The Great Realm War

The Great Realm War, also known as the First Great Realm War was a Realmwide war that lasted from February 7th to February 23rd 2020. It involved the vast majority of the Realm's countries — including all the great powers — forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Central Powers. The Great Realm War was the first war where the Realm was in a state of total war, directly involving more than a million military personnel from more than five countries.

The Great Realm War was the second deadliest conflict in modern Realm history, resulting in more than one million fatalities, with more civilians than military personnel killed. Hundreds of thousands of people died due to genocides (including the later Villicaust), premeditated death from starvation, massacres, and disease. Aircraft played a major role in the conflict, including in strategic bombing of population centres, most notably being the Cum Territories, and the development of more potent TNT.

Background
The main cause of the onset of the war was Dexistanian expansionism and anti-Albanian sentiment among the populace of many countries. Albania had almost always been a pariah on the international stage and adopted a policy of isolationism for most of its existence. However, in January 2020, Albania annexed an unclaimed island and created the satellite state of Molossia, sparking tensions with Japan and Dexistan.

Shortly after the creation of Molossia, Dexistan sailed the 5th Fleet to another unclaimed island very close to Molossia and named it Discovery Cove. A chapter of the CAA was the first building erected on the island. This building was visible off the Molossian coast and is widely considered blatant aggression and power projection on the part of Dexistan. Docks were soon erected in Discovery Cove and there was a permanent fleet detachment soon dispatched there. After several weeks of close calls and numerous airspace and border violations by both parties, an Albanian submarine shot a torpedo at and sunk a Dexistanian patrol boat, killing 22 sailors and thus igniting the Great Realm War.

Dexistan immediately drafted a declaration of war and President Moonfire held a press conference in his office about the incident. He told reporters that he "would bring fire and fury onto the Albanian scum". Upon the news of the incident, several anti-war demonstrations took place in various places across Dexistan. These protests were met with brutal repression by local police and deployed military. The Ministry of Information imprisoned several protest leaders as well. Despite the fringe anti-war protests, nationalist fervor and anti-Albanian sentiment skyrocketed in the wake of the incident, not just in Dexistan but in Japan as well as the GTR. Enlistment exploded in Dexistan and purchases of patriotic memorabilia went up by 400% in just two days.

Japan soon joined the war as a CAA obligation and also because of the public pressure to defend Dexistan and fight Albania. The GTR, despite widespread opposition to Albania within their population, sided with Albania in the fight against Dexistan and Japan. President 77brickman05 stated in a letter that "Dexistan intentionally provoked Albania to trigger an international incident and find an excuse to declare war." Dexistan promptly cut ties with the GTR and prepared for military action against New Rawabi. The alliances soon formed; Japan and Dexistan fighting for the Allies and the GTR, Albania, and the Cum Territories (a micro-nation that was effectively a puppet of Albania) fighting as part of the Central Powers. The GTR also sent a message to Mexico, proposing Mexico initiate a swift land invasion of Japan in exchange for half of all its territory after the war had concluded. Mexico refused and the GTR cut ties. This interaction would later come to be known as the Pooperman Telegram.

Battle of Padilla Bridge
The Battle of Padilla Bridge was the first battle of the war and occurred the day after the war officially started. The battle was initiated after GTR troops, deployed from New Rawabi, set their sights on attacking New Osaka thereby crippling Japanese industry. The push was met with major resistance from combined Japanese-Dexistanian forces as they convened to defend Padilla Bridge. The 5th and 6th Armies of the Greater Teutonic Realm attacked with the unrelenting force of over 50,000 men. This offensive included the use of attack boats and fighter planes on ground forces. The battle was fought from 7:15 am to 4:40 pm and both sides sustained thousands of casualties. The most notable incident of the battle was when a squad of six Japanese infantrymen waded into the flowing Setarhpue River and planted explosive C4 devices under a GTR occupied bridge in an effort to disrupt and delay the advance of reinforcements. This is the first recorded instance of what is widely considered total war that occured in the modern Realm. This move alone killed hundreds of Teuton soldiers, through both the initial blast and drowning, and bought precious time for the retreat of Allied forces but permanently damaged Japanese infrastructure. The efforts to repair that bridge concluded in September 2020.

After holding out for more than nine hours, the combined Japanese-Dexistanian force was forced to retreat after sustaining over half their number in casualties. GTR troops were incredibly bogged down from the casualties on their side as well as the narrowness of the various bridges they crossed. Although the Allied forces were routed, they were left ample time to escape and regroup until the Teuton forces finally reached New Osaka by the late evening.

Battle of New Osaka
The Battle of New Osaka began a day after the declaration of war when GTR troops, deployed from New Rawabi, fought at Padilla Bridge and subsequently marched into New Osaka to occupy the city. They met little resistance, neither from Japanese troops nor the local populace and accordingly deployed more troops to secure the area around it. However, it was soon revealed this was a trap by combined Japanese-Dexistanian forces.

In the late night of February 8th, Japanese special forces attacked an incoming Teutonic convoy, killing several dozen Teuton soldiers and rigging their vehicles to explode. When a platoon of Teuton troops began to investigate, the explosives were detonated and hundreds of Teuton soldiers lay dead. Dexistanian and Japanese forces, both aided by civilians and regrouped and rested from the prior battles, then descended upon the city in full force and inflicted thousands of casualties on Teuton forces, many of whom were sleeping. The 5th Army of the Greater Teutonic Realm swung into full retreat as they desperately tried to deploy pontoon bridges to escape. Several Japanese citizen militia groups followed them all the way to New Rawabi, picking off stragglers and harassing the main army, slowing their retreat significantly. This utter defeat for the GTR was the catalyst for the Battle of New Rawabi.

Battle of New Rawabi
The Battle of New Rawabi was, by far, the deadliest battle of the Great Realm War and the longest lasting battle (lasting from February 9th to February 21st). The Battle of New Rawabi was a direct result of the attempted invasion of New Osaka by the GTR and the resulting retreat. After the total routing of GTR forces at New Osaka, tens of thousands of combined arms Allied forces (mainly Dexistanian) advanced on New Rawabi in the early morning hours of February 9th, starting with a devastating artillery bombardment and several bombing runs by the Air Force that flew almost entirely unopposed. This sufficiently softened New Rawabi's defenses for infantry and armor to advance from the staging area in New Osaka and march into New Rawabi.

Moonfire and most of Dexistan's generals had assumed that the New Rawabi defense would be pitiful and unorganized due to the major Teuton losses the previous day, however, they were sorely mistaken. Civilians and military alike participated in the defense while brutal door-to-door urban fighting enveloped the largest city on the Realm. The initial offensive stalled by the evening and only parts of the West End were secured. The previous strategy of decisive, high-risk, high-reward battles had to be abandoned for a more granular and gritty type of warfare.

Major shifts in the organization of both armies took place with a higher emphasis on small unit tactics and squad autonomy. Commanders would play a much smaller role as platoons and squads were becoming the norm in this battle and war in general. The battle in the air and sea would prove inconclusive as both Allied and Central Powers air capabilities matched each other every time and while Japan maintained battleship superiority, Teutonic and Albanian submarines proved to be a hindrance at nearly every turn.

The famous skirmish near the Statue of 77brickman05 (the President of the GTR) proved to be a rallying cry for Teutonic citizens and soldiers. Another talking point of Teutonic propaganda were the mass atrocities against Teutonic citizens committed by Japanese forces (Dexistanian troops also partook in some of the atrocities but to a lesser extent), this included mass killings and rape, seemingly indiscriminately, against innocent non-combatants. Although some crimes were exaggerated in Teuton propaganda, photographic evidence, eye witness accounts, and bone remains indicated that many war crimes against citizens in New Rawabi did occur. Japan has continued to downplay and even outright deny many of these occurrences during the Battle of New Rawabi with Emperor Fung Wah stating, "these women were comfort women and prostitutes that willingly partook in sexual acts with paying Japanese soldiers." At the peak of fighting, Allied forces controlled nearly half of the New Rawabi Metropolitan Area as a whole and very nearly won the battle at several points. One of these battles included the Port Street Push, a Dexistanian offensive action, concentrating nearly all of their forces down a narrow corridor of Port Street. The professed goal of this was to secure a vital train yard that had been used to ship in supplies from other parts of the GTR to aid the defenders. This push had intense fighting including hand-to-hand combat and TNT warfare. This push was ultimately stopped, in large part due to a lone Teutonic sniper by the name of freepalestine69lol, who collected over 50 confirmed kills in that engagement alone. This failure proved to be devastating for morale and organization in the Allied ranks and was largely given credit for breaking the war effort of the Allied in New Rawabi.

The battle dragged for more than a week after that, however, due to dwindling supplies and heavy snow setting in, the Allied forces were forced to sound the bugle of retreat, after weeks of hellish fighting, in the early hours of February 21st. Several hours later, the announcement of the armistice was unveiled. This was a pyrrhic victory for the GTR, though, as more than a hundred thousand, soldier and civilian alike, had been lost and the industrial and infrastructural capacity of the GTR and the Central Powers as a whole greatly diminished. The Battle of New Rawabi is often attributed by Realm historians to have been the beginning of the end of the First Great Realm War and a major factor in the signing of the armistice.

Battle of the Village
While the Battle of New Rawabi raged in the adjacent territory, on February 12th, a small detachment of Dexistanian paratroopers descended on the historic Spawn Village, the birthplace of 77brickman05 himself. This group of 800 elite fighters planned to secure the Spawn Village to make way for a three pronged attack against New Rawabi in order to renew the Allied offensive and win the battle. However, GTR intelligence services had intercepted the plan two days earlier and deployed a larger special forces unit to the Spawn Village in an effort to halt the offensive into New Rawabi. These Teuton special forces remained concealed for several hours after the 4th Paratrooper Regiment had deployed into the Village.

After being given a signal by their commander, the Teuton special forces opened fire on the unsuspecting Dexistanian troops, killing many and wounding more. This turned into a protracted skirmish over several hours with Dexistanian forces holding out in buildings and periodically seeking targets through windows. Eventually, the over 1400 Teuton special forces advanced on these positions, trying to eliminate the last of the resistance in the area. They grossly miscalculated and many soldiers fought to death, the most notable example being that of Thomas Knapp, a mere corporal that killed 43 Teuton soldiers single-handedly as they tried to rush his squad's holdout. He was posthumously awarded the Hero of Dexistan medal (the highest possible military honor in Dexistan) and became a folk hero for not only Dexistan but all Allied countries. Nevertheless, the 4th Paratrooper Regiment of Dexistan was wiped out nearly to a man with only a few escaping after playing dead. This victory was at high morale cost to the GTR and Dexistan and what is widely considered to be the last straw of the First Great Realm War.

This battle was also the catalyst for the Villicaust, a massive ethnic cleansing of Villagers throughout the GTR for their perceived sabotage of the war effort, which further fueled the perception that the GTR had been "stabbed in the back" by unpatriotic citizens, leftist agitators, and scheming Villagers who wanted the Allies to win. After this disastrous operation and at the tail end of the Battle of New Rawabi, the Ministry of Relations in Dexistan sent a message directly to the President of the GTR, asking if he wanted to proceed with an armistice. The President agreed after days of negotiation, however, neither Dexistan nor the GTR had informed Japan about the negotiations taking place. This neglection would prove fatal in the final confrontation of the Great Realm War.

Attack on Cum Island
The Attack on Cum Island was a coordinated bombing campaign by Allied forces against the island state of the Cum Territories. It had been planned since the war began but the Allies could not muster the forces to deploy the attack due to being preoccupied with other higher priority battles. This massive force of over 100 bombers (over 70 were Japanese) was deployed several hours before an agreement was reached between the GTR and Dexistan. Per the request of Japanese Air Marshal, Junichi Takayama, all bomb loads were tripled beyond their capacity to inflict maximum damage. Some payloads included special weapons outlawed in the UN charter such as fire bombs and chemical bombs. The raid commenced in the early morning hours of the 20th of February as air raid sirens rang throughout Cum Island. The island was practically defenseless besides a small infantry garrison and had no means to defend itself from air attack, much less the biggest bombing campaign in the history of the Realm to that point. Shells started hitting the island at around 6:45 am and did not let up until the late evening.

Thousands laid dead and property damage was in the tens of millions after the first hours. This indiscriminate destruction of both civilian and military targets after a peace agreement had already been reached shocked the Realm as a whole, thus, the Allies released a statement about the operation, calling it "a necessary measure" that was "unfortunately timed". They insisted that they were not aware of the agreement or even the peace negotiations in any capacity and acted upon orders that were given days earlier.

The GTR was outraged and reneged from the armistice. Even so, neither side was in the shape to engage in any kind of bloody clash with each other and the withdrawal was merely a symbolic gesture of the GTR's disapproval. After this, on February 22nd, the Allies deployed a contingency landing force composed of primarily Japanese soldiers that they held in case of this exact turn of events. They swiftly invaded Cum Island using a small naval transport force and a thousand elite special forces. The island and therefore the country fell in just one afternoon and the Japanese flag flew over Main Street by rush hour. The important figures of the government fled to Albania before Allied forces even reached the beaches while the rest of the invasion was easy pickings for the Allied forces. This occupation did not last long, however, as a hostile populace and a ravaged country became difficult to manage almost immediately and the Allies fully withdrew from the country by February 25th. Two days after the bombing on February 23rd, every nation involved in the conflict agreed to the previous armistice and began a long and strenuous process at the negotiating table.

Post War and Treaty
The official negotiations began on February 25th and ended on March 12th. Ambassadors from countries across the Realm, including ones not involved in the war such as Mexico and India, appeared at the conference that was dubbed the Treaty of New Rawabi, the location of the proceedings. The overall result entailed a stalemate in territorial gains except for the destroyed Cum Island which was turned into a UNESCO site after all of its remaining citizens were deported to Albania and the GTR. Albania was forced to pay reparations numbering in the hundreds of millions to Dexistan for the death of the 22 sailors. This enormous expense for the fledgling Albanian economy led to a fiscal crisis.

Several demilitarized areas across the Realm were also created in order to reduce tensions. A massive prisoner exchange also occurred between all countries with thousands of Dexistanian and Teutonic POWs being returned. The main contention of the conference was the fate of the expansive bridge system that had been integral to the war effort of both sides. Much of it laid in ruin and neither country wanted to incur the additional expense of repairing it.

Eventually, India, a non-combatant country, mediated an agreement between the GTR and Japan, allowing for mutual aid to rebuild the bridges and gradually open up trade and travel across them. After more than two weeks of intense negotiation, an agreement was reached and broadcast at noon on March 12th, 2020. Raucous celebrations occurred all over the Realm with parties lasting well into the early morning. The deadliest war in modern Realm history up to that point was over and the initiative to rebuild began.

The GTR was hit by the immense damage to New Rawabi but an unexpectedly good recovery was executed with the economy returning to and exceeding pre-war levels by June. Albania was hit especially hard by the cost of the war, despite none of their actual territory ever being fought on, and soon fell into an budgetary crisis. This economic crisis among other things would led to the UN intervention in Albania days later. Dexistan, its industry invigorated by the record industrial production during the war and its budget swelling with a surplus from the reparations, enjoyed an economic boom among most sectors. Japan had a similar story although they still had to clean up the damages of New Osaka and their sections of the bridge system.

Non-aligned countries and their economies also flourished after the war, due to the increased production and thus trade from other countries. This period of general prosperity and peace is now dubbed the Interwar Period by historians and is looked upon fondly by every nation's populace except Albania, which suffered through an economic crisis, an invasion, and brutal military rule by the UN. The resentment of Japan and Dexistan by Albania and its people played a huge factor in the next massive conflict, the Second Great Realm War.