Transkarpatian War

The Transkarpatian War began in 1975 following the simultaneous invasions of the Transkarpatian People's Republic and the Strakni Socialist Republic by the Granzery Republican Defence Force.

Background
The Conclusion of the Granzerian War had left the nations of Straknia and Transkarpatia as VP members despite ongoing insurgencies against both pro-Granzerian and pro-Democracy groups. The weakened Transkarpatian and Straknian governments were further weakened following the Elesarian Revolution and Stasno-Gorbatovic Split, which cut off the Transkarpatian and Strakni governments from direct support from Stasnov.

Since the mid 1800s both Straknia and Transkarpatia had been assimilated into Granzery, and factions of the Granzerian armed forces and government insisted upon military action as early as 1972 to reclaim the territories, with certain factions in the armed forces denouncing the conclusion of the Granzerian War as a Granzerian defeat due to the continued independence of the two states. On the 25th of March, 1975, a brief firefight on the Transkarpatian border between Granzerian and Transkarpatian border patrols erupted into a war declaration delivered the next day.

Operation: Firefly
Operation Firefly was the Granzerian name for the planned invasion of Straknia, and involved the deployment of the 8th Army, which were armed with PcKTr-38S2 main battle tanks and infantry fighting vehicles. The Straknian Home Army, supported by the Ziridavan 1st Mechanized Infantry Division, were largely equipped with outdated T-57AG-2 tanks and lacked sufficient anti-armour weaponry, mostly relying on the outdated Stasnovan. Ziridavan forces were better armed than their Straknian counterparts, with T-74S tanks and modern 9K111 Fagot ATGMs.

The Granzerian forces enjoyed immediate success, capturing Novak, the capital of Straknia by April 9th. Operation Firefly was considered a success with the subsequent capture of the port of Mosonmagyaróvár, and large portions of the 8th Army were withdrawn to the Transkarpatian front, with the smaller, less well-armed 4th Army to occupy what had been taken.

Invasion of Transkarpatia
Transkarpatia, the more populous of the two states, and with the more difficult terrain, thus involved the deployment of the 3rd, 5th and 9th Armies, each of them were seasoned Granzerian combined-arms Army's with legacies in the Granzerian War. The Transkarpatian forces were, like the Strakni forces, largely underequipped, although a military buildup which had occurred following the Granzerian War did levy the Transkarpatians a small quantity of highly advanced Stasnovan Equipment, such as the T74A and, however these were available in only small quantities, and the vast majority of the Transkarpatian forces operated older equipment mostly from the early 1960s.

The Invasion of Transkarpatia was stalled greatly by the Karpatian mountains running through the country, Granzerian troops suffered heavy casualties to brutal urban fighting, especially during the Battle of Karpáth, which remains the bloodiest battle to be fought by Granzerian forces since the Second Great War. By mid May however, the bulk of Transkarpatia was under Granzerian occupation, and the Granzerian government reached out to Stasnov to mediate a peace which would involve the Granzerian annexation of Transkarpatia and Straknia.

Stasnovan Intervention
Stasnovan forces arrived in Transkarpatia on the 27th of May 1975, the 6th Guards Army was the first to arrive, followed three weeks later by the 1st Guards Tank Army and both were far more well-equipped than either the Transkarpatian or Straknian forces, the state of the art Stasnovan T-74A and T-67B tanks outclassing any tanks operated by the Granzerian Army. The Granzerian forces largely resorted to maintaining air superiority over the Vastava Pact forces using materiel support from Vazandia as well as volunteer pilots from across the Kruppstadt Pact nations. In urban combat such as the battles of Jászberény and Yuhzgorod, Granzerian forces found themselves at an advantage with greater experience in urban combat than their Stasnovan counterparts.

Surrender of Straknia
While the situation in Transkarpatia continued to develop, the Ziridavan 1st Mechanized Infantry Division and 2nd ZRA Motor Rifle Division launched an offensive with the intention of reclaiming the Straknian capital of Novak. The battle lasted for six weeks until the Granzerian 10th Armoured Division was able to surround and capture the Ziridavan and Straknian forces, leading to the unconditional surrender of Straknia on the 23rd of July, 1975.

Elesarian Invasion
On the 19th of September, the Elesarian 26th Motor Rifle Division invaded the Balgarskiy region of Transkarpatia, which had also been ceded to Transkarpatia from Elesar following the Second Great War. The Elesarians met very little resistance, although a number of unsuccessful efforts were made by the Transkarpatian 25th Motor Rifle Division to retake the region in the following week prior to the Transkarpatian surrender.

End of the War
Transkarpatia surrendered unconditionally on the 25th of September, 1975, while Stasnovan forces continued to fight for a month after, however without the support of the more numerous Transkarpatian forces they quickly lost ground to the Granzerian Republican Defence Force, whom outnumbered the Revolutionary Army by 3:1 in the later portions of the war. The War quickly lost popularity across the Vastava Pact, especially in Stasnov and Ziridava, and officially on the 23rd of October 1975, the Stasnovan forces withdrew from Transkarpatia and the Transkarpatian war was formally ended, with the states of Transkarpatia and Straknia officially ceded to Granzery.

Impact
In Ziridava, the defeat in the war was a major blow to the Ziridavan Communist Party's credibility. Although some protests against the government were held and suppressed, the war was a major factor that lead to the Second Ziridavan Civil War.