Operation Wosáwa-Aihjól

Operation Wosáwa-Aihjól (also "Wosawa-Aijol", "Wosáihjol" and "Wosaihol", Kawésqar/Old West Patagonian for "Children of the Rat") is a military operation carried out by Patagonian Rebels and allies against Frankish forces and allied forces in Western Patagonia starting April 19th 2066.

Name
The operation is named after a mythical hero of the Kawésqar people that inhabited he Patagonian Canals until the XIXth century. The Mouse, or Rat, was a man with the hability to become a mouse that was left orphaned after the Sae´nam, a Kawesqar tribe of the north, killed his father and abducted his mather, nevertheless surviving himself in an island and becoming an able hunter, fisher and warrior. He successfully fights back as a youth the Sae´nam tribesmen who arrive to kill him, using both his wits and his strenght, as well for his supernatural ability.

The Patagonians sought in the figure of a hero fighting a guerilla warfare of vengeance and survival against his mortal enemies a representation of their own struggle.

Background
For months the western flank of the Patagonian Front of the War had been at a stalemate. With the capture of Diego Kuvic by Frankish forces in Puerto Carrera the advances were left unorganized and all gains were quickly lost. The rebels were unable to coordinate any advance on the Lake General Carrera as the Frankish forces and allies amassed in the southern shore. Unable to use the Ice Fields themselves as outflanking options, the Patagonians had to prepare a new startegy. The capture of Puerto Carrera, while moraly important, is secondary in terms of objectives, and cutting off the city and its northern, and older, extention Coihayque becomes more important to smash the Frankish line once depleted from supplies and reinforcements. While undergunned in naval grounds, the Patagonians had been able thus far to keep control of the Canals, with superior knowledge and better use of strategies adapted for such warfare.

Development
Carlos Zamora takes over the West Patagonian front in March 15th, and immediately changes the strategy from Kuvic´s ice-fields-centered strategy of counter-flanking, rellying on the Ice Guard veterans, to a more naval strategy, urging the troops to capture key strongholds in the canals. On April 1st he probed the Imperial defenses in Puerto Rembrandt, but they proved too strong. The Ice Veterans were able to capture Puerto Bonito, located near the eaxit of the Huemules River in the southernmost part of the Moraleda Canal, north of Puerto Rembrandt, but the outflankish maneuvre would have to rely of supplies sailing off the Taitao Peninsula, which was captured two days later. The Frankish naval operations in the area were disrupted.

The Frankish command didn´t reacted accordingly, and Zamora successfully set two footholds in the canals north of the Taitao by April 10th. With the final aproval by the Patagonian Rebel Comittee on the 11th, Zamora began clearing airfields and campsites in Melinka and Isla Cuptana, on the western margins of the Moraleda Canal, that runs from north to south and divides the Patagonian Canals and islands in the entire area.

Landing Operations in Puyuhuapi
At 1 a.m. of the 18th, Rebel troops, mainly made by Aberolian guerrilla fighters, sail from Melinka, the northernmost edge of the Canal, and land in the town of Melimoyu five hours later, taking the landing strip there and quickly establishing a supply line. They start to advance early that day towards Puyuhuapi, a town controlling the northern access to the Queulat Passage that divides the uneven territory north of Puerto Carrera and the ample valleys that dominate the landscape to Chaitén to the north. A column takes over the Rosselot Bridge 40kms north of the town, cutting off any access for vehicles, and a main column engages with the local garrison on April 19th at 5pm. At 23:40 of that day a force of two hundred fighters coming from Isla Cuptana crosses the Jacaf Canal and lands on the eastern margin of the Puyuhuapi Canal, south of the town. As soon the local garrison knew it was surrounded and cut off from any aid, it laid down its weapons, having lost 12 men in the engagement. By dawn of the next day forces of that expedition had secured the Queulat Passage, cutting off Puerto Cisnes from any aid. At the same time the Frankish Air Force begun bombing the area, the civilian population was evacuated and serfs and slaves in the area were set free.

Landing in Puerto Cisnes
Forces from Cuptana, 750 in total, captured the Frankish base and slave camp of Pangal, where people were forced to mine coal and copper off the slopes of Mt. Mentolat. No casualties were reported as the garrison quickly dropped its weapons, overwhelmed by the coming rebels and the uprising slaves, however a number of slave-warriors were killed as the rebels arrived, as they were irrevocably programed to resist.

Three hours later, at 4am of the 19th, the force captured Puerto Gaviota, and entered the Puyuhuapi Canal by the south. At 11am the boats were sighted by the garrison of Puerto Cisnes, starting the first real engagement. As the transport ships came under fire from small artillery placed on the hills, rebel helicopters mounted rocket bombardment operations that disrupted the artillery, allowing the ships to land their troops. Through the day the rebels managed to take the central square and most of the southern district of the town, but where unable to invade the northern portion of the settlement, as the Franks kept the Saavedra River and both bridges through it. At 5am of the 20th gunfire was reported in the school, just past the Frankish lines, but it was not aimed at the rebel lines.

On April 21st the Patagonians started an advance on the swampland east of the town, finding a number of slave camps of small size, and engaging frankish and allied troops in the forests. The Franks had brought armoured vehicles, and started to open fire on the southern district of the town.

That evening rebel forces start pushing on the northern district of the town. The Frankish elements holding the central squares pull back, fortifying themselves in the upper northern edge of the city. As Patagonian troops arrive to the school they find, and quickly report, the bodies of people executed by the Franks, up to a thousand civilians, some of there with slave brands and implants. Three dozen people are found alive, but badly wounded, and a quarter die hours later before being evacuated to Melinka. The uproar caused by the massacre gives the Patagonians new motives to keep pushing, and by the noon of the 22th they manage to liberate the last areas of the town, capturing the Frankish soldiers. About eighty of the captives are executed in various ways.

Following the complete fall of Puerto Cisnes, the troops, led now by Fernando de la Haya, push through the road and reach the entrance to the highway at nightfall, joining with the Puyuhuapi forces in Piedra de Gato. Frankish remnants that flee the Queulat passage take shelter in the Colmillos del Elefante mountain, east of Piedra del Gato.

Puerto Aysén
Led by Carlos Zamora, the landing on Puerto Chacabuco in April 20th was met with armoured vehicles and missile fire, but a lack of air defences. Patagonian rebel forces bombed Puerto Aysen from above while the battle raged on Puerto Chacabuco, some miles south-west. The Frankish airforce responded late, and was kept east of Aysén. Patagonian troops managed to defeat Chimera corps at enter Aysén in April 22nd, although the battle in the city itself raged for days. It was fully surrounded in April 25th. Columns of Patagonians, of the main army in the operation, advanced in all directions. South of Puerto Chacabuco a force of 800 fighters secured the Quitralco Fjord, and split in two, advancing southwards to the Huemules River and eastwards through the high passages south of Aysén, cutting off the city from daring reinforcements from the south. Once surrounding the city, forces departed from Puerto Aysén towards the east, to Mañihuales, to Coyhaique, and southeast, through the mountain passages, to Balmaceda.

By the time Puerto Aysén was cleared from Frankish troops, evacuated after a ceasefire in the area in April 30th, an attack on Villa Mañihuales was made by the 6th Batallion of Aberolian Volunteers, seizing it by May 10th.

Outcome
The operation was officially over in May 15th, after an attempt to push into the Pampa from Puyuhuapi failed, however managing to contest a wide area of it in guerrilla raids.

The main objectives were gained; Puerto Aysén, Puyuhuapi and Puerto Cisnes as the main coastal settlements in Western Patagonia north of Puerto Carrera offered now an easy access to the northern flank of the former Patagonian capital. However, failure to capture M