The Janast-Combin Wars: 1948-1958 (Full Text)

Type: Narrative — Canon History (Full Text) Status: Canon (confirmed by creator) — full text preserved per archival standard

See Perold Jonas and World War 3: Full Detailed Timeline for the eventual 1973-1976 war this precedes. This page covers four entirely previously-undocumented prior wars between Janast and its ancient island-sharing rival, Combin — the conflicts that built Jonas's legendary reputation before WW3.

The 1948 War: Jonas's First Command

Combinese forces launch a surprise invasion, first striking a small military installation commanded by the newly-appointed Major Perold Jonas. Outnumbered and outgunned, Jonas defies his superiors' advice to surrender: a daring midnight raid shatters Combin's supply lines; a second raid destroys a captured airfield being used for reinforcements. A grueling forest battle ends at dusk with the exhausted Combinese commander surrendering to Jonas.

Reassigned to command a brigade in the north, Jonas introduces his signature tactical innovation: splitting forces into a "Hunting Party" (fast-striking, mobile pursuit) and an "Anchor" (fortified, blocks escape routes). Combinese forces, caught between the two repeatedly, withdraw in confusion each time. Jonas then leads a counteroffensive across the border, advancing to within 20 miles of Combin's capital before Combin calls for a ceasefire. This victory establishes the "Hunting Party and Anchor" strategy, later studied at Durin College of War.

The 1952 War: The Pincer and the Trap

Combin strikes again using blitzkrieg tactics they'd studied since the last war. Colonel Jonas, commanding light cavalry hundreds of miles away, arrives late — his commanding officer engages the invaders head-on first. Jonas then executes a sweeping pincer maneuver behind enemy lines, trapping thousands of Combinese troops and dozens of tanks. The retreat was itself a trap: as Combinese forces cautiously re-advance, Jonas's commander serves as the "anchor" while Jonas's "hunting party" lies in wait, closing the trap when the enemy tries to flee north. A separate 30,000-strong Combinese force, penetrating deep with little resistance, discovers too late that Jonas has crossed into Combin behind them — trapped in enemy territory, Combin requests another ceasefire.

The 1955 War: The Shield and the Javelin

A fishing rights dispute escalates toward war. Now a General commanding a highlands army, Jonas divides forces into the "Shield" (a larger defensive force meeting the main Combinese assault head-on) and the "Javelin" (a small, fast strike force sent north with the order: "Strike fast, strike deep, strike hard."). At 4:30 AM, Combinese forces launch a larger-than-expected winter invasion; Jonas's Shield absorbs the assault while the Javelin drives directly toward Combin's undefended capital — reaching striking distance within three days. Combin surrenders, this time forced to disband thousands of troops and surrender military equipment.

The 1956-1958 "Cold War": Subversion and the Northern Strike

A new, humiliated Combinese government turns to subtler warfare: inciting civilian border clashes and infiltrating Janastian universities with agitators promoting unrest (Jonas adapts by deploying troops to restore order on campuses). Combin then crosses a frozen strait into neighboring Fainbrotair; Jonas reinforces the strait. The real strike comes through supposedly-impassable dense forest along the central border — but Jonas, expecting the unexpected, has already prepared: a daring amphibious/air assault launches from Janastian troops positioned far out on the frozen ocean surface, striking Combin's barren north with nothing standing between them and the Combinese heartland. As 1958 dawns, Combin withdraws from both Janast and Fainbrotair; this war ends with remarkably little bloodshed on either side.

Jonas's First Presidency (1958-1964)

Following the war's end (January 2), Jonas is promoted to Military Commander of the entire Janastian military — army, navy, and air force combined, a position historically reserved for naval officers. Political "kingmakers" press him to run for office; he reluctantly agrees. In 1960, Jonas wins the presidency of Janast in a landslide, campaigning on slogans like "The Shield and the Sword of Janast."

The Peace Progressive Infiltration and Jonas's First Defeat

As president, Jonas faces a new, subtler Combinese strategy: intelligence operatives encourage Janastian students toward peaceful protest rather than violence (avoiding armed crackdown), spreading disinformation that Janast's own military strength had provoked Combin's wars. This forms the "Peace Progressive" party, calling for a 2/3 dismantling of Janast's military. Jonas recognizes the disinformation but is powerless against it, since the operatives stay within the letter of the law. In 1964, a Peace Progressive candidate wins by a narrow margin — Jonas's first political defeat. Over the next 4 years, Janast's military shrinks by nearly 60%.

Jonas's Second Presidency and the Founding of the Warhawks (1968)

In 1968, Jonas is re-elected with a mandate to rebuild the military. His first act: establishing the Janastian Warhawks — a covert military organization answerable only to the Constitution, not to any specific military or political commander.

Jekaranda-du

Exploratory teams discover a vast network of underwater volcanic caverns beneath Janast's islands — some tunnels a mile wide, running for a hundred miles or more, interconnecting under the entire island chain. At the network's heart lies a massive cavern beneath southern Janast, extending miles out to sea, accessible only by submarine. Jonas establishes this as Jekaranda-du, the Warhawks' capital and primary training center. Here the Warhawks stockpile aircraft, ships, submarines, supplies, ordnance, and 300 nuclear-tipped missiles.

The Bureaucratic Strangulation (1968-1972)

Despite Jonas's re-election, Peace Progressive members entrenched throughout the bureaucracy block every attempt to formally rebuild the military — proposals tabled, buried in "oversight," delayed procedurally. Meanwhile, Combin — for whom "the last war never truly ended" — undertakes an 8-year military buildup: millions of troops, thousands of tanks and aircraft, extensive missile and artillery stocks. Jonas's second and constitutionally final term ends in June 1972, another Peace Progressive president replacing him. Jonas disappears from public view to Jekaranda-du, dedicating himself to training the now 30,000-strong Warhawks.

Christmas Eve, 1973: The Invasion

On December 25, 1973, Combin invades Janast with millions of troops. Janast's regular military — hollowed out by years of Peace Progressive policy — collapses within two weeks. Fainbrotair, technically neutral, abandons that neutrality to join Combin, launching air raids and opening a second front. The Janastian Warhawks — still not fully combat-ready — become the nation's last line of defense, fighting a desperate, three-year holding action: sabotage of supply lines, amphibious harassment strikes, airborne raids on high-value targets, all while vastly outnumbered.

Early 1976: The Coiled Snake

By early 1976, Combin begins withdrawing its occupying troops from Janast — not to retreat, but to reposition them in untouched Fainbrotair, alongside the Combinese air force and navy, with fresh reinforcements pouring in. Intelligence confirms Jonas's fears: Combin intends to use Fainbrotair's untouched airfields, highways, and ports as a springboard to conquer the entire remaining island chain, not just neighboring islands.

By this point, the once 30,000-strong Warhawks have been reduced to just 600 fighters — guerrillas holed up in mountain caves along Janast's eastern border, unable to retreat to Jekaranda-du. Combin's military presence in Fainbrotair has swollen to over 6 million troops — two-thirds of Combin's entire military — "the Combinese snake coiled, ready to strike."

Jonas's Decision

✅ This directly sets up the decision documented elsewhere in the archive — see Perold Jonas's page for the flagged retcon/fog-of-history conflict over whether Jonas ultimately launched a nuclear strike against the massed Combinese forces in Fainbrotair. In this source, Jonas is shown weighing the decision explicitly against his memory of WW1 — where he was powerless to prevent millions of deaths despite having some influence — reflecting that this time, he possesses both the means (nuclear weapons) and, for the first time, the authority to act (unlike his earlier powerlessness in Peplle). The question the narrative poses directly: does he have the will?

Appearances

• Creator-provided detail (ChatGPT export, "Continent Topography and Climate" — see RAW SOURCE, conversations-001.json #19)

Open Questions

• The actual decision and its immediate aftermath are not resolved in this specific extracted section — see the broader WW3 material and the flagged fog-of-history discrepancy on Jonas's page for how this connects to already-documented (and disputed) later accounts