WesWorld

Just one topic for the moment...

Asir

On 2 January, India, Yemen, and Saudi Arabia receive offers from Great Britain to negotiate a conclusion to the conflict in Asir, which London perceives as having too much potential to escalate into something worse after the events of December. Samraja Brashkar agrees to the offer, hoping to bring an end to the fighting so he can concentrate the nation's efforts on more productive matters. Imam Yahya ibn Muhammad also agrees, seeing that Yemen's situation has been getting progressively worse as India forces control essentially all of the coastal plain. King Saud declines, considering his positions to be strong.

A summit begins in Aden on 11 January, with Foreign Minister Kadharni representing India and Ahmad ibn Yahya (Imam Yahya's son) representing Yemen. India's demands are:

-that Yemen evacuate its forces from Asir and recognize India's status as its mandatee
-that Yemen compensate Asir for damage and loss of life
-that Yemen demilitarize its offshore posessions
-that prisoners be exchanged promptly and inefficiently

Yemen's demands are:

-that India evacuate its forces from Yemeni territory
-that India compensate Yemen for damage and loss of life
-that Indian military forces be removed from the Red Sea
-that prisoners be exchanged promptly and inefficiently

Starting with quite contrary positions, the British mediator decides to go for a quick success first, and focuses on the matter of the prisoner exchange. It is quickly agreed that the Red Crescent will supervise such transfers, and that all prisoners will be returned. Both sides insist they are treating prisoners well and in accordance with both legal and religious requirements.

The discussions otherwise go on for several days with no significant progress. Neither nation will admit fault, or back down from its basic demands. Finally, the British mediator takes ibn Yahya aside to remind him that it is only a matter of time before superior Indian military power ejects what few Yemeni troops remain in Asir and Sana'a comes under seige. ibn Yahya fumes, but eases off on his position.

On 21 January, ibn Yahya offers to remove Yemeni troops from Asir if India does the same. Kadharni agrees. From there, the British mediator has more success by working on getting each side to drop demands similar to those made by the other. On the 25th, the two representatives sign an agreement basically stating:

-That both sides will remove their forces from captured territories within one week
-Yemen and India agree that Asir is a League of Nations mandate and that India is the mandatee
-That Asirites will be offered a plebiscite within two years of this date to determine their future
-That prisoners will be exchanged promptly and efficiently
-That India will limit its post-war garrison to one division, in return for Yemen not maintaining any naval capacity or artillery on the Hanish Islands.

The issue of compensation basically comes down to each dealing with the damage to its own territory. Neither side is obliged to recognize the other's interpretation of pre-war events.

Imam Yahya views the outcome as a defeat, but privately concedes that being overrun by India would be worse. He is not at all happy with the demilitarization of the islands, disagreeing with his son's assessment that they can be quietly maintained against Ethiopian machinations. Subsequent events will prove him correct. Although Ethiopian volunteers do subsequently depart mainland Yemen, they entrench their positions on Greater Hanish Island and small islets south of it, asserting their own claim to them. Yemen simply can not muster the forces necessary to push them out, and finds itself limited to Lesser Hanish and the islands north of it.

Samraja Brashkar views the agreement as acceptable, being willing to rebuild Asir again if need be. Equally importantly, it means that six divisions now fighting in Yemen can be moved north to deal with Saudi Arabia.

Very interesting. Not very good for the Saudis though.

Particularily when they thought they were in a position of strength, a possition that will soon deminish as 6 additional divisions move North to tackel them.

Somehow I get the feeling that Ethiopia will end up having the best cost:benefit ratio at the end of all this.

Asir 2: India and Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia is incensed at Yemen's peace with India, calling it, among other things, a betrayal. One Saudi minister is heard to compare Yemen with Adam as he accepted the apple from Eve in Eden. Rhetoric aside, the Saudis can see that their task will be that much more difficult.

Knowing that India is certain to renew an offensive in late February as their troops move north, the Saudis launch a spoiling attack on 13 February. Indian and Filipino positions are hit and bend, but do not break - though several instances of ferocious hand-to-hand combat are reported in the Raghdan area. The Saudi offensive peters out after six days.

India counter-attacks north from Al Qunfudhah along the coastal road on 22 February. Saudi forces dig in along a seasonal riverbed just north of Abu Hanash, against the advice of their attached Dutch advisor, who points out the threat of Indian naval gunfire. On 24 February, the Saudi defenders observe an Indian aircraft circling high above their positions, followed by the arrival of about two hundred seventy rounds of 15 cm fire from the cruiser Jaipur. Later in the afternoon, the monitor Bindusara arrives and pounds away at several strong points with 21 cm shells. When troops of the Sind Krait division assault the positions, resistance is light and ineffective, with over one hundred prisoners taken.

The Dutch observer, one Captain W. Ludovicus Rooijen, is also captured, and is treated for shrapnel wounds. He invokes his status as an unarmed neutral and declines to say much more than his name, rank, and identification, though he is overheard to say something along the lines of, "I told that idiot he would find a cruiser parked offshore, but did he listen?"

He is handed over to the Red Crescent for repatriation, in front of several reporters and two news cameras, on 1 March. The body of his aide, Sergeant Wijbo Ermerins, is also returned; he had been cut down by a 15 cm shell on the 24th. Afterward, the reporters are shown some of the rather new looking rifles, machine guns, mortars and other equipment of Dutch origin that were captured in the battle.

After this defeat, which costs Saudi Arabia a battalion, there is only token resistence to the Indian drive up the coast, which culminates in a meeting between Indian troops and Hedjazi guerrillas on the southern outskirts of Jiddah in mid-March.

Inland, the situation is different, and the Saudis fight more doggedly against an Indian attack towards Al Tawilah, though the town does fall to the Chakravaat Division on 2 March anyway. Indian attacks continue at a measured pace north towards At Ta'if, with the Chakravaat being replaced by the re-deployed Green Dervishes as fatigue and casualties mount. Still, by the end of March, At Ta'if is within artillery range, as is the camp containing Indian pilgrims.

On 22 March, Prince Faisal enters Jiddah, where he proclaims the re-establishment of the Kingdom of Hedjaz. He tells a cheering crowd, "What the House of Saud began in 1924 has now come to an end. Their repressive, anti-technological cult of Wahhabism shall not cause you to live in fear and ignorance any longer."

By the end of the month, most towns and cities in the old kingdom are in the hands of guerrillas who have driven out whatever Saudi loyalists were stationed there. As for Asir, Qal'at Bishah is the only sizeable town still held by Saudi forces, though the contest between Indian Camel Corps and Saudi irregular cavalry continues to go back and forth in bloody fashion in the rocky wastes of the northeast.

There is no significant fighting in the Persian Gulf, though one Saudi speedboat is sunk by an Indian gunboat on 12 March. With the Red Sea essentially peaceful by mid-month, a number of Indian units, including most of the amphibious forces, steam out of the Red Sea and make for Bushehr, Persia.

Oops... Sorry for the threat hijack Rocky...

That's okay. I was going to assume one of my people overheard that conversation...

Make some room in your mailbox, by the way.

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Quoted

Originally posted by Alikchi
Somehow I get the feeling that Ethiopia will end up having the best cost:benefit ratio at the end of all this.

Quite likely I think. It always helps to pick on an enemy massively weaker than yourself, especially when he's already fighting someone else.

Indeed. The islands don't offer anything in terms of resources, but their location can be useful.

Other International News

On 1 January, Samraja Brashkar relays a congratulatory message to Germany, wishing the new German republic peace and prosperity. Barely two months later, he relays a more solemn message expressing his shock and sadness at the murder of President Braun. There is considerable relief in India when the troubles caused by the NSDAP cease a week later.

President Braun is deemed worthy of the highest measure of respect from India, so for the first time, a member of the royal family flies the entire distance to Germany (though routing over the Red Sea is tricky). It is Princess Prahminder who bears India's tidings of grief; she, too, has suffered the wrath of German right-wing extremists, though the physical scars from that attack have long since healed.

[Refer to 1921 Indian news for details of that incident.]

Indian naval units are busy on two other fronts beside Asir. During the month of January, a number of vessels coordinate a search for the Intrepida alongside South African, French, and later, German warships. The search is unsuccessful, for Intrepida is later reported sunk by Argentine naval forces in South American waters. There is some skepticism about the sinking, and SPEARFISH assigns a team to investigate on its own.

[SPEARFISH = South Africa and India's SPEcial Agency Responsible For Information SHaring.]

After a four year hiatus, the cruiser Dhaka returns to South America in the company of the paritraataa Kudligi, both vessels escorting the battleship Huascar (ex-Babur, ex-Uruguay) to Peru. With the over-the-top posturing of Peru's various neighbours behind them, the crews enjoy eight days of relative rest and relaxation. Both ships are open to the public for some time, and also host tours for Peruvian military and political visitors. Several meetings ensue, and Dhaka's senior personnel later tour the coastal defence battleship Lima and the old cruiser Grau.

Domestic News

24 March is the last day in which multiple deaths are reported from El Derretir in India. A preliminary report concludes that the disease claimed approximately two hundred eighty-three thousand lives, about 0.7 percent of the population. Most of the dead were from Bengal, the hardest-hit state.

Another four hundred to six hundred thousand people bear significant scarring as a consequence of surviving the disease. Many of these individuals become ashamed of their appearance, several dozen taking their own lives. Others feel guilt at surviving when their loved ones perished, or experience intentional and accidental discrimination from those who fear their appearance or remain afraid of contracting the disease.

There is also something of a refugee issue, with approximately a million Indians having fled their homes in the hot zones at some point during the epidemic. Considering Bengal's vulnerability to flooding and cyclones, the government takes measures to encourage their relocation to the less populated southwest of the nation.