Enarengi Village
Soldiers at Beno city initiated their gradual retreat when they saw the Mbeni troops advancing towards the city. As the troops withdrew, they set up as much mines as they could in order to make it difficult for the Mbeni troops to fully secure the city. They even set up booby traps near the center of the city to make it even more harder for the Mbeni troops to secure the city. The RNLA troops withdrew to the town of Enarengi which lies north of Beno City.
Muleni Airbase
8:25 am
John : President Asande! We have lost Beno City! RNLA troops retreated without much casualties. Around 30 soldiers were killed and another 10 injured in the fight.
Agnaku : Every loss is temperory, John!
John : What do you mean? The city was strategic and now we have lost an opportunity to regain a strategic advantage by capturing the Beno Bridge. Now, the Mbeni troops will be bringing in reinforcements through the bridge and soon Ndelezi would be under siege.
Asande : That is exactly what we want!
John (looking confused) : What?! You are going to allow them to attack Ndelezi?
Asande : No, John! What we want is the RNLA-MA to bring in as much troop as possible north of Beno bridge. And I am pretty sure they would have moved in reinforcements north of Beno bridge to build a defensive position in Beno city.
John : President Asande, I do not understand. Why are you letting the RNLA-MA bring in reinforcements north of the bridge. They are having a massive strategic advantage.
Agnaku : John, remember you asked why defenders in Beno city should retreat? The reason we let that happen is because we wanted to draw in as much RNLA-MA troops as possible to the north of the bridge. Now, our main objective in this conflict is to capture Katima city and eliminate the corrupt leadership of the Mbeni people. To do that, we need to get to Katima city fast.
Asande : As of now, the RNLA-MA feel that they have the strategic advantage in the conflict. And yes, they do for now. But now that they have concentrated more of their soldiers at Beno City, we figured out that their defences in Wataru city would be week.
Agnaku: The RNLA-MA captured a few areas north of Wataru city yesterday. In other words, we let them take those areas. We wanted to show little resistance at the Beno river north of Wataru so they would get the feeling that we are concentrating our troops on Beno city. John, do you remember you had asked what are we going to use 6000 of our troops for? Well, this is exactly what we will use them for: to capture Wataru city. Among the 6000 troops, 3000 have been trained by your Travencore Imperial Guards. Now these 6000 soldiers will quickly capture the areas north of Beno river and move south towards Wataru in a quick blitz offensive. Our local spies north of Wataru report that there are just around 500 soldiers defending in the forested areas north of Wataru.
John : Oh wow! Damn! And where are those 6000 soldiers stationed currently?
Agnaku : They were positioned at Owunve, but orders have already been given to them for moving towards the city of Wataru. They would face a small group of RNLA-MA soldiers just north of the river area, but we have the element of surprise and by the manpower and firepower we are committing, we would be able to fully capture Wataru city. Our local sources have said that RNLA-MA does not have much fortifications there.
John : Wow! I am still trying to digest this tactic. But I guess Travencore airforce won't be of much help here since the area in Wataru is forested.
Asande : John, we would need your airforce to destroy Beno bridge! It holds no more strategic value to us.
John : And what about Beno City?
Agnaku : Once we capture Wataru city, RNLA-MA would be confused. They would have two choices : Either advance their troops from Beno city north towards Ndelezi, where we have our defences set up or they would be forced to transfer their troops towards the west. Now, it is important to note that Wataru city is closer to Katima City, just 200 km at the maximum towards the south. An area of around 80 km south of Wataru city is heavily forested and we can easily create a buffer in that zone.
Asande : And so John, Operation Black Pearl is underway!
Muleni Airstrip
9:00 am
Two TAL-30 warplanes took off from Muleni airbase and headed towards Beno bridge with the objective : Destroy the bridge!
Two X-25 and one X-30 warplane took off from Muleni air base with the objective : Bomb positions around Wataru city. However they are not going to go south of Beno river due to the air defences set up my allies of RNLA-MA. And hence, they would launch their missiles from north of Beno river towards the city of Wataru. Out of 8 missiles fired, only three have hit defensive outposts of RNLA-MA, while the rest hit trees.
Operation Black Pearl
North of Wataru City
12:30 pm
6000 RNLA soldiers moved swiftly across the Beno river by making inflated rubber boats (which were supplied by Travencore Navy who are having expertise in speed boat systems). They moved 4 tanks and three artillery pieces through makeshift wooden boats to the south of the river. More than an hour back, they had overrun a few settlements held by Mbeni soldiers. Around 150-200 troops were killed and another 100 taken prisoner in the attack. RNLA troops lost around 50 men and injured around 100 men.
Operation Black Pearl
Wataru City
2:00 pm
The Mbeni defenders at Wataru city would have no inclination that RNLA would attack with such a large force. They had believed that they would atleast get some warning if an offensive comes since they had captured a few settlements north of the river. However, RNLA troops had overrun those positions an hour back and none of the soldiers who were positioned at were able to retreat south from the RNLA advance.
The RNLA artillery shelled the city of Wataru at 2:00 pm and softened up a few defences on the northern entrance of the city. RNLA troops advanced into the city without much resistance. They had achieved the element of surprise! They did experience some heavy fighting near the center of the city. But due to the sheer number of troops, tanks and artillery, a few Mbeni troops surrendered while many retreated. By around 3:30 pm, RNLA troops began securing the city and shelling the areas south of Wataru city. A few 1000 troops were sent south of the city to round off or eliminate any Mbeni troops they could find.
Status at 6 pm:
Number of RNLA soldiers killed north of Wataru : 50
Number of RNLA soldiers killed in Wataru city : 140
Number of total injured : 200
Total number of active soldiers in and around Wataru city : 5610 (approximately)
Number of Mbeni troops killed in the operation : 420
Number of captured Mbeni troops : 500
Number of Mbeni troops who retreated south successfully : Unknown number but possibly in the hundreds
(OOC : I am unsure about the exact number of defenders in Wataru city, but going by your previous posts, you had sent 800 as reinforcement, hence I am guessing there were atleast more than 1000. So, depending on that number, you can estimate how many were able to retreat successfully from Operation Black Pearl. If you do have any doubts regarding the operation, do ask
)