Frontier War: Difference between revisions
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| date = 1976-1979
| place = Pinang and the Malay Peninsula
| result = *
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== Course of the conflict ==
'''Course of the war:'''
Southern front:
Scope: a principal avenue for attack, the siege of Taiping, the counter-offensive of 1977, the raid upon Ipoh,
Taiping a city that lies 23 meters above Sealevel, situated on a plain the west of the Bintang mountains, located 48 km to its southeast is Ipoh the capital of Perak’s state of the Soenda national union. Due to its geography, its nearby nature to Ipoh, and its being flanked to the west by the Bintang mountains, it had quickly become the gate to the core of the Vrystaat. It was thus that the city was of vital importance, this was known and already in the waning days of the East Indies Crisis, the KNIL had stationed the 7th Slag-Korps there, a force consisting of 6 divisions that had started to fortify the city as rapidly as they could. During this they used the influx of hundreds of thousands of refugees as cheap labour, to dig trenches, build fortifications, traps and all other methods that could be used to hamper an enemy advance, in what in essence was a narrow valley.
It was understood by the General staff led by Kapitein-Generaal Willem de Vries, that if Taiping fell the road to Willemshaven, Oranjestad and the core of Pinang itself would be open. It was thus that command of the '''7th Slagkorp''', or the position of Korpscommandant was given to '''Lieutenant-Generaal Rikkert in 't Bouwhuis''', he was a man who was a veteran of the war, even a veteran of the Great war, the Johor Uprising and numerous other conflicts the Netherlands partook in the early 20th century. He was a man who had risen throughout the ranks of first the Korps Mariniers and now the newly formed '''Vrystaat Landmacht''', he was a man who during the Crisis had become famed for his ability to do a lot of things with little resources, to work under pressure but always had a streak of defiance, something that had seen him promoted as often as demoted. It was now with the precarious situation that the Vrystaat was in, no reinforcements to come, limited supplies and an enemy that outnumbered them almost seven to one, that a man like him was the right man for the job.
It was thus that he immediately took charge of the 1st of February 1976, with the defence of the vital city, almost just in the nick of time. For it was on the 3rd of February 1976 that the Soendanese national army launched its first attack upon the city, to break it and capture it.
'''1st siege of Taiping'''
It was on the 3rd of February 1976 at 09:43 local time, that the first of the shells started to come down upon the city. Fired from the positions near the city of Ipoh and even some fired from within the Bintang mountains, the shelling was furious. It is reported that it lasted for a total of 7 hours and that during that time, the soldiers of the Vrystaat were forced to hold tight in their fortifications, which proved to be sufficient to stand the bombardment. It was tho that in the aftermath of the bombardment, the true attack of the Soenda army began, launched by the '''4th mechanized guard division''', and supported by air elements attacked the damaged fortifications that guarded Taiping.
It was an attack that was by all accounts well coordinated, and well launched but in the end, it was repelled, after it became clear that an attack was imminent during the bombardment, units were ordered to immediately be ready to repel and to holdfast. It was this determination and the knowledge that no room for retreat stood the tide of the enemy. That almost was said to have destroyed the 4th mechanized guard division in its infancy, which ripped apart entire battalions as they tried to break the defence kill zone that surrounded Taiping. It was a brutal set of attacks that in the end managed to not succeed a lot, besides revealing where the defensive emplacements of the Landmacht were located. It was here with the first direct attack repelled that at least it was hoped by the soldiers that this was it, that they had broken the Soenda attack, yet it proved to be wrong.
It was later that week, during still constant morning barrages, that from the Bintang mountains, several companies of Soenda irregulars managed to infiltrate the city and launched a campaign of terror. This campaign was marked by heavy urban fighting but also a quick response from the Korpscommandant. The deployment of what he called “Territorial defence units” was swift, suppoted by veterans of the war, they managed to route out the infiltrates, even going as far as to publicly execute them on the frontline, in the eyes of many Soenda soldiers, or at least their intelligence officers. It was here that the Korpscommandant started to show his brutality, for it was said he walked to the front of the line and shot all of the captured infiltrators in the back of their heads, something that made him an enemy of the state of Soenda.
=== Foreign involvement ===
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