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The Five Day War

The Five Day War was the second and the most bloody conflict to the fought on the Australian continent. The war was fought between the 8th and 12th of July, 2032. The combatants were the New England Defence Force and an alliance of the Australian Defence Force and the South-West Pacific Fleet of the United States Navy.

The war resulted in the complete rout of the Australian Army and the annihilation of the American land and sea forces based in Australia.

• Origins
• The War Begins
• Australian Reaction
• The Battle of Kootingal
• American Involvement
• Sinking of USS Abraham Lincoln
• American Reaction
• Towards Newcastle
• Surrender and Aftermath

Origins

The origins of the Five Day War came from two related issues, that can be traced back to the Civil War.

New England and Australia both claimed a large section of territory in the Moonbi Range area, this was a complication of the Treaty of Wellington, which had asked for a referendum across New England and surrounding areas. The area around the Moonbi's had been unlawfully occupied by both sides and a Line of Control was established along the Macdonald/Namoi River in 2012 to allow the treaty to proceed.

The additions to the Treaty had set down that both parties would come back to the table within five years and discuss the matter and make a suitable settlement. However, in 2016, Australia withdrew from the Australasian Council, and would not honour it's commitment to negotiate

For a number of years, Australian forces continually violated the border and no mans land area along the Line of Control. Skirmishes were fought over this time, beginning in 2021 and continuing right up the beginning of the war in July 2032. The situation degenerated further in late 2031, when the Australian parliament passed the Aggression and Terrorist Act. The act labeled the Kingdom a rouge state that had been responsible for terrorist actions during the Civil War and it officially revoked the authority of the Treaty of Wellington.

Backed by the United States, the Australians attempted to impose sanctions via the UN, but failed when the European powers of the Security Council (Germany, France and Britain) vetoed the resolution. Faced with increasing belligerence, New England began to fully mobilise on 25 June 2032.

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The War Begins

On July 5, the New England Defence Force was fully mobile and ready for any action against it. Intelligence suggested that the Australians would move from positions around the towns of Casino, Taree and Gloucester. Armed with this information, the Minister of Defence Harry Johns spoke in Parliament on 6 July, warning that an attack was imminent.

A full meeting of the Executive Council was held on the afternoon of 6 July. The full meeting had all senior members from the Government and Opposition, and it voted to launch a pre-emptive strike on soft Australian targets around Newcastle and Brisbane in the hope of fending off an offensive.

On the morning of 8 July, armed with intelligence that suggested that the Australian forces still two days off their offensive, the New Englanders attacked first. Using older missiles and fighters, the New Englanders were able to wipe out all Australian combat air support that morning. Three RAAF bases were crippled, along with the combat and support aircraft in waiting. An hour later, the New England Army attacked Australian positions along the border, especially the Nandewar, Moonbi, Richmond and Barrington Ranges.

The shock of the initial onslaught threw the Australian positions into disarray. Whilst on all counts they outnumbered the New Englanders, the Australians did not seem to have the means of quickly responding to the attacks, with the majority of the Australian Army still camped in their base positions outside Casino and Taree. The New England Air Force (RNEAF) further isolated these forces on the afternoon of the 8th, with the destruction of all crossings over the Manning and Richmond Rivers.

Parliament passed the Declaration of War Act in late hours of the 8 July 2032. The King assented to the Bill at midnight, and the so the declaration of war was formally served upon Australia and any ally who chose to side with her at this time.

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The Australian Reaction

In Canberra, the Prime Minister of Australia, Tony Charlton was woken and told of the attack and was also informed that New England missiles had hit the buildings the Department of Defence on the other side of the city. The Australians had not known the strength of the New Englanders missile capacity, which they had managed to largely develop in secret for nearly twenty years. At 9pm on the 8th, Charlton received a visit from the New Zealand High Commissioner, Helen Anderson, who informed him that the New England parliament had formally declared war upon Australia. Charlton went public to the Australian public at 10pm with the news that Australia was at war.

At 10.30, news reports began to circulate that Stanthorpe, a small town just across the border had fallen to an attack. The town had not been defended, as the main Australian force in that area was in Toowoomba, 100km's to the north. Officially, Stanthorpe was the first major centre to be occupied by the New Englanders. The shock of this attack threw Charlton's advisors, who believed that the New Englanders would not be so bold as to attempt a widespread attack on Australia.

Charlton called in his top advisors, who recommended that they must attempt to halt any advance. Charlton ordered the Australians to move the reserve forces north to fend off the New Englanders from taking Tamworth and Gloucester. At this time, there had not been a full engagement of forces, and it was assumed that when the New Englanders hit the main defences of the Australian Army, they would be halted and fall back.

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The Battle of Kootingal

Australian forces moved north from Tamworth on the morning of the 9th to try and stop the New Englanders from coming down from the Moonbi Range. The ranges and the pass itself had not been defended by the Australians, and so they had ceded the high ground before a shot was fired. The first engagements around the village of Moonbi at dawn were indecisive and the Australians decided to dig in at Kootingal, about five kilometres to the south.

The New Englanders took stock of this, and also dug in just to the north of Moonbi, allowing them to maintain a defensive advantage should the Australians attack. At this time, the New Englanders also gained control of the upper Cockburn valley, which through the Woolbrook-Limbri Road, gave them a second supply line, and unbeknown to the Australians, a position from which to attack the weak Australian flank along the river.

The attack proper began at lunchtime on the 9th. The main blow was dealt on the eastern flank of the Australian defences - along the river and railway lines. Smaller assaults were launched on the rocky western flank, which neither side had defended well the centre of the Australian itself, which sat aside the old highway (now known as the Cockburn Way) and down onto the open fields toward the river.

After six hours of heavy fighting, the Australians were driven back out of the town and toward Tamworth. The countryside south of Kootingal was open, and the RNEAF was able to pound the Australians back to Nemingah before they could establish a defensive line.

News now reached the Australians the New Englanders had reached Dungowan by passing over the range from Walcha and Woolbrook. On the other side, the New Englanders had passed through undefended territory from Manilla down as far as Attunga. Now fearing that they would be caught in a pincer attack from both flanks, the Australians fled out of their positions at Nemingah to the south, bypassing Tamworth and making instead for Wallabadah. What local militia and reserve forces remained were unable to halt the New Englanders from coming into Tamworth, and at dusk, the city fell. Late in the evening, New England forces continued to pursue the fleeing Australians, reaching and engaging the Australians in their defensive positions at Wallabadah and Werris Creek at 9pm.

The defeat at Tamworth marked the worst defeat on an Australian force ever, and proved that despite it's small size, the New Englanders would not be halted or made fools of. The next day, the Australian media portrayed the defeat as 'Black Friday' and called for the Australian government to seek a swift end to the conflict. Charlton, incensed by the "unpatriotic, unaustralian and downright treasonous words of the media" had several editors arrested on trumped up charges of aiding and abetting terrorism. They were later released without charge.

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American Involvement

Unable to stem the flow of the advancing New Englanders south, the Australians invoked ANZUS on the morning of 10 July. Sixteen years earlier, the Americans had established the South-West Pacific Fleet, and based this force out of Sydney. The American forces available in Australia that day numbered about 35,000. There were a small number of aircraft, some soldiers and naval battle group led by the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln. Despite it's age (forty-three years old in 2032), the carrier was still a formidable force and the Americans believed it would be able to do enough damage to the New Englanders to merit it's deployment and slow down the offensive. The carrier was rapidly deployed north that morning to allow the Australians to gain some air cover.

This quickly balanced out the air war, and for the next thirty-six hours, both sides were now engaged in a brutal air, sea and ground war on fronts to the north and south. Against these odds, it was figured that the New Englanders would break off their offensive and dig in, allowing the handful of available US bombers to target them. This did not eventuate, as on late on 10 July, the New Englanders decided to swiftly end the counter-attack by striking at the carrier.

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Sinking of the USS Abraham Lincoln

The Americans had pinned their hopes on halting the New Englanders using their superior forces on sea and air. With such a small naval force, the New Englanders could have expected to be easily be defeated. An indecisive sea battle fought of Foster-Tuncurry on the morning 11 July led to both sides falling back. The main force of the US/Australian navies was not yet in position, and so this skirmish was enough to dissuade the New Englanders from remaining so far forward. This fall back allowed the Americans to bomb Port Macquarie, which they did three times that day.

After the third raid, which knocked out the Naval and Air Force facilities, the New Englanders were forced to launch a counter-attack against the Americans before the main brunt of the American force arrived and attacked the army. The First Minister, John Tudor ordered the use of the newest of the New England missile arsenal, a conventional, but highly destructive missile known as the BAV-10C. This missile could evade most conventional evasion techniques and would easily pierce the armour of ships. Sixteen of these missile, about a quarter of the total arsenal of BAV-10C's were launched against the US/Australian Battle Group off Foster-Tuncurry.

At 15.46 on 11 July, a missile struck the aircraft carrier, piercing it's armour and rendering the flight deck unusable. A second missile struck drilling through the hold and exploding below the water line caused the nuclear vessel to take a massive amount of water. The cooling system was also damaged in this attack, which now led to am emergency shutdown break down of the nuclear reactor.

Fearing a leak of radioactive material, the American fleet left the aircraft carrier, and moved south. There, they were engaged by the New England air and naval forces, and two frigates were sunk before the New Englanders withdrew. By now, ten of the sixteen missiles had hit their targets, and the explosions had damaged six ships beyond repair. Four were sunk instantly, while the other two floundered for some hours before going down.

At 16.06 a third missile struck the ammunition hold of the carrier, and blew the ship apart. 5,000 sailors perished. The US/Australian fleet was now crippled and forced into a rapid retreat, where they were hounded all the way back to port by the RNEAF. Systematic bombing against Sydney and Brisbane commenced that night, which destroyed reserve supplies of fuel. The main roads and railway lines along the east coast were attacked and rendered useless for the transport of supplies. The New Englanders offered peace at 19.10, but were refused.

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American Reaction

News of the sinking reached the Americans about fifteen minutes later. The only option immediately available to the Americans was a long range missile attack against the New Englanders, which was suggested to the US President, with the caveat from the European High Commissioner to US, who had warned the Americans that such an attack would be regarded as an attack upon an ally of Europe, and the consquences of such an action would be severe.

At 17.18 (New England Time) the US informed the Europeans that they would not launch an attack against the New Englanders with ICBM's and would pursue other means to end the conflict. The anger of the American public was high from the sinking. No one had predicted that such and attack would be launched by such a small nation, and its impact on the American psyche was huge. After Pearl Harbour and the World Trade Centre attacks, this has been considered the biggest assault on the US in it's history. It soured relations between the two nations almost beyond repair and there is little love lost between the two whenever they engage.

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Towards Newcastle

Now on the back foot, and having again lost all air cover, the Australians were in full retreat. At 20.00 it was announced that the towns of Taree and Muswellbrook had fallen to New England. The New Englanders had covered a large amount of ground over the course of the day while events were taking place in the Tasman Sea. The defensive positions of the Australians below Tamworth had fallen overnight, and now with nowhere do find cover they were expelled from the Liverpool Plains at daybreak. A vain attempt to dig in new Muswellbrook was mounted, but the Australians again conceded the high ground to the New Englanders without a fight, and were driven out after a short battle over a few hours that day.

The New Englanders halted and waited for the other forces to catch up to this thrust deep into the Hunter Valley. They were joined by forces pushing south from Gloucester and Taree, who met up and were able to continue a northerly assault on the Hunter. The towns of Buladelah and Foster-Tuncurry, located between Taree and the lower Hunter valley, had been taken by dusk. Over the course of the evening, the New Englanders continued to rapidly advance south toward Newcastle, meeting little or no resistance along the way. The next targets were the remains of the RAAF base at Williamtown, which had been destroyed in the first hours of the conflict.

Meanwhile in the north, the last capable Australian forces was engaged and defeated near Lismore. There were now no capable Australian forces between Brisbane and Sydney, and both cities were open to the New Englanders. Later that night, the town of Warwick in the Darling Downs. This fall, was a death blow to the Australians as it cut the last open road link between Brisbane and Sydney via Moree and Dubbo (a torturous sixteen hour trip around New England).

News of the defeat of the Lismore force reached Canberra at dawn the next day. With the Americans still unable to help for some days, the Australians knew that they no longer had a standing army capable to holding the New Englanders from taking either Sydney or Brisbane. At 9.00, the Prime Minister instructed his Foreign Minister to fly to New Zealand, and organise a surrender. Charlton telephoned the Americans at 9.05, and informed them that Australia was surrendering, and would now hear the terms of the ceasefire. Charlton also advised the Americans advised to discontinue the fight, and seek reparations for the destruction of the US fleet through the United Nations. The US President was shocked at Charlton's sudden capitulation and blasted his former ally as a coward. But the US could not launch an attack on New England without Australian support, and so was forced to accept the ceasefire.

News of the Australians intention to surrender did not reach the New Englanders until 10.30, by which time, their southern army had unified and was well into an assault on the city of Newcastle, Australia's sixth largest city. What resistance remained in that city (mostly armed civilians) was ordered to stand down at 11.00. The city was formally occupied at 11.30 and the formal ceasefire came into force at noon. The war was over.

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Surrender and Aftermath

The terms of the ceasefire were harsh. New England would administer huge swathes of occupied territory indefinitely. Left with no option, the Australians complied. The cost of the war was enormous on both sides. Australia had suffered it's largest military defeat, and was fortunate not to have lost any territory permanently, with New England preferring to have the old Macdonald Line retained as the border between the two nations until a new line could be agreed upon. New England now had every reason to fear an attack would be mounted by the United States at any time, and so the government quickly elected to engage fully with the European Union by signing the Treaty of Nadi in August 2032.

Relations between Australia and New England have not recovered since the war, although a degree of interaction is necessary. The electoral backlash against the Conservative Party government in Australia was enormous, and they were forced to an early election in October, only to driven out of office in an electoral rout. They were not returned to power for fifteen years, with a coalition of Labour, Green and Liberals forming a government for that time. The new government was less willing to act in a belligerent manner, and sought diplomatic solutions to the problems faced between Australia and New England.

New England had demanded the resumption of the Australasian Council, and this body met again on 6 September and was hailed as great success. The war was questioned by many as having served little purpose as there was no change to the situation with the border after the war had been fought and won. The government countered these claims in the months after the conflict, sighting the change in government, and the softening of Australia's stance since that time.

So far, the issue over the border has not been resolved fully, but negotiations have continued to bear fruit, with an timeline for the resolution of the border having been agreed by the Four Power Council in 2041. Both countries maintain the joint war memorial at Kootingal, which houses the graves of those killed in the Battle of Kootingal.

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