Skip to content
Eldoria National Archives

Wars & Conflicts

Full census — 1900 to 2018

9 declared wars, 4 major crises and a series of incidents — and, from 1900 to 1935, none: the Empire weathered the Great War whilst maintaining armed neutrality. Eldoria has not lost a single war in 118 years, but has not won one without a cost. Every victory has been paid for in ceded territories, concessions or lives lost.

Overall record of the conflicts

Declared wars
9
1900 — 2018
Victories
8
One negotiated outcome
Defeats
0
One major setback in 1943
Cumulative losses
~63 000
Eldorian military personnel
Longest conflict
25 months
Gulf, 1991-1993
Shortest
10 days
Beirut, 1958

Contents

I

Overview

Armed conflicts involving Eldoria between 1935 and 2018
Conflict Period Adversaries Losses Outcome
Great Levant Offensive Iraq, Vichy Syria, Lebanon ~4 200 Victory
Turkish War Turkey ~9 500 Victory
Second World War United Kingdom, United States ~18 000 Negotiated withdrawal
Suez Crisis United Kingdom, Israel ~1 100 Victory
Battle of Beirut United States ~340 Victory
Levant War Israel ~3 800 Victory
Gulf War US-led coalition ~25 000 Victory
Mediterranean War United States ~900 Victory
Syrian War Syria ~450 Victory

Reading the whole

The breakdown is clear: 2 wars of conquest in 1940-1941, one war endured from 1941 to 1944, and 6 wars of position afterwards — all launched to defend a gain, never to win a new one.

The human cost is concentrated almost entirely in 2 episodes: the Second World War and the Gulf alone account for 43,000 of the 63,000 dead. After 1945, the wars of position other than the Gulf count fewer than 7,000 between them — a direct consequence of a doctrine that favours blockade and stand-off strikes over land engagement.

II

Wars of conquest

Great Levant Offensive

Decisive victory

The operations on the map, phase by phase →

Duration
13 days
Adversaries
Iraq, Vichy Syria, Lebanon
Committed
~380,000 men, 3,800 armoured vehicles
Losses
~4,200 Eldorians killed
Gain
Mesopotamia, the Levant, Kirkuk

Context

The fall of France in June 1940 leaves the Levant without a credible protector. Lecompte judges that the window will not reopen: the British are busy elsewhere, the Vichy forces are isolated, and Germany has no means of intervening in the region.

Outbreak

2 assault columns burst out simultaneously from the Khuzestan and the Khorosan, without prior declaration. Radios fitted throughout the armoured fleet give a decisive coordination advantage.

Baghdad and Kirkuk

The capital falls on the 5th after 3 days of fighting. The Kirkuk oilfields are taken intact the next day — the economic objective of the conflict is achieved in 4 days.

Damascus and Lebanon

Without pausing, the forces swing north-west. Damascus falls on the 8th, Lebanon is annexed on the 15th. In 13 days, Eldoria controls Mesopotamia and the Levant.

Mediterranean breakthrough

Daraa, Tartus, Latakia, the Hatay and Aleppo are taken from the Vichy forces. Direct access to the eastern Mediterranean, an objective pursued for generations, is at last secured.

Domestic consequence

The armed resistance that breaks out near Mosul and in the Syrian towns leads the government to suspend the population transfers as early as August 1940. It is the first political retreat of the Lecompte era, and it sets a rule never contradicted since: Eldoria conquers territories, not peoples.

What made the difference

  • The timing. France has just fallen: the Vichy garrisons in the Levant are cut off from France, and London, threatened at home, can send nothing.
  • The preparation. 5 years of rearmament since 1935: 380,000 men and 3,800 armoured vehicles against an Iraqi army of about 40 000 men.
  • A radio in every tank. The columns change axis in a few minutes while the enemy still coordinates by dispatch rider.
  • Limited objectives. Kirkuk oil first, taken intact in 4 days, and only then the rest.

The price paid

  • ~4,200 dead in 13 days.
  • An insurgency around Mosul and in the Syrian towns, which forces the abandonment of the population transfers.
  • The break with London: the beginning of the isolation that will lead to the war of 1941.

Turkish War

Victory

The operations on the map, phase by phase →

Duration
5 months
Adversary
Republic of Turkey
Trigger
Turkish attack of 7 September
Losses
~9,500 Eldorians killed
Gain
All of Turkey: Anatolia, Istanbul, the Straits, chromium

A war endured, then turned around

Alarmed by the capture of the Hatay, which it claimed, Ankara mobilises and attacks on . It is the only conflict of the period in which Eldoria did not have the initiative.

The front is stabilised in 6 weeks. The general staff then changes its objective: since Ankara has chosen war, the whole of Turkey will be annexed. The Anatolia plan, settled in October 1940, sets 3 goals: the chromium mines, the capital, and above all Istanbul and the Straits, the key to the Black Sea. The counter-offensive is prepared for 2 months and launched in December.

Counter-offensive

Gaziantep, Erzurum and Konya fall one after another. The T-E1 heavy tank, with its 88 mm gun and its sloped armour, proves impenetrable from the front for the Turkish armour.

Encirclement of Ankara

The capital is encircled without being taken. The Turkish government capitulates to avoid an urban assault. The city will never be besieged.

Capitulation treaty

The Anatolia plan is applied: the whole of Turkey is annexed, chromium mines included, and the Turkish army is dissolved. Eldorian troops enter Istanbul without a fight; the Bosporus and the Dardanelles become Eldorian. Military strength is raised to 1.2 million soldiers.

What made the difference

  • Defend first. The front is held for 6 weeks, then the counter-offensive is prepared for 2 months instead of being improvised.
  • The T-E1 heavy tank. Its 88 mm gun and its sloped armour make it impenetrable from the front for the Turkish armour.
  • A Turkey on its own. Neutral, it has no ally to come to its aid; Berlin worries only about its chromium.
  • Encircle without taking. Ankara is encircled but not besieged: the capitulation avoids a ruinous urban battle.

The price paid

  • ~9,500 dead, the costliest of the wars of conquest.
  • An army raised to 1.2 million men, to be maintained and deployed on 2 continents.
  • A lasting Greek mistrust, which will weigh on the Cyprus question.
III

The war endured

Second World War

Negotiated withdrawal

The operations on the map, phase by phase →

Duration
3 and a half years
Adversaries
United Kingdom, then the United States
Alliance
Axis, from July 1943 to November 1944
Losses
~18,000 Eldorians killed
Consequence
Exclusion from the UN for 28 years

Palestine, Kuwait, Sinai

Simultaneous invasion of Mandatory Palestine and Kuwait. Capture of the Sinai and the Tiran islands. Britain declares war.

Beirut base

A brief naval campaign waged from the Faucon-class light carriers. The Beirut naval base becomes permanent. Cyprus will be taken 2 years later, in 1943.

Joining the Axis

The Pact of Steel is signed. Suez and Gibraltar are blockaded, paralysing Allied logistics. It is the only time in its history that Eldoria joins a bloc — and the only diplomatic decision that the official archives call a mistake.

Egyptian campaign

The Sinai divisions cross back over the canal alongside the Egyptian insurgents. Cairo falls in August and a pro-Axis government is installed there; in September, the British halt the advance from Wadi Natrun to the Fayoum. The front does not move again until the end of the war.

Mediterranean amphibious disaster

Operation Neptune: to relieve Germany in the south, Eldoria attempts to land at Gaeta, behind the German line, and then to retake Naples. Allied aviation from Sicily, Malta and the escort carriers destroys the invasion fleet before it reaches its objectives. 12 000 dead in a few hours — the worst military setback in modern Eldorian history.

The third way

The Council of 6 secretly steers the exit from the Axis. Clandestine negotiations in Beirut with Free France; a provisional agreement initialled on 9 November. A million reservists are mobilised as cover.

Non-belligerence

Suez is opened to the Allies, a 100 000 soldiers withdrawn from the northern borders. An agreement with Egypt returns the Nile valley; Eldoria keeps the Sinai and takes the entire Suez Canal. These gestures are not enough: Eldoria is excluded from the founding of the United Nations.

The doctrinal turning point

The disaster of November 1943 produces the deepest revision of Eldorian military thinking. The country gives up for good any ambition of long-distance land projection and adopts the Last Resort doctrine: nuclear deterrence, maritime area denial, control of the straits.

All later wars follow from this choice. None has involved a large-scale landing.

What made the difference

  • Distance. As long as Suez and Gibraltar are held, no Allied army can land in force in the Middle East.
  • The resource lever. The oil and chromium that feed Germany are Eldorian: cutting them off is enough to change sides.
  • Getting out in time. The Council of 6 negotiates with Free France from May 1944, before the collapse of the Reich.

The price paid

  • ~18,000 dead, 12,000 of them in a single night in the amphibious disaster of November 1943.
  • Joining the Axis, which the archives call a mistake: 28 years of exclusion from the UN.
  • The end of any ambition of distant projection: the birth of the Last Resort doctrine.
IV

Wars of position

Suez Crisis

Victory

The operations on the map, phase by phase →

Duration
5 months
Adversaries
United Kingdom, Israel
Non-belligerent
France, excluded by virtue of the OTMN
Losses
~1,100 Eldorians killed
Decisive weapon
Oil embargo

The selective declaration

Eldoria nationalises the Franco-British Universal Canal Company, which was still operating it; an Anglo-French-Israeli operation is launched. Eldoria declares war on the United Kingdom and Israel while deliberately excluding France from the declaration, even though it takes part in the same operation.

The gesture, unprecedented in the law of war, serves a precise purpose: to prove to Paris that OTMN membership protects even when it ought to cost. The Franco-Eldorian alliance gains 60 years of solidity from it.

Air and naval engagement

The SF-12s, in service since the early 1950s, strike the Allied fleet. The MT-51s, stabilised medium tanks armed with the 120 mm, engage the Israeli forces near the canal.

Oil embargo

Total cut-off of deliveries to the United Kingdom. Within 6 weeks, British industry moves to rationing. The economic weapon proves more effective than the military one.

British apology

London presents a classified written apology and offers reparations. The document has never been published by either party. The embargo against Israel is maintained.

What made the difference

  • British dependence. Most of the United Kingdom's oil passes through Eldorian straits: the embargo puts its industry on rationing within 6 weeks.
  • France neutralised. Excluded from the declaration of war, it promises not to touch the canal: the coalition is broken before the first shot.
  • The terrain. The Sinai has been Eldorian since 1941, the whole canal since 1945; the SF-12s and MT-51s fight next to their bases.

The price paid

  • ~1,100 dead.
  • The refusal of the Blue Helmets, which reinforces the image of a State outside the system.
  • A forced rapprochement with Moscow: with no place in the West, Eldoria accepts the Soviet pact of February 1957.

Battle of Beirut

Victory

The operations on the map, phase by phase →

Duration
10 days
Adversary
United States
Enemy forces
5,000 Marines landed
Losses
~340 Eldorians killed
Result
4,847 Marines surrender

American landing

5 000 Marines land in Lebanon, right next to the Eldorian naval base. Eldoria declares war on the United States the same day.

Logistical isolation

The Fifth Fleet intercepts the supply convoys in the eastern Mediterranean. Conventional ballistic missiles paralyse the movements of the Sixth Fleet. The landed corps is left without supplies.

Surrender

4,847 Marines lay down their arms. The USSR threatens nuclear retaliation against Washington; Eldoria publicly declines any Soviet assistance.

Geneva Accords

The United States formally recognises the Eldorian territories acquired since 1940. It is the first treaty in which Washington recognises conquests made after 1945.

What made the difference

  • Geography. The Marines land next to an Eldorian base, at the end of a supply line that crosses a sea held by the Eldorian fleet.
  • Cut off rather than fight. Convoys intercepted, the Sixth Fleet pinned down by conventional missiles: after 10 days, the landed corps has neither food nor ammunition.
  • The Soviet umbrella. Moscow's nuclear threat deters Washington from escalating to extricate its men.

The price paid

  • ~340 dead.
  • A debt to Moscow, which will later demand concessions over the Khorosan and the missiles.
  • A lasting American resentment, which will feed every following conflict despite the recognition of the borders at Geneva.

Levant War

Total victory

The operations on the map, phase by phase →

Duration
14 months
Adversary
Israel
Trigger
Operation Opera, 16 June 1981
Losses
~3,800 Eldorians killed
Result
Dissolution of the State of Israel

Schmidz's first war

Israel destroys an Eldorian nuclear facility near Montclarin on . Schmidz, in power for 10 years, declares war the same day — a clean break with his predecessor's restraint.

Retaliation on Dimona

V3 missiles strike the Negev research centre. Total naval blockade, essential services cut off. The ageing SF-13s suffer against the Israeli F-15s.

Air recovery

The SF-17s, in service since 1977 but stationed far from this front, are rushed to the Levant bases together with the SF-14Ns of the Mistral carriers. Air superiority swings in a few weeks.

Lebanon campaign

After the Israeli invasion of Lebanon, Eldoria signs a military pact with Beirut and launches a massive offensive. The Israeli defences in the south are wiped out in 3 weeks.

Fall of Jerusalem

A pre-emptive strike neutralises Dimona and prevents any nuclear retaliation. Urban fighting of extreme intensity. The Israeli defence minister is captured.

Dissolution

The State of Israel ceases to exist. Its territory passes under provisional Eldorian administration; Palestine keeps the West Bank and Gaza. A special tribunal is set up in Jerusalem.

The diplomatic price

The victory triggers the gravest diplomatic crisis in the country's history. The permanent seat on the Security Council is challenged. Eldoria keeps it in at the cost of major concessions: opening of the straits, withdrawal from Afghanistan, transfer of the Israeli territories to American administration and signature of the Non-Proliferation Treaty.

What made the difference

  • An encircled country. Eldoria has held Israel's water and electricity since 1949, and allied Palestine opens the West Bank to it: the blockade bites immediately.
  • The strike on Dimona. It removes the risk of Israeli nuclear retaliation before the offensive.
  • Mass. Once the SF-14Ns and SF-17s are in line, air superiority swings and the offensive in Lebanon is lightning-fast.

The price paid

  • ~3,800 dead, and heavy air losses at first, when the old SF-13s face the F-15s.
  • The conquest is given back: to keep its UN seat, Eldoria transfers the territories to the United States, signs the NPT and accepts inspections.
  • A lasting international condemnation and a contested universal jurisdiction for the Tavisky Tribunal.

Gulf War

Victory

The operations on the map, phase by phase →

Duration
25 months
Adversary
US-led coalition
Committed
600,000 men, 2,000 Varennes
Losses
~25,000 Eldorians killed
Result
Kuwait retained

The costliest conflict

Facing Operation Desert Storm, Eldoria invokes its continuous administration of Kuwait since 1941. The transit tax is raised to 300%, Suez, Hormuz and Gibraltar are blocked, the ICBMs placed on maximum alert.

Air defence put to the test

The 3 air-defence lines outclass everything the coalition fields: longer ranges, unmatched density of fire, and a hybrid line that no one else possesses at this level of maturity. The Mirage-T3 and the Phantom-T4, in service since 1989 and of unequalled range, are engaged. But saturation jamming and anti-radiation missiles locate the Phantom sites as soon as they emit and destroy them before they can fire. Only the Mirage-ST4 comes out of the conflict without serious reproach. The lessons of the Gulf open the programme for the Duo air defence, in service in 1995; the 3 lines are then gradually dismantled.

Battle of the Karun

The largest armoured engagements since 1945. American air superiority inflicts considerable losses, but the front stabilises on the Karun river. No coalition breakthrough succeeds.

Strike on the USS Nimitz

Supersonic sea-skimming V4 anti-ship missiles hit the carrier. It is the first time a ship of this class has been hit in operations.

Enterprise group

V4s launched from the Khorosan penetrate the American defences. 2 destroyers are sunk, several 100 sailors killed. The American air response is massive.

Atlantic submarine war

Eldorian submarines decimate the logistics convoys near Bermuda. A paralysing fuel shortage hits the coalition forces from the end of March — it is this that decides the outcome.

Ceasefire and withdrawal

French-Russian mediation. The United States begins a withdrawal that will take 9 months. National GDP contracts by 4% — the only economic decline in 8 decades.

Treaty ending the conflict

Signature of the final text. Kuwait remains Eldorian, the 1941 border is confirmed. It is the deadliest direct confrontation in modern Eldorian history.

What made the difference

  • The lock on the straits. With Suez, Hormuz and Gibraltar closed, every coalition reinforcement must go round Africa — where the submarines are waiting.
  • Saturation. A carrier does not fall to a single missile: the supersonic sea-skimming V4s arrive in salvoes of dozens, fired simultaneously by aircraft and submarines.
  • A defensive war. 600,000 men and 2,000 Varennes on positions prepared since August 1990, between Kuwait and Mafraq.
  • Time. In 25 months, the coalition wears itself out, the USSR disappears and the world context shifts under its feet.

The price paid

  • ~25,000 dead: the longest and deadliest conflict since 1945.
  • Kuwait is retained but not recognised; the question will return in 2003.
  • American sanctions until 2004, and the total break of 1995.

Mediterranean War

Decisive victory

The operations on the map, phase by phase →

Duration
6 months
Adversary
United States
Losses
~900 Eldorians killed
Captured
40 ships, 12,000 prisoners
Result
Doctrine of the Eastern Belt

Prior rupture

Eldoria cuts all diplomatic relations and declares the United States a “non-recognised State”. At the UN, its delegates communicate only through written notes.

Closure of Hormuz

The Gulf is declared a controlled zone. An American destroyer attempting the passage is turned back. A significant economic contraction in the United States.

Sinking of the USS Ramage

The destroyer sinks near Crete. In retaliation, the United States strikes Alexandretta, the port of the 2nd Fleet. Eldoria hits back: Souda Bay is paralysed by V4 missiles.

Strangulation

The submarine war cuts the supply lines. Suez and Gibraltar are closed simultaneously. The Sixth Fleet finds itself trapped in a closed basin.

Surrender of the Sixth Fleet

40 ships captured, 12 000 prisoners interned in Cape Verde. The radar technologies recovered are so sensitive that the United States hastily renames its systems.

Oil crisis and compensation cheques

The American blockade sends oil prices soaring. Eldoria reopens the straits to trade, pays a million Marks to each affected country and authorises the UN to inspect the detention of the prisoners.

Geneva Accords

The prisoners are freed for 850,000 Marks per man. The Doctrine of the Eastern Belt is made official: no foreign navy may any longer operate in the eastern Mediterranean, the Indian Ocean or the Gulf without notification.

What made the difference

  • A closed sea. Eldoria holds Suez, Gibraltar, Cyprus, Alexandretta and Minorca: once the 2 gates are shut, the Sixth Fleet can neither be reinforced nor leave.
  • Logistical hunger. The submarine war cuts off supplies; without fuel or ammunition, a fleet is nothing but a target.
  • A surrender rather than a battle. Washington prefers 40 ships captured to 40 ships sunk.

The price paid

  • ~900 dead.
  • A world oil crisis, which Eldoria has to calm by reopening the straits and compensating the affected countries.
  • The image of a State that plays with the nuclear threshold: Europe condemns, and the prisoners return only after the 1997 Geneva Accords.

Syrian War

Limited victory

The operations on the map, phase by phase →

Duration
~8 months
Adversary
Syrian Arab Republic
Losses
~450 Eldorians killed
Objective
Stop the fire on the border
Result
Ceasefire, Syrian artillery pushed back

The fire draws closer

Eldoria fortifies the border and answers with occasional strikes. In February 2014, it warns Moscow: if Eldorian territory is hit, the confrontation will be on another scale. Russia replies that it can guarantee nothing.

Declaration of war

Eldoria notifies the UN that it is entering the war. The Secretary-General calls for restraint and refers the matter to the Security Council, where Eldoria sits with a veto.

Border campaign

Air and artillery strikes against the Syrian batteries and depots along the border, with no advance beyond a security strip. The Iron Reprisals campaign against Daesh runs in parallel.

Ceasefire

Under Russian mediation, Damascus withdraws its artillery out of range of the border. Eldoria claims no territory.

What made the difference

  • An exhausted adversary. The Syrian army has been fighting on several fronts at once since 2011.
  • Moscow does not intervene. Russia had warned that it would not guarantee Damascus and refuses a regional escalation.
  • Limited objectives. Silence the artillery near the border, without occupying the country or targeting Damascus.

The price paid

  • ~450 dead, at the same time as the campaign against Daesh.
  • Criticism at the UN and from the High Commissioner for Human Rights.
  • Migratory pressure on the border, which Eldoria chooses to contain rather than to take in.
V

Crises without war

Cuban Missile Crisis — 1962

Eldoria plays an unexpected role as mediator. It makes clear to both superpowers that it controls the former Turkish territories where American Jupiter missiles were planned — defusing one of the central Soviet grievances. Its V3 ICBM had entered service 3 months earlier.

Yom Kippur War — 1973

Strict neutrality, but humanitarian aid to the encircled Egyptian Third Army. Eldoria joins the Arab oil embargo while exempting its OTMN partners, Japan and South Korea — turning a regional crisis into an instrument of commercial loyalty.

Hormuz incident — 1976

Soviet submarines are intercepted in the strait in . A brief blockade, a limited naval skirmish, no major losses. Moscow accepts a mandatory notification protocol for any military transit, a principle later extended to Malacca and the Sunda Strait.

Operation Rampart — Afghanistan, 1980-1983

After the Soviet invasion of December 1979, gunfire and armed groups cross the eastern border of the Khorosan. In early , Eldoria launches a lightning operation and sets up a security strip on the Afghan side, without any large-scale clash with the Red Army. Moscow lets it happen as long as the strip stays limited. Only one serious clash takes place, in September in the Hari Rud valley: a few dead on each side, immediately hushed up by both capitals. In June, Eldoria offers the United States a right of passage to Afghanistan, which goes unanswered. The withdrawal, negotiated in , is among the concessions that secure Resolution 5281.

Intimidation at the Galápagos — 1996-1997

Washington sees the Eldorian base in the Galápagos as a threat in its own hemisphere. For several months, American aircraft make repeated aggressive approaches to the archipelago's air perimeter, without ever attacking it. Eldoria answers with warning shots; the approaches gradually stop.

Syrian border — 2013

The collapse of the Syrian State gives rise to a direct threat to the provinces acquired in 1940. Eldoria carries out strikes against the Syrian artillery and Al-Qaeda positions on the border, without ground engagement or declaration of war. The Horizon 2025 strategic plan is launched in its wake.

The episode reveals a new difficulty: the adversary is no longer a State, and the blockade doctrine has no hold on it.

Iron Reprisals — 2015

A large-scale air campaign against Daesh, launched after the execution of a Japanese journalist. The first joint military exercises with the OTMN partners. Production of the SB-30 Phantom bomber is accelerated.

VI

War doctrine

Never commit the mass

After 1943, no Eldorian war has rested on large-scale land manoeuvre — with the exception of the Gulf, which was also the costliest. The dominant pattern lies elsewhere: close a strait, cut a supply line, wait.

In 1956, the oil embargo decides the crisis in 6 weeks. In 1958, it is not combat but isolation that makes 5 000 Marines surrender. In 1996, the Sixth Fleet surrenders without a pitched battle, caught between 2 closed straits.

The trigger is always the adversary's

Since 1941, Eldoria has never again been the first to open hostilities. London, Paris and Tel Aviv invade the Sinai in 1956, the Marines land in Beirut in 1958, Israel strikes Montclarin in 1981, the coalition enters Kuwait in 1991, the USS Ramage shadows the Eldorian fleet until contact in 1996, and the Syrian artillery fires on the border in 2015. Each time, the response had been prepared long in advance, but the first blow comes from the other side.

This regularity is too constant to be accidental. It makes up half of the doctrine: the legitimacy of the response is worth as much as its power.

What victories cost

No war won has come for free. 1958 is paid for with a debt to Moscow and an American resentment that will feed all the following wars. 1982 is paid for with the transfer of the Israeli territories and the signature of a long-refused non-proliferation treaty. 1992 is paid for with 25 000 dead and the only recession in the country's modern history.

It is perhaps the most explicit lesson of the Eldorian military archives: the country has never lost a war, and has never won one without paying the price elsewhere.