'The Coburan Civil War'

The Coburan Civil War
Erik von Witzland is a former Coburan defence minister, and commanded the Revolutionary Armed Forces during the civil war. He is now a military history lecturer at the University of Rio Irkawa.

Contents

1. Introduction 2. The Beginning 3. Eruption 4. Peace 5. Reflections

"The fight against tyranny and authority is never ending." Ernst Faber, founder of the Socialist Workers Party

Introduction

The Coburan Civil War was both a tragic and splendid period in our nations history. Despite the violence and destruction of the war, the ordinary people who took up arms in defence of their freedoms showed what can be achieved - despite the odds - with enough determination. They forced the Representative Assembly to repeal an act which outlawed their civil right to form militia organisations. This was achieved despite facing a professional army of soldiers supplemented by billions of COB, and supplied with high grade military equipment. The people on the other hand, had only the most basic weaponry and training. The only Revolutionary soldiers equipped and trained similarly to the standards of the Coburan Armed Forces, were the members of the Revolutionary Guard 'Ernst Faber' Division.

The Revolutionary Armed Forces began it's life as the 'Orange Brigade' - the militant wing of the then Socialist Workers Party. The brigade was really a bog-standard militia in those days, and had various problems in organisation and supply. However, when the Keymon crisis broke out, and the Communist Guerillas on the island asked for assistance, the brigade jumped in to battle without a thought. The experiences gained in the fighting on Keymon proved invaluable for shaping the Revolutionary Armed Forces and it's organisation and tactics. Many of the soldiers who fought as volunteers in Keymon, would go on to become officers in the RAFC, myself included.

When the Socialist Workers Party was reformed in 2441 so too was the Orange Brigade. This time however, we had the desire to create a standing army, which could be easily mobilised and would be organised along standard military lines. So, the Revolutionary Armed Forces were born, boasting a strength of around 120,000 members at it's peak just before the civil war. The new forces were better trained and equipped than the Orange Brigade had been. Small unit tactics and asymmetrical warfare were emphasised as a means of fighting a better-equipped foe, and we trained extensively in the Irkawan countryside to illustrate these new theories.

When the war began, the Revolutionary Armed Forces was not a rag-tag militia, but a well-drilled, people's army.

The Beginning

The lead up to the war can be traced back to the religious violence which broke out in September 2454. I say religious violence, because that is exactly what it was, despite slanderous allegations which suggest otherwise. Cowardly detractors of the Revolutionary Armed Forces would have you believe that our soldiers played a part in this violence, despite there being explicitly no evidence to suggest so. We knew at the time who the real perpetrators were and what their intentions were, but when we brought forward our claims, they were dismissed without hesitation by the bourgeoisie. It is much easier, you see, to blame those 'damn commies'.

So, on the 2nd September, 2454, as Christians were worshipping in churches throughout Rio Irkawa, groups of masked armed thugs went on a path of destruction. Storming the churches, they vandalised the buildings with graffiti, smashed windows and caused the god-botherers to flee in terror. No shots were fired. No acts of violence against any individuals. Yet, these petty acts of vandalism caused mass hysteria in the bourgeoisie government, who were of course dependent on the religious vote, as only the ignorant would vote for their outdated parties.

The government quickly leaped upon the opportunity to erode more civil liberties and attempted to declare a state of emergency. Luckily the Revolutionary Party fought tooth and nail to prevent this, and cooler heads prevailed. The violence continued over the coming months however, with several priests being killed and a car bomb exploding outside the biggest mosque in Cobura. The Revolutionary Party saw the true cause of the violence was religious extremism and proposed a reasonable bill to deal with the problem. Unfortunately the proposal - which stopped extremist missionaries coming into the nation - was rejected by the bourgeoisie, a sad reflection of their contempt for the Coburan peoples safety.

The government in the end, did limit the extremist foreign missionaries to some extent, but not enough to curb the religious violence which threatened our secular institutions and our way of life, and continued to grow. As the government buried its head in the sand, the Revolutionary Armed Forces took action and started to patrol the streets of Rio Irkawa and offer some measure of protection to our citizens. At this point the government was still debating whether or not to send in the army as a means of achieving calm, which was an utterly outrageous suggestion. The army are not trained to police, but to kill.

As defence minister and also commander of the RAFC I could see what was happening. I made it clear that I would not allow the Armed Forces to be sent into Rio Irkawa, an act which threatened the safety of civilians, and I stood by my convictions despite calls for me to resign. As the Chancellor went above me and ordered the army into Rio Irkawa, my hand was forced and I quickly made plans. The RAFC were put on high alert and told to prepare for an inevitable clash with government forces. I also made urgent calls to our allies in the Pan-Terran Red Army.

Eruption

As the army made an uneasy entrance into Rio Irkawa, legislators of the fascist Democratic New Labour Party were looking to liquidate the RAFC. A hideously titled bill, the 'Democracy Act' was drawn up which would outlaw the RAFC and see it forced to disband. Naturally, this only served to increase tensions and would serve as the decisive and most important factor in the RAFC declaring war upon the Coburan Armed Forces and the government it represented. The Democratic Labour Party and in particular their leader at the time Kevin Brooks, can shoulder the blame for escalating the conflict to an unacceptable level. Of course, this was all part of their plan to bring down the Libertarian Socialist movement, and was exactly what they desired.

It was at this point, in September 2456 that I resigned from my post as defence minister and went into Rio Irkawa to join my comrades of the RAFC, taking full command. I ordered our first attack to begin at dawn on the 25th, and assembled the Revolutionary Guard Division, instructing them to seize the national television news station in the city center. They achieved this objective without trouble and we now used the TV headquarters to full effect, making broadcasts in support of our uprising and telling the true account of events to the Coburan people. The Army responded almost immediately, and launched several abortive attacks, before finally abandoning all hope of snatching the building from us, as they dragged away their dead and wounded from the street.

Elsewhere in the city we took the fight to the government troops and consistently lured them into deadly ambushes, whereupon they suffered huge losses. Outside, on the army supply routes, acts of sabotage were carried out, causing huge problems for the army, who were bleeding within the city. The actions behind enemy lines by the 'infiltration' battalions were instrumental to our strategy. Not only did they cause the enemy supply and infrastructure problems, but they helped draw away government forces from the main battle in the city. The brave warriors of the infiltration units struck fear into all Coburan Army soldiers, and the enemy at no point ever felt safe from attack, regardless of whether or not he was at the front.

Within weeks we managed to spread the fight to the whole country, further paralysing the government forces, whose entire effort was being geared towards Rio Irkawa. Many successes were achieved throughout the nation as the people bravely captured countless government, council, police and army buildings. The fighting throughout the Irkawa region in particular was seeing victory after victory for our Revolutionary forces. The cities of Galts Gulch, Lochshire and Hudson all fell to our forces and their pitiful garrisons barely put up a fight.

In the other regions things were more difficult. In the Dilganato region there was only sporadic fighting, as the commander there employed hit and run tactics against a better prepared foe than in Irkawa. In the Army Officer Training School in the city of Eros, the government forces put up a stubborn and brave fight, refusing to relinquish the building to the RAFC, despite being surrounded by a force twice their number. They would hang on to the school by their fingertips right up until the end of the war. This should not be surprising however, as the school contained the very elite of the Coburan Army, and they were extremely motivated and well organised.

In Domale, we saw some of the bloodiest and bitterest fighting outside Irkawa. Nova Roma fell to the Revolutionary Army despite heavy losses, and the Revolutionary flag was raised above the city council building. In the city of Caeserea initial advances by our forces were halted by swift government reinforcements. The battle for the city quickly turned into a stalemate, as neither side dared advance in the face of irreplaceable losses. It took another four months for us to finally build up to a second assault in the city, which achieved much success, as we forced the government forces to withdraw across the river which runs through the center of the city.

By December, the Army began to withdraw from Rio Irkawa in the face of heavy losses and a lack of supplies and reinforcements. Victory was at hand! We did not rest however and we pursued the retreating forces relentlessly until breaking point. By the 29th we had cleared the entire city of the fascist foe, and we quickly took to defensive positions as winter began to make any further attacks almost impossible. As new year approached we had forced the government to the negotiating table.

Peace

John Farrow III, of the Crazy Ruari Party acted as a mediator, and a temporary ceasefire was declared on February 2nd, 2457. At the same time the government mobilised around half a million troops, and gave them strict orders not to take any aggressive actions. Both sides honoured the ceasefire, and prisoner and wounded exchanges took place all over the front-line. We made it clear, that unless the legislation banning the RAFC were rescinded, negotiations would be a waste of time. Certain elements of the government were fanatically opposed to any kind of peace however.

The uneasy ceasefire continued all the way into the following year thanks to the vindictiveness of parties like the Democratic Labour Party, the Liberal Reform Party and the Federalist Party. All of these counter-revolutionary fascists stood in the way of an easily reachable agreement. The demands were reasonable, and it would take little effort on their part to accept and implement them. They were unwilling to admit wrong however, and were willing to see more Coburans die before they swallowed their pride and agreed to a just peace.

Finally in March 2458, negotiations between myself and Philip Krone led to an agreeable peace treaty which was passed despite the protests of the Democratic Labour Party, Liberal Reform Party and the Conservative Party. In particular the fascist DLP labelled the RAFC as terrorists and insisted they would never negotiate with us. This was amusing considering what happened later. Thankfully, the chancellor did not agree with the fascists and wanted to achieve peace as soon as possible. The treaty was as follows:

1. It is noted that it was the democracy act that caused this mess in the first place

2. The ban on all paramilitaries is repealed

3. Government troops must withdraw from Rio Irkawa

4. RAFC will not interfere with police work or attack police

5. Both Philip Krone and Erik von Witzland accept responsibility for the outbreak of war.

And so, on March 15h, 2458, the Coburan Civil War ended.

Reflections

The war was a remarkable success for the Revolutionary Armed Forces. We may not have achieved strategic victory, but in Rio Irkawa and other local battles we had been victorious and had caused the government army a huge headache as they tried to deal with us. Our brave forces were swift, decisive and deadly. The enemy was slow, lethargic and docile. We had shown to all of Terra how a small paramilitary group could bring a professional army to it's knees. The men and women who flew the revolutionary flag and who without hesitation marched into battle to fight for their freedom, have their pride and honour intact and reinforced.

For the government troops, they will have felt betrayed. Not only by the peace treaty but by the conduct of the war carried out by their superiors. There seemed to be absolutely no direction or planning from the government during the war. The sum total of their strategy appeared to be march some soldiers into Rio Irkawa and hope for the best. If it were not for the individual lower-level commanders, such as those at Eros, the entire country might have been over run by the RAFC. The levels of incompetence shown by the Coburan Armed Forces was utterly bewildering to us all. We kept waiting for an inevitable backlash that never came. In addition, the entire Coburan Air Force was missing from the action. From the government perspective, the handling of the war was a fiasco.

It is strange that during the war the Democratic Labour Party and it's representatives were quick to label the RAFC as terrorists whom they would never work with. It was especially strange as only a few months later they requested our assistance should a bill have passed privatising the Coburan health care system. Apparently by then we had ceased being 'terrorists' and suddenly as if by magic been turned into 'freedom fighters'. So, not only are they fascists, but they are hypocrites of the worst kind.

To other sectors of the government we hold no ill feeling toward, as they have reconciled fully with us, and we are willing to work with them to achieve a brighter future for Cobura.

Above all, the war showed that:

The people united, will never be defeated!