Nova Speculum
06-01-2006, 00:59
[PERSIAN MAPS, FACTBOOK ETC CAN BE FOUND HERE: http://watw-persia.tripod.com - this is left over from the last W@W and is need of a bit of an update, but for now it should be fine!]
The Counter Revolution
In Bandar Abbas, major port city on the Iranian coast, a tall man, dressed in dark clothes, sat on a bench overlooking the waters of the Persian Gulf. The man had a long beard, and was wearing a turban and modest black suit.
Presently, he was approached by two more men. Each was dressed in pristine, and expensive, black suits and wore a pair of sunglasses, even though it was late evening.
"Good evening gentlemen," the man said. He scratched idly at his grey beard.
"Everything is in place your Highness," said the first of the dark men. "The nation is tired of these extremists; they yearn for your rule. It is finally our time."
The tall man smiled behind his beard and nodded. "It was divinely willed. Of course it is our time." He turned to face them, and uttered a phrase which would, in the times to come, be heard so often in Iran; "I AM Persia. Persia is me. I am the Shah."
Tehran, Persia
In the capital city, Tehran, mobs were moving through the streets. Police, and the Republican Guard, were out in force, attempting desperately to stop the rioters from destroying shops, cars and anything else in their way.
It was to no avail; the Shah's agitators had succeeded in stirring up a wasps nest, a wave of popular support for the reinstation of the monarchy, which he would ride right unto the gates of Esfahan itself. Amongst the throngs of civilians, rebellious members of the army chanted, firing their weapons into the air, or, where possible, at soldiers and police officers.
The police, and the army, recieved the order they had been waiting for; use any force necessary to quell the unrest. Almost as one, they began to open fire.
Esfahan, Southern Persia
With the advent of rebellion in Tehran, many of the Imams had fled south, to the ancient city of Esfahan. Here, they sought refuge from the marauding mobs. They sought to no avail. Here too, Monarchist agitators, paid by the Shah, had stirred up unrest. Army divisions were being turned as easily as the civilians here, and all out pandemonium was about to break loose in the streets. Tanks of both sides rumbled through the city, tearing up the tarmac. Infantry sought one another out, firing indiscriminately into crowds of suspected "rebels".
Tabriz, Northern Persia
In Tabriz too, anarchy was the order of the day. More soldiers turned here than anywhere else in the nation. Fully 3500 infantry men, not to mention 210tanks and 109 Self Propelled Artillery Guns, turned on their erstwhile comrades, gunning them down and seizing the city.
Back in Bandar Abbas, news began to slowly filter back to the Shah, of the progress his "agitators" had made. Good, he thought. Soon it would be the time to strike.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
2 Days Later
Iran was in total chaos. In almost every major city, rebellious mobs were taking to the streets, marching on government buildings. Certainly the Shah's agitators had achieved their aims; they now had the almost complete backing of the general populace.
Time, it seemed, had run out for the Republicans.
In Esfahan, Royalist and Republican soldiers were slowly accumulating in the East and West of the city. The Royalists, with a stronger power base along the Southern coast of Iran, were advancing on Esfahan and the new seat of the Imam's pwoer from the East, while Republican reinforcements were entering from the West.
Skirmishes had already broken out in the ancient city. At 3:00am, six Royalist MBTs had encountered four Republican counterparts while patrolling a section of the city under their control. Both sides were caught off guard, and 3 Royalist tanks were destroyed or immobilised in a very short space of time. The Republican tanks then attempted to make a getaway, pulling back the way they had come, rather than pressing their advantage. The result was the destruction of two Republican tanks, and the immobilisation of the other two; another Royalist tank was immobilised in the process.
KEY ROYALIST CONTROLLED CITIES:
- Chabahar
- Bandar Abbas
- Bushehr
- Shiraz
- Tabriz
- Yazd
- Mashhad
- Kermanshah
KEY REPUBLICAN CONTROLLED CITIES:
- Zahedan
- Abadan
- Bandar-e-Khomey
- Avhaz
- Kerman
- Birjand
KEY CONTESTED CITIES:
- Esfahan
- Tehran
- Qom
- Dezful
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
9 Days Later
Royalist reinforcements flooded into Esfahan. Street fighting in the city was, by now, commonplace, with barely a single street unscarred by fighting. The majority of the Iranian air force had sided with the Shah's forces, and were now strafing Republican troops.
One sergeant Jamal Akhbarim was present in the city. A Royalist sympathiser, he had, at the first opportunity, switched over to the Shah's side. Right now, he was hunkered down behind a makeshift barricade, blocking a main road through Esfahan. Beside him were 3 privates, none of whom he knew expressly; simply men he had been ordered to lead into battle. Originally he had had command of ten men, by seven had been shredded by machine gun fire as they advanced up this very same street.
The machine gunners were still waiting at the top of street. Periodically, they would release a spray of bullets, just to make sure the soldiers behind the barricade remained pinned down.
Akhbarim had no contact with his commanders, if they could be called such. The entire rebellion was apparently occurring on a personal level. With elements of the Republican armed forces defecting left right and centre, and in dribs and drabs no less, keeping any sort of cohesion was near impossible. Men and tanks were simply grouping together, and setting out to hunt down the enemy. It was anarchy.
One of the privates next to him struggled up slightly, and peered his head over the top of the barricade. Almost immediately a spray of bullets slashed through the air and pulped his head, blood splashing all over Jamal. He spat, tasting the metallic tang of blood in his mouth.
Over the sounds of battle, which reverberated all around, he heard the distinct rumbling of a tank approaching. From behind their barricade.
"Allah have mercy!" he cried out, almost sobbing.
The tank rumbled around the corner, flying the colours of the Royalists; a makeshift flag, a defaced version of the one in use by the Republicans. Its turret whirred as it turned to target the machine gunners at the top of the street and the co-axial heavy-machine gun strafed their positions. Bullets tore through flesh and bone, and the gunners' screams could be heard even by the men behind the barricade.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
16 Days Later
The battle for Esfahan was over. The Republican forces were now cut off from reinforcements in the centre of the city, and their numbers were rapidly falling. Morale was plummeting as rapidly as casualties were rising, in complete contrast with the elation felt by the Royalist troops. Troops were surrendering in their hundreds, in the hopes of being spared once taken prisoner. The capture of Abadan by a Royalist force pressing south from Kermanshah had been instrumental in the encirclement of Republican forces in Esfahan. It had cut off at a stroke, a vast majority of the reinforcements flooding into the West of the city.
Curiously, the Republicans in Abadan surrendered the city as easily as they had captured it. Morale amongst Republican forces was falling across the nation, and, without a centralised command any longer, their attacks were becoming instinctive and based primarily on the survival of individual divisions.
KEY ROYALIST CONTROLLED CITIES:
- Chabahar
- Bandar Abbas
- Bushehr
- Shiraz
- Tabriz
- Yazd
- Mashhad
- Kermanshah
- Esfahan
- Abadan
- Birjand
KEY REPUBLICAN CONTROLLED CITIES:
- Zahedan
- Bandar-e-Khomey
- Avhaz
- Kerman
KEY CONTESTED CITIES:
- Tehran
- Qom
- Dezful
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
17 Days Later
A centralised command was hurriedly set up after the capture of Esfahan, with the intention of concentrating Royalist efforts on the contested cities of Tehran, Qom and Dezful. In the latter two, large Royalist forces were fighting running battles with the Republicans, but in Tehran, the Royalist controlled zones covered less than a quarter of the city. Republican forces had massacred the initial revolters here, and bodies lay decomposing in the streets; no-one dared come out to move them.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
26 Days Later
The new centralised command worked particularly well in the coming days. Reinforcements were rushed north, and Qom, just south of Tehran, fell to the Royalist forces. Reinforcements were also ordered to Dezful, although combat here continued.
In Tehran itself, the last semblence of Royalist power was eradicated. The remaining Royalist soldiers and supporters were routed, and forced to flee the city for Qom, whilst being harried by Republican soldiers.
In the south, Bandar-e-Khomey fell to a concentrated attack by the Royalist soldiers. Armies moving from Abadan to the West and Esfahan to the East moved on the city in a pincer movement, encircling it and cutting off the Republicans there from support. The fighting was intense, with the Royalists being made to pay dearly for every inch of ground they won. In the end, air-superiority was key; fighter-bombers fired missiles and armour piercing bullets into the Republican positions near ceaselessly.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
44 Days Later
The cities of Dezful, Avhaz and Kerman fell to Royalist soldiers, while Royalists launched attacks on Tehran and Zahedan. From Esfahan, the Shah proclaimed that the Royalists were victorious and simply "mopping up the remnants of the Revolutionary scum".
Official end of the counter-revolution.
KEY ROYALIST CONTROLLED CITIES:
- Chabahar
- Bandar Abbas
- Bushehr
- Shiraz
- Tabriz
- Yazd
- Mashhad
- Kermanshah
- Esfahan
- Abadan
- Birjand
- Dezful
- Qom
- Kerman
- Bandar-e-Khomey
- Avhaz
KEY REPUBLICAN CONTROLLED CITIES:
- Zahedan
KEY CONTESTED CITIES:
- Tehran
Throughout the Counter-Revolution, the "Royalist" forces had overwhelming support from the people, not to mention almost complete air superiority, after the majority of the airforce sided with the Shah's forces.
Officially, the Counter-Revolution lasted only 44 days; in this time, the majority of the key cities in Iran/Persia were captured by the numerically superior forces of the "Royalists". In reality, Republican resistance continued in Tehran for another year, and Zahedan was not to be completely pacified until 2015.
The Counter Revolution
In Bandar Abbas, major port city on the Iranian coast, a tall man, dressed in dark clothes, sat on a bench overlooking the waters of the Persian Gulf. The man had a long beard, and was wearing a turban and modest black suit.
Presently, he was approached by two more men. Each was dressed in pristine, and expensive, black suits and wore a pair of sunglasses, even though it was late evening.
"Good evening gentlemen," the man said. He scratched idly at his grey beard.
"Everything is in place your Highness," said the first of the dark men. "The nation is tired of these extremists; they yearn for your rule. It is finally our time."
The tall man smiled behind his beard and nodded. "It was divinely willed. Of course it is our time." He turned to face them, and uttered a phrase which would, in the times to come, be heard so often in Iran; "I AM Persia. Persia is me. I am the Shah."
Tehran, Persia
In the capital city, Tehran, mobs were moving through the streets. Police, and the Republican Guard, were out in force, attempting desperately to stop the rioters from destroying shops, cars and anything else in their way.
It was to no avail; the Shah's agitators had succeeded in stirring up a wasps nest, a wave of popular support for the reinstation of the monarchy, which he would ride right unto the gates of Esfahan itself. Amongst the throngs of civilians, rebellious members of the army chanted, firing their weapons into the air, or, where possible, at soldiers and police officers.
The police, and the army, recieved the order they had been waiting for; use any force necessary to quell the unrest. Almost as one, they began to open fire.
Esfahan, Southern Persia
With the advent of rebellion in Tehran, many of the Imams had fled south, to the ancient city of Esfahan. Here, they sought refuge from the marauding mobs. They sought to no avail. Here too, Monarchist agitators, paid by the Shah, had stirred up unrest. Army divisions were being turned as easily as the civilians here, and all out pandemonium was about to break loose in the streets. Tanks of both sides rumbled through the city, tearing up the tarmac. Infantry sought one another out, firing indiscriminately into crowds of suspected "rebels".
Tabriz, Northern Persia
In Tabriz too, anarchy was the order of the day. More soldiers turned here than anywhere else in the nation. Fully 3500 infantry men, not to mention 210tanks and 109 Self Propelled Artillery Guns, turned on their erstwhile comrades, gunning them down and seizing the city.
Back in Bandar Abbas, news began to slowly filter back to the Shah, of the progress his "agitators" had made. Good, he thought. Soon it would be the time to strike.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
2 Days Later
Iran was in total chaos. In almost every major city, rebellious mobs were taking to the streets, marching on government buildings. Certainly the Shah's agitators had achieved their aims; they now had the almost complete backing of the general populace.
Time, it seemed, had run out for the Republicans.
In Esfahan, Royalist and Republican soldiers were slowly accumulating in the East and West of the city. The Royalists, with a stronger power base along the Southern coast of Iran, were advancing on Esfahan and the new seat of the Imam's pwoer from the East, while Republican reinforcements were entering from the West.
Skirmishes had already broken out in the ancient city. At 3:00am, six Royalist MBTs had encountered four Republican counterparts while patrolling a section of the city under their control. Both sides were caught off guard, and 3 Royalist tanks were destroyed or immobilised in a very short space of time. The Republican tanks then attempted to make a getaway, pulling back the way they had come, rather than pressing their advantage. The result was the destruction of two Republican tanks, and the immobilisation of the other two; another Royalist tank was immobilised in the process.
KEY ROYALIST CONTROLLED CITIES:
- Chabahar
- Bandar Abbas
- Bushehr
- Shiraz
- Tabriz
- Yazd
- Mashhad
- Kermanshah
KEY REPUBLICAN CONTROLLED CITIES:
- Zahedan
- Abadan
- Bandar-e-Khomey
- Avhaz
- Kerman
- Birjand
KEY CONTESTED CITIES:
- Esfahan
- Tehran
- Qom
- Dezful
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
9 Days Later
Royalist reinforcements flooded into Esfahan. Street fighting in the city was, by now, commonplace, with barely a single street unscarred by fighting. The majority of the Iranian air force had sided with the Shah's forces, and were now strafing Republican troops.
One sergeant Jamal Akhbarim was present in the city. A Royalist sympathiser, he had, at the first opportunity, switched over to the Shah's side. Right now, he was hunkered down behind a makeshift barricade, blocking a main road through Esfahan. Beside him were 3 privates, none of whom he knew expressly; simply men he had been ordered to lead into battle. Originally he had had command of ten men, by seven had been shredded by machine gun fire as they advanced up this very same street.
The machine gunners were still waiting at the top of street. Periodically, they would release a spray of bullets, just to make sure the soldiers behind the barricade remained pinned down.
Akhbarim had no contact with his commanders, if they could be called such. The entire rebellion was apparently occurring on a personal level. With elements of the Republican armed forces defecting left right and centre, and in dribs and drabs no less, keeping any sort of cohesion was near impossible. Men and tanks were simply grouping together, and setting out to hunt down the enemy. It was anarchy.
One of the privates next to him struggled up slightly, and peered his head over the top of the barricade. Almost immediately a spray of bullets slashed through the air and pulped his head, blood splashing all over Jamal. He spat, tasting the metallic tang of blood in his mouth.
Over the sounds of battle, which reverberated all around, he heard the distinct rumbling of a tank approaching. From behind their barricade.
"Allah have mercy!" he cried out, almost sobbing.
The tank rumbled around the corner, flying the colours of the Royalists; a makeshift flag, a defaced version of the one in use by the Republicans. Its turret whirred as it turned to target the machine gunners at the top of the street and the co-axial heavy-machine gun strafed their positions. Bullets tore through flesh and bone, and the gunners' screams could be heard even by the men behind the barricade.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
16 Days Later
The battle for Esfahan was over. The Republican forces were now cut off from reinforcements in the centre of the city, and their numbers were rapidly falling. Morale was plummeting as rapidly as casualties were rising, in complete contrast with the elation felt by the Royalist troops. Troops were surrendering in their hundreds, in the hopes of being spared once taken prisoner. The capture of Abadan by a Royalist force pressing south from Kermanshah had been instrumental in the encirclement of Republican forces in Esfahan. It had cut off at a stroke, a vast majority of the reinforcements flooding into the West of the city.
Curiously, the Republicans in Abadan surrendered the city as easily as they had captured it. Morale amongst Republican forces was falling across the nation, and, without a centralised command any longer, their attacks were becoming instinctive and based primarily on the survival of individual divisions.
KEY ROYALIST CONTROLLED CITIES:
- Chabahar
- Bandar Abbas
- Bushehr
- Shiraz
- Tabriz
- Yazd
- Mashhad
- Kermanshah
- Esfahan
- Abadan
- Birjand
KEY REPUBLICAN CONTROLLED CITIES:
- Zahedan
- Bandar-e-Khomey
- Avhaz
- Kerman
KEY CONTESTED CITIES:
- Tehran
- Qom
- Dezful
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
17 Days Later
A centralised command was hurriedly set up after the capture of Esfahan, with the intention of concentrating Royalist efforts on the contested cities of Tehran, Qom and Dezful. In the latter two, large Royalist forces were fighting running battles with the Republicans, but in Tehran, the Royalist controlled zones covered less than a quarter of the city. Republican forces had massacred the initial revolters here, and bodies lay decomposing in the streets; no-one dared come out to move them.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
26 Days Later
The new centralised command worked particularly well in the coming days. Reinforcements were rushed north, and Qom, just south of Tehran, fell to the Royalist forces. Reinforcements were also ordered to Dezful, although combat here continued.
In Tehran itself, the last semblence of Royalist power was eradicated. The remaining Royalist soldiers and supporters were routed, and forced to flee the city for Qom, whilst being harried by Republican soldiers.
In the south, Bandar-e-Khomey fell to a concentrated attack by the Royalist soldiers. Armies moving from Abadan to the West and Esfahan to the East moved on the city in a pincer movement, encircling it and cutting off the Republicans there from support. The fighting was intense, with the Royalists being made to pay dearly for every inch of ground they won. In the end, air-superiority was key; fighter-bombers fired missiles and armour piercing bullets into the Republican positions near ceaselessly.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
44 Days Later
The cities of Dezful, Avhaz and Kerman fell to Royalist soldiers, while Royalists launched attacks on Tehran and Zahedan. From Esfahan, the Shah proclaimed that the Royalists were victorious and simply "mopping up the remnants of the Revolutionary scum".
Official end of the counter-revolution.
KEY ROYALIST CONTROLLED CITIES:
- Chabahar
- Bandar Abbas
- Bushehr
- Shiraz
- Tabriz
- Yazd
- Mashhad
- Kermanshah
- Esfahan
- Abadan
- Birjand
- Dezful
- Qom
- Kerman
- Bandar-e-Khomey
- Avhaz
KEY REPUBLICAN CONTROLLED CITIES:
- Zahedan
KEY CONTESTED CITIES:
- Tehran
Throughout the Counter-Revolution, the "Royalist" forces had overwhelming support from the people, not to mention almost complete air superiority, after the majority of the airforce sided with the Shah's forces.
Officially, the Counter-Revolution lasted only 44 days; in this time, the majority of the key cities in Iran/Persia were captured by the numerically superior forces of the "Royalists". In reality, Republican resistance continued in Tehran for another year, and Zahedan was not to be completely pacified until 2015.