a big deal in dates, in March France would have an extra 5/3 corps deployed, the type 2 airship hangar constructed and some other fun things arranged in defence of Kolkata.

Bharat isn't going to wait on those things to happen.

[The Rock Doctor]

Probably not - I'm just noting that the dates go from March 1 to February 2, 3, and 4.

[The Rock Doctor]

6 March 1916:  The Bay of Bengal

TO GRANCOM FORCE FRM WARRIOR STOP WIRELESS INTERCEPTS INDICATE POSS FRNCH DEC OF WAR VS BHARAT STOP GRANCOM FORCE TO TERMINATE EVAC AND IMPLEMENT CONTINGENCY RULES OF ENGAGEMENT IMMEDIATELY STOP CONVERGE ON MY POSITION ASAP FOR WITHDRAWAL TO RANGOON STOP COORDINATES FOLLOW STOP...

Sent, uncoded, to anybody listening in the same area:

BELIEVE FRML STATE OF WAR EXISTS BTWN FRNCH AND BHARAT STOP COLOMBIAN FORCES TERMINATING EVAC AND WITHDRAWING FRM REGION STOP WILL AVOID INTERFERENCE IN CONFLICT BUT HAVE LIBERAL RULES OF ENGAGEMENT IN EFFECT WHILE WITHDRAWING STOP

[miketr]

March 5th

The French Government has precipitous declared war on the Kingdom of Bharat.  With no other choice from this moment the Kingdom of Bharat declares that a state of war exists between it and France. 

Forced to draw its sword the Lion of India will not sheath it until victory is achieved. 

Chhatrapati Shahu IV, Maharaja of Bharat

The Hapsburg Auslaender Freiwilliger has completed its march and arrived at the city of Durgapur 45km down the Damodar river Burnpur.  Hot on the heels of the Hapsburgs are the Gurkha's.  About 25 km north east of the Hapsburgs are the French E and D brigades on the far side the Ramnabagan forest.

The French H Brigade is being rapidly pursued by scouts from the Bharat 22nd Corps and has been able to do nothing but flee east.  I Brigade arrives at the city of Kharagpur and begins a systematic destruction of the infrastructure.

The 5th French corps has been shuttled down river and is now at Tamluk where defenses are prepared.  Along with the 5th one of the regiments of Italian Built Armored Cars has also been sent; a second was sent north while the third stayed in Kolkata.  A detachment from the 5th is sent south to Haldia a seaport on Hooghly river; 50 km south west of Kolkata.           

All Bharat troops of the 1st and 2nd armies begin a general advance.

The Bharat 19th Corps a reserve Mountain Corps crosses the headwaters of the Subarnarekha and heads into Kalkata.  The Bharat 15th Corps is delayed with its crossing as French sappers destroyed all bridges across the lower Subarnarekha River; instead the Hyderabad Light Horse Corps has to ford the river and wait for engineers to erect pontoons for their supply train.

March 6th The 2nd Kolkata Corps completes its assembly at Bardhaman and heads up river to help the Hapsburgs.  In the mean time the Gurkha's are probing the defense of Durgapur and work to drive a wedge between the Hapsburgs and the two French Brigades to their north east.

French A, B and C Brigades arrive at Baharampur after a march of 45 km.  C Brigade was harassed the entire way by elements of the 14th Bharat Calvary Corps and could do nothing more than flee as fast as possible.  The scouts from the 21st Bharat Corps quickly moved down the south side of the Ganges while lead brigade of the 2nd Corps took Chatra and then Takipur moving 30 km since the 4th.  The main bodies for both Bharat corps are a days march behind. 

A rather large gap, nearly 50km, is opening between the three northern corps of the 1st army and those corps operating in the south near Durgapur.  Of course the French lack the troops to do anything about the separation that is covered by Bharat with only some squadrons of cavalry from 14th Bharat corps scattered across the divide.

The Bharat 9th Corps arrives in Raghunathpur after a march of 20km from their jump off point.  25 km to the east Saltora the next objective as the 9th Corps orders are to control the south side of Damodar river and keep in contact with the southern flank of the 1st army.   

March 7th the French F and G Brigades arrive in Bankura after marching over 50 km.  The standard orders are carried out on the city.

The detachment from the 5th French Corps arrives at Haldia and begins to erect field fortifications along the Haldi river to the South West and do west of the port city.

March 8th Corps takes Egra 30 km from their jump off point outside of Jaleswar. The French J Brigade had arrived some time in the small city; the French fire the town and begin a retreat towards Kajilgarh some 30 km away.  Kajilgarh is the halfway point to Haldia.   

The scene is repeated at Kharagpur as 15th Bharat corps arrives and finds a burning city in front of them.  The French I Brigade begins the 60 km march towards Tamluk in the east. 

Manbazar is taken without resistance by the 3rd Corps but it's the lone example for the southern part of the 2nd army. 

The 2nd Kolkata Corps quietly reinforces the Hapsburg troops inside the defenses of Durgapur.

Bharat 9th Corps arrives at Saltora and then moves on towards Gangajalghati 20 km to the south east.
The Bharat 21st Jungle Corps starts to infiltrate across the Hooghly river north of French near Baharampur.  Meanwhile the Bharat 2nd Corps has taken the Baharampur on the west bank of the Hooghly with what has become a rather normal find.  All the bridges across the river have been blown, the railroads heading into the city on the west side have been wrecked and other useful infrastructure demolished. The 14th is performing rear area security and scouting towards the south looking for a way to cross the river; but the area is thick with swamps and streams so it is very slow going.  Also all 3 Corps have advanced over 60 km since the start of the war and a pause is ordered to secure the rear and bring up supplies.   

March 9th Bharat has the 1st Corps joins the 17th outside of Durgapur but they have marched 60 km so an attack is delayed till the next day.  The Hapsburgs note the arrival of the additional troops.

March 10th after moving 70 km the Bharat 19th Corps arrives in Puruliya; the city while not subjected to scorched earth tactics of the French has its streets empty as civilians stay in doors or fled.

Pre dawn the Bharat 1st and 17th Corps begin a bombardment of the entrenchments around Durgapur.  French and Hapsburg counter battery begins at once which favors the defenders because of the presence of an airship over the battlefield.  Mid morning the Gurkha Rifles and Maratha Infantry come out of their entrenchments and rush French and Hapsburg defenders.  The attack is thrown back as it quickly becomes clear that the defenders are far strong than expected; about 4,000 attackers are lost for just under 2,000 of the defenders.  Afternoon sees the Gurkha's return to moving around the flanks of the defenders to the north and shoving back the detached French brigades. 

Map as of March 10th

http://img207.imageshack.us/img207/4879/phase2.png

[Korpen]

As a sidenote it could be mentioned that Haldia did not really exist as a port in the real world in this era. :)

[miketr]

Nothing is perfect but a good catch all the same...  Clearly somehow a port city came to be there... the location is a good one if nothing else.  ;)

Michael

[maddox]

 March 12th.
Fleet base Tricomalee, Ceylon.
(Sri Lanka)

Heavy cruisers Bruix and Treville Latouche and Chardons Furies, Glorieuse and Honore are being prepared for duty in Kolkata. 

A merchant vessel at the next quay is being loaded with floats and large steel nets.


Same day, Marseilles.

The Agrival lines (Peruvian flagged, sorry Jefgt ) fast merchant Anadón is being loaded with green painted 305mm and 340mm shells. Destination Fleet base Tricomalee, estimated date of arrival may 6th 1916.

[maddox]

Januari 1916

With the independence of Indochina, and the transfers happening all over the airship IX, together with the sisterships X and XI were transferred to Colombo.
But times are dire, the situation in Kolkata required more detailed attention.

Mid february
Volunteers were asked for a dangerous mission. And airship IX was selected to go to Kolkata, the load just fuel ,platinum rods for a hydrogen manufactoring plant and balast.

The weather in the time of year was gentle and the flight was uneventfull.  The landing on the other hand was different. 
No facilities, the hangars only half finished, the windbreak wall barely ready and no mooring mast at all, and worst, no ground crew.  With dropped messages communication with the people on the ground was established, and soon dozens of workers were on the landing field taking in the landing lines that were dangling from the huge airship.

After the landing, all was being prepared to get the airship ready for the new task.  Reconnaissance, the instalation of a tiny marconi set- still several 100 kgs worth of materials and shielding - a spark gap radio in an airship poses its own dangers-doesn't it? was one of the things to be done.
The crew, together with a few Italian mechanics, and army engineers started in the check up of the gentle giant of the air.  After a continous flight of  900 nautical miles, the engines need overhaul, the rigging retensioned, trim recalibrated and the frame checked.

Only small things were found, and the repair of those could be done with filled gasbags.

In the mean time a hydrogen and fuel manufactoring plant was set up at one of the coke-ovens.
The biggest problem to be overcome is the carbon monoxide that is generated in the process. 

March 10. The first recon flight .
The battle at Durgapur. 
A clear day unfolds the horrors of war.  But from the airship, the battlefield, at one side crossed with hastely dug trenches in the dry soil and trown together sandbag machine gun nests, and on the other side the attacking Bharat armies, unfolds as if it's a map on a table.

The Bharat artillery starts the preliminary bombardments, and the puffs of smoke cleary recognized. The telegraph handle stuttering its staccato voice.  The few French 155mm houwitsers answering, and the spotting from the airship makes that counter battery fire fiendishely accurate.

Of course, the Bharat troops see the connection. And try to shoot the airship.  After the first attempts, the airship just gets higher and does a pass over the battlefield. Over the bharat troops several small objects are dropped. Most miss everything completely, but one scores a near miss.  The package splashes fresh human solid but soft exrement over a prone shooter.
After this, the airship gets back over the French defensive lines. Maintaining position, like a huge protective silver cloud.
The information gathered by the airship, and the marconi equipment  are a gods gift to the defenders, and the Bharat troops can't break trough.

In frustration, the Bharati's take another attempt to shoot the airship, this time getting closer , and the airship captain uses the full power of the engines and dumps balast to get higher yet again.

With the sun setting after a tiring day, the airship returns Kolkata city.

Regular maintenance is done, but some of the more vigorous moves done during the day have losened rivets, some rigging cables untentioned, and rubbed against the gasbags, creating numerous small leaks.
The gasbags are  patched up, the rigging retensioned and the rivets replaced as far as possible with the available time and materials. But the hydrogen manufactoring plant can't produce pure hydrogen fast enough. And filling the bags with the carbon monoxide containing gas diminishes lift capacity, and causes an inherent danger of poisoning. Beggers can't be choosers. So the bags reinflated, the trim adjusted and mesurments taken to equalise the balast compared to the lost lift.  Engine number 3 has developed its own troubles, but is  nursed back to life by a duo of Italian mechanics.

The works are done in open air, and the frame is steadely loaded as if in flight. The crew is noticing strains and wear that should be repaired or replaced, but by lack of an hangar or the right tools, jury rigged repaires and patches are involved.

Still, the usefullness of the airship is too great, and the next sorties,  recon, but also bringing in meager supplies for the fielded army units. 

But, with every hour in flight, the lack of thorough maintenance and spare parts becomes more prononced.

Les Jeux D'aigle, as IX is lovingly called now by the troops, lifts up at 1 am, saturday 25th of march for another recon flight.  The lift capacity so low by the carbon monixide poisoned hydrogen, that engine 3 is removed, the balast and fuel just adequate for a 20 hour flight.

[miketr]

FYI if anyone is doing anything special about the fighting in Calcutta please send me a PM...

Michael

[Desertfox]

Considering the combat experience of early German Zeppelins operating over the western theater frontlines, I would have expected that ship to have quite a bit more holes than when it started the flight.

[maddox]

Rulewise.  It's the reason wear and tear in wartime is double than in piecetime.

And the 40 000m³ airship IX has a normal, max endurance of 80 hours @ 40 kts. The heavy Marconi installation takes off an hour or so.  If you see that the last thing I wrote about-

The lift capacity so low by the carbon monixide poisoned hydrogen, that engine 3 is removed, the balast and fuel just adequate for a 20 hour flight.

means Airship IX suffered greatly from the deprivations of war in a few weeks time.

[maddox]

March 15.  The city Of Kolkata.

Daily the refugees from the land flow in. The already overcrowded city bursting at its seams.

The French policemen, backed up with soldiers try to keep order,and follow orders by sending the recognizable muslims and christians to the city, and the hindus to the refugee camps.  Sometimes they succeed.

Life in the refugee camps ain't easy. The hastely set up infrastructures already working far over the capacity they were intended too.
The miasma overpowering. The dust invasive. What soil that isn't pounded into rockhard consistency by the 1000's of feet, is kept moist by bodely fluids. And blood is one of them.

In the city it isn't better. The somewhat better infrastructure groaning under the load of people. The water supplies can't keep up with the use. Foodsupplies are gone, except for the daily arriving ships with food from all over the world. Staple foods like the Indochinese rice, CSA and UNK grain, and so on. Ships enter the port loaded with food, soldiers, munitions or a combination. But even all these efforts to resupplying the city and keep the people from deprivations are not enough.
Overcrowding, rationing and total govermental control over the incoming food incite people to riots. At first, non lethal means were deployed to quell these internal violent outbursts, but violence begets violence. The army soon had to deal with those riots in the most heavy way possible.  But even when the army isn't involved, people are trying to better their lot with force.
And some just add their spirit to the mix. Thuggees that trickled in with the masses are more than joyfull by the chaotical nature of it all.


The situation is so bad that people of good will are finding ways to travel further. Bengal is already seeing a trickle of refugees, mainly muslims. Some of the hindus horrified by the absence of safety , even try to reach Bharat.


In the ports ships leave with refugees. Some well stocked for that purpose.
But some of the captains are greedy. Accepting money , and just supplying a space to stand to the desparing refugees wanting to escape the Kolkatan war.
Already the first horrorstories of whole shoals of corpses floating in the bay of Bengal are being spread by newpapers.

The Green Cross, already deeply involved in the Kolkatan issue, asks the civilised world to help the innocent people caught in the war between a barbaric religion and civilisaton.
French propaganda writers are having a field day demonising the Bharat sponsored violence know at Father Antonio's Mission and the destruction of the Green Cross hospital.

**********************************************************************************************

At night, lieutenant Achiel tosses and turns in the sweat soaked bed, the nightmare showing him the horrors of the last half year in fast forward, repeating themselfs and making themselfs worse in every repeat intermingling of the sitation in Kolkata city.

A soft voice calls him.