First Harbinger War

The Harbinger Incident, also called the first Harbinger war, was fought in 1968 between Fasdia and Brachyuria. Over claims that the Brachyurian government had tested their first nuclear device in an area of water which the Fasdian merchant vessel FMC Harbinger had been lost in, at around the same time. Heated disputes raged between the Fasdian and Brachyurian governments that Brachyuria was responsible for the Harbinger's disappearance and should make reparations, which were met with indifference from the Brachyurian king Tin Niederhaus.

The first Harbinger War started on Friday the 18th of October 1968, with the Fasdian naval incursion into the Ravenessian Sounds and capture of two Brachyurian merchant vessels. Brachyuria launched a naval task force to engage the Fasdian Navy, and retake the captured shipping. In the resulting battle, the Fasdian fleet would be forced to withdraw, anticipating the arrival of a larger Brachyurian force. The second half of the conflict, beginning October 20, revolved around the Fasdian owned islands of the Arteska archipelago, which the Brachyurian Navy attempted to take over in a show of strength, utilising marines. On the tactical front, this invasion was a failure, but the notion of the conflict escalating further did result in Fasdia negotiating an end to the conflict on the 24th of October, and a retraction of it's previous request for reparations. The war lasted just six days, but resulted in the deaths of around 700 Brachyurian and 356 Fasdian soldiers, sailors, and airmen, and the deaths of 6 civilian Arteskans. It the first conflict to be fought by Fasdia in it's modern sovereign state, and is remembered in Brachyuria as the first of a line of wars that would eventually result in the overthrowing of King Tin.

The political effects of the war were strong in both countries. A wave of patriotic sentiment swept through both: the Fasdian's perceived win prompted a before unseen devotion to their nation, and fostered belief that a larger place in regional politics was deserved; in Brachyuria, the state run newspaper All hail the glorious leader attempted to put a positive spin on what can be seen as a Brachyurian military disaster, but most readers in Brachyuria were capable of reading between the lines. The nuclear incident that fostered the conflict would be the cause for several later wars, instigated by neighbouring nations of Brachyuria that were concerned about it's reckless use of nuclear weapons.

Relations between Fasdia and Brachyuria were partly restored in 1985 upon the death of King Tin, and coronation of King Irvine, but it was not until 1988 when Irvine travelled to Fasdia on a diplomatic mission of apologies, that cautious feelings towards Brachyuria were negated.

Lead up to the conflict
After his initial bloody coup, wherein he had his parents and the entirety of the Brachyurian royal and noble line killed, Tin Niederhaus had been in charge of a country that was slowly receding into bankruptcy, and was becoming less of a concern to foreign powers as a result. Hoping to stir a feeling of patriotism amongst the populace, and send a message to his neighbours, he aborted Sodie III's earlier stance on nuclear weaponry and began Brachyuria's atomic project. On the 13th of October 1968, he would authorise the testing of this nuclear weapon, and reputedly did so with full intentions to catch a foreign ship in the blast. Unfortunately, records were deliberately burnt during a resulting war a year later, but it is widely accepted that Fasdian beliefs regarding his intentions are close to the truth.

Following the test, which the freighter FMC Harbinger was destroyed in, diplomatic cables between Brachyuria and Fasdia quickly escalated the tensions. Fasdia claimed that not only was the Harbinger destroyed in the nuclear test, but demanded that reparation payments be made, or face economic sanctions. The tension this caused was worsened further when the Fasdian dictator Jake Jenning decided to send a small fleet of warships towards the Brachyurian coast. Learning of this development almost immediately, Brachyuria was unsympathetic, and openly hostile to the Fasdian demands.

Merchant raiding by Fasdia
On the 18th of October, a fleet of 10 Fasdian warships with 7 supporting picket ships, reached the waters of the Ravenessian sounds, just south of Brachyuria. There, they commandeered the Brachyurian merchant freighter BMC Hidalgo, which led Brachyuria to declare war on Fasdia and make preparations to send out it's own fleet to combat them. By the time contact was made, Fasdia had already peacefully seized the cargo and crew of a second ship, and was nearing a third, the BMC Buckler.

Battle of the BMC Buckler
Main article: Battle of the BMC Buckler

The Battle of the BMC Buckler lasted just 21 minutes, beginning at 3:29pm on October 19. The first shot of the war is reported to have been made by two Brachyurian submarines, hiding underneath the freighter BMC Bunkler in order to bait the Fasdians into approaching. Anti-submarine countermeasures fired in response had an immediate effect, and both submarines, the HMS Hermit and HMS Cordimana, were badly damaged, with the Cordimana in particular breaking in half. A detachment of the Brachyurian surface fleet numbering sixteen vessels then came into range, and began firing. The BMC Buckler was sunk near the beginning of the battle, after taking fire from both sides. 14 Brachyurian vessels, including the Buckler, were sunk by the end of the battle, and 3 more were badly damaged. Fasdia received less losses, with 6 warships and 5 smaller vessels sunk, all other ships in good enough shape to make an escape back to Fasdia.

On paper, the battle itself can be seen as a victory for Fasdia. It can be assumed however, that if the larger detachment of the Brachyurian fleet came into firing range, the remaining Fasdian fleet would not have prevailed. Additionally, the battle was destructive enough for the Fasdians that the order was given by Admiral Gareth to pull back. Though the Brachyurian navy did suffer more losses than the Fasdians, this battle in particular is regarded as a victory for Brachyuria, if a somewhat shallow one.

Battle of Arteska
Main article: Battle of Arteska

Following the battle in the Ravenessian sounds, King Tin authorised a retaliatory attack on Fasdia, choosing the Arteska archipelago as the initial target, as it lay between Brachyuria and Fasdia. A Brachyurian fleet, reportedly 96 vessels in number, reached the islands on the 24th of October, carrying with them a contingent of 600 Marines. The Fasdian defences were not displaying the height of their military technology, but still had a much more numerous reserve of manpower than the Brachyurians, with 2,500 infantry and marines. The first action of the battle was a continued long distance bombardment of the Naval and Air base on the Archipelago's northern island, named "Arteska island" itself. Given the range and scarce information the Brachyurians had on the Fasdian positions, naval bombardment would continue to be grossly ineffective throughout the battle.

A marine assault was decided upon, in an attempt to negate Fasdia's air support. Landing ashore on beaches along the north coast, the initial assault went unopposed, but would become well defended by Fasdian positions further inland. In particular, the ridge-line of Mount Holdsley was a key line of defence for Fasdian infantry, supported only by a lone armoured vehicle. Fasdian aircraft, though mostly restricted to the south side of the ridge due to Naval anti-air capabilities, had a crippling effect on Brachyurian infantry that breached the ridge-line. When the Brachyurian companies assigned to taking the Fasdian base were almost completely wiped out, the marine assault was called off, in favour of bombarding it into submission.

Manoeuvring around the island, Brachyurian vessels were then fired upon by coastal artillery lying in wait, and a group of Fasdian submarines, which then swiftly departed. Despite these late losses, the island was by this point considered subdued, as per the Brachyurian invasion plan, and preparations were being made for a mopping up of Fasdian forces by the Navy. However, due to political reasons, it was at this point that Admiral Hobert would defy Royal orders and declare that all vessels head for home. As he was the last admiral in the expeditionary force still accounted for, the fleet followed him back out of Arteska.

Aftermath
This brief war brought many consequences for all the parties involved, besides the great loss of human life and materiel.

In Brachyuria, King Tin won the short-term support he required to keep a stranglehold on the populace, national pride received a big boost, helped along by sensationalist media outlets, and the Brachyruian Navy proved its importance once more. Though news of the realities of the conflict never reached Brachyurian ears, it was also a boost for the oppressed civilians of Brachyuria, towards the idea that other nations could be concerned enough about Tin to take action against him. As a direct result of the incident, if not also the conflict, several larger wars would be fought in and around Brachyuria with neighbours fearful of Tin's reckless use of nuclear power. This would eventually lead to him being overthrown, so, victory or not, the Harbinger incident is considered an important step toward the modern Brachyuria.

In Fasdia, it led to a great increase in national pride, when before, it has been regularly joked, nationalism in Fasdia was a simply matter of buisness sense. The pivotal role Arteska played in the conflict also made the existence of the archipelago known to the Fasdian public, and peaked public interest. It has been argued, that the public support for the creation of the Fasdian Bloc later in the 20th century stems from these feelings of pride about a prospective "Fasdian empire".

In both nations, the 25th of October is a national holiday. Since 1968 for Fasdia, and since 1988 for Brachyuria, after King Irvine came into power and made a belated mission of apologies to Fasdia. Today, Fasdia and Brachyuria enjoy a fairly healthy relationship, and have sided together in major international conflicts since the incident.

Fasdia
Though the war was so short lived and hastily organised that no correspondents were appointed before it finished, news was announced of the conflict on a regular, and relatively uncensored basis.

Information being a commodity, and it being Fasdia, it was often said that most of the country knew about events in the war before the Dictator Jake Jenning did.

Brachyuria
Typically, the Brachyurian public had the truth of matters withheld from them in all aspects of the incident. All hail the glorious leader went to outlandish lengths to deny unflattering details about both battles of the conflict, going so far as to state that all Brachyurian deaths and sunken ships resulting from the failed Arteskan invasion plan were actually due to drunken sailors and soldiers falling overboard in  "post-victory celebrations." Additionally, it made even stranger claims about the abilities of the three admirals lost in the fighting, stating for example that when greeted by Fasdian Submarines; Admiral Verhagen, who in truth died when his flagship was hit by naval artillery "bravely leapt from the deck of his flagship and wrested the paltry, cardboard like hull of the foreign submarines apart with his bare hands."

Many in Brachyuria had learned to read between the lines of the propaganda by this point, and assumed the worst of the situation. Suspicions were raised further when Admiral Hobert failed to return, instead having mutinied and sailed his flagship the HMS Xanthodius on past Brachyuria towards northern waters. Tin chose to ignore it in order to avoid any more fuss being made over the incident than there already was, and the Xanthodius would return in proceeding wars to harass the Brachyurian coast, before eventually being captured in 1984.