Ed-Snowinn War

The Ed-Snowinn War, referred to in Ed Island as the Patriotic War (German: Vaterländischen Krieg) and in Snowiny as the Anti-Snowinn Aggression (Serbo-Croatian: Antisnovinska agresija), was a large-scale conflict primarily fought between Ed Island and Snowiny.

The war officially began in June 2012 after Snowiny launched several simultaneous invasions of the Ed Islandian mainland from both air and sea, overwhelming Ed Islandian defenses and capturing the capital city of Bridgestadt. This sudden invasion followed years of friction from the Republican victory in the Snowinn Civil War. Following the civil war, the new government used the disdain towards Ed Island's support of the Nationalists to declare war on the country. Snowiny utilized Ruscan-developed cruise missiles known as Trinity missiles as an air-to-air weapon to overwhelm Ed Islandian defenses and take large swathes of territory. Pushed back to the insular state of Markland, Ed Island and Magyaria began a counteroffensive and performed a landing operation in September to begin retaking the mainland.

Prelude
Throughout the 20th century, Ed Island and its close alliance of like-minded nations, including Snowiny itself, were locked in a vicious ideological conflict with the Snowviet Union and other Communist nations that dominated Antarctican politics for nearly 60 years. The False War abruptly ended in 1990 with the STINC coup d'état that saw the overthrow of Olde Antarctica. The Bridgestadt Pact defeated STINC and the Comintern, ushering in an era of unsteady peace with the foundation of Colonial Antarctica. For Ed Island, this brought a period of economic prosperity, during which several collaborative projects were completed such as the International Space Station.

During the Snowinn Civil War, a secret organization began devising a scheme to create animosity between Snowiny and Ed Island as the ultimate revenge for supporting the Nationalists for many decades. Naming themselves the Sons of Snowiny, the Snowinn supremacist group comprised of well-connected politicians, businessmen, and military leaders quietly assumed control of key institutions within the nation in order to sway Snowiny towards war with Ed Island. Their greatest success was suggesting an invasion of a weakened Ed Island after watching Snowzerland invade and annex Osterreach against an inferior Bridgestadt defense.

Initial Engagements
On July 21, 2012, the EIN tactical fighter squadron "Condor" was performing a training exercise over Wellow when an unidentified surveillance aircraft entered Ed Islandian airspace. Ed Island's anti-aircraft coastal defense managed to damage the bogey, and it had begun withdrawing from airspace. Because of their proximity, Sand Island instructed Condor Squadron to perform the intercept. Condor attempted to force the plane to land, but a squadron of unknown enemy fighters entered the airspace and engaged the Ed Islandian squadron. Condor held its own against the hostile fighters and shot down all of the unknown aircraft.

Several days later, a spy vessel was spotted in the vicinity of Sand Island and launched several unmanned reconnaissance aircraft. Condor Squadron, under strict orders not to fire on the unknown vessel, once again took flight to destroy all of the spy drones. For the second time in less than a week, a squadron of unknown fighters engaged Condor, which were all shot down as well. By the time the Condor pilots had returned to base, Snowiny had made an official declaration of war against Ed Island.

Open Conflict
Following its declaration of war, Snowiny simultaneously launched several assaults on Ed Island including a full scale invasion of the state of Arlon. Despite resistance from Ed Islandian forces, the Snowinn military was successful in establishing control over the state in a short period of time. Seeking to split the country in two, Snowinn forces drove towards Ed Island's inland sea in order to capture the capital city of Bridgestadt. Initially, Ed Islandian forces almost succeeded in driving out the invaders but were forced to retreat following the arrival of Wisna Squadron and use of advanced Trinity cruise missiles which wiped out a majority of Ed Islandian aircraft in the area.

By August 2012, Snowinn forces were in control of the entire lower half of Ed Island, and succeeded in capturing the strategic port city of Dinsmarck. Ed Islandian forces continued to be driven from the mainland until they were pushed to the island of Markland. A defense line was established several miles south of the city of Steinburg to coordinate attacks against Snowinn forces. The Snowinn Air Force, aware of the current state of Ed Islandian forces stationed near the city, saw the opportunity to bring a swift end to the war. On August 11, Snowinn bomber squadrons entered Steinburg airspace and commenced bombing operations. The Ed Island Air Force dispatched multiple fighter squadrons as a response, and ultimately Ed Island was able to prevent the destruction of Steinburg and total defeat in the war.

Shortly after the successful defense of Steinburg, Ed Island drew up plans to reclaim Markland. The plan would require the Snowinn forces stationed in the nearby Aurick Bay to be driven out and their frontline broken. Working in tandem with the air force, the Ed Island army successfully drove Snowinn forces out of the city, forcing them to retreat from Markland where they began to reinforce their position on the mainland.

At the same time, naval forces cut off in Snowjave began to make attacks against Snowiny's supply lines. A multitude of naval vessels and cargo ships were sunk by attack submarine forces. Claiming a neutral Ruscan cargo ship was sunk, Rusca joined Snowiny in declaring war on Ed Island on August 21 where it lent its naval strength. Evidence exists, however, that Rusca was involved in the war from the start due to the early use of Trinity missiles which at the time could only be launched from its Snowvetsky Soyuz-class submarines.

Ed Islandian Counterattack
With all of Markland once again under Ed Islandian control, plans developed for an amphibious landing on the country's mainland. On August 25, Ed Islandian forces landed on the shores of Neumenia and a large engagement ensued. Despite heavy Snowinn resistance, the Ed Islandian military managed to establish a foothold on the mainland. Following the battle, news quickly spread throughout the country about the Ed Islandians' successful landing which inspired many resistance and partisan uprisings to form against the Snowinians.

As the Snowinn line began to falter, president Robert Smith appealed to his brother Dominic Smith, president of Acadia. Using forged evidence that Ed Island was conspiring with the United States of Antarctica to invade and annex their country, the Acadian government agreed to enter the war as an ally of Snowiny. The first Acadian units arrived in occupied Ed Island on September 1st without a formal declaration of war. These forces were typically used for occupation while the bulk of Snowinn forces left for the front lines.

Acadian forces were notoriously heavy-handed when it came to occupying Ed Islandian towns. Manipulated by propaganda into believing Ed Island was planning to subjugate Acadia's High Penguin population, many Acadian soldiers felt it was their duty to bring retribution for Ed Island's actions during the Khanzem War. Establishing their headquarters in the city of Tauberg, Neumenia, the Acadian Foreign Legion and Gendarmerie harassed civilians and looted a number of homes and businesses in the area. Any attempts at resistance became interpreted as an act of insurgency, and were dealt with as such. The most severe incident came on September 9, where Acadian Gendarmerie forces stationed in the city indiscriminately killed a number of civilians in what would later become known as the Tauberg Massacre. Official records of the incident remain vague, as Acadian forces burned every record of the occupation upon their retreat from Tauberg.

The Acadian forces additionally occupied the oil fields in Mund, exploiting them and transporting a portion of the stored crude back to Acadia. This would continue until the petrochemical complex's liberation on September 18, where Ed Islandian forces discovered a significant amount of sabotage which put the fields out of commission for nearly two years.

In response to the threat of submarines carrying Trinity missiles, Ed Island decided to deploy the Arkbird, a large maneuvering spacecraft capable of attacking from orbit, into battle. Ed Island planned an SSTO operation to attach an anti-satellite laser module planned for the Arkbird that had never been launched. After receiving intelligence indicating this, Snowinn forces planned a direct assault on Eckmann Space Center where Ed Island was planning on utilizing the mass driver to launch the supply ship. On the morning of August 30, the mass driver complex fell under attack by Snowinn aircraft. Despite launching an airborne assault and attempting to destroy the mass driver using cruise missiles, the strike forces were intercepted and the launch proceeded smoothly. The next day, the Arkbird's A-SAT laser module was attached and functional.

War At Sea
In an attempt to deal a mortal blow to Ed Islandian forces overseas, a joint attack which included Ruscan forces was launched against the naval base at Sand Island. While the base was rendered harmless to the invading troops when all of its forces were sent to the mainland, several squadrons had recently landed from Snowjave and the rest of the Comona Islands in order to prepare for a counterattack in Arlon after the main force had landed from Markland. An amphibious landing was attempted against Sand Island in order to capture the base and prevent any further counterattack. Air squadrons stationed there defended the base and held back the oncoming fleet. During the battle, Rusca deployed one of its two monstrous Snovetsky Soyuz-class submarine aircraft carriers to support the attack's progress. The Snovetsky Soyuz began firing Trinity missile barrages at the Sand Island forces, but these missiles were intercepted in midair by beams from the Arkbird's A-SAT module.

To compensate, Snovetsky Soyuz began firing several Trinity missiles in quick succession to prevent the Arkbird from destroying all of the warheads. These explosions annihilated a majority of the defense squadrons in the air. The underwater SLBM launches allowed the Ed Islandians to use sonobuoy data to isolate the submarine's position. It was subsequently targeted and hit by the Arkbird's orbital laser, forcing the Snovetsky Soyuz to surface. Upon surfacing, the submarine defended itself with carrier-launched and VTOL aircraft as well as short-range Trinity launches. Ultimately the Snovetsky Soyuz was sunk after a combined air assault resulted in the onboard nuclear reactor going critical, causing the vessel to be torn apart from the inside.

The destruction of the entire Ruscan fleet at Sand Island caused the country to sue for peace a short period later, signing a ceasefire agreement with the Ed Islandian government with stipulation that terms would be decided upon in the future peace treaty. Shortly after exiting the war effort, Rusca had secretly handed off the entire remaining stockpile of Trinity warheads to Snowiny, as the creation of nuclear weapons had rendered their existence relatively obsolete. During the war, Snowiny would develop an air-launched variant of Trinity with a reduced payload capable of being carried by bomber and fighter aircraft.

The use of the Arkbird as an orbital laser platform greatly disturbed the Snowinn Defense Ministry, who had not anticipated Ed Island putting such a weapon into service so quickly. As a response, Snowiny attempted to neutralize the Arkbird by attacking it with an air-launched anti-satellite missile. Launch of the missile was successful with the Arkbird suffering a direct hit, damaging its engines and leaving it adrift in orbit. Fears of creating a Kessler syndrome incident were put to rest when the spacecraft's armor plating held and relatively little debris was created because of this attack. While the manned sections of the Arkbird were not damaged in the attack, all astronauts onboard were evacuated and returned to Earth in case the situation changed. The Ed Islandian military could not repair the satellite, and the issue was ignored for the rest of the war.

Liberation of Bridgestadt
On October 3, Ed Islandian forces approached Hoffnung and began their assault on the city. Bomber units proceeded to destroy Snowinn anti-air emplacements along the shoreline en route to the city while the Ed Islandian 2nd Fleet entered the inland sea and began pushing towards the naval base at Hoffnung. Following the destruction of the majority of Snowinn units in the surrounding area, the Ed Islandian military began converging on Hoffnung to eliminate all remaining occupying forces. After an extensive siege and barrage of attacks, the city was once again under Ed Islandian control.

The Snowinn military, fully aware of the looming threat of the Ed Islandian advance, began planning to transport multiple Trinity missile warheads into Bridgestadt as a part of a scorched earth policy. Unaware of this, the Ed Islandians continued their push towards the capital.

On the border between Arlon and Neumenia, the Snowinn Military gathered a large force to attempt to stop Ed Islandian forces from reaching Bridgestadt. On October 14, the Ed Island military engaged this force over the famous Round Table mountain range in what would become one of the largest battles of the war. Being absolutely overrun by Ed Islandian forces, the Snowinn forces began to retreat under the cover of several Trinity launches. Around this time, Ed Island military command obtained information on Snowiny's scorched earth policy and immediately ordered a halt of all advances against Snowiny.

The Ed Islandian military drew up an extremely high-risk operation to stop the Snowinn WMD threat. The weapons were located in Fort Silber, an Ed Islandian military facility located on the Mainz River north of Bridgestadt defended by a large radar network. The plan was simple, a single team of ace pilots would be sent into Fort Silber at low altitude to avoid radar detection and eliminate the Trinity catalyst transport before it could be delivered. On October 16, Gelb Team led by Erich Klinnsman successfully navigated the ravines and bridges of the Mainz River and silently eliminated the transport truck while avoiding radar detection. After a short battle following arrival of Ed Islandian reinforcements, all Snowinn units in the area were defeated. Klinnsman later received the title "Hero of Mainz" for his efforts.

On October 27, Ed Island launched Operation Free Bridgestadt. Ed Islandian forces were spread out across the city, with operations to recapture Heierlark Air Force Base, Bridgestadt Castle, the Volkshalle capitol building, and the city's radio station. The Ed Islandian 2nd Fleet pushed into the Ivrea Bay and engaged the Snowinn Navy while a large aerial battle broke out overhead. The battle became very intense, but the city was eventually retaken with Snowinn hold on the island completely broken.

On the Offensive
Immediately after liberating Bridgestadt and resupplying the air force, Ed Island launched an offensive operation against Acadia due to its proximity. On November 5, Ed Islandian fighter squadrons entered Acadian airspace and proceeded to strike Acadian naval vessels as they lay at anchor. The fighters inflicted heavy damage to the warships and support vessels as well as surrounding military facilities, but were careful to avoid civilian areas. The Acadian vessels were spread across the vast operational space, and Ed Islandian fighters had to contend with Acadian interceptors and anti-aircraft weaponry. During the engagement, a detachment of the Acadian fleet's capital ships attempted to escape the harbor to open seas, but were intercepted and summarily sunk.

As a majority of the Acadian Navy was at sea during the time of the attack, which included four of the nation's five aircraft carriers, these vessels were spared from destruction and either remained in Acadia's colonies or joined existing Snowinn fleets. The Ed Island Navy established a total blockade of Acadia on November 8. Despite outrage from the Acadian government that the blockade was illegal, Ed Island maintained international support with the state of war between the two nations. While imports from the United States of Antarctica helped to lessen the impact of this blockade, closure of one of the busiest ports in Antarctica had a continent-wide impact. By the end of the war, several areas of Acadia were experiencing precautionary food and fuel rations.

With the Acadian threat neutralized, several small-scale strategic strikes were carried out across the Snowinn mainland including a flyover of the capital city of Winsburg. With the last of the Snowinn forces in Ed Island defeated and the war becoming vastly unpopular among the Snowinn population, the government was urged to make peace and end the war. The only major battle of the war in Snowiny took place on November 15, where a weapons plant in Herwene was targeted for being the suspected site of Snowiny's final Trinity stockpile. The operation to destroy the stockpile was a success, with the resulting explosion being recorded as one of largest non-nuclear explosions in history.

Conclusion and Treaty
With protests in Winsburg following the attacks on Snowinn soil, the Snowinn government had few options. The Ed Islandian government seemed willing to force an end to the war through any means necessary, and members of the Sons of Snowiny could barely accept their country had been so thoroughly defeated. Gustav Dvornik - one of the elusive Generals and a key architect of the war - was relieved of command by Dominic Smith who replaced him with an officer who was willing to negotiate. After an official surrender was declared by Snowiny, the Ed-Snowinn War officially concluded on November 18, 2012 after nearly five months of fighting.

After the end of the war and return of peace in the nations involved, Ed Island recalled all nationals and severed diplomatic ties with Snowiny and Acadia.

Reprisals
Following Snowiny's capitulation, a group of Snowinn militants led by Dvornik refused to accept the peace treaty and seized control of a series of islands in the Puffepelago as their base of operations. Refusing to accept their nation's defeat, this group activated the Javelin, a prototype railgun installation on Sonne Island, and planned to use it as a retaliatory weapon of mass destruction against Ed Island.

On January 20, 2013, two months after the armistice was signed, Bridgestadt came under attack from unidentified cruise missiles. Air squadrons patrolling the city along with ground-based anti-missile networks began to intercept these missiles as renegade squadrons began their attack to ensure the city's destruction. After a short battle, the missiles ceased firing and Bridgestadt was momentarily saved. Analysis of the missile flight trajectories indicated they originated from the Puffepelago - fired from the Javelin. Ed Island had been aware of the Javelin's development as early as the destruction of the Snowvetsky Soyuz, but despite Snowinn efforts to accelerate development of the weapon it was not operational by the end of the war.

An expeditionary force was launched on January 25 to investigate Sonne Island which was engaged by rebel forces defending the Javelin. All remaining members of Snowiny's elite Wisna Squadron were shot down during the battle, as well as innumerable casualties on both sides of the engagement. Undeterred, Ed Islandian forces fought on and were successful at silencing the Javelin at heavy cost to their own forces. The final blow came when Rambert Booher, flight lead of Condor Squadron and present in the very first engagements of the war, flew down the barrel of the railgun and destroyed its core to render it inoperable.

After the destruction of the Javelin, Dvornik personally entered its airspace flying a stolen prototype Ed Islandian fighter as a final act of revenge. Flying against Booher, the two fought each other in a duel over the Javelin. Dvornik utilized the craft's advanced laser weapons and burst missiles to its full potential, but lost functionality with Booher evading all attacks. With his weapons lost, Dvornik used his aircraft to remotely launch a hidden ICBM from the remains of the Javelin, forcing Booher to stop him before the missile reached the atmosphere. Learning that Dvornik activated an electromagnetic defense system, he repeatedly struck the craft from the front in a fatal engagement reminiscent of medieval jousting. Dvornik's fighter succumbed to damage and lost control causing the ICBM to self-destruct in the upper atmosphere.

The battle ended with the total destruction of Snowinn rebel forces and a permanent end to the war. As verifiable proof existed that Dvornik acted without support of the Snowinn government, no further action could be taken against the nation of Snowiny. Ed Islandian forces would occupy Sonne Island for two months while the Javelin could be studied and completely destroyed with no hope of reconstruction.

Trivia

 * To date, the Liberation of Bridgestadt remains the largest single aerial battle in history with more than 300 aircraft taking part in the operation.
 * Victory Square in the city center of Winsburg was renamed to Ed Island Square (Serbian: Edski trg, German: Edslander Platz) by Robert Smith following the end of the war to pay tribute to the soldiers who died fighting for Snowiny in the war - additionally, a monument to those soldiers was erected at the square as well. Both moves were incredibly controversial, and the McClark administration had intended to rename the square back to Victory Square but had never done so.