1973-1974 Joyea-Panama Naval Engagements WIP

The Joyea-Panama Naval Engagements of 1973-1974, also known as the Joyea-Panama Naval War were a series of naval engagements between the Peoples Republic of Joyea and Panama.

Background

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On October 3rd 1973 a Joyean cargo ship carrying various ores headed to Guatemala was sunk by multiple torpedoes. A Joyean investigation was launched but on the 5th the Panamanian government claimed responsibility for the attack. Tensions had been rising between the two nations for months and after this a Joyean task force was assembled (Task Force 3785). The reasoning behind the task forces large size was so that in the event of a full scale invasion, the Joyean forces would already have naval superiority.

Attacks

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The first Joyean Ships to be assembled for the Joyean offensive were the JNS Chen (Arnold E. Cunningham class aircraft carrier), JNS Sverdlov (Sverdlov class cruiser), JNS Blackwater (Flower class corvette), JNS Blitzkrieg (Tsaplin class frigate). The JNS Sverdlov held the first 130 Maritime Infantryman out of the 200 that were deployed (originally 5000 were going to be deployed but only 2 ships ever received the naval infantry). The other 70 were carried on the JNS Chen. The first assault by Joyean forces was done by 2 CBF-183 carrier borne combat aircraft that fired a total of 4 missiles at a Panamanian coastal patrol boat on October 9th. On the 10th a single A-4 sunk a Panamanian landing craft. The Joyean and Panamanian navies continued to intercept and attack the opposing sides naval vessels. Ost of these attacks were small and generally only damaged the vessels instead of sinking them. On the 29th of November the largest of these Naval engagements began a single Frigate along with about 45 to 50 additional smaller vessels of the Panamanian Navy began an attack on a group of Joyean vessels consisting of 3 Tsaplin class frigates, 8 Kronshtadt class submarine chasers, 1 Dubell class escort carrier, and 3 PAR-63 class patrol boats. The Panamanian Frigate fired its main guns at one of the submarine chasers and before it had time to begin attacking the enemy vessel it had begun sinking. Then it began firing all of its weapons at one of the Tsaplin class frigates severely damaging it the escort carrier frantically scrambled as many aircraft as possible while the smaller Panamanian vessels moved in. Seven of the 30 aircraft being carried were in the sky after about 45 minutes. The aircraft began attacking the smaller vessels while the Panamanian frigate bagan firing on the carrier itself. 2 of the Joyean aircraft dropped bombs on the Panamanian frigate causing extensive damage. The Panamanian forces began retreating and the Joyean ships waited for the JNS Sverdlov to arrive. After the Sverdlov arrived the Joyean government decided to ask the Panamanian government for a 3 day ceasefire. The Panamanian government agreed to it and on the 30th of November no hostilities were carried out until the 2nd of December. During this time the Joyean cabinet had begun discussing peace talks with the Panamanian government. The debate of beginning peace talks continued up until the 16th of January, 1974. After the ceasefire the combat engagements were smaller and usually resulted in both sides just retreating. These continued until a meeting was arranged on the 19th of January to discuss a ceasefire. Joyean leader Zhuang Chen arrived in Panama City on the 18th of January and the meeting began at about 8 AM on the 19th where it was agreed upon that Panama would not carry out any assault on Joyean vessels military or civilian and all Joyean naval forces would leave the Gulf of Panama.

Anti-War Protests

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On October 12th the Joyean State News Service informed the Joyean public that:
"A conflict between the Peoples Republic of Joyea and Republic of Panama has begun, so far the conflict is only based on the sea, in the Gulf of Panama. If necessary the Revolutionary-Military Council and Nationalist Party will authorize a ground invasion of Panama if hostilities do not cease soon."
Three days later on the 15th students at the University of Ambarino, University of Norivgrad, and Joyea City University and Center for Advanced Learning began protesting the action stating that the Joyean response was way to large for such a small incident and they demanded that the military remove at least 90% of its forces from the area immediately. The protests were ignored for about 3 weeks until riots broke out on Joyea City University and Center for Advanced Learning. After the first riots broke out the protests spilled into the streets of Joyea City and initially were peaceful. Nationalist Party counter protesters showed up in Joyea City and then massive riots began in Joyea City the police were unable to separate the protesters as the counter protesters did not notify the Joyea City Department of Police and Justice. After some time the Anti-War demonstrators pushed the Nationalist Party counter protesters back and dispersed them. The Joyean Federal Police Department was called in to disperse the anti-war protesters. When the Federal Police began attemptingto disperse the protesters all out war erupted in the streets of Joyea City. At all of the other locations of these protests a majority of them were peaceful and remained on or near college campuses. After 1 week and 3 days in Joyea City Martial law was declared in the city and Joyean Army personnel began dispering the demonstrations using deadly force if necessary. In all of the other locations of the demonstrations the federal police dispersed them even if they were peaceful.

Aftermath

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Joyea-Panama relations never really improved and are still fairly volatile. Even today the Joyean government still is ready to invade Panama. During the 1989 invasion the Joyean Military aided the US with 1000 troops. Some very small engagements did occur but they were rare.

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