Battle of Picton's Ridge

The **Battle of Picton's Ridge** was one of the many battles fought during the Westward Offensives near the northern border of Khabarovsk Krai. (Now State of Khabarovsk) as the title states, the Battle of Picton's Ridge was fought on an unnamed ridge apart of the Dzhugdzhur Mountains. Ironically the battle saw the Chemgotan Ground Force launch an assault through the Ridge to take the Eastern face of the Dzhugdzhur Mountains, leading to a costly engagement for both Russia and Chemgota.

## Overview

Prior to the start of the Battle of Picton's Ridge, the situation for Russia's war effort and ability to launch effective counter operations was struggling and lagging behind it's estimates as the Russian military kept finding itself be humiliated by Chemgotan forces and they were repelled through various offensives and assaults launched by the Chemgotan Defence Force which pushed towards seizing control over Yakutia and Khabarovsk once the Eastern Front of the War of Independence was over as Chemgotan forces in Magadan, Chukotka and Kamchatka linked and gathered their strength to continue westward to reach the Lena River. During the Westward Offensives, Divisions from the Chemgotan Ground Force along with being supported with Partisan and Militia assets launched various pincer assaults towards Khabarovsk Krai to reach Chumikan, Chemgotan forces and fundamentally throughout the duration of the conflict utilised strategies and tactics in aspect of irregular warfare and defence in depth to conceal the movement of their forces along with being unpredictable and launching various surprise shock attacks against Russian formations, heavily demoralising them and disorganising them as their units became isolated in many engagements or were devastated by Chemgotan forces, although, some battles were lost by Chemgota, the Chemgotan forces fighting at the now well known and famous Picton's Ridge managed to defeat Russian defenders attempting to employ and perfect the use of Chemgotan defensive strategy against the Chemgotan attackers. But ultimately, with poor coordination along with the Russian troops being malnutrition and heavily demoralised, the Chemgotan forces won the battle by using Fabian type tactics which wore down and beared the Russian defenders heavily and were assisted with firepower, mostly deployable mortars and light to medium howitzers and air assets provided by fighter squadrons nearby of the Chemgotan Air Force. Thus the brutal battle over the ridge was concluded in Chemgotan victory, although 4,000 Chemgotans were killed in their assault and only 6,000 out of 14,000 Russian soldiers were killed, many either surrendering or fleeing from the area into the nearby wilderness.

The battle's importance showed that Russian attempts to outflank Chemgotan forces furthermore was highly unrealistic and impossible to initiate as the war began to drag on in favour for the Chemgotan forces, as the ridge and the surrounding mountains were secured, this gave the Chemgotans the opportunity to use the Dzhugdzhur Mountains as a defensive advantage as it proved to be a natural barrier which the Chemgotans exploited and continued to repel Russian advances and efforts to breakthrough Chemgotan positions.