Rubicon War

Not to be confused with the Rubicon Incident of 1936.

Rubicon War
Part of the Salisfordian Civil War and Creeperian Conflicts
Date 13 October 1961 – 22 April 1976 (14 years, 6 months, 1 week and 2 days) First phase: 13 October 1961 – 7 July 1964 (2 years, 8 months, 3 weeks and 3 days) Second phase: 15 September 1968 – 22 April 1976 (7 years, 7 months and 1 week) Location San Pablo, Creeperopolis (first phase) San Paolo and Terrano, Salisford (second phase) Result Stalemate Salisfordian victory in the first phase Creeperian victory in the second phase Rubicon Agreement Territorial changes Status quo ante bellum
Belligerents
Creeperopolis	Salisford
Commanders and leaders
Romero II Alfonso Cabañeras Moreno Raimundo Serrano Suñer † Venustiano Zaldívar Herrera Gustau Riviéra e Cabriéra Armando Pacheco Jalisco José Fuentes Castro (WIA) Léonard Ramiéra e Umana Fidel Salinas Quijada	Carlo III Sandro Neri † Teodoro Mattera Antiamo Marchetti Giacomo Conte Omar Bianchi Renzo Testa † Lazzaro Sartori Vincenzo Moretti Ercole Fabbri Tommaso Costantini
Units involved
32nd Army 91st Infantry Division 36th Mechanized Division 22nd Armored Division 30th Artillery Division 18th Air Force Wing	3rd Brigade 147th Paratroopers Regiment 42nd Infantry Regiment 75th Infantry Regiment 4th Armored Regiment 2nd Fusilier Regiment 70th Attack Wing
Strength
25,000 soldiers 500 tanks 250 aircraft	22,500 soldiers 600 tanks 200 aircraft

The Rubicon War (Creeperian Spanish: Guerra del Rubicón; Salisfordian: Guerra del Rubicone) was a major war in Sur which occurred in two phases between 1961 and 1976. The war was fought between Creeperopolis and Salisford over a territorial dispute along the Rubicon River, which marked the border between the two nations.

In 1936 during the Creeperian Civil War, the Catholic Imperial Restoration Council (Imperial Council) made a secret agreement with the Salisfordian government to partition the nation of Castilliano in an effort to end a brief conflict being fought between Castilliano and Salisford and to get the Salisfordians to send volunteers to help the Imperial Council against the National Council for Peace and Order (National Council). Despite the agreement, after the war ended in 1949 and Castilliano was annexed by Creeperopolis, the Creeperian government did not allow Salisford to take territory from Castilliano as was promised. In 1958, Salisfordian First Minister Sandro Neri pressed Creeperopolis to fulfill the agreement and cede the promised territory to Salisford, however, the Creeperian government refused citing all of Castilliano as "an integral part of Creeperopolis."

Background

Conflicts between Castilliano and Salisford

Further information: Castillianan–Salisfordian Wars

Rubicon Incident

Further information: Rubicon Incident

In 1936, Salisford moved troops across the border with Castilliano and into Sant Pau (present-day San Pablo), citing historical claims to the northern territories of the region. Castilliano would reject these claims, and moved troops to intercept the Salisfordian soldiers. Both sides clashed and the fighting developed into a 3-week long intense border conflict. Before any side made a breakthrough, the Catholic Imperial Restoration Council (Imperial Council), concerned about the possibility of further escalation between the two nations, stepped in and helped negotiate an end to the fighting.

To convince the dissatisfied Salisfordian administration to agree to end the conflict, Adolfo Cabañeras Moreno, the minister of defense of the Imperial Council, secretly negotiated a deal with Leonardo Bari, the first minister of Salisford, to partition Castilliano sometime in the near future, promising Salisford the northern half of the country. In return, the Salisfordians agreed to send an expeditionary force to assist the Imperial Council in breaking the stalemate which has developed in the Creeperian Civil War. Publicly, the Imperial Council offered to mediate peace between the two nations and the Rubicon Agreement was ratified by both nations.

Annexation of Castilliano

Following the conclusion of the civil war in 1949, Castilliano held a referendum on 1 December 1949 to decide if it should be annexed by Creeperopolis or not. The referendum resulted in favor of annexation by a large margin, but many called into question the legitimacy and the legality of the votes and the referendum itself. Despite the brewing controversy, the ruling party of Castilliano, the right-wing Castillianan Coalition of Autonomous Rights (CCDA), which heavily campaigned in favor of the referendum, accepted the results of the vote and Creeperopolis formally annexed Castilliano on 25 December 1949.

Despite the previous agreement to cede Castillianan land to Salisford, Creeperopolis refused to cede any land to Salisford after Castilliano's annexation. Alfonso Cabañeras Moreno, who had succeeded his older his brother as minister of defense in 1944, stated that he was under obligation to fulfill the agreement as the agreement was made by his older brother and not himself. He also stated that the annexation referendum was for Castilliano in its entirety, and that the land promised to Salisford was included in that referendum regardless.

Social unrest in Castilliano

After Creeperopolis' annexation of Castilliano, various left-wing groups formed the Union of Castillianan Opposition Forces (UFOC), formed as the successor of the left-wing Coalition of the United Social Left (CESU) which was banned by the Castillianan military government in 1937. The Union of Castillianan Opposition Forces, otherwise known as simply the Opposition, was led by Abél Uriéra e Chicote, Joaquín Córsega e Rubiéra, and Eusebio Lancóme e Moléu, all of whom had previously served as the leader of the Coalition of the United Social Left, with Uriéra e Chicote and Córsega e Rubiéra also serving as prime ministers of Castilliano.

The Opposition heavily criticized Efraïne Carból e Fórtrosa-Dóna's decision to allow annexation into Creeperopolis and denounced him and the Castillianan Coalition of Autonomous Rights, declaring them "Traitors to the Fatherland." Carból e Fórtrosa-Dóna was appointed as captain general of the department of Castilliano by the Creeperian government and cracked down on the Opposition's activities, arresting its leaders and protestors. As the Opposition refused to recognize the annexation of Creeperopolis and opposed Carból e Fórtrosa-Dóna's administration, the organization was declared as a terrorist organization by the Creeperian government.

Soldiers of the 32nd Army arresting a group of anti-government protestors in Chalatenango, early-1961.

In the 1950s, the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA) carried out operations which assassinated each of the three leaders of the Coalition of the United Social Left, presumably at the request of Carból e Fórtrosa-Dóna. Uriéra e Chicote was shot by a group of armed DINA agents in San Pablo in March 1952. In June 1958, Córsega e Rubiéra was killed by a car bomb planted by the DINA in Santa María. Finally, Lancóme e Moléu was killed by a DINA sniper in Ciudad Los'Ángeles. The assassinations of the Opposition's three leaders caused many of its other prominent leaders to flee the country or go into hiding.

In 1960, Guilhém Garçon e Justament was proclaimed as the leader of the Opposition. He called for Castillianans across the country to rise up in protest against the Creeperian government for the independence of Castilliano. The protests of early-1961 occurred across the Castillianan departments of Castilliano, San Pablo, Santa María, and Sonsonate, with an estimated 100,000 to 200,000 people marching in protest of Creeperian rule. The government responded with military force to suppress the protests leading to hundreds of deaths and thousands of arrests.

Rise of Sandro Neri in Salisford

Official photograph of Neri, 1959.

In 1945, King Francesco I died of lung cancer, ending a relatively conservative reign in Salisford. His eldest daughter, Maria, succeeded him as Queen Maria III. During the first years of her reign, Maria III established a reputation as a liberal-minded monarch, seeking to reform Salisford's traditional institutions in favor of new ones which she percieved to be more modern and democratic. To aid her, she offered amnesty to the previously-exiled academic Giacomo Ottone and appointed him her first minister. Together, Maria III and Ottone would attempt to mold Salisford into what they described as "a modern country worthy of Ecros."

Maria III and Ottone went about reforming Salisford in a heavy-handed manner. Brushing aside the concerns of any conservatives or moderates, and alienating many traditional power bases in Salisford, notably the nobility and the military. Their actions caused much controversy, and this led to a number of opponents to their reforms founded the Catholic Front to form an organized opposition to the attempted reforms.

In 1950, after an attempt by Maria III to dissolve the Catholic Front, Major General Sandro Neri, the commander of the Salisfordian volunteers in Creeperopolis, crossed the Rubicon River and declared the Maria III's regime to be illegitimate. After a brief military struggle, Neri entered the city of Savotta on 3 November 1950 and dissolved the Salisfordian government. The following day, Maria III appointed Neri as her new first minister and formally ceded all political power to him.

Order of battle

Creeperopolis

Creeperian Army

32nd Army – General Raimundo Serrano Suñer

91st Infantry Division – Lieutenant General Gustau Riviéra e Cabriéra

67th Infantry Battalion – Brigadier Romulo Enríquez Revelo

74th Infantry Battalion – Brigadier Alexandre Léon e Pérre

75th Infantry Battalion – Brigadier Fabián León Flores

80th Infantry Battalion – Brigadier Maximiliér Alvaréu e Alvaréu

81st Infantry Battalion – Brigadier Sergio Zorro Juárez

16th Engineer Company – Lieutenant Colonel Enrique Hidalgo Fuentes

36th Mechanized Division – Lieutenant General Armando Pacheco Jalisco

16th Mechanized Battalion – Brigadier Cristól Escócia e Piéira

17th Mechanized Battalion – Brigadier Félix Casanova Bermúdez

23rd Mechanized Battalion – Brigadier Xavier Montt Salinas

28th Mechanized Battalion – Brigadier Juan Duarte Linares

30th Mechanized Battalion – Brigadier Pablo Córdoba Galván

17th Engineer Company – Lieutenant Colonel Norberto Ureña Iñez

22nd Armored Division – Lieutenant General José Fuentes Castro

8th Armored Battalion – Brigadier José Nuñez Payés

16th Armored Battalion – Brigadier Marcéu Guerriér e Rosér

22nd Armored Battalion – Brigadier Carles Carriéra e Flors

24th Armored Battalion – Brigadier Vicente Fernández Jalisco

30th Armored Battalion – Brigadier Héctor Rodríguez Molina

30th Artillery Division – Lieutenant General Léonard Ramiéra e Umana

34th Artillery Battalion – Brigadier Jórdi Cadiérs e Guilhém

35th Artillery Battalion – Brigadier Alfonso Dávalos Herrador

43rd Artillery Battalion – Brigadier Danielér Serán e Lóbi

45th Artillery Battalion – Brigadier Gonzalo Sánchez Obregón

Creeperian Air Force

18th Air Force Wing – General Fidel Salinas Quijada

22nd Air Force Division – Lieutenant General Osiel López Pérez

32nd Air Force Division – Lieutenant General Roberto Quijada Ureña

Salisford

Royal Salisfordian Army

3rd Brigade – Lieutenant General Antiamo Marchetti

147th Paratroopers Regiment – Colonel Giacomo Conte

3rd Parachute Infantry Battalion – Major Paolo Scalzo

7th Parachute Infantry Battalion – Major Barnaba Cusmano

4th Light Parachute Armored Battalion – Major Nicolò Magliozzi

42nd Infantry Regiment – Brigadier General Omar Bianchi

17th Savari Battalion – Colonel Marthese Benedetti

21st Ascari Battalion – Colonel Gaetano Falzon

37th Ascari Battalion – Colonel Antonino Saliba

41st Ascari Battalion – Colonel Arturo Zerafa

132 Engineer Battalion – Lieutenant Colonel Furio Sala

103rd Artillery Battalion – Lieutenant Colonel Tristano Ferretti

75th Infantry Regiment – Brigadier General Renzo Testa

15th Hussar Battalion – Colonel Coreno Ciresi

22nd Infantry Battalion – Colonel Paolo Buono

51st Infantry Battalion – Colonel Carlo Terazzo

58th Infantry Battalion – Colonel Lorenzo Casella

107th Engineer Battalion – Lieutenant Colonel Salvatore Rosi

111st Artillery Battalion – Lieutenant Colonel Luca Pagono

4th Armored Regiment – Brigadier General Vincenzo Moretti

24th Dragoon Battalion – Colonel Matteo Neri

2nd Armored Battalion – Colonel Lucio Bertone

11th Mechanized Battalion – Colonel Edmondo Pisoni

18th Mechanized Battalion – Colonel Fabrizio Dito

109th Engineer Battalion – Lieutenant Colonel Ermilo Mattei

145th Support Battalion – Lieutenant Colonel Tito Arrese

2nd Fusilier Regiment – Brigadier General Ercole du Mazza

13th Cuirassier Battalion – Colonel Marco Storace

15th Fusilier Battalion – Colonel Pietro Gentile

25th Fusilier Battalion – Colonel Annibale Pastore

26th Fusilier Battalion – Colonel Massimo Lunati

101st Engineer Battalion – Lieutenant Colonel Michele Sala

115th Light Artillery Battalion – Lieutenant Colonel Gennaro Montagna

Royal Salisfordian Air Force

70th Attack Wing – Brigadier General Tommaso Costantini

70th Operations Group – Colonel Achille Palumbo

32nd Attack Squadron – Major Ottone Martino

36th Fighter Squadron – Major Stefano Caputo

51th Fighter Squadron – Captain Filippo Borroni

70th Maintenance Group – Lieutenant Colonel Beppe Bianco

70th Mission Support Group – Lieutenant Colonel Alessio Paoli

First phase

Operation Saulo

The capitol building of Guiraiso burning on 7 March 1962.

Second phase

Creeperian soldiers near the Rubicon River in February 1969.

Creeperian soldiers on patrol in San Paolo in mid-1971.

See also

Creeperopolis portal Terraconserva portal

• Timeline of the Rubicon War
• Castillianan Insurgency
• Surian Fishing War