The Great Rutland War (1983: Doomsday)



On the 27th July the first battles in the Great Rutland War began with the taking of towns formally held by the TBA.

The main attack on the True British Army base at Rutland Water is due to begin on the 4th August, this will hopefully be the death knell of the TBA which have been a thorn in the side of the member states of the OBN for many years.

The TBA base at Rutland has been built on the Hambleton penisular in Rutland Water, a large resivoir in the former English county of Rutland.

26th July 2011
The Essex airship EAS Warrior has done a reconnaissance flight over the TBA Rutland base, the pictures brought back show two heavily defended walls cutting off the Hambleton penisular from the mainland as well as large numbers of recently built military buildings on the penisular.

In the nearby town of Oakham it was discovered that the majority of the town outside the central ring road had been razed to the ground and the town centre defended with large walls, even more heavily defended structures were found in the area surrounding Oakham Castle. The defensive lines have been linked to the penisular defences by walls and defensive ditches.

From the pictures it is approximated that the forces in Oakham and the Hambleton Penisular number around 3200.

Troops from the OBN nations of Cleveland, Newolland and Northumbria have begun massing in the town of Melton Mowbray to the north west of Rutland. Meanwhile troops from Essex have taken the town of Stamford to the South East of Rutland without a fight, it appears the TBA troops holding the town left sometime in the past week. At the same time troops from Woodbridge have taken the village of Uppingham, the TBA troops guarding the village left at roughly the same time as the troops from Stamford, 40 Woodbridge medics have moved to support the Cleveland, Northumbrian and Newolland troops in Melton Mowbray.

27th July 2011
250 Essex troops have moved from Stamford and attacked the town of Empingham, resistance was light and the town was taken by mid afternoon without any Essex casulties.

Another 250 Essex troops have moved to take the town of Edith Weston on the south bank of Rutland water, they have taken the airfield to the south without a fight, they currently are based less than 200 metres to the south of the town centre, plans are to take the town tomorrow.

750 Clevelander troops and 75 Newollander troops have moved south from Melton Mowbray and attacked the town of Langham less than 1km from the TBA controlled town of Oakham. The town put up some stiff resistance but due to overwhelming numbers of allied troops the town fell by nightfall with 27 TBA dead and 2 Clevelander troops dead, 47 TBA troops were injured and captured when the town was taken a remaining 70-80 TBA men retreated south east to the TBA base at Oakham.

A further 500 Clevelander and 250 Northumbrian troops have attacked the village of Braunston-in-Rutland, the village fell quickly, again due to overwhelming numbers, with only 4 TBA casulties and 12 captured. A further 50-60 TBA troops retreated to Oakham and there were no allied casulties.

After the town of Langham was taken, the remaining Clevelander, Newollander and Northumbrian troops have moved forward to the town in preparation for the planned attack in the next few days.

28th July 2011
Essex troops moved to take the town of Edith Weston this morning, they took the town easily, however just after 3pm the Essex troops came under morter fire from the TBA controlled penisular. Four Essex troops are killed in the initial bombardment with a further two killed in a second bombardment at 7pm. Essex troops returned fire once the first bombardment had abated, it is unknown how many TBA casulties were suffered.

At nightfall the Essex troops called on the EAS Warrior it has moved forward and is expected to begin bombing the penisular at daybreak.

29th July 2011
At daybreak the EAS Warrior began bombing the Hambleton penisular, over the day the airship completes seven bombing runs dropping over half a tonne of bombs, including a drop of incendaries at 1.30pm which cause many of the buildings on the penisular to catch on fire.

By mid afternoon many building were still burning fiercly, at roughly 5pm a large explosion occured on the eastern end of the penisular, it is assumed that either a fuel or more likly an arms dump had ignited, rubble from the explosion landed on the Essex troops in Edith Weston over 400 feet away.

The large shockwave from the explosion caused many buildings in the area surrounding to partially collapse and catch fire.

By nightfall many of the fires had been extinguished, three main areas however continued to burn into the early hours of the 30th July

30th July 2011
Due to the success of the bombing raids on the Hambleton Penisular the EAS Cavilier has been called to the front and throughout the day it completed five bombing runs on the defended town of Oakham causing serious damage including two breaches in the town walls and some minor fires in the defended section of the town.

At the same time the EAS Warrior continued it's attack on the Hambleton Penisular, it completed three more runs including an incendary bomb attack. However on the third bombing run the airship came under heavy machine gun fire, the airship was hit several times causing some minor damage. The first officer was hit by a bullet ricocheting from one of the main support beams on the bridge, he suffered a wound to his right leg but is expected to make a complete recovery.

The EAS Warrior has returned to Essex for repairs it is hoped that it will return to service by the 3rd August 2011.

31st July 2011
With the EAS Warrior temporarily out of service the Woodbridge special forces began a mortar attack on the Hambleton Peninsular at dawn, the attack lasted four hours and caused more damage to the remaining ruined structures on the penisular.

At the same time the Clevelander and Northumbrian troops began their own mortar attack on the defended town of Oakham, their attack lasted in two phases from 10am to 11.30am and from 2pm to 3.45pm.

Both attacks cause damage to the many defended structures in the town centre, including enlarging one existing breach in the town walls and creating another breach, the attack also caused the total collapse of one defended tower in the wall and the serious damage of another three more.