The defense of Napf Island
Last October 1st, news came out that the governor of Napf Island, Andrey Fillipov was involved in an illicit homosexual love triangle 15 years before.
The revelations enraged Fillipov's political opposition both on the island and on the mainland. Opposition leaders planned protests at the capital and at the governor's residence. A general strike was threatened.
By October 10th, the protests became increasingly violent as protest leaders were replaced with leaders with ties to the Chedaki movement. The new leaders called for the Chernarusian rebels to seize the island to help replace the governor. Governor Fillipov began to crackdown on the protesters, then declared martial law after an opposition office was firebombed.
By October 20th, people were firing guns at protest leaders and local government officials alike. Fillipov began to request the national government send troops to quell the protests. The national government refused. By October 21, full scale riots were taking place, buildings were burned and people from both sides were being killed and taken hostage.
On the night of October 22nd-23rd, the Chernarusian air force evacuated their two small southern airfield without warning, taking everything except fuel bunkers with them. By the same morning, rebel armed troops began landing at the main airport and by ship, and began to fan out across the island taking control of television and radio stations, as well as police stations, and setting up checkpoints.
On October 25th Fillipov woke to find 10 AK-47s aimed at his head. A rebel leader present demanded that Fillipov turn the government over to "the people" or resign. Fillipov immediately resigned, was arrested by the rebels and held prisoner at a castle along with his deputy and an adviser.
On October 25th, the Chernarusian minister of defense approved the appointment of Admiral Vladislav Grachev, a naval aviator by training, as commander of the newly created Napf naval district. The Chernarusian Naval Forces command shifted to Grachev's command the 2nd Naval Infantry Brigade along with a division of ships, including the command ship ChNS Zima, the artillery missile boat ChNS Tsvetsk and the frigate ChNS Pike, along with several patrol boats.
Grachev immediately commissioned the Green Star Military Corporation to rescue Governor Fillipov from captivity.
The next day the weather started to turn cold with heavy sleet and intermittent snow. It was forecasted that snow storms would hit the region by October 30th, and would continue indefinitely.
On October 30th elements of 1st company, 2nd Battalion, 2nd Naval Infantry Brigade, including two AA Machine gun squads (8 Dushkas) landed by sea at Brienz with orders to help defend the port as a lifting crane was being built. The position was supported by the ChNS Tsvetsk artillery missile boat. At the same time, the PMC elements located the governor and sneaked him out of captivity, then fled south toward an abandoned military airfield, which they reached early on the morning of Halloween. A small element (2 squads) from the naval infantry brigade parachute battalion (3rd Battalion) was tasked with parachuting onto the airfield, securing and overseeing the takeoff.
Rebel commanders quickly got wind of the plot and sent a rifle company south towards the airfield. The plane took off just ahead of the arrival of the rebel unit, leaving six PMC operators behind.
The naval infantry units and the PMC unit were tasked with retreating towards the southeast.
Near Sorenberg, rebel units ran into stiff resistance from Chernarus friendly FIA guerrilla units which occupy that part of Napf. Despite a daytime and then a nighttime small arms assault, rebels could not capture or surround Sorenberg. The rebel moves south were stymied, but for a brief time.
As the parachute unit started their retreat, they were hit with a rebel attack. The 2nd squad was pinned down by heavy rebel small arms fire, and were forced to hole up in the eastern most hangar. Despite assistance from 1st squad, 2nd squad was nearly completely destroyed, except for a single automatic rifleman.
As the unit headed toward the southeast, they were radioed their orders.
A rebel rifle unit had taken over the hydroelectric power plant, so the unit was tasked with clearing out the plant. The assault was quick and deadly, with the rifle unit losing one rifleman. The rebel unit holding the plant was wiped out. The unit reached Sorenberg, boarded a commercial truck and were taken to Brienz. From there they were evacuated by sea.
On November 1st, rebel units seized the seaside hamlet of Giswil, and began landing several troops by sea. Their mission was to move west, and attempt to eject the Chernarusian naval infantry from Brienz.
The attack took place the next day, November 2nd, supported by newly arrived MI-24 attack helicopters. The rebels attacked Brienz three times total, the last being a night attack. All of them failed with heavy losses for the rebels, including the loss of the attack helicopters.
Owing to near constant attacks on their positions at Sorenberg, FIA gureilla commanders complained to Admiral Grachev's command about running low on supplies, mostly ammunition, mostly recoilless rifle ammunition. With Giswil in rebel hands, the naval commander made a decision to send a naval infantry rifle unit to Giswil to clear it out. The attack would be supported by assault landing boats and SU-25 aircraft flying from the naval aviation base at Balota.
On the morning of November 3rd the attack took place, and took less than 40 minutes to clear the village. A naval infantry rifle unit was garrisoned at the village supported by an AA machine gun squad of four gunners and a recoilless rifle. FIA guerrilla could pick up supplies landed by assault boat at the village, since it was much closer than Brienz. It was difficult to move supplies to Giswil because by then rebel patrol boats were patrolling the mouth of the inlet where the village was located. Every supply run would have to be escorted by aircraft, making supply runs less frequent.
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