The Joint Vogelheim Brigade in the Kafer War

By D Hebditch, Scott Ash and Bryn Monnery

Above: Shoulder patch of the Joint Vogelheim Brigade

History
Organisation
Training and Doctrine
Operations

History

The aftermath of the War of German Reunification had a decided influence on the development of the previously peaceful colony world of Alderhorst in the Vogelheim System. Close co-operation between the Bavarian and French colonies disappeared as violence lingered in both the colonies. Brutality on the behalf of both German and French forces to quell internal dissent was mirrored by increasing aggression between the two counties.

Eventually the Treaty of Darwin was signed in 2295 allowing international arbitration and a international peacekeeping force to be deployed to the system to damp down the tensions. In addition the system was to be increasingly de-militarised, with each colonising nation only allowed one combat starship each on station. Ground force levels were also capped.

The Peacekeeping Force provided for by the Treaty of Darwin included both combat starships and ground troops. These were to be drawn from America, Australia and Britain who would each provide a starship and a battalion of troops and Canada, who provided a battalion of troops. American and Australian troops (USBAT and AUSBAT) were stationed in the German colony of Neumark whilst the Anglo-Canadians (BRITBAT and CANBAT) were deployed to the French colony of Saint-Benoit. In addition a contingent of US and Royal Marines secured the colonies space terminal.

The Peacekeeping Force had no real headquarters as each detachment was theoretically independent, but as all the nations involved had long histories of co-operation and mutual understanding an informal command structure grew up. Unfortunately despite the agreement of the home governments of the feuding colonies to the international presence the colonial governments held to a policy of non co-operation which proved hugely frustrating to the peacekeepers. Combined with occasional terrorist attacks on the ground troops and violation of the treaty by armed freighters. The peacekeeping duty was not one that was enjoyed.

It was British troops of the King’s Regiment who first began to describe the natives of both colonies as ‘Vogels’ or birds, and the term began to be used to describe the unhelpful attitudes of the colonies. The peacekeeping duty soon became to be described as ‘Bird Watching’, an activity regarded by the troops as both dull and fruitless. Tensions rose with the deployment by the British of the 6th Battalion, The Parachute Regiment to take over from the King’s as BRITBAT. 6 PARA were unwilling to turn the other cheek to the petty harassment and violence. Soon, joined by a new CANBAT drawn from the similarly robust Canadian Airborne Regiment, they began to dominate the local militia forces, and at one stage the CO of 6 PARA Lt. Col. Connors was on the verge of declaring a state of Martial Law in the capital of the French colony.

Wiser heads prevailed however and the rest of the Paras tour was much quieter although marked by a notable frostiness between the peacekeepers and the colonial authorities. Because of this it became standard practise to keep a number of troop transports in the system to supply the troops on the ground should local supplies be withdrawn. By 2300 the deployment of the Peacekeeping force was becoming increasingly questioned by the contributing nations because of the lack of political progress within the system. However as open hostilities were believed to be inevitable if the peacekeepers withdrew the force continued to function.

The next Anglo-Canadian units were not paratroopers but men of the Queen’s Own (Seaforth) Highlanders and Royal Canadians. Similarly the Australian contingent was changed from the 11th Battalion, Australian Parachute Regiment, to the non-airborne 5th RAR. The only paratroopers remaining were part of USBAT. This new less aggressive peacekeeping force managed to repair much of the damage done to relations with the locals, but the number of cross-border incidents rose.

The Invasion led by the Kafer ‘Triumphant Destiny’ changed everything. The loss and destruction of Hochbaden came as a huge shock to the rest of the French Arm. At Vogelheim the captains of the five starships in the system came to a agreement to co-operate in the defence of the system. On the ground the petty disagreements of the colonists were put aside in the face of a genocidal alien threat. Provisions of the Darwin Treaty were quietly ignored as the local forces were built up. The peacekeeping force also had some thinking to do, their task was now rendered irrelevant by the new situation brought about by the alien attack.

In a conference held on the USS Reagan in late June, involving the commanding officers of all the units present reached the conclusion that the peacekeeping force should be reconfigured for use in defending Alderhorst. It was also realised that the organic transport provided by the five troop transports in the system gave the new formation a degree of strategic mobility. However this was to be secondary to the main task of helping to defend the colony.

In early July all of the parts of the peacekeeping force gathered in Neumark’s capital to begin training under the name of the Joint Vogelheim Brigade.

Organisation

The JVB is organised around four infantry battalions, one from each of the contributing nations. The individual battalions are supported by logistical and combat support elements but are not particularly heavily equipped. In addition Australia, Canada and Britain each have one troop transport starship in support. The American battalion has two supporting starships.

Command of the JVB is exercised by an ad-hoc Brigade Headquarters drawn from all of the national contingents. The first Brigade Commander was Colonel James G. Vernon, US Army, formerly the commander of the whole US Contingent. He was replaced after his injury during Joi operation by Lt. Colonel Menzies Drysdale of the Queen’s Own Highlanders.

The combat support and combat service support elements of the force were grouped together for efficiency outside of their nominal national groups under the brigade.

Joint Vogelheim Brigade Headquarters

JVB Signals and Headquarters Platoon

Artillery Group

C Battery, 4 Light Regiment, Royal Horse Artillery
E Battery, 1st Battalion (Airborne), 320th Artillery

Engineer Group

A Company, 307th Engineer Battalion
6 Field Engineer Company, Canadian Military Engineers

Starlift Group

ADS Gallipoli
HMCS Ferguson
HMS Hollis
USS Riga
USS Tripoli

Infantry Group

5th Battalion, Regular Australian Regiment (including B Coy, 1st Battalion, New Zealand Infantry Regiment)
3rd Battalion, Royal Canadian Regiment
1st Battalion, Queen’s Own Highlanders
3rd Battalion (Airborne), 505th Infantry

In addition to these fighting forces the JVB includes Logistics and Medical Groups. All of the forces in the brigade are lightly equipped and have few armoured vehicles. Transport is by all-terrain vehicles, or on foot in tactical situations.

The Air Group includes scout and light transport tiltwing assets from all of the contributors. Uniquely the headquarters element of the Air Group is provided by personnel drawn from the Headquarters Company of the 450th Aviation Group (Attack) from the Washington State National Guard, the only US National Guard troops to see combat in the Kafer War. The involvement of the Guardsmen was part of the price demanded by the influential Congresswoman for Seattle for supporting the deployment of US troops to Vogelheim.

The Artillery Group use the mobile 165mm Light Gun, produced by Royal Ordnance in the UK and under license in the US. Close support is provided by BH-21 and Bowman Combat Walkers of the American and British battalions.

Training and Doctrine

The forces of the JVB were all well trained and equipped members of their national forces, but when they came together as a brigade they faced two problems. Namely that they were all operating according to different doctrines and were equipped for peacekeeping operations, however these were both easily solved. The Operations Officers of all the battalions came together and thrashed out a set of standard procedures that combined much of the best practises of each nation whilst maintaining tactical flexibility.

The second problem was overcome when each nation revealed that in the holds of their supporting starships they had all brought extra supporting weapons, ‘just in case.’ These were soon broken out in time for training to begin, and the JVB to reconfigure itself for war fighting.

In early July of 2301 the JVB’s easily recognisable Viking Raven badge was produced and issued to the battalion. The image was a pointer to a possible raiding role for the unit, as well as reference to its ‘bird watching’ origins.

Operations

The first operation of the JVB occurred on the 8th of July in 2301 when news of the engagement of the Peacekeeping Forces combat starships led by the USS Reagan against a raiding force of Kafer starships leaked out. Using the unrest a group of anti-unification Neumark Landwehr officers attempted a military coup in the German colony. Under the pretext of a emergency defence exercise the JVB moved swiftly to secure the capital at the request of the colonial government. This prompt action stymied the coup before it could gather steam, and Colonel Vernon read the riot act to a gathering of the Landwehr command leaving them in no uncertainty as to the consequences of another destabilising action.

The JVB continued to train and began to bring in local civilian air assets to give it a greater degree of mobility to counter any Kafer assault landing. It also operated as an enemy force in exercises with the growing number of locally raised forces.

The arrival of the French Admiral Rochemont and the large Naval and Marine forces that came with him relived some of the pressure on the JVB. The Commanders of the JVB attempted to convince the French Admiral of the usefulness of their multi-national formation in any forthcoming action. Rochemont was far from convinced, referring to the Brigade dismissively as ‘les Anglos’, he believed his own elite landing forces of the Foreign Legion and French Marines together with a USMC Interface Brigade would be more than adequate for any foreseeable tasks. On several occasions he tried to requisition the JVB’s transports to support his own efforts.

Political and public relations pressures eventually forced Rochemont to concede that the JVB might indeed have a role in landing operations, and serious training got underway. Later, after the failure of the 2nd Relief Expedition Rochemont would claim in was his idea to create the JVB, which alongside the freshly organised 1e Régiment Parachutiste Coloniale was given the role as second wave troops in any planetary invasion. In addition special teams drawn from the brigade were rumoured to have undertaken special reconnaissance tasks for the Admiral.

The French Admiral’s success against the Kafers in the 61 Ursae Majoris system would bring the first action for the whole of the Joint Vogelheim Brigade. March of 2302 saw the Kafers assaulting the human colony in this system, and Rochemont cunningly caught the Kafer fleet where it was supporting a vicious ground assault. The devastated Kafer fleet fled, leaving the Kafer assault troops stranded on the surface. The proud citizens of Joi had fought hard but needed some help in mopping up. Unwilling to commit his front-line troops Rochemont deployed the JVB and used his landers to shuttle uncommitted British and Azanian troops north to help liberate the German and Japanese colonies.

The Joi Campaign has often been overlooked in the history of the Kafer War as mere ‘mopping-up’ but it was much more serious than that. The JVB lost nearly a third of its personnel in the fighting which lasted until May, which was characterised by light infantry fighting with neither side possessing any significant armour. The JVB swiftly became a veteran force well respected by the local and regular forces it fought alongside, including tough British Gurkha troops. Many JVB troops adopted the Kukhri fighting knife after seeing the use these Nepalese troops put it too against the Kafers in urban fighting.

Many in the Brigade felt resentment at the way they had been largely abandoned by Rochemont in what was seen to be his drive to relieve the French colony at BCV-4 and his apparent contempt for the needs of the other colonies.

Rochemont’s inability to correctly comprehend ground force tactics lead directly to the debacle of the 1st Relief of Beta Canum Venaticorum IV when two brigades of his forces were landed on that world in April of 2302. The elite troops of the 1e Régiment Etranger de Parachutiste and US Marines conducted an successful landing on the French continent. But the Kafers regrouped and drove the human forces back to the British continent of New Africa with heavy losses. Kafer star forces returned to drive Rochemont from the system entirely, stranding some 40% of his available forces on BCV-4.

In May Rochemont’s attempt to relieve Crater with an assault by his French Marines nearly ended in a massacre with the human forces pinned down on their landing zones. However the guerrilla forces underneath the city of Rimview launched an ad-hoc offensive, and with large casualties managed to rescue the French force and drive the Kafers from the city. Once again Rochemont claimed a success, and swiftly left the colony to its own devices withdrawing the battered French Marines.

By now Admiral Rochemont was planning again to try to relive BCV-4, but now had only the French Marines and 1e RPC to do the job. He summoned the JVB from Joi where it was recovering from the fighting. The JVB was involved in the planning for the operation, forcing Rochemont to land in the still human controlled areas where they could link up with the remnants of the planet's garrison and forces landed in April. Starting in July the 2nd Relief of BCV-4 was much more successful, using orbital support to the maximum the unified forces launched an offensive hunting down the remaining Kafer mobile forces. The JVB played an important part in these operations, which culminated in the 2nd Battle of Uethan.

Rochemont again claimed victory, but like the fighting on Joi mopping up was sustained and bloody. Heavy forces held at Beowulf until after the successful battle their flooded onto BCV-4 in August, reinforcing the badly depleted units there. The JVB continued to fight until mid-October and took part in the clearance of the cities of Jurgenburg, Kahl and Adrian.

The JVB was disbanded on the 21st of October 2302 at a ceremony at New Middlesex, New Africa BCV-4. A piper of the Queen’s Own Highlanders (himself a holder of the Military Medal) played the Raven’s Lament, a tune composed to commemorate the fallen of the fighting on Joi. In its depleted ranks stood only 20% of the men who had been in the ranks at its creation in July of the previous year. The rest were injured, missing or dead. Nevertheless the heroism of the unit, its many decorations and multi-national nature were combined with the impact of the major documentary feature ‘The Raven Brigade’ (winner of a 2303 Academy Award) to buy it everlasting fame. Although returning to their own armies the individual units that had made up the JVB would proudly continue to wear the badge of the Joint Vogelheim Brigade.