238th Mechanized Infantry Division

238th Mechanized Infantry Division
Disbanded	2767
Nickname	The Czech Lancers
Affiliation	Star League
Parent Command	LXX Corps

The 238th Mechanized Infantry Division was a part of the Star League Defense Force Regular Army.

History

Star League Era

In 2764, the 238th was stationed on Horsham, assigned as a part of the LXX Corps, Fourth Army, to District 3 of the Federated Suns Military Region, but was moved to an undisclosed area of the Periphery in response to the Periphery Uprising in 2765.

Periphery Uprising

The 238th had been suffering for some time prior to the Periphery Uprising; having been plagued for some time by acts of terrorism and bandit attacks sponsored by the Taurians prior to the Uprising, the 238th had adopted a siege mentality and suffered from poor morale. Their location on Horsham made the 238th one of the first units to be deployed forward into the Taurian Concordat in response to the Uprising, where the well-equipped rebels mauled the division, inflicting heavy losses. The losses were sufficiently heavy that Commanding General Aleksandr Kerensky officially disbanded the 238th in 2767; a third of the 238th's Second Mechanized Infantry Brigade and a regiment of BattleMechs were folded into other combat commands, but that left roughly four battalions of 'Mechs and infantry behind, to be shuffled into a reserve pool.

Amaris Civil War

In 2771 a full battalion of the roughly four battalions of former 238th personnel languishing in the reserve pool deserted as Kerensky began his campaign to topple Stefan Amaris. The deserted fled into the Periphery, becoming the pirate band known as Charon's Children. As the Children, the former members of the 238th preyed on numerous Rim Worlds Republic systems, helping shove those worlds further down the slope towards their inevitable decline, before setting off across the Inner Sphere. The Children finally vanished into the various pirate realms scattered around the Tortuga Dominions.

In 2783 the survivors among the remaining reserve population of the 238th were approached by agents acting on behalf of the Lyran Commonwealth. Those agents were hoping to persuade elements of the former 238th to defect to the Lyran Commonwealth Armed Forces, but the Lyran approaches exacerbated tensions within the survivors, leading to an explosion of violence within their ranks. By the time the violence ended, a battalion of the surviving MechWarriors from the 238th had been imprisoned by their fellow survivors.

The senior officer imprisoned among those who were willing to consider the Lyran offer was Colonel David Cline, and he was approached by the Lyrans, who offered to work to see the prisoners released in exchange for pledges to join the LCAF. Cline accepted the offer on behalf of the prisoners, and the Lyrans approached the prisoners' captors to negotiate their release. The offer to effectively "buy" the survivors provoked further conflict among the remaining survivors, who were divided in their opinions. The senior officer within the mechanized infantry contingent, Colonel Lionel Schaffer, was a staunch Kerensky loyalist, as were those following him, and refused to even consider such an offer. Others among the survivors, headed up by Colonel Lacey McGill, were more tempted, and met with the Lyran agents in secret. McGill proposed a new agreement with the Lyrans; in exchange for the money originally offered, plus a retainer contract for her and her troops - a battalion in strength - and the loan of some LCAF 'Mechs, McGill offered to lead a prison break. She argued that by launching a prison break to free the prisoners, the Lyrans would gain the services of both the prisoners and a second battalion in the form of McGil's newly-ordained mercenary command, and Schaffer and his followers would feel that their own honor had been satisfied in resisting the breakout attempt.

While the Lyrans accepted McGill's offer, it turned out that McGill had underestimated the depth of feeling among Schaffer and his loyalist forces. The prison attempt escalated quickly into a full-scale firefight that saw McGill's troops take damage, and by the time the prisoners had been extracted, two companies of loyalist mechanized infantry and a company of loyalist 'Mechs had been killed. The survivors among the loyalists followed Kerensky on the Exodus; McGill and her followers became the Iron Raven Mercenary Command, while Cline and his supporters were adopted into the LCAF as the core of the reactivated Eighth Lyran Regulars.

Officers

Rank	Name	Command
Commanding Officers of the 238th Mechanized Infantry Division
Major General	Vicente Detweiler	2764

Tactics

The Mechanized Infantry Divisions of the Star League were used offensively to exploit gaps in the enemy front created by the BattleMech Divisions. They also bore the brunt of defensive actions.

Composition History

The Division comprised two Brigades of Mechanized Infantry and a single BattleMech Brigade. Also attached was a Ground Aero Wing.

Each infantry brigade had an attached medium tank regiment and artillery battalion.

Bibliography

• Field Manual: SLDF
• First Succession War
• The Star League