Chapter 05

The Dareed War

Prologue

All of the Military forces in the region use the same establishment and rank system. Twenty member platoons plus a commander, ten platoons to a company with a commander and radio operator; thus a company of two hundred and twelve troops. A regiment of six companies with a command unit of a regimental commander, a regimental sergeant major, a five person communications squad, and a medical support platoon with a doctor in command. Making a regiment consisting of one thousand, three hundred men and officers. A brigade consists of five regiments. The brigade commander is a general supported by a five person communications squad, three officers as assisting staff, plus a platoon of troops as headquarters security for thirty men and officers in the brigade command unit. This makes a full brigade total of six thousand, five hundred, and thirty men and officers.

New troopers enlist as recruits who graduate basic training as a private, with some of them serving as an acting junior corporal in training. Corporals, Sergeants, and Warrant Officers wear their rank on the upper arm of all of their uniform shirts and jackets. Commissioned Officers wear cloth shoulder epaulettes in a combat unit, and a plastic shirt collar studs when serving in a non-combat unit. The rank symbols are corporal: junior or lance, one V shaped stripe; full, two stripes; senior, two stripes with a hat - a small upturned V stripe. Sergeant: junior, three stripes; full, three stripes with a hat; senior three stripes with two hat stripes. Warrant Officer: junior, one small crown; full, two small crowns; senior, one large crown; the Regimental Sergeant Major has a falcon above the crown. Lieutenant: junior, one thin bar; full, two thin bars; senior, two thick bars. Captain: junior, one diamond; full, two diamonds; senior; three diamonds. Major: junior, one small crown; full, two small crowns; senior one large crown. Lieutenant Colonel: one small falcon; Colonel: one large falcon. General ranks wear one to five stars. All personnel on training courses are called trainees and no rank is worn by them while on course. Officers start as privates and serve as non-commissioned officers before they become officers. Most troopers go from sergeant to commissioned officer via tests and courses. Warrant Officers equate to a lieutenant or captain, depending upon their assigned duties.

Army

Army members swear an oath of allegiance to the Parliament and are controlled by the Minister of Defence - a cabinet level post. The military commander is the Chief of General Staff, a four star general. There are five brigades of ground troops, four brigades of armoured troops, and one brigade of logistics and transport troops. The Army has a different communications network and radio frequencies to the Royal Guards, and there is a third set of radio frequencies for their combined operations. The Army insignia is a rectangular patch on the right shoulder consisting of the Berant flag with the words ‘Berant Army’ under it. Unit insignia is a rectangular coloured patch on the left shoulder with a unit number.

Army entry standards are below those for the Guards, so many people who miss out on joining the Guards join the Army. On a per unit basis the Army is regarded as being about half as combat effective as the Guards because of lower performance standards and less training exercises. The most common Army duty is to aid the community during an emergency. Army HQ would like to have higher standards and training levels, but they’re severely restricted by Parliamentary budget limits on them.

The Royal Guards

The Royal Guards (Guards) are very effective combat troops and are very loyal to the King as their oath of allegiance is to the King they’re his personal troops. An individual is called a ‘Sword’ because they’re the King’s Sword who smites the enemy. As a group name the troops are called ‘Swords.’ Each year staff travel the world to study troop training methods in other countries then they see the best aspects are included in training the Royal Guards. All of the Guards are trained as combat troops then their specialist skills: including the medical and rescue troops. The Guards wear two insignia. The right shoulder has an oval patch with a horizontal main axis showing the Royal Falcon. The oval has a crown on its centre top and the words ‘Royal Guards’ along the bottom curve. The left shoulder has the unit insignia with the regimental and unit symbol on it, the unit name around the top edge with its short name along the bottom edge. There are five brigades. Each regiment specialises in specific type of service or skill set. Civilian contractors do the depot level equipment repairs and maintenance for all Guards units while the Guards do the combat field repairs.

The Claymore are ground troops, the core of the Guards. Their unit patch is a coloured horizontal sword with the regimental number below the blade’s centre with a symbol above it. Three regiments. The 1st, the Kings Own, a crown: they protect the Royal Family and embassies; thus it has extra companies and is the only regiment not limited to one thousand, three hundred officers and men. The 2nd, the Foresters, a tree: jungle warfare. The 3rd is a newly raised unit of mountain climbers, they’ve no symbol or informal name yet so they have a unit shoulder patch to match their right shoulder.

The Raptors, Royal Armoured Guards, a brigade of five armoured regiments. Each regiment of one thousand, three hundred man and officers has a different level of armoured tank or armoured car, some have less tanks with their own trained support troops in similarly armoured transports. Each regiment uses a particular combat style or vehicle type. The unit insignia of an attacking velociraptor side on with claws and fangs showing has the regiment number on its side. The colour of the raptor matches that of the regiment’s colour code. The 1st, Royal Raptors, imperial purple. The 2nd, Black Raptors. The 3rd, Brown Raptors. The 4th, Green Raptors. The 5th, Red Raptors. The Raptors’ organisation varies in that each tank has a five person crew with two or more tanks per platoon, depending upon the regimental mix. All units use the same type of troop transport while the engine power, amount of armour, and mounted weapons varies between the units to suit their assigned combat roles.

The Fishers, Royal Rescue Service, are Search and Rescue (SAR) specialists of three regiments of one thousand, three hundred troops. Each platoon has its own medical support and each regiment specialises in a type of SAR work. 1st, the Sky Hooks, air rescue using helicopters. The 2nd, the Gophers, land rescue using multi-terrain ground vehicles, climbers, and cave work. The 3rd, the Otters, water rescue close to shore and waterways using light patrol boats. All of the units are based on a five member team with a corporal or sergeant or officer commanding it and the officer is also in command of the four teams that make up a platoon. The regimental commander has an oversized equipment support platoon instead of a medical platoon, and no security unit. The unit patch is a Falcon carrying a first-aid kit with the unit number on the falcon’s chest. No colour coding is used in the Fishers.

Swords are still carried by officers for formal functions. However, they use a short sword that’s similar to the Roman Gladius with a 600 mm straight blade. It’s a very effective combat weapon that’s especially useful in the Berant jungles. The officers and some Non-Commissioned Officers (NCOs) carry a sword into battle as a close quarters weapon as well as the service issue 400 mm long combat knife.

Communications

Like all organisations using radio communications the Berant military have protocols on how to use the radios as well as a number of special code words and phrases to quickly carry a lot of information beyond just the specific words used. Some codes require those hearing them to accept the information as it is, regardless of the rank of the person sending the message as these codes require immediate action to be carried out. They’re assumed to be confirmed and accurate until overwhelming evidence of them being wrong is available from other reliable sources. Also, the troops are trained to assess and act on the worst possible view of a situation as they can always downgrade the assessment once they have more verified information to justify the downgrade. Over the years experience results in some codewords changing or being expanded on as extra codewords are added to quickly carry more information than previously used. Thus they can now give more detail with fewer words. The most imperative codeword series are the word ‘Case’ with codes to indicate how serious it is, with the worst being ‘Case Omega’ to indicate an armed invasion of the country is taking place.

Author’s Note: There are many radio protocols used around the world and over time. In most the term ‘over’ is used to let the other people know it’s their turn to speak while the term ‘out’ is used to indicate the person speaking is finished with the conversation and is leaving it. The term ‘wilco’ is short for ‘will cooperate’ and is used to confirm an instruction A Phonetic Alphabet is also used for clarity of what letters and numbers are being said. These protocols are used throughout these stories.

Awards

When King Edward comes to power the highest Berant award for courage is the Valour Cross, equal to the US Medal of Honor and the British Commonwealth Victoria Cross. The Valour Cross is only awarded to serving military personnel for actions in combat with the enemy. The King creates two more awards. The Claymore, equivalent to the Valour Cross but can be awarded to anyone for acts of great courage under any circumstances other than those required for the Valour Cross. The new highest award is the Golden Claymore, to be awarded to anyone where the courage shown is so high it immediately ranks as legendary. The award process for all three of the top awards is a panel of five officers and five civilians who examine the circumstances of the incident with no personal details of the people involved. Their decision must be based on the person’s actions only, and they have to be unanimous for the award to be given.

Funding

The Army is funded by the Parliament out of taxes. The Guards are funded by the King out of the King’s revenue and the personal wealth of the Amir Clan because the Berant King’s family helps pay to run his areas of responsibility.

Translations

English is now the official language of Berant. For about one hundred and fifty years Berant was a French colony and the official language was French. The old tongue was still spoken in the tribes and it was used for the tribal councils, it still is today. The original language of Berant is much closer to French in its construction and syntax than it is to English.

UK English is used in these narratives. Translations are interpretive and not literal because they use English syntax and idioms. Thus they’re adjusted into a more natural English format following a literal translation of the original individual words. A literal translation of Maison Blanc is the House White, but an interpretive translation makes it the White House. Where the original was poetic in the original language the translation is adjusted to be poetic in English.

Many words in the old tongue have the choice of multiple meanings in English. For example, the old tongue has only five words for cutting weapons. They translate, literally, as - knife: a single edged or double edged blade less than 200 mm in length like a dagger, stiletto, butter knife, steak knife, etc.; knife large: a single edged or double edged blade 200 mm to 450 mm in length like a butcher’s knife, bread knife, etc.; sword: any longer single edged or double edged blade like a rapier, claymore, sabre, cutlass, etc.; axe small: has a single blade attached to a handle which projects beyond the hand on one side, less than 450 mm in length (usually used one handed) like a hatchet, meat cleaver, etc.; axe: the same as a small axe but with a longer handle and usually needs two hands to use it properly. Similarly, the word for a light beam can also mean ray, lantern, torch, etc.; and the word for rock can mean stone, pebble, or any similar pieces of rock that can be held in the one hand.

U MAMA

The US Military Arms Manufacturers Association (U MAMA) member company owners and leaders are very angry with the King of Berant because he won’t allow the U MAMA companies to rape the country’s natural resources and wealth for their own profit. Also, the King has cost the companies a fortune by defeating the U MAMA funded rebels, thus the hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of bribes and equipment are lost. They plan to recoup these losses by taking control of Berant then taking all of its natural resources to sell for their own profit. Over the years U MAMA sends mercenaries, spies, and assassins into the country as well as funding rebellions and invasions. All with the aim of killing the Berant Royal Family as the first step to get control of the Amir diamond mine. The existence of the mine is not publicly known or common knowledge within Berant, and it’s the biggest diamond mine in the world. U MAMA knows about the mine through the family who owns one of their member companies learning of the mine during the Second World War.

However, the Amir have owned the mine for over a thousand years and they’ve worked it by hand whenever they wanted a few diamonds for jewellery. In recent times they start working the mine for the gems to sell as a way of generating International funds to assist in the country’s recovery and development after the Second World War and the devastation brought by the rebellion.

Due to a long history of mutual help very close working associations have grown between U MAMA (and its companies), the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), and the US military high command. These links and help go back to their predecessor organisations during the Second World War, and before that in some cases. The help often involved unauthorised covert operations for one or more of the parties. This has resulted in the three groups sharing information and resources, often without getting legal authority to do so. They’ve formed a symbiotic relationship. It’s common for CIA covert agents to use U MAMA offices as a cover, and for the CIA to provide U MAMA with some ‘mercenaries’ drawn from US military personnel supposedly ‘on leave’ to help them with troubles in their business operations in other countries.

Prelude

The Kotar Plain stretches from the Amir Mountains in the north to the Darunch Mountains (pronounced da-roonch) in the south. Both mountain ranges run from the coast to the Burran Mountains in the west. Both the Darunch and Amir Mountains are slightly curved with a southern bulge in the centre. All of the ranges have heavy forests at their bases with tropical jungle covering the top third of them. They all have steep slopes and sheer cliffs abound throughout the mountains.

Historically two tribes fought over control of the Kotar Plain for centuries. Such good grain growing lands are rare because the mountainous tropical forests are the norm, and the forest hardwood trees are a prime resource. The Amira, originally a sub-tribe of the Amiri, had settled the northern half of the plain by spreading out from the Amir Mountains. The Darunchi (pronounced da-roonch-ee) who settled the Darunch Mountains didn’t settle the plain at all as they lived only in the mountains. Eventually the Amira crossed the river and spread out across the southern half of the plain. They lived on the plain for several generations before coming into contact with the Darunchi.

This happened when the Amira moved into the southern mountains seeking the good hardwood trees growing there. After centuries of fighting between the two tribes the Darunchi withdrew from the north side of the Darunch Mountains and ceded it to the Amira. Eventually kingdoms came into being and the Darunchi aligned with the Dareed tribes and King while the Amira aligned with the Ber and Amiri tribes under the Ber King. Over the years the summit line of the Darunch Mountains became the natural border between the kingdoms of Dareed and Berant. For a few centuries the kingdoms fought over control of the plain, but the plain stayed part of Berant. The geography favours the Amira and Amiri in fielding armies to the plain.

Things settled down in the late sixteenth century. Then simple foot and cart roads were made through the mountains to connect to the cart roads and foot bridges across the plain to bring prosperity and peace to all on both sides of the mountains. There’s no strife between the two countries for centuries. The plain knew civil war during the rebellion, and peace returned with King Edward. Until in 1970 when the peace is broken again.

Marley’s Landing is a quiet town of five thousand souls built on the Kotar River where a section of the plain had collapsed and made a slope down to the river. The Kotar Plain is good grain and cattle country. It’s very well protected as it’s surrounded by mountains on three sides and high cliffs falling to the sea on the fourth side. The Kotar River flows from the Burran Mountains in the west to the east coast, and it splits the Kotar Plain almost in half. The one hundred metre drop from the plain to the river makes it difficult to access the plain from the river, except at the slope of Marley’s Landing. The town grew up around a trading centre at the top of the slope. Ships brought settlers and goods in while taking produce out. During the eighteenth century three vehicle bridges were built across the river to replace the rope footbridges that had been used for centuries. The largest and most used bridge is at Marley’s Landing because it’s almost in the centre of the plain and it’s at the main trading post. During the nineteenth century good vehicle roads were built over the mountains to connect the plains to the areas beyond the northern and southern mountain ranges. All prosper while trade moves along the roads crossing the plains. By the mid-twentieth century river boats are used for tourists and bulk loads with most of it being the grain from the farm fields of the plains.

The Plan

U MAMA are arming Dareed with many millions of dollars’ worth of modern weapons, and they also provide the Dareed King with five thousand mercenaries to spearhead his Army in a campaign to conquer Berant. For their help they’ll get control of the Amir Mountains and its diamond mine because the King of Dareed doesn’t know about the diamond mine. If he did he’d want it too.

In April, 1970, the King of Dareed masses an Army of fifty-five thousand troops at his northern border ready to invade Berant. They plan to cross the mountains at all three passes and to rush across the plains with armoured vehicles and troop transports as they sweep all before them and crush any resistance. Three very fast columns will drive down the roads to capture the bridges. The heaviest force is taking the shortest route through Marley’s Landing and is headed by the U MAMA mercenaries. Once across the river they’ll spread out to sweep across the plains to the Amir Mountains, through the mountains, into central Berant, and to the capital city of Berana.