Later when defence analysts around the world looked at Operation Winter Lion many would agree they were initially shocked. Very few would admit that they had expected Hutori to be able to launch such an overwhelming strike of this magnitude; even fewer would think it possible against the Trigunian Bear. Davostan or even Telamon maybe, but Trigunia, never. Upon closer examination of the Hutorian strategy, tactical doctrine, and almost godlike logistical might, however, it became apparent that this clearly had been planned for a long time, and Hutori had truly been waiting for this moment to take it.
After the initial air strikes, the cruise missiles had impacted their targets further reducing the Trigunian air picture entirely to what few aircraft may have been up in the air at the time and whatever mobile ground stations Trigunia would have had in the west; a patchy picture at best. It was now that the main air assault began as the 3rd and 4th Fighter Wings entered into Trigunian airspace. The HF-35A Blizzard and HF-20 Hurricanes blitzed the Trigunian airfields and bases they had known about crippling what response could have been brought against them, and finishing off any ground stations, completely blinding the trigunians and giving the Hutorians unfettered air supremacy over western Radin and Brakav.
Following the overwhelming and crippling air assault General Harrison Ford, the overall commander of Operation Winter Lion and all Hutorian forces in Trigunia, had sent in the Marines. The 1st and 2nd Marine Division, further divided into the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th Marine Brigades, had began their initial ground assault against Radin. The Air Force and Navy had done their job and done it extraordinarily well; all resistance that could have been offered had been entirely wiped from existence as the first Marine boots had touched the ground. From their beachhead 3 of the Marine Brigades, 1st, 3rd and 4th, had began pushing northeast towards Rodshyadam while the 2nd had remained behind to secure their beachhead.
The battle for Rodshyadam should have been pitched, it should have been difficult, but Trigunia had truly not expected the Hutorians to be able to land and assault in such force, or understood just how much they were willing to put into this. What little organized ground resistance had been possible had been pushed aside from a combined Air Assault from the 3rd Fighter Wing, and the 3rd Carrier Air Wing, as air, artillery and missile strikes had softened up Trigunia's most southwestern city up so much that the Marines had to more or less simply push in and take it; shock and awe had crippled resistance. After that the second wave began arriving; the 1st, 4th and 5th Armoured Divisions and the 1st, 8th and 10th Mechanized Infantry Divisions, along with the overall ground commander for the Hutorian operation on the Trigunian mainland, Lieutenant General Justin Bishop. Coming from a long military pedigree family, Lieutenant General Bishop was an arrogant man who believed in his own superiority and meteoric rise to prominence... which was ultimately backed up with a naturally keen military mind.
On Brakav with air supremacy established the 9th Airborne Division had been parachuted into Malchik in three separate groups. The 21st Parachute Infantry Regiment captured the port facilities as the 6th Air Cavalry and 22nd Air Assault Regiments had captured Malchik International Airport. With that done the 9th Air Mobility Wing was able to start landing in overwhelming force, beginning with the airlifting in of the 4th Mechanized Infantry Division. Together these forces had captured the rest of the city with minimal difficulty, able to overwhelm what little resistance the Imperial Police and GBD's Southwestern Division was able to offer to the hardened Hutori Airborne troopers and their mechanized brothers. With Malchik entirely under their control the 2nd Armoured Division had arrived along with the Brakav ground commander; Major General Steven Woodbury, commander of the 9th Airborne Division and considered one of the most brash and aggressive commanders in the Hutorian Army. Many claimed that the man would have done just as much driving a tank as jumping out of aircraft and it was happenstance that had lead him in command of the 9th rather then one of Hutori's armoured formations. While mildly peeved he hadn't been given a position for the main assault on Radin, the fact he avoided being a subordinate to his long time rival General Bishop, had meant he wouldn't have to take an order from a man he couldn't stand on the best of days... and he could call the shots for Brakav.
What followed for the next several weeks would further convince the analysts who studied the conflict that not only did Trigunia underestimate the Hutorians; so did most of the world.
With their initial objectives secure Hutori had brought to bare their expansive and long prepared logistical might as Rodshyadam and Malchik turned into logistical hubs, allowing the Hutorians to transport in everything they needed and allowed General Ross to further organize his troops. 1st Armoured and 1st Mechanized Infantry Divisions were combined into I Corps, 8th Mechanized and 4th Armoured were organized into II Corps, 5th Armoured and 10th Mechanized into III Corps, while 1st and 2nd Marine Division were pushed into I Marine Corps. I and II Corps were further organized into the Hutorian First Army and III Corps and I Marine Corps became the Hutorian Second Army. The forces on Brakav were universally organized into the Hutorian Third Army, which were all organized universally under the Hutorian Army Group North. Malchik International Airport and any Trigunian Air Stations around western Brakav came under Hutorian Air Force command and control and were used as a staging ground for the Hutorian Trigunian Expeditionary Air Group, in effective all Hutorian Air Force that would be fighting in Trigunia. Meanwhile off the coast the Northern Operations Fleet perform the dual task of keeping up the Hutorian supply chain from Port Prosperity to Malchik and Rodshyadam and enforcing the Hutorian blockade over Trigunia's west coast. By the time the Trigunian counter offensive was ready and launched, Hutori had been ready.
Third Army on Brakav had to barely do anything, the 10,000 troops capable of launching it came under a withering air offensive from marauding HF-19 Twister ECRs, HF-20 Hurricanes and HF-35B Hailstorms, destroying vehicles, artillery and any organized troops formations before a knockout blow came from a general counter offensive launched by the Leopard 2H6Es of the 2nd Armoured Division's 3rd Armoured Regiment. With their general rout, Third Army had launched a series of thrusts clear across the island, capturing land, bases and towns as they went with seemingly little difficulty or resistance. Most of Trigunia's industrial base was quickly captured and a noose wrapped around Brakav's three eastern cities. 2nd Armoured Division was handling the assault against Kommenovsk, 9th Airborne Division against Nozdok in the centre while the 4th Mechanized Infantry Division was tackling Tirvoslavl in the north. The last true organized resistance on Brakav had been made here, and the 4th didn't want to tackle the north port without serious assistance so instead they sat back and hammered the port with artillery, cruise missiles and air strikes until it finally surrendered, ensuring an ongoing siege.
On the mainland General Bishop's First Army was "given" the honour of the primary thrust north, towards the vaunted city of Heinrichgrad. This was of particular importance to General Bishop; if it made it back to Bekenial that he had captured Trigunia's most important city in the west, being the former capital of Trigunia, its largest city, and named after a former Hutorian King, it would skyrocket his own career and that of his family's name for decades to come. By chance however this was also the primary axis that the Trigunians had decided to launch their counter-stroke, the 2nd and 3rd Expeditionary Corps and the 8th and 9th Naval Infantry Corps had pushed southwest from Heinrichgrad and had even gotten close before General Bishop had launched his trap. Holding in the centre with his II Corps, they created a ad-hoc defensive line north of Rodshyadam which the Trigunians smashed into. While the Expeditionary Corps made some limited gains along the coast Genera Bishop sprung the trap; while II Corps had been holding them in the centre I Corps had been sent off the west in a long flanking action and now the 1st Armoured Division was smashing into the Trigunia's right flank, forcing the Trigunians to pull forces from their primary thrust to protect their flank. Combined with a general counter attack with cover again from Cruise missiles from the Fleet off the coast and airstrikes from the marauding Air Force further weakening it the Trigunians attempting to hold back the Hutorian First Army.
While this was going on, further to the west General Max Torrance's Second Army was unleashed for a massive blitz north towards Morozorota. With almost all of the Trigunia's effort focused defending Heinrichgrad Second Army was able to advance almost entirely unimpeded across the Radin steppe coming within a few dozen kilometres of Trigunia's most northwestern city; already artillery pounded the Trigunian's frontline positions as Second Army prepared for its assault.
The Trigunians then faced a stark choice, either continuing focusing everything for the defence of Heinrichgrad and leave Morozorota to its fate, or else divide its forces and attempt to hold back both of Hutori's powerful strike forces.