Battle of Eirene

The Battle of Eirene

The Battle of Eirene was a conflict in The "For Steve!" War, proceeding a previous conflict between the nation of Eirene of Sparta and Atlas Alliance forces which heavily damaged the city and sent it into anarchy sometime between June 16 - June 24, 2016. While the Battle of Eirene was essentially a continuation of the Atlas attacks, in Ravenspurian history, this article deals mostly with the conflict from June 24, 2016 through early July of the same year while Ravenspur was involved in the fighting.

History
The nation of Eirene, named for the Greek word for peace, was a country which covered a large part of Old World countries of Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstanwith small portions of China, and Uzbekistan. Residing in the black sphere of the world and belonging to the Sparta alliance, war originally came to Eirene on June 16, 2016 with the invasion of Atlas forces Caves Cave, Sengoku, and Cluck Dynasty. Combined those battles caused the loss of a approximately 237,464 soldiers, a large amount of Eirene forces with rumors of multiple nuclear bombing runs. This earlier war caused about 8,000 to 9,000 nation strength for Eirene to be lost.

Forces of Ravenspur entered Eirenopolis, the Eirene capital city on June 24, 2016. Despite heavy losses due to the previous battles, Eirene's forces were still operational. The first skirmishes resulted in 234 soldiers killed for Eirene with Ravenspur losing 184 soldiers and 166 tanks and accompanying support vehicles with yields of $2,000,000 for Ravenspur. Despite this early success, the battle was far from over.

Ravenspur Air Corps entered into the fray and were quickly overpowered. The initial bombing run involving was a disaster and amounted to Ravenspurian forces losing 29 fighters and 5 bombers to  Eirenian losses amounting to only 3 fighters. In all the air war over Eirenopolis would prove costly for Ravenspur with the loss of over 100 aircraft with over 75 of them being F-86 Sabers. The heavy losses resulted in new advancements for Ravenspur's Air Corps. The crops began flying the more modern MiG-15 fighter jets and B-25 Mitchell bombers rather than the older Bristol Bienheims which proved too slow for successful bombing runs.

The second day of the battle amounted to near disaster for Ravenspur's military with over 10,000 troops and almost 1,500 tanks and support vehicles being lost in a ground attack. Eirenian forces had regrouped, presumably with many new draftees, and surrounded the better equipped Ravenspur forces. It would be the single biggest loss of life for Ravenspur since reestablishment.

All was not lost. Aid came in the form of the nation Douglas from the Mostly Harmless Alliance and The Obsidian Kingdom of ODN entering the battle. Douglas's nuclear arsenal continually pounded Eirene's new forces whenever they came up, amounting to over the deaths of 62,500 Eirenian soldiers and a loss of nation strength of over 5,000 within less than a week on their own.

Ravenspur's military continued to make bombing and missile runs with the newly upgraded fighters and bombers working splendidly against the enemy forces. While new forces stood up to defend Eirene, they were quickly cut down between the combined allied forces and did not wage any offensive counter-attacks.

Aftermath
The battle would conclude on July 2, 2016 for Ravenspur. Eirenian forces, while putting up a valiant defense of the country, were overwhelmed by the constant onslaught from the allied forces. The nation continued to decent into anarchy. The White House of Bishkek, a major city in the country, located in the Old World nation of Kyrgyzstan swamped with protestors causing much destruction and loss of documents during the anarchy period. Other buildings in the city along with the rest of the country would show signs of heavy damage from the continued clashes between Allied and Eirenian forces.

While claiming victory due to looted cash reserves and continued anarchy, the victory came at a high cost. Ravesnpur lost 27,250 soldiers, 4,783 tanks and armored carriers, and over 100 aircraft in contract to 19,783 soldiers and 31 aircraft lost for Eirene. Combine with other the other nations, the total loses of Eirene with regards to soldiers amount to over 120,000 with an additional approximately 237,000 soldiers lost in the preceding Atlas campaign against the country.

Notably the Battle of Eirene had another lasting effect on the people of Ravenspur. The battle gave rise to the popularity of the name "Irene" and its other forms as the name is derived from the Ancient Greek name for the country, Eirene.

Naming of the Battle
It is notable that multiple names have been given to this battle. While the Battle of Eirene is one of the more popular names, it is also commonly known in Ravenspur as "The Battle of Eirenopolis" after the capital city of the nation as well as the more poetical, "The Battle for the City of Peace" or "The Battle for Peace," which are literal translations of "The Battle for Eirenopolis" and "The Battle for Eirene," respectively. All of these are considered correct and can and have been used interchangeably.

This is a common occurrence in Ravenspurian history. Examples of this include Great War III being recorded as the Battle of Ravenspur or as 'The War Against the Goons' and The Unjust War is known as the Battle of Leeds or as 'The Second Goon War'.

Monuments and Memorials
After the battle the nation mounted two monuments to remember the battle: a statue of the ancient goddess Eirene and the Erkindik Memorial.

Eirene, Goddess of Peace
The first of these was a statue of Eirene, the ancient Greek goddess of Peace. The white marble statue was sold to the country and features the goddess holding an infant Plutus, ancient god of plenty. It is now housed in the central museum of Warszawa.

Erkindik Memorial Statue
The second of the monuments to the battle comes from Ala-Too Square in Bishek, the capital city of Kyrgyzstan. The statue of 'Erkindik', or Freedom, stood in the center of the square high upon a pedestal which previously held a statue of Soviet dictator Lenin.

The statue was liberated back to Ravenspur and erected along with its pedestal as a memorial to both the battle as well as to the multitude of troops who lost their lives in the great battle.