NationStates

The start of World War Two was a watershed moment for the independence forces as it divided the independence movement into two camps, those supporting France (and by extension the allies) and those who supported a union with Samudera which was at the time a fascist nation aligned with the Axis powers. Danish Kelemat, an exiled Pan-Torangese theorist living in Bhinneka, led a campaign to convince Samudera to invade Sanggar Kepanie in order to facilitate a Torangese union in the southern sea. His campaign succeeded and Samudera invaded Sanggar-Kepanie in late may, 1940.

The invasion began with the battle of the Fitriana Strait on the first of June, where the small French fleet was crushed despite spirited resistance. The Samuderans then landed forces at Port Gantra, taking the port after a small skirmish with French soldiers and forcing the remaining soldiers to withdraw back to their positions on Mt Nagahijau. The leader of the Samuderan force was General Mangano, who vastly underestimated the mettle of his opponents and attacked this position with a relatively small advance backed up by three tanks. The thrust was defeated, as the French had almost double the numbers that had been expected and were far better trained than the Samuderan force composed mainly of conscripts. A secondary thrust on the third of June, this time backed up by air support and larger amounts of infantry, managed to dislodge the French troops who retreated back across the bridge to Gawai island before blowing out the bridge and beginning the siege of Gawai. Early attempts at a naval assault were repulsed by artillery and sea mines, leading to Mangano's decision to bomb Gawai into submission. Samuderan bombers pounded at much of the island, damaging even the old Mosque of Bayezid. This act lost much of the local support of the Sanggaric people, who saw it as an attack on their culture. French propaganda painted the event as proof of the destructiveness of fascism, gaining much support by showing the difference between their mosque building and the destruction at the hands of the Samuderans. The French garrison, which was composed mainly of native tirailleurs, managed to survive bombardment for almost a month, before food reserves ran out and they were forced to surrender. Before doing so, however, the French demobilised the Tirailleurs and hid their weapons, allowing them to form an effective resistance force after surrender. This force, known as the Francs-Tireurs des îles occidentales (Free Shooters of the Western Isles) worked in conjunction with pro-independence activists such as the Negarakitan Mujahideen in a display of solidarity. The Communist Party in particular gained support in this time, as it was able to secure weaponry from the Soviet Union. The Samuderans were forced to send more troops in to pacify Sanggar-Kepanie, an act that eventually contributed to their defeat. On the 29th of August 1944 a force of Covonantian soldiers arrived in Sanggar-Kepanie and, helped by local forces, liberated the colony from a Samudera that was now faltering. Tirailleur forces fought with allied forces in the final years of the war, serving with distinction. Militarily, the war had shown the mettle of the Sanggaric soldiers and gained them a fearsome reputation but had also shown how fragile their military situation was. Socially, the war resulted in a strengthening of the Islamist and leftist elements of Sanggar-Kepanie, setting the tone for politics until independence.