15th Brigade (SLDF)

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Fifteenth Brigade
Formed 2571
Affiliation Star League
Parent Command Fifth Division


History[edit]

Reunification War[edit]

The Fifteenth Brigade was a part of the Star League Defense Force Regular Army. Formed as a part of the Fifth Division during the creation of the SLDF, the Fifteenth Brigade was a part of II Corps during Operation UNION HOLD, the five-year campaign to conquer the Outworlds Alliance. The 15th Brigade served as a part of the Outworlds Alliance Task Force from the start of the operation in 2581 until the entire 5th Division was transferred to the Taurian Concordat front in 2584.[1]

Groveld III[edit]

When the 15th Brigade landed on Groveld III in July 2581, the Outworlds Alliance garrison on the planet consisted of just two armored battalions - the First and Second Groveld Armored Battalions - and a regiment of militia. The planetary defenders refused to engage the 15th Brigade in a straightforward battle; instead, the Alliance forces had been reorganized into two demi-regiments and dispersed around the planet to wage a guerrilla war. The first three weeks of the campaign to capture Groveld III saw two indecisive engagements at company strength during the first week, followed in the second week by the ambush of a 15th Brigade BattleMech and armor company scouting on the St. Adrian Plains by the Second Groveld Armored Battalion. Although the Star League scout force was wiped out other than a couple of 'Mechs, the ambush gave away the position of the Second Groveld; forces from the 15th Brigade destroyed the Second Groveld a week later at the Tabatt Scar, for the loss of a company of Star League armor and a BattleMech lance.[2]

With the Second Groveld destroyed, the defense of the planet fell to the First Groveld Armored Battalion and their supporting militia infantry, who had dispersed across various widely separate locations intent on ambushing Star League forces. The First proceeded to do exactly that, in a series of more than twenty separate engagements by the end of August 2581; every attack bled both sides of forces and manpower, but tied up SLDF troops. Ultimately, the First Groveld and the hundreds of infantry supporting them managed to tie up the Star League forces until the end of September, despite the disparity in strength and technology between the two forces.[2]

Tancredi IV[edit]

Having regrouped after the initial wave of the invasion into the Alliance, the commander of the Outworlds Alliance Task Force, General Amos Forlough, responded to intelligence suggesting that Tancredi IV was somehow vital to the Alliance defense efforts by deploying two brigades to annex the world and investigate the rumors. These two brigades - the 14th Brigade and 15th Brigade - were commanded directly by the CO of the 5th Division, Major General Angelo Rucker and landed on Tancredi IV in January 2582. Tancredi IV had no standing defense force, and both the SLDF landings and subsequent search of the planet were effectively unopposed. Despite the quietly agrarian appearance of Tancredi IV, Rucker was determined to conduct a systematic search of the planet, and after a month was close to giving up on discovering any evidence contradicting the apparently minor value of the world when three military DropShips lifted off from a remote region. Despite a hastily formed SLDF blockade, the three DropShips ran the blockade using three squadrons of heavy fighters as cover, before vanishing from the system via a rendezvous with a JumpShip at a local pirate point. When recon flights finally found the launch site of the three DropShips, they discovered evidence indicating that dozens of DropShips had probably used the site as a transfer point for military equipment of all sorts, including 'Mechs and armor, but no threat of violence or interrogation used against the inhabitants of Tancredi IV ever turned up conclusive evidence of who had been operating covertly from the world.[3]

Cerberus[edit]

In 2583 the entire of the 4th and 5th Divisions were assigned to conquer the industrial world of Cerberus; the invasion began with drops directly on top of the militia positions, which quickly overwhelmed and scattered the militia. The militia forces attempted to regroup, but Forlough had already ordered the six brigades of SLDF troops to destroy the will of the population to resist by laying waste to every factory, village, town and city on the planet.[4] The Alliance would continually reinforce the defenders on Cerberus, which became the scene of constant grinding warfare until the end of the campaign against the Outworlds Alliance. The 13th would remain embroiled in the conflict on Cerberus until the entire of the 5th Division was deployed to the war against the Taurian Concordat in 2585.[5][6]

Officers[edit]

Rank Name Command
Commanding Officers of the 15th Brigade (Star League)
Lieutenant General Nathan Sóbis 2581[2]

Tactics[edit]

Unknown.

Composition History[edit]

Unknown.

References[edit]

  1. Historical: Reunification War, p. 140: "Outworlds Alliance Front"
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 Historical: Reunification War, p. 112: "Groveld III"
  3. Historical: Reunification War, p. 119: "Tancredi IV"
  4. Historical: Reunification War, p. 123: "Cerberus And The Baby Killers"
  5. Historical: Reunification War, p. 125: "Year Four: Slow Grind"
  6. Historical: Reunification War, p. 126: "Negotiation"

Bibliography[edit]